Monthly Archive for August, 2008

The cob walls are complete

Published
by
Brian
on August 31, 2008
in Building a cob house
. 1 Comment

194.5 batches of cob stomped by foot and you get:

100percentcobwalls

Yesterday afternoon and this morning, I put some final touches on the cob walls, leveling them in preparation for the soon-coming reciprocal roof. After I smoothed out some of the last cobs, I took a minute as I stood on the lean-to trestle, just staring down at the walls which now easily tower over my head, and I wondered in amazement.

It has been quite a journey to this point, moving over 40 tons of material. That’s a lot of earth. More specifically, it’s been 194.5 batches of cob so far. All this over 57 days (which were not all full work days, mind you.)

And it’s not over yet, but this massive portion of the process is, at least. Here are some photos of the structure.

100percent-int-s
Interior, looking southwest.The bed will be positioned along the far wall, under the window. The joists will support a 7.5′ wide, 22″ deep storage shelf.

100percent-int-n 100percentcobwalls-n
The north wall interior, with nooks and a shelf at the foot of the (future) bed. The rocket stove will be to the left of the window. Exterior backside, looking southwest.

100percent-doorway 100percent-biigshelf
Entryway with storage nooks. A gigantic corner bookshelf.

100percent-whew
Happy.

Note: Please find all of my cob building related content at my new blog, The Year of Mud: Building a cob house. Thanks! See you there!

If you like what you see here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, or you can subscribe by email. (See column to the right!) Thanks.

Cob walls are 99%

Published
by
Brian
on August 29, 2008
in Building a cob house
. 2 Comments

Here’s a couple of photos of the 99% complete cob walls. I figure I’ll be able to finish them off tomorrow, perhaps Sunday if it takes a couple more batches than I expect. Reciprocal roof: here we come!

Also, in the top photo you might notice a post near the entryway. This black locust post will bear one of the reciprocal roof rafters, making for a nice little overhang near the entryway. Call it a really small porch, maybe, but this should provide some decent extra coverage from the elements.

Still looking for cob building work exchangers

Published
by
Brian
on August 28, 2008
in Building a cob house
. 0 Comments

I’m still seeking work exchangers for the month of September to help work on my cob house. Although the cobbing is nearly complete, there is still plenty of work ahead, and September should largely consist of building the reciprocal living roof. Exciting times are indeed ahead.

Get all the details here my cob house work exchange. Pass it on.

Life With Thomas playing at Hi Mom! Film Fest

Published
by
Brian
on August 27, 2008
in Film festival and Filmmaking
. 0 Comments

A short video documentary I made for Dancing Rabbit TV over the winter, Life With Thomas was accepted to play at the Hi Mom! Film Festival in Carrboro/Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It’s playing on September 5. (Here’s the schedule.)

Alas, I’m building a house out of mud, so I can’t make it there, but I do wish I could. It’s been a while since I’ve been to one of these. I could use the potential burst of inspiration that usually comes along with going to a film festival, watching funky short films, and meeting different folks.

Nevertheless, if any attendes out there chance upon this, I’d be curious to hear how it goes.

(You can find Life With Thomas on YouTube, too, of course.)

The end is (seriously) near

Published
by
Brian
on August 26, 2008
in Building a cob house
. 3 Comments

biggwallll

With the help of my superstar work exchangers Dan and Danielle, the cob walls are nearly complete. Unfortunately, D&D departed today to begin their own pursuits, but I am hopeful that I’ll be able to complete cobbing by myself by the weekend. I suspect it will take 10 or so batches to level out the walls in preparation for the reciprocal roof - no problem! (My estimations are historically inaccurate, but I feel pretty confident about this one.)

It’s amazing how tall the west wall (see above) is/feels, compared to the rest of the house. A little bit of slope can go a long way.

Last night we had a third campfire in the house, and several folks have suggested leaving the house as is, without roof, because of the dramatic light cast by the fire on the walls. It’s quite a sight. Maybe I’ll have to design a retractable roof…

A rush of inspiration

Published
by
Brian
on August 21, 2008
in Life
. 0 Comments

Lately, I feel more inspired and creative and all of those positive things moreso than ever. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about “the future” and what it might entail and things I want to accomplish, things beyond building this cob house.

I want to plant fruit trees and shrubs and grow lots of food. I want to make an earthen bread oven. I want to have crocks full of fermented food experiments. I’d like to start carving spoons and simple tools. I want to help raise goats and milk them and make cheese. I want to build more: maybe a root cellar, an ice house, an outdoor kitchen, maybe all three. I want to make more short videos, maybe another actual short film. (It’s been a while since I’ve made one, but images linger in my brain that seem to demand being captured.) I want to write more - write a book about building a house, even.

Many of these things will undoubtedly happen. I can usually sense when an idea is not just a crazy wish and something I will eventually act upon. Though there are some things that could just be a dream. But I feel potential.

Making applesauce

Published
by
Brian
on August 20, 2008
in Dancing Rabbit and Food
. 0 Comments

apples

Other than the massive amounts of cobbing lately, there has been some excitement on the food front, too. On July 31 (my birthday), Jeff noticed the first truly ripe apple on my apple tree, and we picked it and ate it. What a treat. Delicious. I have been fortunate enough to inherit a mature apple tree on my warren (that’s DR speak for ‘plot of land’), and this was the first year it decided to put out fruit. (It may have done so last year, but the late frost killed any potential.)

Over the next week, most of the apples ripened, and last week, I harvested a giant pot’s worth and turned it into applesauce. The final color was a beautiful light pink. I decided to leave the skins in the sauce, just to keep things simple… it was less work, and just seemed right, too. I got about seven quarts worth from the haul - not bad!

The story so far

Published
by
Brian
on August 19, 2008
in Building a cob house
. 3 Comments

cobhouse-nw01

Recent highlights the past week included cobbing above the south window, removing the door brace (ahhh for easy entering and exiting!), and sticking in most of the deadmen for the roof rafters. It feels more and more like an actual house with each passing day.

lookingeast lookingsouth

Moonlight cobbing

Published
by
Brian
on August 18, 2008
in Building a cob house and Life
. 0 Comments

cobcampfire

This weekend, I had a strong urge to do some cobbing after dinner, during the sunset hours. So, last night we (myself and Dan and Danielle [my two work exchangers], later joined by Liat) ate dinner and stomped a batch of cob as the sun went down. By the time we were done stomping, it was super dark and pretty dang difficult to actually get the cob on the walls, but we managed.

After that first batch of cob, we figured it would be a good idea to make a campfire inside of the house. Ted and I set one up, and the house glowed like a giant woodstove. It looked great from the road, with a bright orange aura.

There was a full moon that cast a great light on the walls as it rose towards the sky later that night.

Fun stuff.

Installing shelf joists in cob and inching closer to the roof

Published
by
Brian
on August 15, 2008
in Building a cob house
. 0 Comments

in-window
(Satisfied after today’s good progress - See the new cob at the top of the wall there?)

With help from my most enjoyable new work exchangers Dan and Danielle, I am inching closer and closer to the roof of my cob house. Today marked the completion of one of the few remaining and more challenging elements before that happens, though — installing joists for a wide shelf positioned above the (future) cob bed.

shelf-joist

Yesterday, we built a joist rig with some 2×4s that could be buried in the cob: three 38″ long joists attached to one long 2×4 banged out with lots of nails. This whole thing was placed on the cob wall and leveled, joists braced, and then cobbed in place. Hopefully the joists will be strong, as they are buired in all 16″ of the cob wall. The shelf will be 22″ wide and 7.5′ long and will mostly be for storage.

leveling-joists joists-buried

Time will tell whether or not the joists are buried in enough wall to support the weight of potential clutter on the shelf. I am hopeful!

Reciprocal roof video: removing the charlie stick

Published
by
Brian
on August 12, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

By sheer chance, I found this YouTube video in which several builders remove the ‘charlie stick’, or temporary support for a reciprocal roof frame. It looks like it is perhaps Tony Wrench’s account, but unfortunately he has no other videos about the building process. But this is indeed helpful! It gives me clues about the construction process:

- The charlie stick does not seem to be buried at all, which makes me think that they simply braced it (making it easier to remove later)

- The whole structure does settle once the post is removed, but not much, so the pitch is indeed “what you get”

- The top of the rafters look to be left untrimmed to their final size, which I assume gives the builder some wiggle room

Preparing for building the reciprocal roof frame

Published
by
Brian
on August 11, 2008
in Building a cob house
. 2 Comments

The past few days, I have been dwelling quite heavily on the roof design for my cob house. I will be constructing what is called a reciprocal roof, a self-supporting structure composed of pin oak and black locust poles. Reciprocal roofs are round and spiral-y, perfect for round structures. They require no center post and are apparently “simple” to construct, requiring no experience. Plus, they look great, too.

The only downside to building a reciprocal roof is the apparent lack of really comprehensive information out there on how to actually do it. Running a Google search for reciprocal roofs results in a few decent hits, but still, there seems to be a dearth of hard information on how to go about making a reciprocal roof from start to finish.

The best resource I have found thus far is Tony Wrench’s book, How To Build a Low-Impact Roundhouse. You can see some photos of his design here. Wrench has some good sketches and a decent amount of how-to information in his book (which, by the way, is pretty hard to find), but I’m still craving more. Perhaps because my case is pretty different from his and I want to be reassured that this thing is going to work.

The main difference being that my walls are load-bearing, with the reciprocal roof rafters resting directly on the cob walls. Oh, and my house is also not totally circular… That makes a big difference, too.

But anyway, here are a few other sources of images and information for the prospective reciprocal roofer:

  • The LessPress Snail Cabin has a reciprocal roof made with dimensional lumber. Also, be sure to check out their Excel spreadsheet for calculating beam lengths and positions for both circular buildings and otherwise
  • Zone5 has a brief description with some images of a Tony Wrench-style reciprocal roof construction for a roundhouse here and here
  • Check out a scale reciprocal roof model and design using dimensional lumber at Casa de Baro
  • Cae Mabon in Snowdonia of North Wales features several buildings with reciprocal roofs. Images here
  • Simon Dale’s ‘low impact woodland home‘ has a gorgeous reciprocal roof with gnarly rafters and beautiful slab decking
  • For math nerds, visit The Pavilion for a very technical description of how reciprocal roofs function
  • Design Forward has a very brief snippet about the history of the reciprocal roof design, which was invented by Graham Brown, who says: “The structure demonstrates a principle that is fundamental to life on this planet - a simple natural principle: All life is connected.” (Unfortunately, Brown’s website is down…)

This is mostly what I have been reading and looking at for inspiration. I guess the only way to determine if my own reciprocal roof design works is actually making this thing. Soon enough, I will know!

(Image from Zone5.org)