Morven Glas

It's an old post but I like experiments. I heard someone in Hawaii say they didn't have any clay, and all this was said. Maybe selling/ trading it is good experiment. there should be plenty of sand nearish to you to mix to your clay although idk it is about non compacting clay. I'm sure you're not on any volcano but there is maybe some volcanic ash around for roman cement as a natural building material experiment.

or

Try getting some sand and making at least a good sized cob oven or full on kiln of some sort to try firing bricks at higher temperatures. Cob ovens can go up in a few days and get to 725 degrees (farenhiet or celcius idk)maybe more, most cetainly more. there may be some certain temperature that is necessary.
look at this http://www.ceramicartdaily.net/PMI/KilnFiringChart.pdf

you need over 1000C degrees to start getting melting and fusion into glass and ceramic. 1400C (2550F) for porcelin. Maybe a cob oven with a bellows might get up to something more but i'm sure there are proper kiln designs. campfire can be 900-1100C. You can certainly get that high burning wood, maybe you don't want flame right on the clay and to retain the heat for some time baking and other factors. A straight clay brick will be as breakable as grand daddies porcelin urn over the fireplace or at least the antique vase i'm about to drop. it shouldn't crumble but isn't that strong. Bricks are fired and they're clay, maybe compacting and added with other stuff which is a whole nother process. Mudbricks with sand is still another thing add some volcanic ash or concrete and or some drying agent minimally in the mix, doesn't need to be fired.

It's not anyone i know personally but i found a Christina Ott who trained under Ianto 14 yrs ago. I know I've seen Ianto's name more than once involved with all this. Ms. Ott lives in a cob house in Tennesse, I don't know if it's legal. She can be reached and perhaps you can pear over her fence at her house at 178 Birdsong Trail Woodbury, TN 37190 but i wouldn't walk up to starngers property out in the woods of TN. She works with barefootbuilder and email is info@barefootbuilder.com May even be able to call her directly at 850-982- 2597. Is that a TN number?

Laws are often done on a county basis as well so one part of TN may be different from another. Hope that helps.

I found some north east specific sites. There is some cob in Vermont (of course) and Canada. I am in a forest with rocks and mountain, these are fine building materials but I don't want to drag around large trees and boulders even if i get land with stone. Living in a castle would be neat but, Seems expensive and less possible to do on the cheap or at all but i'm sure it was never as easy as it seemed. If something cob will stand and just be cold they could be summer buildings or some kind of camp. Back to my aluminum spaceship idea, tunnels carved into rock, and mini log cabin. The other site also suggested it's not heating it and keeping the heat it's heating it to warm from a cold start. Living in it you never let it get so cold that you're going to have to heat the walls back up. Still requires energy and insulation but maybe not a huge drain.

If I framed an interior and insulated it, I would just be using cob in place of plywood and siding or just in place of siding (which it makes a horrible siding). It'd be more aesthetic like stucco and i could just do a thin layer (facade) to get the appearance of a cob house but then that would possibly need too much maintenance and restrict the rounded possibilities of working with cob. Lots to consider thanks for your help.

And here i am thinking I'm going to conquer the cob house market in the north east. I suppose i'm here to learn and needed a reality check. Between this and rain and lyme wall wash sensitivities it doesn't look good. I suppose breathing of the walls is a concern but i suppose our normal house doesn't breathe then anyway right. i think thats more for the natural living style. What if you went ahead and framed the inside and used pink deadly isulation, finish with sheetrock to at least deal with temperature? I suppose then all i need is some plywood on the outside and siding.

But again rain, snow and freezing, Is rain still surmountable still in my romantic little house? for breathing of the walls and limited durability of friendly paints and plasters could i use evil jimmy dean paint/ plaster on the outside and maybe get some weather resistance or will this inhibit the drying as well as being offensive to the whole aesthetic? I'd put concrete in the mix but don't think it will help with hand cobbed stuff, maybe some poured claycrete mixture as fill for more normal walls but then its not a little pottery house.

if we can not worry so much about rain, and if my insulation and proper insides with even official heating can handle cold, what about mold and any issues with an earthen wall against isulation and would i wany plywood even between my insulation and cob wall?

Sorry to hijack the thread i would ask them in another thread, i'm just getting a glimpse of what its all about after the people who turned me on to this kept telling me you can't do it here and i couldn't listen to why.

You want to know can you do it alone without classes and aren't asking how to get people to help you but as i said to someone else recently because I'm thinking nah i don't need classes I'll just do it. Though i'm sure there's plenty to learn about roofing and foundations and even the cob. So I do suppose for the price you may pay in the end total for th house then paying some amount of money for courses isn't unreasonable. Land can cost up to 15k by itself. You could be pirating or building on someones property with permissions and hoping to do it for nothing but i've looked at things people spent 48k on and still don't have an inside toilet. Roofing and foundation courses are likely thier own program for $100-500 each. I'm confident to figure it out as i go. For books and such don't forget about your local library and check with them about getting books on loan from other libraries for you.

As for doing it alone, remember those classes people are charging $750 a week to students to come build thier stuff for them. It's a unique interesting thing you can try to use to get some help to come to you but i'm sure thats a whole process in itself. Definitely worth getting the help of the village whenever possible. I havn't started mine. I've seen group programs advertised where they say a group of 6 got a garden wall done in a week. Times that by 4 walls then with a roof and foundation. My uneducated guess is 1 wk x4 x 6(only u) = 6 months for bare basic 4 small walls. Month for top and month for bottom i'll say you can do it in 8 months with enough gumption, blood, sweat and tears. Sifting sand, moving dirt from start to finish from scratch its likely a pretty big endevor, that is before any building.

I plan to start with a small to medium round circle for a studio/ maybe live in that at first. Roof but no ammenities or much yet. Round seats 15 around circle bench to give demo's lessons classes to my volunteers/ students and impress them with the 1st structure. Then a larger possibly rectangular type of ranch house for the workshop and can do pottery in the studio or convert the studio to any number of things. I'll Keep a more enclosed office/ bedroom in the workshop and then build the house after i made my mistakes and get things going. Setting up toiletries and cooking along the way and possibly build the main house off of the bath house.