On July 11, 2009, I moved into my newly completed cob house. It’s now been over a year since the move-in, and there have been many learning lessons along the way. I’d like to present a number of those lessons here in my one year report of living in a cob house.

Here we go…

Day to day life

I don’t tire of staring up at the reciprocal roof, taking note of the feel of the floor on my feet, and noticing all the small construction details in the house on a day to day basis. The house still feels fresh. The size of the house is just about perfect for two — any smaller, though, and it would probably be too tight. (The house is about 200 square feet or so.) This year’s mud room addition will be invaluable, I think, and if I were to build another house, I wouldn’t consider doing without one. It will help in the cold of winter, and it helps to keep dirty shoes out instead of tracking in lots of extra dust inside.

Cleaning house

Speaking of dust, there’s a fair amount of it. You can sweep every day and come up with a decent pile of grit. I think that’s in large part due to the small space we live in: there are not many spaces for that dust to hide (and it’s certainly made visible because of a lack of carpet, too, of course). But I love to sweep, thankfully, and it feels good to “housekeep” like that, so it’s not a problem.

Storage capacity

Again, if I were to do it all over again, I probably would have installed a few more storage shelves — perhaps up above the south window and in higher places up on the wall. You simply can’t have enough storage space, especially when you have tools and candlemaking equipment and off-season clothes and travel items and camera gear and lots of books to store. But we make do quite well, and to be honest, we don’t have that much stuff. We are very careful about what we acquire. Living in a tiny space really forces you to consider what you really “need” around.

The earthen floor

The earthen floor is aging pretty well. It quickly lost it’s dark oily hue once the house was inhabited. Overall, it’s a fairly durable floor, but certain pieces of furniture do leave their marks. The rocking chair, for example, will leave runner grooves on the floor if not on a throw rug. Perhaps my mix was not “hard enough”, but overall the floor takes wear pretty well. I’m not sure how different a mix I could have made to improve the durability. (I think I used 3 sand : 1 clay : 3/4 cow manure.) One other thing: I did not make the floor to be perfectly flat, so some furniture needs minor shimming to sit steady, which is okay by me. It’s mostly a non-issue.

Interior plaster

There’s been no change here. It doesn’t dust very much at all, except for one certain shelf in the house, where I simply used too much plaster to even it out.

Exterior plaster

The house has been hit pretty hard by the rain in several thunderstorms this year. We’ve had winds so strong that rain has come into the north window, which is barely below the (2.5 foot deep) eaves of the house! I re-plastered the west wall very early this year, and it’s been hit again, but not hard enough to warrant plastering it again so soon. The north needs another coat pretty bad, too, but the east and south are less prone to rain damage. I imagine I will have to re-plaster those north and west walls at least every other year, depending on the severity of the storms we experience. It’s not a huge effort to do so, though. (I re-did the west wall by myself in a morning.)

Moisture!

Ahh… moisture. We live in a very wet, humid climate. Many of the homes here have high indoor humidity levels as a result. We finally bought a hygrometer recently and have been surprised to see that the indoor humidity is often hovering around 80% inside Gobcobatron! This is a concern, because with moisture levels that high, mold and mildew development is an issue.

We have had bouts of mold on the floor, especially when the humidity or temperature has shot up significantly in a short amount of time. We keep a spray bottle of vinegar around to clean any mold that does form. Thankfully, the e mold seems to form mostly on the floor, which is easy to clean. You can’t really leave anything on the floor, like boxes and the like, without expecting some mold during this time of year, especially. It’s good to have furniture that is raised off of the floor slightly, or that has legs.

We are currently investigating how to better ventilate the house and to keep air moving to keep this issue to a minimum. I really think clever ventilation is the key here. Keeping indoor humidity levels low is one of the biggest challenges in living in a natural home, especially without electricity! (We can’t exactly just go and plug in a dehumidifier…)

Condensation

Installing a giant single pane window was a bad idea. Sure, you can get away with that in Oregon and other mild climates, but don’t even think about it in a cold climate where temperatures are frequently below freezing in the wintertime. On cloudy winter days, the south window is constantly wet with condensation, and we need a towel always in place to collect the water that collects at the bottom. It’s a real hassle to constantly have wet towels around. Same thing for the skylight, but even worse: the skylight actually drips (when the condensation isn’t frozen to the polycarbonate, that is). We use a “towel on a stick” to wipe down the skylight daily in the winter to keep it from dripping. You can bet that we are considering buying a second pane to insulate the skylight, and possibly tear out the south window next year to install a double paned one.

Keeping cool

In the summer, the house remains quite comfortable in high heat. This year, we’ve had long bouts of 95+ and even 100+ degree days (actually, it’s felt like way too many days with a heat index of 110 or even 115 to even count… ugh…), but despite those high temperatures, the indoor temperature has rarely crept past 83 degrees. More than likely, it’s been around 80 or 82 inside, and lately, in the mid to upper 70s (with the recent break in the heat). We have made a conscious effort to close the windows and shades during the heat of the day, only opening them at night when the temperature drops into the 70s.

We even put a tarp over the skylight so that the house is really dark. It’s amazing how much cooler a room will feel just because it’s darker than normal! I think better shading on the west wall of the house will actually help quite a bit, too: on really hot days, after the sun has gone down, you can actually feel the heat radiating off the west wall when you walk past it outside. I think a few grape vines are in order here. (Actually, the wood shed will block a fair amount of the late afternoon sun on the west wall, too.)

Keeping warm

Last winter was cold. Really cold. Inside and out. The rocket stove was a failure, so there was no truly adequate way to keep the house warm. The indoor temperature plummeted to below freezing before we were able to install a temporary wood stove. The temporary stove kept the house from literally freezing, but it wasn’t the most efficient setup, obviously.

I have much higher hopes for this winter, with the new Morso wood stove and the addition of the mud room. I don’t think it will be as great of a struggle, BUT last winter really brought to mind the question: how appropriate is a 100% cob house for the harsh north Missouri climate, anyway? I now believe that I probably wouldn’t do an all cob house again (in northeast Missorui, that is) — I think some straw bales, or bale cob, or even just a better insulated roof and floor would make all the difference. Again, in this climate, I think some insulation is necessary. Or at the very least, maybe some thicker walls. But this winter will be a truer test…

The living roof and skylight

The skylight is in fine shape. The foam seal has broken down a bit in the sun, but it’s not been an issue. Last winter, we had what we thought were some leaks in the roof, but once spring came around, those mysterious wet spots vanished, even after a record-setting rainy spring. Perhaps there are no leaks after all…

The roof has a tendency to dry out after long bouts of heat without rain since the soil is pretty shallow, but plants perk up once it does rain. I haven’t really selected for certain plants to grow up there, so whatever was in the soil originally comes up each spring. I wonder how the roof ecology might change over time, but perhaps I’ll try to grow a certain type of grass up there if the same old plants come up year after year. Some are less than desirable (ragweed… bleh), and I do cull those from time to time. Because of the shallow depth of the soil and the angle of the roof, it’s not terribly great for growing edibles.

I’ve yet to figure out how to gutter the roof, which would be hugely beneficial, because rainwater sheets off the surface in heavy rainfalls (of which we have many during the spring… and summer).

I do love the option of being able to climb up onto the roof and even watching shooting stars at night…

The foundation

Again, is clay/sand mortar really a good idea in this climate? It’s actually held up extremely well, but when it gets wet, it’s a problem. Last winter, when it snowed (and snowed and snowed), the foundation was in contact with that snow for a long stretch of time, and that’s what caused the mortar to wick moisture to the interior of the house. I think. This is my theory. In spring, we had earthworms tunneling through the mortar of the foundation! Ack! Portions of the floor around the wall were wet, too. That was not fun.

Will the same thing happen this winter? We’ve done some earth work around the foundation to keep water away, so perhaps we won’t experience the same thing. Here’s hoping.

In the end… after one year of life in a cob house

I love life in my cob house. It’s been a huge pleasure. Sitting in the rocking chair in the beautiful silence of the house, entering on a blazing hot day and feeling the cool of the floor on my bare feet, laying in bed and staring at the spiral of the roof, watching lightning storms through the giant south window, lighting candles and admiring the glow of the flame in the niches of the wall… these are a few of the moments that make living in this house so special.

Sure, there have been very difficult times, too, times when a certain problem caused so much stress (the failed rocket stove, or condensation) that I thought things were doomed, but it’s easy to get caught up in the moment. There has been much creative problem solving thus far, and life in Gobcobatron is a constant learning experience. I imagine that learning will continue for a long time. I’ve noted above several of the things I would do differently, were I to do it again. But there are many things I wouldn’t change, either.

So what is in store for the future of Gobcobatron? There are still a few projects to wrap up this year: finishing the stove installation and getting a second skylight pane are the big ones. But beyond that, there are musings of switching out the south window for an insulated one, and possibly even attaching a tiny greenhouse to the south. (It’s a wise idea to have two home heat sources, especially one that is passive.) Time will tell what happens and what new ideas we have for the house, though.

Now for year two of living in mud…

Here it is…. the first food from the sod roof of my cob house. Mm mm.

At long last, I have a living roof! I’ve been anticipating this day for over a year now and it’s finally done. On Monday, a group of about twelve folks assembled to help me lift sod onto the top of my roof, and in two and a half hours, it was effectively covered.

Soil retaining ladders

A few days prior to Monday, I made several soil “retaining ladders” using rope and some thin wood poles to help keep the soil in place. These poles were spaced a couple of feet apart to provide a brake for the soil from sliding down the roof. At some point I ditched the idea of using any loose soil on the roof in favor of entirely using sod, so these ladders became less important to me, but I left them up anyway.

Building the sod roof

Since I already wrote about cutting sod for my roof, I will descrive how the sod was loaded. Once the perimeter of the roof was covered with sod, we covered the rest of the roof. Doing the edge was the trickiest part, since I had the fold the EPDM underneath itself and leave a little bit exposed to protect the edge logs.

Once that was done, it was only a matter of lifting the material onto the roof. People worked at ground level to pass the turf up to folks on scaffolding and ladders, who then passed the material to others on the roof. The turf squares were packed closely together so that there were no gaps. If any awkward gaps could not be filled with sod squares, loose soil was loaded into cracks.

It was all fairly simple. Heavy heavy, but simple. I still have to load some sod up at the very top of the roof to completely cover the tractor tire skylight frame, but the roof is effectively done.

Planting the living roof

On the east side of the roof, I dumped several buckets of loose soil so that I could put in several strawberry plants. I mulched the strawberries with straw to help conserve moisture.

Eventually, I will plant wildflowers, grasses, and edible perennials on the roof, focusing on plants that are tolerant of drier soils and full sun. Since the sod is only about four inches thick, it is likely that the roof will dry out during high summer.

Although… yesterday was an incredible first test of the integrity of my living roof. At 6:30 p.m., we were warned of a tornado headed straight for Rutledge. Within 30 minutes, an inch and a half of rain had fallen, but thankfully the tornado turned at what felt like the last minute, and we were spared. It missed us by a mere 10 miles. I was happy to find that the soil remained intact on the roof, and none of the sod slipped. I didn’t see any signs of wear on the rafters, either. Success!

It will be interesting to see how the living roof ecology develops and changes over time. It will be especially nice once the individual sods root together and get totally established.

My living reciprocal roof formula

Here is my living reciprocal roof formula, in layers:

1. 28 round pole rafters (black locust and pin oak, 14 primary, 14 secondary)
2. black walnut wood decking (mostly 1-1.5x)
3. muslin fabric
4. double layer of cardboard
5. EPDM
6. four inch thick sod squares

And finally… a few more photos from the sod roof party:

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.

Cutting sod squares

Originally, my plan was to use loose soil on most of the roof. I thought I’d use loose soil because we are having some road work done in the near future, and much of the topsoil will be scraped and made available. Instead, I am using sod squares. Ma’ikwe, another Dancing Rabbit member is building a new home this year, and she very kindly gave me permission to cut sod from the footprint of her future home. Sod is much more ideal than loose soil because it already has grasses and root structure established.

I’ve gotten into a pretty good groove cutting the sod using a simple flat trench shovel. Each square is something like 4-6″ thick and very heavy. I’ve moved dozens of wheelbarrows full of this sod to my building site.

Loading the sod

Recently, I put a few of these sod pieces (or “turves”) up on the edge of the roof. I decided to fold the EPDM under itself at the roof edge and slightly up over the log edge board. It looks a little less than ideal, but then again, the soil will eventually settle and perhaps cover the EPDM from sight. I’m not sure. It’s kind of an experiment. I want the EPDM to protect the logs, but I don’t want it to come all the way around the edge. I’m also want to have the option of adding a gutter to the edge in the future.

Next week, I’m planning to have a work party to completely cover the roof in soil. This is a huge step!

So. I’ve done some prioritizing. Now that the cob walls are complete, and the windows and door are in, the house is sealed. My biggest remaining priority is the roof – I need to construct an edge board around the roof, create a soil-retaining system, and have soil moved to my site and load it onto the roof. Oh, and seed the soil, too. That’s not a small load of work by any means!

While I am waiting on a delivery of lumber to build my edge board, I have begun (and finished) some scratch plastering. A few days ago, I moved several tons of gravel into the building in preparation for the earthen floor, and raked it level and tamped it with Kyle’s help. (I estimate it was about six tons, all of which was moved within a 24 hour period.)

The chances are pretty decent that I will be able to finish the floor and the roof. If I do these two things, I will feel confident about moving in for the winter. I am pretty opposed to moving into an unfinished house – especially one without a floor. It would be quite a hassle to work on the house when springtime came (and springtime rains) with all of my stuff in the house and nowhere to store it. However, if at least the floor is done, it won’t be quite as difficult to work on the stove and cob bed and plaster with things in the space.

The weather has been phenomenal lately, which has definitely contributed to quick progress on things. There’s at least a few more days of warm weather in the forecast, too, which is promising.

Three weeks to go! Let’s see what can get done.

Cobbing complete!

With Karen’s and my dad’s help, I completed cobbing. The walls are finally done! In just a few days, the gap between the walls and the roof was closed. It was very satisfying to see the final line of the wall meet the decking of the roof. It was awkward work having to stuff the small spaces, but it wasn’t too bad…

Windows and door installation

Next came the windows and the door. My dad and I struggled with installing the first of three windows, continuing our typically discombobulated history of collaborating on work projects. After a couple of hours, we got it in, and the next two were much easier. The north and west windows are casement style, and the southeast is double hung. All are doubled paned.

The door was surprisingly easy to install. A few shims here and there and it was set. Unfortunately, however, it’s not quite what I expected. Meaning that I must have looked at the door wrong when I first found it, and it doesn’t actually open the way I expected it would. It opens outwards instead of inwards. For now, I’m not locking it in cob, just in case I decide to change the door later (or even make my own door). It keeps the cold out, which is good enough for now.

I used sheep’s wool to insulate around the window and door frames where there are air gaps. The wool was free from a local farm, and I simply carded it using my hands before stuffing it in the gaps. The house is now sealed!

Losing my EPDM membrane…. almost

Beyond all that… the biggest happening of the week was almost losing my EPDM membrane on a very windy day this most recent weekend. What a nightmare. All day Sunday, there were gusts of wind up to 45 mph. Since the pond liner was not tied down or weighted in any significant way, it was flapping pretty heavily throughout the day. At one point, my dad ran to find me and said “your roof is about to blow away”, and we made it out there just after the ropes around the tractor tire flew off, essentially freeing the membrane from the roof completely.

We held onto the corners for dear life, and then Jeff ran to find help. Soon a pack of ten or more people were running towards the house, and each grabbed a corner of the membrane, some getting smacked in the face by the EPDM in the wicked wind. Tony and I scaled the house carrying rope, and working like spiders, we all wove a giant web over the membrane. It was a pretty intense experience. People were being lifted off the ground as they held onto the membrane, and up on the roof it was no better. Every time there was a giant gust, the membrane lifted us up off the surface, and there was little to hold onto. Frightening.

Eventually we got the whole roof tied down. Unfortunately, I think the membrane suffered a bit in the process, and there is some damage and wear. Hopefully the parts that are damaged are close enough to the edge that will get trimmed. I also lost some cardboard cushioning that will have to be replaced, so it’s going to take a fair amount of work to get that material back under the EPDM and prepare for the next step in constructing the roof.

Scratch plastering

In the meantime, I’ve been doing some scratch plaster inside the house with the help of my new (and probably last) work exchanger, Kyle. We smoothed out the nooks and shelves, and some of the rougher parts of the wall that experienced some rain damage. It’s amazing how much more pleasing/smooth it looks now, even before the final coat of plaster is on.

Prepping for the earthen floor

Today, Kyle and I cleaned out the house and raked up loose cob and some grass to prepare for moving gravel inside. I decided to leave the topsoil in my building. I didn’t level it either, figuring that if any moisture did get in there, it would drain more easily with the natural slope. The soil has been well tamped by now, after walking on the ground all season, and mixing cob in there as well.

We moved gravel in by wheelbarrow. Because of the slope of the site, the gravel will be 4″ deep on the east, and up to 12″ deep on the west. Above this gravel will be 5″ total inches of earthen floor mix (divided between two layers).

I expect we’ll finish the gravel moving tomorrow, just in time for our traveling Halloween party. I plan on having a gravel-tamping dance party during at my stop. Many feet make work light!

Pictures coming soon!

Before the EPDM went on the roof, I wanted to add a cushion of cardboard on top of the rafters and decking to protect the membrane. And before the cardboard went on, I wanted to add some kind of fabric so that the cardboard would not be visible from inside of the space. I bought a 50 yard bolt of muslin for $50 at Zimmerman’s, and Karen (my current work exchanger) and I draped the fabric and stapled it to the decking.

Next went the cardboard. This was pretty tricky since the cardboard was so slippery and could not be easily traversed while affixing it to the decking. I used some short nails to try to help it stay in place, which I wasn’t totally thrilled about having to do, since I wanted to minimize pointy things immediately underneath the EPDM. But it wouldn’t really stay in place otherwise.

With the addition of the tractor tire and cardboard, the house was looking rather…. interesting…

Next came the impermeable membrane: the 35′x35′ sheet of EPDM, weighing in at 380 pounds. With the help of at least a dozen or more other people, we unraveled the EPDM from its roll, and hoisted it up on the middle of the roof. From there, we unfolded it and spread it across the surface of the roof.

Without that many hands, the lifting of the membrane would have been an incredible chore…. perhaps even impossible…

I am incredibly relieved to now have the EPDM sitting on the roof. This means I will never again have to get out of bed at 3:00 AM to check to see if the tarps are still covering the roof during a thunderstorm.

Next up: trimming the membrane, making eaves and finishing the skylight, and then lifting lots and lots of soil for the living roof…

I have not been thrilled by the prospect of purchasing this petro product for my house (it’s one of the few new, synthetic materials in the whole building); however, it has been challenging to find information on building a living roof using natural materials. Apparently, Norwegians have historically used birch bark as their impermeable membrane. Getting more information than just that has proved difficult, and still, I probably wouldn’t have been willing to experiment with my first house, considering just how important a good roof is. I want to do this right. Perhaps I’ll experiment with an all-natural living roof on a different building in the future. (If anyone out there has details on any books, etc. with information on traditional living roofs, let me know!)

Anyway, the 35′x35′ sheet of EPDM cost a whopping $622, at least $100 of which was the shipping cost. The thing weighs 380 pounds. I’m pretty daunted by the idea of somehow getting this whole thing unrolled over the roof… but I’m sure with enough hands, it won’t be so bad!

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)

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