How to build a cob house

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This Cob House | Blog

If you have spent any time at all researching off-the-grid houses and energy-efficient homes, you probably have run across the mention of a cob house. A cob house is not made from corn cobs, as I first assumed when I heard the term, but rather uses a mixture of sand, straw, and clay similar to an adobe house to build a sturdy, non-traditional house that is surprisingly easy to construct, and durable.

Wow, I was not expecting that at all. 😯 Shalina Luna and Ben Griffith had their kids’ futures in mind. They bought a lot in Ignacio, Colorado, thinking that they would build a house for their children in that land once they turned 18, and Joli Galvan had just turned of age for her new home. The couple made an off-the-grid house using straw bales covered in cob on a 34×17-foot concrete slab. Cob is a mixture of clay, sand, straw, and water, and it’s fireproof.

A cob house is an earthen building that uses a mixture of clay, sand, straw, and sometimes gravel. Cob house builders shape the mix by hand and let it dry

Even though I am busy building my own tiny house, I still find myself thinking about building a cob house… is that cheating on my tiny house?I have been coming back to cob houses again and again because I love the curves of cob walls, the organic feeling that the cob mix brings and the price is also very attractive. I have thought about building a cob house if in the future I decide I need more space if I get married or just want more space. #tinyhome #cobhouse #tinyliving

When you think of Homesteading, what comes to mind? Do you think of horse and buggy? Log cabins with dirt floors? Tilling the land? Or, do you think freedom?