How to Keep A Cob House Dry and Prevent Rain Damage

[@romerome87]

Thank you for the amazing information 🤘🏻🤘🏻

[@ChadKovac]

Thank you for keeping this short and to the point of the title.

[@anjanisirivella8440]

Thank you so much for making these videos, helpful in giving me a much needed understanding to get started with my own house! Very informative and well spoken, please keep teaching!

[@svelanikolova5776]

My shed is done this way. Now I can fix it myself. Thank you.

[@swamijeevanpromod1657]

Thanks 🙏🙏🌸🌸

[@sandramoreno6546]

Thank you

[@bruceburnett5372]

Great video Alex. Camera slightly low but your doin' good. Start my home next year... I will thank you in advance.

[@LetBBB6345789]

Thx for these videos! How to build a cob home though in places where you cannot be sure if it will rain during construction?

[@adeelrajput3291]

thanks for video

[@aletheialouise]

Great vid, thank you for clear, short and sweet info.

[@hevpjf]

how to plaster please ?

[@jofirbank6211]

Our ground floor bedroom has been flooded near outside wall after bad storm with horizontal wind & rain hitting the house. Seems to be from ground level not the thatched roof. Outside is gravel path but gravel is low and shows seam at bottom of cob. Not sure what coating on cob. Would increasing gravel level help waterproof house? Thanks.

[@mollygrace3068]

Do you paint a layer of linseed oil?

[@sandramoreno6546]

Could you plaster you cob home with aircrete?

[@alicebotha5328]

Thank you for your info. Allwsys nice, because you are down to the point. Love it

[@abacusservice4935]

Lookin forward to seeing your other videos on different types of plasters ... I am in a very high rainfall and very high winds situation ... thanks for all your videos ... extremely informative and to the point ... keep up the good work

[@thiscobhouse]

Thanks. The new video on plaster options will be published in the next day or so. Its already filmed. I just need to edit and upload.

[@ShiftySkipper]

Thank you for the video, I haden't yet considered the over-extended roofing for the weather drippage. Also doubles great as an awning!

[@dieabsolutegluckskuche5174]

I kinda have the feeling that you could protect the walls with a shield out of different things. Maybe staples of stone, plants, raised beds and so on. Do you think that would work as great?

[@bre_nreallife6518]

If vines gown alongside the house is this damaging to the home? Would the plants trap water or pull water away?

[@rockskipper0]

What about painting the walls with an oil based paint

[@thatguywiththestache]

Keep up the channel man! Good stuff, keep growing it. Thank you for the info!

[@williampalacio199]

Thanks a lot for got information buddy

[@henrizak_82]

Thank you.

[@gaijinman7852]

Thank you for the video, I'm currently building a small cob house. I want to know if it's possible to put a plastic roof on a cob house and then covered with dirt and then grass seed? So no overhang on the back and front of the cob house.

[@moradasverdes]

Gracias Alex. I enjoy and learn. I do appreciate your work.

[@adeelrajput3291]

can we build the mud house G+1 . if yes then we can install attached bath on first floor. in mud house.

[@maxdecphoenix]

3' overhang on a roof starts getting in to wind issues. If you live in tornado ally, S.E. US, or other places where strong wind phenomena occur i'm thinking you're chancing having the roof ripped clean off.

[@guavatrang7144]

Some roof to earth poles of some sort to anchor the roof no?

[@divinemamagaia1727]

Great video thanks again for the valuable information. I have two questions. 1. What are your thoughts on raised foundations for a cob house especially for land that is very rocky like The Yucatán peninsula in Mexico? 2. What are your thoughts on a cob water barrel for rainwater storage?

[@thiscobhouse]

1. A raised foundation is always good for a cob building. Unless you are in an arid environment with little rainfall. 2. Cob won't hold water as a container. It would not be practical. You might like ferro cement water containers.

[@liamjobey5192]

Hey Alex! I'm trying to find an answer to whether cob houses are dry enough on the inside to leave electronics in full time. I'm considering making a small 15m2 built into hill music studio cave. This video helped a bunch in learning the vitals of keeping rain out. But general indoor humidity. Can I build small with a natural ventilating duct system in the upper wall, let dry and move in with my gear and feel safe that it won't collect moisture and ruin fx. Overnight in frosty norwegian winter nights? Otherwise I was thinking a seal tight chest for computer, monitors etc. But would be kinda impractical to set up everything, every session. Hope someone has an answer. Not thinking of full cob house but a cob hut, sealed well with max 2 windows, 1 door and thick enough to soundproof my yells and screams haha Thanks again for the helpful videos!

[@thiscobhouse]

Hey! Yes, cob will help to regulate indoor humidity. But it would be safe to have some venting system installed too. The only tricky part is if you build it into the hill, please watch this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJWtnKyZaMiLj6s

[@liamjobey5192]

@@thiscobhouse thanks for the quick answer Alex! You're a legend 🙌 yeah one or two air vents and atleast one window is the plan. So I could leave fx. A laptop, monitor speakers, an amp etc.in a vented and damp proofed cob house and not worry about any vapor damage to it? I watched the bermed house vid but I'm thinking bit more primitive and smaller. Either pallets reinforced or a full mason stone back wall with maybe 1/5 cement cob. But yea man 2/3 the size of your sweet demo build and almost completely under the hill. A meter or so down beneath, stone fundament, sturdy rotproofed pillars, maybe pallets even and beams, drainage naturally down the hill and with a few inches of earth ontop of the entire roof, sturdy so you can meditate with a partner ontop. I live in a south norwegian climate so Pretty similar to southern Canadian.

[@deanteasdale8261]

Hi, what ratio of Portland Cement would you mix in please? 🙂

[@thiscobhouse]

Between 5 to 10 percent.

[@deanteasdale8261]

@@thiscobhouse thanks 🙂👍

[@parttimeninja5521]

If you live in a real damp area with lots of rain, would it help to finish the cob off with some type of plaster?

[@thiscobhouse]

Yes, it helps. But foundation and roof are most important to protect from rain.

[@guavatrang7144]

Lime plaster is the oldest method. That breathes.. Cement does not.. Problematic.

[@williampalacio199]

All set likes and susccribed

[@yolandacamargoaponte2658]

Is a cob house good for winter in Canada?

[@thiscobhouse]

There are many cob homes in British Columbia, Canada.

[@yolandacamargoaponte2658]

Thank you for take time to reply to my question 😊 I have been learning and taking lots of information how to build a house .. your videos are ones of the best, thank you !!!

[@Fallacia_Konstantinos]

Yes but... we haven't the same architecture standards all over the world, so if I have to continue the folk architecture of the... Cyclades islands here in Greece under a cob construction, i have to build that building without any roof, the same I could do in the sahelian region of Mali, Niger, Burkina or into the region of Nubia. There are traditionally terraces & vaults, no roofs. So the only thing I would have to pay attention at this case, is only the foundation & the plastering. So in those cases we need as much as stronger plaster we could. I have seen in a video making plastering introducing in the mixture also a type of glue. What exactly could be that glue???

[@Adnancorner]

what if we apply thin 1 cm thick layer of cement outside all over ?? and cover it up at least a meter from the ground ??

[@thiscobhouse]

Best not to cover cob with cement as it traps water moisture behind it and hurts the cob wall. You can do this with lime plaster though.

[@guavatrang7144]

Huge regret. The cob needs to self regulate it's water content as it draws out the humidity of breath in the house. Cement would stop all that. Then mold on inner walls and eventual collapse of cob wall. Lime plaster OK as that breathes

[@markchilluffo9638]

👍👍

[@johnterry8958]

Don't put Portland cement into the cob mix! That's a REALLY bad idea. The intent to stabilize the cob that way is not only unnecessary, but damaging. The clay needs to be able to slightly move & breathe with changing moisture content, to partially self-heal cracks, to maintain its constant contact with the straw to keep the straw from rotting from wicked moisture, and so that the clay can be free to react so as to moderate temperatures. Portland cement will make the cob more brittle and defeat all those good things that the clay needs to do, and the stabilization isn't necessary anyway; I have seen rock-hard cob that is very strong and doesn't need stabilization. As an aside, misguided attempts to waterproof cob houses in Britain by plastering over them with cement based plaster have actually caused 400 year old cob houses to collapse, as the cement prevents the cob from breathing so any moisture that seeps in by capillary attraction can't escape, and the cob softens and structurally collapses by not being able to evaporate the moisture. The only place portland cement should have in a cob house is foundations, lintels & sills, and bond beams atop the walls to support roof timbers. Portland cement should never be added to the cob mix.

[@thiscobhouse]

True with all that you said. I slightly disagree with the "never" stabilize it with Portland though. I'm actually experimenting with stabilizing cob with lime + metakaolin now for a better outcome.

[@guavatrang7144]

Absolutely right. Cement renders are a source of huge regret on cob.

[@guavatrang7144]

@@thiscobhouse lime is the cob waterproofing plaster of olde. Cement is a different beast.

[@MaskMasterEsquire]

I agree but a small percentage of hydraulic lime was common when cob was the rage and it drastically improves cob strength.

[@guavatrang7144]

Wait... Spray cement on the cob.. No way! There goes the breathability of the cob. Then you need vents and wotnot. Mold on the inside forever.

[@holeymcsockpuppet]

I read "brain damage".

[@ppac300]

Obviously this guy have not seen Philippine rains.