I am experiencing similar economic and philosophic dilemmas. I feel that the biggest challenge lies in the cultural transition from a monetary to a shared economy. However, I have been building a resource base comprised of like-minded and inspiring pioneers of the new global movement. This has helped me stay motivated and confident about my direction.

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Simple organic and natural materials for housing was perfected long ago. If we re-learn these skills we could help save people, thus saving the planet. Our system of economics is out of control, If I had free living, I could work mostly for society, and save very little for myself. But when I find I spend 70%+ of my income on living, I become greedy. I have no time. I'm lucky if I get 30,000 days here.

Excellent video, I love it. I'm trying to learn as much as I can from cob-tutorials I find on youtube. I will make a cob-bench in my piece of land very soon.

My integrative faculty of sorts is tailored for my Northern California bio-region and so far includes these wonderful people: Richard Heinberg, Post-Carbon Institute Hannah Poirier, City Repair Project Janelle Orsi, Sustainable Economies Law Center Ianto Evans, Cob Cottage Company Paul Cienfuegos, Community Rights Movement Toby Hemenway, Author and Educator Tobias Green, Mentor and College Professor Kelley Rajala, the Share Exchange

cob houses make so much sense and they are way cooler and better then a normal stick built house! why haven't we always used this method for building why did anyone go a different way for homes at least. there aren't as many problems as a normal house either!

Borrowing a concept from the EarthShip people, seems a good idea to encase bottles and pop cans in the walls, to reduce the amount of cob needed. The bottles and cans in the Earthship housings meant less need for cement, without diminishing the structural strength of the walls, arches or columns (or whatever they sculpted with cement). Cob is labor-intensive to mix, so why not borrow this idea, to use less cob?

Thank you so much for this tutorial! It's very helpful. The question that I have is about what to do when you finish the work for the day and what process you do to pick it up and continue the next day? Do you have to cover what you've done to keep it from drying out or can you literally just leave it and pick up where you left off mixing, plopping and forming like you showed in this video? Thanks so much for your time. :)

A quicker way to mix is to grab the corners of the tarp,lift it up,shake,fold etc etc etc :) great video

Excellent, beautiful, inspiring. Me-now looking for some land where I can build my own.

I'm opening a community garden with a group in Wales in the UK every thing we are growing is organic , and using as much recycled stuff as possible . what i really need is if anyone has any plans for a cob and tire shed/ storage building. if so please leave a note and i will get back to you

Never worked on anything this large. Already know this is a lot of work digging this clay up and mixing with water. I now have a small grove of bamboo. I would prefer coppicing trees and use the twigs or this bamboo to weave a matrix or wattle and slam mud onto it making wattle and daub walls. I mix a 1:1 mixture of linseed oil and turpentine in it sparingly and even a little tar roofing cement or tar. This makes it a lot stronger and almost waterproof. Spray more LO/T on finished surface.

Thanks for posting! I cannot help but wonder if a cement mixer could be used to mix the cob? Anyone??

What about using an Imer Vertical Mixer to mix the cob? Imer makes both gas and electric. There are videos showing vertical mixers mixing dry dirt and gravel with no bogging down, Taiwan electric versions. Search term 'vertical mortar mixer'.

how to make the surface smooth? I see a lot of pictures of cob and the straw is sticking out making it look bad. in some other pictures, it actually has a lighter color like beige and you can't see straws. some pictures had very smooth dark brown walls with the straw showing but it was perfectly flush. would having very short straw(possibly after cutting it) help in this case? would that be bad regarding the mechanical properties? I know in polymer composites the strands(like fiberglass or carbon fiber) can be very short, why does that not work here? thank you

Please help re my 2 questions about the testing and ratios. 1) How much water is added to the clay? 2) When combining the clay and sand, how is one part of clay measured? Is it one volume (example a bucketful) of clay-plus-water solution or is it one volume of dry clay, ie before adding it to the water? I know this is not a precise science. However, it's useful to know for consistency on a single site. Thanks in advance for clarifying.

Can,t you use a cementmixer for the cob!???

I live in central Va. The dirt/soil here is a red color. Forgive my ignorance, can I use this red dirt as clay? Any other suggestions would be appreciated. P

cob is cool.........

After seeing how slow this process is, it's not hard to understand why cutting trees down is the preferred method of building construction. lol Very cool, though. I'd still like to give it a try.

Thank you

Why were there stones on the wall at the end of the video? Do you occasionally put a layer of stone in the wall to make it stronger? Sorry, but that was the only thing not explained in the video.

Good stuff

Carlos are you in Arizona? I am interested in building a cob guest house in Phoenix. Have not done this before but, have been fascinated. The background looks like Az.

Wow - that looks like it could take forever. How long will it take to build a 1000 sq foot house? between 3 people.

I Wonder how coconut coir would do instead of the straw..

Ah thanks anyways. I appreciate the time you took to respond back. May I ask what is these method of mixing that would be faster?, I'm really a noob when it comes to these matter. I actually have no experience what so ever, but I will be moving soon to Peru and was interested in a project which is to build a cob house in the Andes.

I don't suppose dragging the tarp the 10ft to the wall would have made any sense? Kinda does to me.

self sufficientcy, on an individuals basis, could help free individuals so that they could give back to society. If I reduced my housing , power, water and food costs, I could give more of myself to society. This would release the burden put on society. I could justify paying large taxes, creating better citizen benefit packages etc. The dillemma here is that, I cannot change what people value. Who am I to tell my neighbor that he can't have a cheesburger, or a corvette?

I'll assume u are correct and yes a good roof makes all the difference, but I thought these English houses were mainly timber frame and wattle and daub. I've always thought thatch roofs were really aesthetic too. What do u think of my linseed oil/turpentine mixture?

why would you not use a cement mixer? I've even build one out of an old barrel that was hand turned.

What are you looking for exactly with the drop tests? Is it that, if, in the first drop test, the cob weren't ready for the straw, it would simply remain as a sticky mass on your hand and then might eventually splatter? What about the second test?

Hey, are you in Arizona? I'm in Flag and I really want to start cobbing, is there a group or something here in the state?

Why can't a cement mixer be used to mix the cob?

Buy a Barrel Mixer.

thanks for the video lessons, I live in a country with earthquakes and i want to build a cob hut on a rooftop of a house from concrete and masonry, how do make the hut as anti-seismic as possible?

So the foundation is no different than any other house? I need a concrete foundation just as my county's building codes call for a stick built house? Get below frost? Or, do you do something different?

I bet they have the softest feet in the world with all that exfoliating the the sand and clay does.

good1

Do you need straw or can you get shreeded straw so it's not sticking out?

What is the best book to get on this subject?

can I use a cement mixer to mix it?

how much water do you put in the clay and

Where are you guys? I am in Tucson, and I am looking for a cob workshop.....

does anyone know what state this is? The landscape is stunning.

Sadly I do not have clay.. If there is clay in my soil it is so minute that it's damned near negligable. I live in the mountains on decomposed granite which is more like sand but it crumbles.. Comparing crushed rock to DG is like comparing wood to rotten wood. When it rains DG washes away when exposed. It's hard as a rock when dry but I don't think it would hold up to being used structurally. My only local source for clay that I am aware of is home depot bags.. The cost for this is prohibitive. Unless I can mix it with more than 2/1 ratio I might as well stick with cement. That defeats the idea though.. ideally one should only have to import sand since clay is supposed to be everywhere right. I definitely need to spend more time on this subject.

We have grey clay in our area, which mostly has a flint and chalk top layer. I have watched a lot of cob tutorials but not seen anyone using grey clay. Would the grey clay be any good for cob?

why in the hek mix it by hand??? rent or buy a cement mixer take the hard out of the work

don't your feet get so dry it out on crack? I wear gloves in the garden because the dirt dries out my hands. I cannot imagine doing that and that not drying out your hands and feet.

What kind of clay?

why not use a cement mixer?

It takes AGES

How do you make the clay?

I have to say I've had a recurring dream that I built a mostly adobe house and a heavy rain came along and it turned into mud.

At this pace , you could probably build a complete house in about 10 years !

what is the cob ratio? like sand, clay, water? straw?

Why do not build a House with Stones and Cement with Wood instead of Cob as it just making Cob takes lot of efforts

The girl with the long hair is BEAUTIFUL!

Pfff... work...