Cob: Re: Cob wall thickness

[Mike Wye]

Cob dwellings in England have walls typically 2ft6" to 3 feet thick maximum
at the base, sometimes tapering in to 2ft- 2ft6" thick at roof level. With
mass formed cob without shuttering, they typically built up to 13ft to the
eaves and as the dwellings were thatched they didn't have to carry excessive
roof weight and this wall thickness was sufficient. Any thicker walls would
have been a waste of cob and labour. Where the cob walls were built by being
shuttered they often built higher and thinner walls as they were using a
drier mix and could compress the cob more between the shuttering. The height
of the stone plinth is typically 2-3 ft to reduce erosion and reduce rising
damp problems but many cob dwellings survive today that have minimal
foundations and plinths of less than a foot. There are over 20,000 cob
buildings existing in Devon County alone.
Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charmaine R Taylor" <tms at northcoast.com>
To: "Louis" <louis at sisp.net>; <coblist at deatech.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2000 2:54 AM
Subject: Re: Cob: building codes


> Louis said:
>
> People on this list have said in the past, that the cob houses that have
>
> survived  in England, tend to have massively thick walls, from 3-6 feet
> thick?  No one knows, how many other cob houses have just crumbled away
> over the centuries.
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> I just read somewhere that most of the cob (peasant labor) houses were
> knocked down by the thousnads on properties in the late 1700s when the
> idea of "park" was the rage in England.  Every estate wanted to have a
> private park with animals roaming, for hunting, and lying about, those
> upper class wastrels!  So they pushed the poor folk into town, and
> simply  got rid of tons of dwellings, putting many on the road as
> vagabonds.
>
> Might have been on one of thse Crown & King PBS programs where prince
> was going about explaining history..but it was recent information. I
> remember thinking how we'll never know how long they could have lasted,
> of course architect /writer Hugh Braun in the 1940's described many
> places as simple hovels, merely poles lashed together and mudded over
> for the season...no permission to build better by the landlords.
>
> Charmaine
>
>