Cob: cob / plaster ?

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Mon, 17 Jul 2000, olivier Tallendier wrote:

[snip]
> i plan to go back in homecountry for jan. 2001 ( i am french)
> but my plane is going delhi-london, so, i will probably visit the cob 
> cottage.

I am not sure what you mean here by "the cob cottage", there are of course
lots of cob houses in England that you could visit, but if you mean the
Cob Cottage Company, they are located in Oregon state in the USA.

[snip]
> My question is :
> What kind of plaster do you put on the wall ? stucco i suppose
> wich products you use to make the surface harder, yo have nice finition ?
[snip]

There are a variety of plasters you could use including stucco (though
some of the ready made new high-tech mixes may have breathability
problems).  Most of the people I know who build cob houses plaster them
with either:

   1 - An earthen plaster - basically a variation on the standard
       cob mix, using cleaner, finer materials (run the sand and clay
       through a sieve, and use manure or finely chopped straw for the
       fiber).

   2 - A Lime-sand plaster which is just what it sounds like, a mixture
       of lime and sand.

   3 - Some variation on one of the above mixtures using colored sands,
       clays, manures, or other materials.

I think the coblist archives have some postings with more detailed
descriptions of making plastering mixtures, how to apply, etc..  The
archives can be searched using links available at:

    http://www.deatech.com/natural/coblist/

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
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