Cob: Re: Re: Time and cost?

[chita jing]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Vicki Wicker" <vcwicker at asub.edu>
> What I see people doing with strawbale is putting up their walls, and
> having their foundation and roof professionally done. Whereas they
wouldn't
> undertake trying to build a framed house. Also, floor is a huge expense.
We
> did an 600 sq ft. earth floor, finished, for a load of fill ($115) a load
> of sand ($115, still lots left),  @$50 worth of portland and probably $30
> worth of linseed oil and mineral spirits. Estimate 50 cents a square foot
> for the entire floor system. Nothing in conventional construction comes
> even close to that.

        People can understand stick building about as quickly as they catch
onto any other form of housing, IMHO. I've met graduates of Shelter
Institute and Cornerstones in half a dozen states and even more discussion
fora. From high school students to seniors, they all get it. Charlie Wing
once had a student who came to his course and started shopping for land the
same day during lunch. He bought land in about one week. He was building the
foundation within a month. People who want a thing can find enormous inner
resources if they want it enough.

        It has ever been thus. Most folks who live in "uncivilized" areas
where home construction has not been organized right out from under them
provide their own housing in a thousand ways. Until the last 100 years or
so, ALL OF US IN THE USA built our own housing. It was not rare, it was
typical. It doesn't take literacy or high social development  - or even
workshops and books. People have housed themselves for millennia. We can do
this, however we decide to do it. From sod to yurts to stone to [name local
material], it's all been used for human housing successfully, somewhere,
sometime. Cost is a fairly slippery topic when you get down to it. What it
might cost is not always what it does cost. What is claimed as costs might
not be accurate either.  What one building costs is not necessarily
reproducible in all areas also.

        A dirt floor generally costs less, agreed. Dirt mixed with cement is
accessible, agreed. If you managed to save money on the entire process,
that's great too. It helps to have zero labor and transportation costs, for
instance. Not to mention storage fees for stockpiling materials. Depending
on where a home is built, the same floor plan could vary widely in finished
construction costs.

        I dunno how so many straw bale buildings end up costing more, I just
notice that reports from straw balers indicate they do. I've read the straw
balers' lists for several years now. They lament frequently about their
expensive housing. I don't know where all the extra expenses come from. I
didn't track it in detail once I decided not to use the format. Having never
built with straw bale, I took the word of those who did.