melly McCoy

I just wanted to add another note saying I found this comment on the greenbuildingadvisor.com forum:

I helped build a small 4 season hybrid cob/strawbale one room building with a rocket stove in Wisconsin. A structural stray bale wall was coated on the interior and exterior with a 2-3" layer of cob. It was a pleasure to build and the cob application to a straw bale wall worked well to lock everything together and fill in the gaps. I think the walls ended up with decent insulation value and are likely sufficiently air tight with good hygrothermal properties. ~2' overhangs are meant to keep the rainwater off the exterior walls so the exterior wall finish can remain cob.
The thermal weakness of the overall design was the roof and wall to roof transition. The designer/builder had collected 3" ironwood trunks from the site and assembled a roof structure in place from this material. The organic form made it difficult to insulate, air seal and the rainwater management is questionable.

if the drainage trench was dug a significant amount deeper than the floor, do you believe water would still pool there? if hay is not a good way to insulate the floor, would you recommend anything else that is natural? or would it be smarter for me to go with a modern insulation?

Do you think if I used a stucco sealant on the inside of the bale walls that would eliminate the moisture issues?

If my drop cieling was tied into the roof line, it would put the stress and weight of the house on the exterior posts - is what i was thinking. and I was talking about using a pretensioned wire system for the bales, unless a timber structure would be smarter.


Thank-you for your reply and baring with me, as i am slowly trying to retain the knowledge i would need in order to tackle a project of this size and importance.

Hi there ,

I live in the GTA currently staying with my mother til my american husband is able to live full time in canada - we have a rather large garden, 3 pear trees, lots of pressure canning experience. I have a strong interest in natural building, specifically cob, interested in ways to tie cob in with hay bale construction inorder to have a good R rating and thus a habitable and sculpted home where ever our homestead may be! also love to bind books!

Hi there,

I'm a canadian, currently living in ontario and hoping to stay - the idea of crown land sounds interesting, where would you find listings for this type of land. Also, what websites would you tend to use to find good bargains on land for sale in general? has anyone taken part in a 'tax sale' ?

thanks!

Hi there,

My husband and I are planning on having a homestead in the future. We are interested in building a kind of hay bale/cob hybrid home and I have a few questions and I thought, perhaps someone in this forum could answer them for me.

First, I should give a little background, we live in ontario and are planning on purchasing our land either in eastern or southern ontario. Due to the frigid temperature, and the troubles I have read about (http://small-scale.net/yearofmud/) as well as my background in home retrofits geared to efficiency, I realize that it is nearly impossible to build a purely cob building in this climate.

So I thought why not insulate with hay and still take advantage of the sculptural aspect as well as thermal mass that cob can offer us. I have read about bale cob construction but I do not believe that it would give us a high enough R-value for our climate.

Here is the idea, I would create a two layer wall, straw bale on the outside and cob on the inside, my roof would be a shed type. I plan on having 4 posts to support the roof (they would be separate from the structure of the actual house and stand near the end of our roofs overhang). Also, I plan on making a drop ceiling on the inside of the house in order to insulate with more hay. My floors will not be earthen, I plan on having tamped gravel, a vapor barrier more hay between floor joists and some kind of wood floors.

So my question to you fine folks is - firstly, is this a feasible idea? Secondly, would my bales need tensioning even though they will not be load baring? Is wrapping the vapor barrier up and over the foundation (probably made of urbanite) a good idea or will it make it difficult to tie into the walls? is urbanite an okay material for haybale construction, if so how would they tie together?

Thank-you for your time!
I'm excited to hear your ideas and advice.
-Melly