[Cob] Cobbing in winter

[Susan Hagan]

Su Hagan here in Bulgaria.  We cobbed here all winter even at -25 degrees. We installed a wood burner and used piping hot water for the cob and everything is still fine and standing. 

We covered all the cob every night if there was any left over and began again the next day. We had lots of breaks and tea and used gloves of course.  It is dry cold here with lots of sunshine throughout the day even though there is usually 3 foot of snow. 
 
Plan to cob agin this winter. 
 
Happy Days,
 
SU 
00359(0)895195318 (Bulgarian Mobile)  00359 6128263 (Bulgarian Landline) 

With Thanks. Susan Hagan.


 

> From: coblist-request at deatech.com
> Subject: Coblist Digest, Vol 8, Issue 197
> To: coblist at deatech.com
> Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2010 12:00:02 -0700
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> Today's Topics:
> 
> 1. Re: Late season cobbing (The experimental greenhouse)
> (Henry Raduazo)
> 2. Re: Late season cobbing (The experimental greenhouse) (Dulane)
> 3. Re: Late season cobbing (The experimental greenhouse)
> (Shannon Dealy)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 15:24:53 -0400
> From: Henry Raduazo <raduazo at cox.net>
> Subject: Re: [Cob] Late season cobbing (The experimental greenhouse)
> To: Cob List <coblist at deatech.com>
> Message-ID: <6174CACF-426D-4688-ACFC-166F65756251 at cox.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
> 
> I was wondering if anyone has ever tried cobbing into the early 
> winter. I am south of Washington, DC. So far I have had no killing 
> frost, but it could come any day now. I would like to do a couple 
> days more work on my experimental greenhouse, The north and west 
> walls are being made from rototiller wood chip cob. Since I am mixing 
> with a tiller I could probably continue working till the ground 
> freezes, but I know that at some point the daily freezing and thawing 
> cycles will prevent my cob from hardening. I don't know when that 
> point is.
> After the first frost we will probably have a week or two of good 
> drying weather before we start getting hard freezes, and even then we 
> will not get anything that will freeze deeper than a few inches till 
> mid to late December.
> I need to know how far I can push winter cobbing. It would be really 
> nice to have a partially useable structure next spring.
> 
> Ed
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 18:56:37 -0700
> From: "Dulane" <silkworm at spiderhollow.com>
> Subject: Re: [Cob] Late season cobbing (The experimental greenhouse)
> To: "'Henry Raduazo'" <raduazo at cox.net>, "'Cob List'"
> <coblist at deatech.com>
> Message-ID: <94EDC6C634DA4A3989152BB3E760C01E at DELICIOUS>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> I have a 4 in layer of cob that froze in my loo. I wouldn't risk it. My
> layer in the loo isn't life threatening, but you sure don't want any more of
> this than you may already be dealing with. With a good lime wash, that area
> is healed, but until it was, you could scrape it away with no effort. The
> cob becomes sponge-like if frozen. Not a good practice. I think it would be
> better to start with a good tarp system in the spring (maybe April) and then
> cob like hell. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coblist-bounces at deatech.com [mailto:coblist-bounces at deatech.com] On
> Behalf Of Henry Raduazo
> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 12:25 PM
> To: Cob List
> Subject: Re: [Cob] Late season cobbing (The experimental greenhouse)
> 
> I was wondering if anyone has ever tried cobbing into the early 
> winter. I am south of Washington, DC. So far I have had no killing 
> frost, but it could come any day now. I would like to do a couple 
> days more work on my experimental greenhouse, The north and west 
> walls are being made from rototiller wood chip cob. Since I am mixing 
> with a tiller I could probably continue working till the ground 
> freezes, but I know that at some point the daily freezing and thawing 
> cycles will prevent my cob from hardening. I don't know when that 
> point is.
> After the first frost we will probably have a week or two of good 
> drying weather before we start getting hard freezes, and even then we 
> will not get anything that will freeze deeper than a few inches till 
> mid to late December.
> I need to know how far I can push winter cobbing. It would be really
> 
> nice to have a partially useable structure next spring.
> 
> Ed
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Coblist mailing list
> Coblist at deatech.com
> http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2010 09:11:44 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Shannon Dealy <dealy at deatech.com>
> Subject: Re: [Cob] Late season cobbing (The experimental greenhouse)
> To: Henry Raduazo <raduazo at cox.net>
> Cc: Cob List <coblist at deatech.com>
> Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.1011030854360.23047 at nashapur.deatech.com>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
> 
> On Tue, 2 Nov 2010, Henry Raduazo wrote:
> 
> > I was wondering if anyone has ever tried cobbing into the early 
> > winter. I am south of Washington, DC. So far I have had no killing frost, but 
> > it could come any day now. I would like to do a couple days more work on my 
> > experimental greenhouse, The north and west walls are being made from 
> [snip]
> 
> As I am likely the only person on this list dumb enough to have barefoot 
> mixed cob right through winter (more than once :-) including building at 
> temperatures right down to 32 degrees F (ice crystals were coming out of 
> the hose), here is what I have learned:
> 
> - Air flow is everything for drying at low temperatures
> 
> - You only need the wall to lose a few percent of it's moisture content
> before it freezes. This leaves little air pockets for the ice to
> expand into without damaging the cob on the wall.
> 
> - A simple opaque tarp above the building site can keep the cob and site
> several degrees warmer than the surrounding area (preventing freezing
> at night). The reason is that it significantly slows heat radiation
> from the site into the night sky.
> 
> - String reinforced plastic (which is not opaque) makes a good cover for
> capturing heat from the winter sun and providing light while working
> on a building site.
> 
> - Sometimes a high powered propane heater is your best option.
> 
> - Build your walls which have the least exposure to winter sun and wind
> first as they will need more drying time
> 
> I wrote a bit more about this here:
> 
> http://www.deatech.com/pipermail/coblist/2004/007501.html
> 
> NOTE: For some reason, google is no longer indexing the full coblist 
> archives so searches are not finding everything they used to, however, 
> everything is still there. I am investigating this problem.
> 
> FWIW.
> 
> Shannon C. Dealy | DeaTech Research Inc.
> dealy at deatech.com | - Custom Software Development -
> Phone: (800) 467-5820 | - Natural Building Instruction -
> or: (541) 929-4089 | www.deatech.com
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
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> End of Coblist Digest, Vol 8, Issue 197
> ***************************************