[Cob] reinforcement

[Jill Hogan]

Yea I agree completely cob is unbelievably strong good luck Damon
Jill

On 2012/05/22 10:46 AM, Ocean Liff-Anderson wrote:
> So Damon, you've never demo'ed a cob wall?  Try it sometime, it is 
> instructive as to how strong the straw really makes the material.
>
> You will find with your sledge hammer, or pick ax, or shovel, or 
> machete, whatever you try to smash it with, that cob will not come off 
> in any large chunks.  You are left scraping away small amounts at a 
> time.  The straw indeed keeps the material together, which is why cob 
> is earthquake resistant, holding together buildings for hundreds or 
> thousands of years.
>
> Bamboo is great, but no substitute for properly mixed cob.  Lots of 
> straw, please!
>
>
>
>
> On May 22, 2012, at 9:19 AM, dhowell at pickensprogressonline.com wrote:
>
>>  I think bamboo would be a good route to go for reinforcement in 
>> sustainable building, because it is as strong as steel, they say, and 
>> it's a weed. Although I've heard some say the straw in cob acts as 
>> reinforcement, I don't think that is why they use it. It's more to 
>> keep the wet mix from slumping while the material is drying. But if I 
>> was to take a sledge hammer to a dry wall, I'm betting the straw 
>> isn't going to provide much resistance, but I could be wrong. It's 
>> worth trying. That's the kind of testing I have in mind. Numbers mean 
>> very little compared to real world, hands on tests like that. I have 
>> a cob storage shed I never finished that has a 3 foot wall. I'm 
>> planning on tearing it down and I'll probably video myself doing it. 
>> That's real information!
>> Damon
>>
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>
>
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Jill Hogan
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