This is an introduction to the new online video course. I’m the owner of my company, This Cob House, where I teach and educate on earthen building and other natural building materials. I got started with natural building and cob construction because I had an interest in learning how to build a house for myself using more non-toxic materials and having less of an environmental impact.
I started off learning about cob and natural building just as a hobby and taking workshops and reading books, and basically learning on my own. And I started a small business teaching and educating people on how to do this for themselves. I then created videos and books and started teaching workshops so that I could help others educate themselves and be empowered with these skills to build their own creations. So, most of my training was self learning, and then through taking workshops with other people. Later on I went to school in Oregon for natural building. But one of the key lessons I learned throughout my whole education process was just to get the experience by doing. The hands-on experience is exponentially important and just doing things.
You don’t have to go to school to be able to build a building out of cob or whatever material. It’s just a matter of putting in the time and educating yourself to do it. There’s many aspects to building a house or a building but it’s all very doable for the for the average person or the DIY person.
So I’m creating this new video course because I’ve learned over the years that a lot of people just don’t have the time or the money, or some reason, they just can’t make it to a workshop. This is actually my second video course teaching about cob and how to build a cob house. The first one was very successful and has helped a lot of people around the world. I’m creating this new video course again to help people who can’t make it to a workshop and providing the same information as if you were at the workshop live hands-on with us. Providing that same information and, actually even more, to people online.
As long as you have an internet connection – anybody around the world can get this information. I’m creating this video course to have it more accessible to more people around the world and give you that information up front, and to have it with you on your computer. The video lessons are all things you can do on your own so if you can’t make it to a workshop you can still get all the same value.
The course is designed really for anybody. Any age, as long as you have an interest in cob building and natural building. I’m creating the course step by step so it’s easy to follow along. It’s great for children, especially if they’re homeschooling or something like that. And it’s good for elderly people as well. Any age, so as long as you have the interest. I just want to provide this knowledge to you all.
So I want to start off with somewhat of an introduction into these natural building materials. Most of this course is going to focus on cob. Cob is an earthen building material that’s been around for thousands of years. It’s an ancient building method and it’s been sort of revitalized in the past 50 years here in the United States and around the world.
I’ll also be teaching about other natural building materials as well throughout the course such as rammed earth, adobe, super adobe, and some straw based natural building materials. But I want you to understand that the concepts throughout this course, even though we’re going to be building out of cob, the concepts and the principles still apply to other natural building materials. Especially the earthen building materials. So by taking this video course you’re going to get a comprehensive education in cob and natural building. It’s going to take you step-by-step through every process of building a small cob house. Or it could be a larger building.
You’re going to get all the principals from start to finish. From finding the right piece of land to on-site preparation, gathering materials, all the preparation work through building the foundation, building the cob walls, installing windows and doors, lintels, bond beams, roofing, and plastering and finishing. And really everything in between!
So in all honesty this video course is going to provide even more information and more value than a hands-on workshop. There’s a trade-off between the video course and the hands-on workshop, of course. The hands-on workshop, you’re working hands-on getting an experience which is very valuable. But this online class is an incredible supplement to either reading or hands-on workshops. The video course provides so much information that if you really want to get the best education in natural building I really think you’re making a great choice by taking this course.
