Carly Murawsky

Hi Dillion,

My husband and I are in northern Florida and are planning on building a cob home. We are actually starting the excavation in two days. At first, we'll be doing a round building with a reciprocal roof. It'll just be a living space, with electricity from solar panels. The kitchen and bathroom will be added later (we'll have an outdoor kitchen and bathroom at first). We're definitely not experts by ANY means (this is our first cob home) so this wouldn't be a school or training program. We'll be working all through May and June, taking July off to visit my family in NYS. To be honest, we are pretty poor currently and could not afford to pay you, feed you, or lodge you. We are building on a friend's property and they might agree to letting you camp there. Do you have cobbing experience? I doubt you'd be interested in coming all the way down from Canada but figured I'd put it out there.

Carly

Hi Jay,

To be honest, my partner doesn't really have a reason why he thinks that pallets are the better idea. He doesn't know much about cob construction and just assumed that cob would need something to 'stick' to, to give in shape or something. He also thought it would dry faster. I told him that you all said it might not be the way to go and he was fine with that. I've never head of slip straw construction, so I'll have to look more into that.

Thanks, Kate, for the photos! I'm going to check out more info about that home.

Carly

Thanks Jay and Izzy!

It makes sense to me that pallets would not be very helpful in building a cob home. I'm glad I can show him this and say "I told you so."

The cordwood constructions looks interesting, and also very aesthetically attractive (IMO). I haven't researched it much at all, but it seems that it would be a lot quicker than cob. Is the only disadvantage vs. cob that it would be difficult if you don't have access to logs?

Thanks again,

Carly

Interesting, Jay, thank you! It seems I need to look more into 'wattle and daub' if I want to use pallets, as for a cob home pallets aren't a good idea? Very good information, thanks again.

Hello,

My partner and I are planning on building a cob home. He has the idea of putting pallets inside the cob walls, not as structural support, but just to help the drying time and to give a frame to the wall (I think he thinks that it would be good of the cob can 'stick to' something, and that it would make building time quicker). However, I've heard that putting wood inside cob may not be a good idea.

We still need to thoroughly read through the Cob Builders Handbook and The Handsculpted House, but if we could plan right now to either go with pallets or not, that would be great.

Thank you!

We've visited a cob home nearby and also found out that a friend of a friend gives cob building workshops, so we'll definitely have to contact her soon. I am surprised by the number of resources nearby and all the people who are willing to help us. We've been collecting free materials over the past few weeks. We're extending the time to build by at least 6 months, so that takes some pressure off.

What I found very interesting was that the roof of the cob home I visited was a dome structure that he built out of metal pipes and covered in palm fronds. Now this does pose the problem of not having an overhang to protect the walls, but I thought that one option might be covering the whole structure in palm fronds. Anyone ever heard of that?

I was also thinking about using pallets within the cob walls, but I did hear that wood in the cob might be less sound than cob alone? I can't find much info on a pallet-cob wall. Any advice about that?

Thanks to all who have responded so far!

Thanks for the advice, R Scott. I did some more reading and that photo shown actually has cob on the inside (for thermal mass), and will be covered over with plaster. I thought cob was OK in humidity, as they are made in the pacific NW where it's pretty humid? I guess I'll have to do more research into that.

Building a barn/garage would be good, I just figured it would be more expensive, with all that lumber needed. Or is there a way to do it cheaper.

Also, I'm not looking to sell this house, but to give it to my friend for use as a place to do herbalism classes when we leave. Resale value isn't important to us.

An RV is still an option if the construction idea isn't workable.

First time poster and very glad to be here.

My SO and I are looking into building a home. Initially we were planning on buying an RV for about $8000 and putting it on a friend’s farm. However, I never really loved that idea, especially because we’re planning on living in a home here for another 4-5 years or so before moving up to eastern TN (we live in inland North FL now) and I don't think I could stand to live in an RV for that long. Anyway, after doing some research over the past week, I discovered cob and straw bale construction. I can't believe how much I fell in love with the idea, and thankfully my SO loves the idea of building something, since he wants to practice for when we build a home (log cabin probably) in TN. I’m hoping to build a 450 square foot home first, with adding more on later. I want to keep it small at first to keep costs down, to make sure we know what we are doing, and to have a home ready to move into quicker.

I have some questions that I’m sure are ridiculous, but my mind is spinning having just learned about these natural construction methods, and I figured this was the best place to get some more information. I’m planning on getting some books from Amazon that I keep seeing recommended, but first I wanted to be more sure of the type of construction we want to do.

Firstly, I’m not sure if we should go with a straight cob home or a cob-straw bale hybrid. From what I have read, straw bale hybrids are constructed faster, with better insulation? But I’ve also heard that they may not be good in FL. It may be more expensive too. We have access to free scrap hay for cob, but not to free bales. They may be cheap though. Also, whereas someone in a colder climate would put the bales one side of the home (South I think?) to insulate from the cold, in a hot climate should we put them towards the opposite side, to insulate from the Sun? It can get a little cold here in the Winters since we’re in Northern Florida (40’s - 50’s maybe), but nothing like where I’m from (Buffalo, NY).

Am I right in concluding that there is a difference between a straw bale home that has 4 inches of cob on either side, and a home where the walls look more like this?:



Which one would be more conducive to my needs?

I also read that putting other things into the cob, such as large rocks or large pieces of concrete, can speed up drying time. Good idea? I also read about mixing sawdust and wood scraps right into the concrete to lessen drying time.

The other (OK...ONE other) thing I’m worried about is roofing. When building an addition onto a home, how difficult is it to attach the two roofs together? Are there certain types of roofs that make it easier to do so? The types of roofs I keep hearing about are reciprocal roofs and gable roofs.

Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance!