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The Work of Art and The Art of Work Kiko Denzer on Art |
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[Cob] Curious about the clayHenry Raduazo raduazo at cox.netThu May 7 07:04:20 CDT 2009
Clay is one of the most common substances on earth as such many people have it available for free. Just go outside and dig it up. With that said every part of the earth differs from every other part of the earth. Some people have very pure clay which shrinks drastically as it dries some have clay and silt some clay and sand. Others have no clay or so little clay their walls will barely hold together. If you do not have a good supply of naturally occurring clay in your area I would not recommend building with cob. A fairly small wall that I built in my house as a heat sink weighs 8 tons. I bought 4 tons of sand ($20.00 per ton) and mixed that with 4 tons of clay rich soil that came from digging out the basement of a near by house. The contractor was going to haul the soil 60 miles and pay a tipping fee to get rid of it, but I was willing to take it for free. Buying that much clay at a pottery place would be a bit pricey. Anyone who would be a natural builder must first be a scientist and then be an engineer. As a scientist you look around your building cite and ask What do I have? Rocks? Trees? Clay? All can be converted to building materials. Clay is one of the most versatile because it has so many uses as a plaster, load bearing material or refractory. You need to experiment to find the best mix. Sometimes you need to add sand sometimes just straw. You make bricks and then destroy the bricks to determine the best combination of materials. When you know the best combination of materials then you become an engineer and ask yourself "How do I make 8 tons of this stuff?" I like to mix with a rototiller on a slab. You may want to mix with your feet on a tarp. What ever. You need a lot of stuff to build a house. Ed On May 7, 2009, at 1:19 AM, Robert J Churchill wrote: > The word "clay" is used repeatedly but really where exactly is all > this clay coming from? I have no idea where I'm supposed to get > all this clay. For me, it would be easier just to buy clay from a > ceramics shop but I don't even know if that would work. I live in > an urban area and it's not like we can just go out and dig up clay > at a local quarry. > _______________________________________________ > Coblist mailing list > Coblist at deatech.com > http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist >
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