Aloha John C. Daley 0 and thank you for sharing your thoughts. Steel frames become expensive here - mostly because they have to to be galvanized on the mainland and shipped over and also because of the size of the footings they require.
Is there any concern with using cob with an untreated wood frame? Typically in conventional construction I would use treated wood for the base plates only. I know that cob can absorb moisture and that's actually one of the things I think that would be great for our climate as conventional construction can have lots of mold issues here.
I guess I'm concerned that if the walls absorbed too much moisture it could over time rot out the posts that are embedded within the walls. We would use a natural plaster finish and have really wide overhangs (on average 6')so hopefully they wouldn't absorb too much water but with 98% humidity as a very normal everyday reality I want to plan for health and longevity.
Coconut coir does not tend to mold in nature at all, so hopefully it will prove to hold up the same in an earthen mix. I will try to do some samples of both cob and maybe a 'light coir wall.' Might anyone be able to point me in a good direction for the light straw wall methods and instructions? That's one I haven't done before.
Mahalo, 'Ilima
