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Building the walls of cob on stone foundation. |
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We decided to make the floor plan of our cob outhouse in the shape of an oval approximately 6 feet by 5 feet. A two feet deep trench was dug into the ground and filled with drainage rubble. We gathered loose stones found on our site and built a stone foundation on top of the drainage rubble. The foundation was about 18 inches in height. The stones were fitted together and secured using a cement/lime/sand mix motar.
Our cob mixture consists of a mixture of soil/clay, rough sand, straw, and water. The soil on our lot is almost entirely clay. We had to have sand trucked in. We also had to have strawbales hauled in. Although we needed only a few bales for mixing cob for our outhouse and studio(about 10) we decided to get much more in the event we decide to use bales to build parts of our studio extension walls.
Also we should note that we have no water on our lot so we usually haul about 40 gallons back to our lot when we make errand for materials from town. (The mountain streams are located nearby.)
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Stone foundation (base for cob wall). |
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1 part soil/clay and 2 parts sand. |
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Adding water. |
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All nice and muddy! |
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Adding straw to mixture. |
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Kristina displays initial section of wall. |
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The wall is getting higher! |
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Closer view of cob wall. |
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