insulating cob walls

Hi,

I have not got past vague imaginings for my house, yet!  One thing I want to do, though, is scrounge and recycle as much of the materials as possible.  I have a metal, double-walled drinking thermos whose lid has broken, and I started wondering in anyone had ever tried embedding such things in their cob walls.  I am imagining filling it, and others with cob and putting them in the center of the wall.  I think if enough of them were used to actually provide some insulation, the cob wall would fall apart.

You can put all kinds of junk in your cob walls. Fill up space in that mass with things that will hold their form though. My cob walls are riddled with empty (hard plastic jugs), a toaster that broke, bricks, and numerous other items. As for insulation, this isn't going to give you much insulation. Updating your profile will let others see what area of the country you are from and thus what amount of insulation you need. If you need your house to stay warm, I suggest bales or bale/cob hybrid.

I've done projects where we have taken plastic and other non-decomposing products and stuffed them inside the wall. Letting them come out to far from the interior will probably compromise the wall integrity though. We have also used rocks and urbanite to fill the wall, which are both commonly found and usually free. Stuffing anything into the cob will make the building project incredibly faster.

I would recommend sheep's wool thats what I'm using on my cob house in vermont. I got 700 lbs for $200.00 but I also got a bit more for free and I know you can get it all free if you contact a lot of sheep farms in the beginning of spring and fall when they shear. They have lots of scraps that they can't sell and its a great insulation material. They sell actual rolls of the stuff but you really don't need that and it'll be a lot more expensive. In any case 700 lb is enough for a small house

Does wool need to fill in a airspace to insulate,or can it be embedded in the cab and still insulate?

Hello I have been off of here for about a year.
Anyway. hum, you could use pumice for your sand instead of sand and that will increase your insulate value. You will not want to use it on the inner ⅓ of your wall as the insulation of the pumice would work against its heat/cool holding properties (I think). In other words it would no longer be a mass temperature regulator. That is what I am doing in my house that I just started to build. I live in the NE. In NY state just bellow Ithaca, so I need good insulation.

I think it would be hard to mix it onto the cob but maybe you can worth a try...I am probably planninf on just putting out on between two layers about 5 inches thick of wool.

Cool, I was thinking many fibers insulate by trapping air between them,something that embedding in a matrix can disable.
Paper adobe is supposed to be insulating.
Perlite would work to insulate cob,but it might cost too much.

Jennie Hammond wrote:Hi,

I have not got past vague imaginings for my house, yet!  

"vague imaginings"

That's amazing, really hits the nail on the head!