Cob: Re: English cob

[Mike Holland]

Just for comparison, over here in our region of France, most cob (bauge)
built houses & agricultural buildings have walls 40-60cm thick.  As regards
insulation etc for the 'normal' weather conditions, we've gone with a
10-20cm layer of glass fibre behind plasterboard, giving us a total wall
thickness of up to 80cm: with that and double glazing to reduce heat loss
through the doors and windows, we're quite cosy.  Most of the walls were
originally mud/lime plastered with wallpaper (first applied in the 1890s!).
But the plaster is very soft and has suffered badly from use, so we took the
decision not to remove it/replace it and instead to cover it with
plasterboard.  But we're using limewash paints on the plasterboard to
maintain breathability.

For information, probably around 80% of houses that are over 30 years old in
this area are built from cob, and in many cases they have been continuously
occupied for centuries (ours is probably 17th century): and this without
modern niceties such as foundations...

We've finally persuaded the insurance company to send a valuer to decide how
much they'll pay us for the storm damage of early this year (the barn roof
disappeared in a local tornado): we're hoping we can replace the roof - if
not, we'll have to knock the thing down, because it's beyond my limited
skills to replace a roof that is 8m high & we can't afford to get a roofing
company to do it on our own - and it's in a dangerous state.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: nigella <nigella1 at peoplescom.net>
To: coblist at deatech.com <coblist at deatech.com>
Date: 19 December 2000 04:57
Subject: Cob: English cob


>First of all, many thanks , everyone, for the input on counties and
>plastering.
>Louis wrote: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?
>
> That makes sense considering the weather there, I will be content with a
>house will an English cottage feel . If I were to attempt to build a house
>with walls 3 or 4 foot think , I would never get done! Ah, but in my dreams
>what a wonderful house it is!
>nigella
>
>
>
>