Cob Houses - Live Debt Free with Sustainable Development

I built my home, so that's one. As for permitting, who really gives a flying fuck. The village told me I had to pay $20 for a building permit, I told them to stick it straight up their ass.



That was an issue for me, but I anticipated it and worked around it.



I guess I got lucky, or maybe I'm just not an idiot, because I didn't have those "very expensive fuckups that will inevitably happen", so I guess they're not as inevitable as you think.



Sounds like he wasn't very smart, especially if he was trying to solve problems with money.

What's not surprising is that you boil everything down to money. The monetary cost of all those materials you mention in no way reflects the energy put into making them. Much like "modern" agriculture, "modern" construction is wasteful and inefficient. It also says nothing about the sustainability of such construction methods, which was the entire point of this thread.

We will always live in such a society as long as people like you keep saying "we still live yadda yadda blah blah", it's all bullshit. Your life revolves around money if you let it. Trade and barter misses the point entirely. It's called sharing, supposedly people are taught to do that as children, but then the words most children learn before any others are "no" and "mine".

But that's kind of the point. Taking money out of the equation, compare a straw bale house to a standard built one. The only difference is the walls. In standard construction, you use lumber (just as "renewable" and "eco-friendly" as straw), some kind of sheathing like OSB (waste and pulp wood converted), and insulation (which can commonly be blown cellulose, i.e. recycled paper). Yet, somehow straw bale construction is hailed as so much more eco-friendly and green. Unless your straw came from Amish farmers, it took commercial fertilizer and fossil fuels to get it. It's promoted as "easy to build, get your neighbours to stack up the bales", but in reality it's more labour. And, finally, modern building codes require that new construction be pretty damn efficient anyway.

You want a really easy, super efficient method of building a really energy efficient house? Build it with SIPs.

Nice reply. The greenies really don't understand a lot. It's all about feeling.

Last Edited by s. d. butler on 03/07/2012 06:49 PM

Precisely - you've hit the nail square on the head!

Hiring labour and trades just balloons the financial aspect of any build.

If you want to do this type of build on a budget...you need to get your hands very mucky and figure out alot of systems, aswell as be a general odd-jobber handy type of diy person to begin with.

If you struggle with basic diy and think youll soon 'get the hang of it'....really...don't even bother...unless you have years of your life spare for this, and this project only whilst putting the rest of your existence on the proverbial 'back-burner'.

I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy....have a bold budget...loads of strong friends..and not much else to do in life...and you'll achieve your dream.
I find the struggle of the self-build journey of that comparable to giving birth...
... No matter on the type of build!

I'm having a rough day and feeling jaded ;-)

The principles of natural building are great...yet over-rated. I always build as non-toxic and local as possible. Some of these eco materials of recent years require huge impacts to produce them. Pot calling kettle black a little there.
Understand that even if you've used lovely natural sheepswool insulation, it is likely to have been impregnated with something not quite as natural to kill/destroy/minimise mites and moulds.
The paint most people use (allover the entire house, inside and out) is actually more toxic than they could ever grasp. I spent over a decade in the paint industry and have health issues due to heavy metal toxicity from the fumes of paint. Fumes which are leaching into the atmosphere of the room for many months after application.
Cot death is not a mystery when you consider the joy to put the new baby into their brand new FRESHLY PAINTED nursery.

So...if we really care about the environment it should be done properly instead of perpetuate more toxic boxes for generations to die in.

And cute hobbit houses to lure those with a bulging checkbook actually sickens me on one level.

Only because i know of generations of rural farmers who have literally been pushed-out by inner-city white collars..because they were given the ideal of a coutry barn conversion.
Villages upon villages have been bought up by commuting slaves, while the corporate farms have monopolised the smaller farms...and now we have super monsanto-backed farms merging EVERYWHERE.

It all started with a picture of a good looking middle-aged businessman reclining next to his trophy wife, illuminated by the crackling fire

...in a BARN!!!





hahaaa

Maybe I got the wrong idea but I thought this was about cheap affordable COB construction....I fail to see what most of the responses arguing about green blah blah blah have anything to do with making cob or building with it....

Title of thread: Live Debt Free with Sustainable Development.

Fact: Building your own home, purchasing your own land, materials,labour, planning regs etc etc all takes alot of time and MONEY to complete no matter how simply you build - even IF IT IS MADE OF EARTH!

So i'm still scratching my head about how i become debt free by building sustainably verses conventional methods - as i've done both...and am contributing to the thread..

..have you?

Actually the title of the thread was Cob Houses: Live debt free with Sustainable building.....hence why I mentioned that everyone keeps getting side tracked....no matter really I mean it's all relevant.

While I can see problems with the strawbale and a bunch of the other green stuff I've yet to find much problem with Cob which is why I was trying to get the thread back on track

and yes I've done both, worked in construction for 4-5 years and been on councils for a few different political organizations in college and local town, some green, some not...

wow how times have changed...

My father worked for 7 years to gain an apprenticeship to fully qualify a specialised building trade. That's what was done then, specialise in one trade. Not because there's loads to learn - it's the practice of it.
Practical application of any methodology gives far more insights than any other method.


I love cob - it's extremely durable, sculptable, dries like rock. It's breathable but not if it's covered in an external paint from your local home depot. That stuff is like sheathing your house in a plastic bag - and totally nullifies having cob as a breathable layer - which is often touted as one of the many favourable aspects of using cob as a building material. It is ONLY if you use breathable paint.


The main thing is always consider the climate with the type of build you want to go for. Earthship architect M Reynolds ended up redesigning the original system to suit alternative climates as the original design was suited mainly for New Mexico.
I've digested all 3 construction manuals and realise his system is doable in ALL climates - but the costs vary HUGELY unfortunately. His designs with waste water and home supply water are quite ingenious that truly does make it a 'Living Self Contained House'.

Coat it in 2 feet of COB and you have yourself a very good radiation-proof home..(providing you've stripped the steel from the tyres first...one aspect of the earthship build i don't like personally)
Earth homes are becoming more popular as solar radiation is also spiking - interesting correlation that.

I once rented a 300yr old place where the original internal walls were cob and strips of thin timber coated in layers upon layer of limewash (often called 'wattle n daub').
During renovation i was astounded how hard the cob was ...of course it had become brittle and had lost structure but it was still a firm, un-perished material.
The areas in the house where the roof leaked the cob was soggy and certainly growing spores of various colours!

There is an ideal to be struck between traditional hundreds of year old methods and new technology...particularly in membranes needed to prevent mould / damp - northern hemispheres in particular.

I love to see cob finished plain internally - gives a mediterranean feel to the most drab of places...and the cob is easy to stain with harmless water-based colourants than using toxic paints...if you want colour.

Bump

Loved the video and awesome thread. It would be great if we humans could live in more natural buildings. The houses really resonated with my spirit.

I'm in a mountainous area and I am thinking about building underground. Cool in the summer and protection from tornadoes or storms should they pass my way. I would think much less for building materials also since you don't have exterior walls other than the entrance area.

[link to www.oddee.com]

If you can get away with this do it. Learn the rules and circumvernt as there are so many restrictions out there. I sold a home that was taxing me into the poor house, got a life lease on a creek. Then moved a little 18 by 18 cabin onto the creek, putting it on skids, moved it from one township into another, best thing I ever did.

Rules are, if it has foundation it is home so I kept it mobile on skids which also had no size restriction. Like I say, find the rules, get the hell away from towships with zoning, these idiots control everything that makes these homes possible. I love my little home in the valley, no electric bills, just some solar. I filter water from the clean creek and use a composting toiled. No monthly bills whatsoever, no tv, no cable, no sewer, no nothing, i just do my thing when up north. Screw all zoning and all township, particularly those in N. MI.

That sounds amazing! I'd love to do something like what you are doing but something is holding me back.... Perhaps fear of the unknown? What was the event that triggered you saying screw it this is what I am doing?