Cob: Re: Cob insulation idea

[lightearth at onebox.com]

Hey Jen,

What we're upto (previously mentioned so won't go into details here, contact me) is premaking insulated panels out of clay/fiber (paper, straw etc.), drying them in forms and utilizing them <Between> smaller cob walls (6" is sufficient)...that way, insulation, strength and no posts...to tie the walls together you could run wood ties, like cordwood from inside to outside - right through the insulation,,,,,,24 inches of dry wood doesn't present much of a thermal break.

We plaster over the whole thing ending up with about a 24 inch wall with thermal mass, insulation (R value?) and a durable/load bearing wall...

Marlin
-- 
     Marlin Nissen
   - Outta The Box-
  lightearth at onebox.com
(608) 213-9405  Cell/voicemail




-----Original Message-----
From:     "jen walker" <jwalker at magma.ca>
Sent:     Sat, 21 Dec 2002 23:21:07 +0000
To:       Charmaine R Taylor <tms at northcoast.com>
Cc:       coblist at deatech.com
Subject:  Cob: Re: Cob insulation idea

Thanks for the info! I had no idea. I'd love to ask you a couple more 
questions though...Does this mean you'd build a cob wall, surround it with
say a clay/wood fiber mix, then plaster over that ‹ or ‹ sandwich the slip
between an inner and outer cob wall? If you were wrapping the wall with the
slip, would you have to constuct forms for the clay slip? How thick would
the clay slip have to be to insulate a building that can see -40 degrees
celcius? Is there any literature explaining some of these clay building
systems? As far as I can tell, clay related building workshops seem to
happen thousands of miles from here (Ottawa, Canada) so a reference book
would be great.
thanks again,
jen

----------
>From: Charmaine R Taylor <tms at northcoast.com>
>To: jen walker <jwalker at magma.ca>
>Subject: RE: Cob insulation idea
>Date: Thu, Dec 12, 2002, 3:01 AM
>

> Jak and Jen, another form of slip straw is the woodchip/clay or sawdust
> clay "salad" toss that combines shredded wood fiber ( aka chips and
> sawdust)   There are also workships by  Fox Maple in ME, and I
> volunteered at a workshop they gave this summer in Portland OR, where a
> hiuge timberframe  Chinese medicaine clinic is beign built.  to see
> someinfo on this method--go to  Clay workshop:
> http://www.foxmaple.com/corbettwk.html#Alternative Infill Systems
>
> Personally, in cold weather areas this seems an excellent method, where
> the infill is very insulating, and a thick COB plaster/wall can still be
> placed over for a totally natural wall syste, Using lime plasters
> exterior is good too,
>
> Ms. Charmaine  Taylor/ Taylor Publishing
> http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com    http://www.papercrete.com
> PO Box 375, Cutten (Eureka) CA 95534
> 707-441-1632     tms at northcoast.com
>
>