[Cob] a quick response is needed

[Amanda Peck]

There was an article in a newspaper--west coast--that somebody posted here 
or in another list--I'll try to fish it out--on costs for a straw bale home. 
  It was the best I'd seen on the subject.

But it really is an "it all depends."  Much more so with cob than with other 
forms of building.  Cob homes tend to be--a lot--smaller.  Therefore lower 
cost than what the people would be building any other way (with any luck at 
all, the smallness is generated by what they really need, not just cut out 
by what they can afford).  They tend to be mortgage free--another powerful 
incentive to reduce costs any way possible.

Do you have to buy clay, sand, logs--or boards--for your roof structure?  
Where is your straw coming from?  How much plumbing are you willing to live 
without?  How good are you at scrounging?  Are you going to have 
electricity--on-grid, off-grid (minimal or "all the comforts of home")?  Or 
can you live without electricity at all?  What are you going to do for 
running water?, how are you going to treat wastes? How much land clearing 
(or in the case of a friend who just bought clear-cut land, how much 
landscaping) and road building do you have to do?

What kind of costs do you have while you are building?  Three years is not a 
totally unreasonable amount of time from breaking ground to moving in.  Are 
you commuting on weekends, did you have to buy a trailer, put up a guest 
house or a storage building to live in?

Are you counting in land costs, the way they are in a suburban house?

I've seen walls estimated at around 15% of the total cost of one sort or 
another of conventional house-building.  But there are so many variables, 
even with that.



...............
Hello all,

I have a quick project - I am working on a short
documentary on cob homes - we have a wonderful person
willing to speak to us about her experience.

However, in our background research I am hoping for
some statistics about cost per square foot for a cob
home compared to strawbale and for traditional stick
built.  Preferably finished house - thanks!

I am hoping for a university study to quote or some
research based empirical evidence.

Thanks to everyone who can reply by tues night!!!  :0

Copper



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Ms. Copper Harding

If you can walk, you can dance
If you can talk, you can sing  --- from Zimbabwe

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