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Jun 12
Love0

Help Promote Cob Building and Support The Year of Mud

By Uncategorized, Resources

A little over one year ago, I started building my first cob house. And simultaneously, I started The Year of Mud to document the entire building process. I have kept regular documentation going since I started designing my house, all the way through making an urbanite foundation, to building cob walls, constructing a reciprocal roof frame, and more recently, making a rocket stove and living sod roof.

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You can help spread awareness about cob building by helping The Year of Mud to continue to share cob building stories and information.

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Jun 02
Love0

And now… I wait.

By Earthen Floor

The final interior plaster is done. And yesterday, I completed laying down the earthen floor. That means I must stay out of the house until the floor dries, which could take up to a week or more. Once it is dry, I will oil the floor, and move into the house.

So now I must simply wait.

Nearly all of the work is done. All that remains is installing the skylight and plastering the cob bed and bench (which are still not dry), but neither of those things has to happen before I move in.

It’s a strange feeling to be nearly ready to move into this house that’s been the focus of my every day since last spring. It’s nice to be able to think about what I’ll do once I’m settled in. I’m excited.

Perhaps I’ll take the opportunity to relax while I wait on the floor. (Perhaps I’ll finally get to writing more about my rocket stove, earthen plaster, and now the earthen floor, too.)

May 18
Love0

All that remains…

By Uncategorized, Earthen Floor

At this point, all that remains before I move into my new house is finishing and sealing the earthen floor, doing the interior final plaster work, and installing a skylight.

The plaster work will probably take the longest length of time among these three things, since I want to do a bunch of tile mosaics inside as I plaster. Those mosaics can take a while…

My skylight (a 60″x60″ piece of 1/4 in. clear polycarbonate) should be arriving at the end of the week, and I’ll probably start mixing my finish plaster tomorrow, as soon as I get some more cow manure.

Of course I’m tempted to estimate when I’ll move in… I figure I’ll give it a month. The floor and walls will need some time to dry before I can move my stuff in, so even if I finished in a week and a half, I can’t move in immediately.

May 08
Love2

Starting to build the living roof

By Living Sod Roof

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Lately I have been focusing a lot of my attention on building the living roof (a.k.a. green roof, sod roof, or turf roof). Last week, I finished building an edge board – a sort of retaining wall around the perimeter of the roof to help hold the soil from sliding off the roof. I debated quite a bit about how to construct the edge board, and eventually I decided that I would use round black locust logs spiked into the rafter ends with giant 8″ nails. Unfortunately, the logs only extend a couple of inches above the height of the roof, so it’s less of a retaining “wall” and more of a little edge “bump.” (See above photo for a better idea.) I’m not too afraid of soil sliding off the roof, so I’m not that worried.

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Apr 27
Love0

Building a Rocket Stove: Part 2: Cob Bed and Bench

By Rocket Stove, Cob Bed and Bench

cob-bed06.jpg

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this rocket stove design has proven to be a failure, and I have since deconstructed the stove. I cannot recommend that someone follow these plans. You can read my original post below for what not to do, though.

The rocket stove and cob bed and bench are essentially finished. The rocket stove (which I will detail more in yet another post) has 25 feet of horizontal run that wraps through the bed, into the bench, and out the southern wall of the house.

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