Posted: 7/14/2008 9:51:54 PM EDT
So I want to move out to our land we have, and that would include building myself a house. I want to go near the back of our 320 acre forest and clear out enough to build a house and have a very large yard/field/pasture that I can fence in and have good for some large dogs and some livestock. I am only 17(getting an early start ) and want to know how much it would cost me to build a decent sized home out of cob. We have a good deal of sand, gravel, dirt, and clay on the land but I'd have to buy the straw. Should cob be the best way to go? BTW the land is fairly far north and we have brutally cold winters and scorching hot summers.Thanks! |
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I am not familiar with cob construction, so I cannot comment. I HAVE researched straw bale and lived in an earth ship. Very comfortable! Straw bale uses bales as building blocks. Earth Ships use tires filled with rammed earth as blocks. Either provides HUGE insulation factor, plus a large thermal mass-- a major consideration when SHTF cuts the propane supply. The ES I lived in has NO heating nor cooling apparatus! The internal temp never got above 85 nor below 60. Inside temp not to your liking? Take a walk outside-- in the winter (20 F) or summer (120F) and when you return the inside temp will be perfect! |
| +1 on the hay bales. A standard square bale turned on edge so the stems are vertical has an insulation factor of R70. Look around online for different construction methods and .gov support. Here is southern Missouri .gov will refund as much as $12000 of the construction cost of an alternative construction method home. |
| You may also want to research cordwood construction. I think they also call it stackwood. Seems easier, quicker and more solid to me. I've built neither but have friends that have done both. Cob was described as fun for the first day, then drudgery. And the cob projects looked, imho, like shit. Cordwood was described as straightforward, stupid simple and quick. And the cordwood projects looked very nice. |
and the endgrain will stop a bullet 100x better that a log cabin after all this is thw survival forum. |