Building Foundation and Stairs – “Cob Cottage Company” Natural Building Apprenticeship at Spirit Pine Sanctuary
The house we are building will be a home to a family of four: Mom, Dad and two young boys. The task at hand is to build a solid cob wall around an existing yurt structure and to build an…
Tatyana
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The house we are building will be a home to a family of four: Mom, Dad and two young boys. The task at hand is to build a solid cob wall around an existing yurt structure and to build an additional room on the side to serve as the parent’s bedroom.
When building with cob, it is best to build along the whole perimeter of the building at once. When cob walls dry, they become a monolith, like one giant house-shaped rock, really! I’ve read about this in “The Hand Sculpted House” book, but I didn’t really comprehend this until I mixed my first batch of cob and made a test brick. Once it dried, neither smashing it nor throwing it affected its brick-ness. No words to describe this phenomenon, only a personal experience of dried cob.
But let’s start at the beginning, and any self-respecting house begins with a solid foundation.
F O U N D A T I O N
Dry-stone foundation with the first layer of cob – the base of the wall
Step 1 – digging the foundation trench; not an easy task in this super-rocky soil!Foundation drainage trench goes all around beneath the future room wallThe rocky soil dug from the trench is sifted, and the remaining grave isl returned to the trenchStep 2 – filling the trench with gravelStep 3 – placing large base stones on the gravel: the foundation of foundation 🙂Step 4 – dry stacking serpentine stone, collected from surrounding hills, to create the base for the wallsLevelling the floor (see the string and ribbon?) and filling it with gravelWoo hoo, first batch of cob goes on the foundation wall
S T A I R S
Starting the stairs, which will be constructed from rocks found on-siteSome creative puzzle-making on the stairs, checking the level to make them flatStairs rising out of the ground like mushrooms after the rain 🙂Inside space beneath the steps is filled with gravel (once again, gravel is sifted from the soil dug on-site)Finished stairs with cob wall base (the plan is to build up the walls to create a protected porch-like space)
