Materials Archives - This Cob House

IS MOLD A PROBLEM WITH COB HOMES? EARTHEN BUILDINGS VS CONVENTIONAL

by Alex | Dec 14, 2018 | Cob, General, Materials, Natural Finishing, Walls

I’m going talk to you about mold with cob buildings and earthen buildings. As I’m writing this, I’m here in Costa Rica and one thing I notice about structures here is they do have a lot of mold issues. It’s very humid and very wet. Here most of the...

Cob House Cost Realities – How Much Does It Cost To Build A Cob House?

by Alex | Nov 9, 2018 | Building Codes & Permits, Cob, Designs, General, Materials, Uncategorized, Videos

I want to talk about cob house cost realities here. Now, I’ve talked about this a couple of times before in the past and it’s sort of my opinion that the cost of building a cob house generally is going to be about the same cost per square foot as a...

Do not use earthbags for stemwall foundation

by Alex | May 30, 2015 | Cob, Foundations, General, Materials

This morning, I received an email newsletter from a prominent Natural Builder explaining why they had chosen to build a stemwall foundation using earthbags. I was really surprised when I read this email! Especially when I saw that they were actually filling the...

Earth Building Techniques – Build Your Home with Earth

by Alex | Feb 22, 2015 | Cob, General, Materials, Walls

Beginnings of Earth Building Techniques Earth building techniques have been around for thousands of years. Since before our recorded history, people have been using the earth to build with. That’s why I tell people that earth building techniques are nothing new. In...

Soil Types for Cob Building

by Alex | Aug 21, 2014 | Cob, Materials

Soil types vary by each region and location, but the majority of soil types will work for building cob and earthen structures. It is actually rare to find soil that will not work for cob. This is a good thing for the case of earthen building! Soils consist mainly of a...