Cobhouse

Organic Building Consulting

2010-02-08T02:38:00.000-08:00

Well, we've lived in our organic house for nearly two years - and we learnt an awful lot about what to do and what not to do during the process of building! And an increasing number of people have been asking us to pass on this knowledge. You'll find plenty on this site, but if you're wanting more specific help, give us a call and enquire about consultancy work for particular projects, consulting advice with setting up work teams etc. We also provide workshops on green building and related creative activities for organisations. Besides this we are happy to set up tours of our house, though we are not actively building on site at present. For more details contact us - Simric and Carey Yarrow - on 021 788 6613, thecobhouse@gmail.com

Samhitakasha (A Place of Unity)

2009-07-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new logo - for our house's official name and for the Organic B&B!Contact us for more details, 021 788 6613.
Here's what it looks like outside, still some new things with the garden etc. to come.
And here's the north face of the house

Welcome to the Organic B&B...

2009-07-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Separate entrance...
The beautifully mosaiced mirror donated (and made) by our friends Nan and Daniel, thanks again guys!
And here are some inside views, though they've come out a little dull - there will be others soon on our new site for the B&B, www.cobhouse.co.za , coming soon...

Interiors

2009-07-10T06:43:00.000-07:00

OK, a few views of what the house looks like these days. First, the wonderful hand-embroidered wall-hanging we won at the school raffle!
Then some more playing - this time Carey playing with oxides on the wall, above what we've left as a cob brick "throne"...and lastly the new bookshelf, decorated with wrapping paper on our daughter's birthday!

Short update

2009-03-06T00:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry for being so quiet, we've had somewhat other priorities recently and are living comfortably in our house (despite the intensity of this summer). Cob workshops are temporarily on hold as we're waiting for some other bits and pieces of non-cob work before we can go further, hopefully will get going again after Easter. Our organic food B&B is fully (naturally) furnished and up and running with happy clients, but on a very low-key level at the moment hence no advertising yet (proper website to follow also after Easter....!)

Return of the cob workshop

2008-11-02T22:39:00.000-08:00

After a lengthy break as we slowly acclimatise to the house, we are going to start workshops again: now on the second Saturday of each month, i.e. next month on December 13th, from 9am to 1pm, tea provided, R50 donation to building costs suggested (but we won't turn you away if you can't make that in these financially constricted times). The one after is on January 10th. For more info contact us on 021 788 6613.

Seagrass in the guest room

2008-10-31T02:43:00.000-07:00

Brightfields have kindly sponsored us a natural fibre carpet - made from seagrass. This is one of several types they sell, and makes a welcome alternative to most carpets on the market.
The area carpeted is our guest bedroom of the B&B, which is (in a low-key kind of way)open for business, contact us if you want to know more for this summer season! The furnishing is quite a slow process as we seek the most organic options. More photos of the room coming soon!

Still a construction site, at a slower pace!

2008-08-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

We got through this cold winter without much need for heaters but still we do want a proper fireplace for next year. Here'a view through the hole we've cut upstairs where the flue will go! Other planned constructions still to come are some internal strawbale/cob seats, and some more shelves cobbed in to some corners.
OK, so it's early days, but we've been playing inside too, with the first stages of creating an under-stair cupboard, hidden by adobe brick walls. These bricks were donated by Gary and Anthea (thanks guys!) as they had an excess and we had a bit of time constraint about getting our own strong enough and dry enough to use. As mentioned elsewhere, adobe is handy for thinner walls that go up quickly, if they're not as structurally essential. We're going to cob in some sleepers above the big cob counter you can see, which has wood storage holes, made with the help of a bit of chicken-wire framing. There's a small seat emerging to the left of the fireplace too.

Interior painting too...

2008-08-25T05:07:00.000-07:00

We've added two bottom steps out of cob to our staircase. They have yet to be finished and sealed, unlike the floor itself - which you can see under the steps, with a similar 'paint' to that used on the interior walls, but also the sealant we mentioned before. It's not perfect yet, and will definitely need judicious use of rugs or even slate tiles in heavy traffic areas; but it is beautiful and surprisingly soft!
Here's our staircase, finished on the left - unfinished on the right! The finished wall has a similar paint to outside, lime, tumeric, and a redder clay than outside onto the plaster, plus an eco-friendly 'plaster primer' sealer.

Exterior painting

2008-08-21T05:08:00.000-07:00

We've been sprucing up for spring! These are outside walls that have now been painted (and re-sealed, of course, in the case of the big window frames)The paint is basically a mix of lime, water, tumeric, and a little clay for colour, though we've used a darker oxide too on the south side of the house (not shown here).

All the photos

2008-08-15T02:31:00.001-07:00

You can see all the photos from the blog - and a slideshow with Picasa - if you follow this link.

Cobhouse

The Tyre Wall

2008-08-15T02:10:00.000-07:00

Those people that have been past our plot recently may have been bemused to see a load of car tyres around our perimeter (within the already rather unattractive basic fence we have had up during building). The idea is to create a 'green' security wall - with spiky indigenous plants at the top. Over time the tyres will get covered in foliage, though at the moment they need some reorganising to put them into place. We have in the mean time been focusing on the first bits of maintenance - re-coating the poles and big window frames in environmentally friendly sealant as they have been up and exposed for quite a while now! Soon we will be able to give the garden (or rather dust bowl...) the attention it deserves.

If you're interested in tyre walls, have a search on:

www.strawbalefutures.org.uk
my.gardenguides.com
greenlivingaustralia.com

Thanks to Rianna, our artistic neighbour, for the artist's impression!

Why we're doing it

2008-07-18T05:46:00.001-07:00

"Not satisfied or confident that life can be renewed, unwilling and afraid to grow old, to gradually become magnificent, treelike elders, or die into cultural humus, the modern man or woman demands the permanence of steel cities and immortality... such individuals are like cornered cats, frozen in the anxious void of modern communities... Violence is close behind when people won't come together to remake each others' houses."
(Martin Prechtel, native American shaman).

Of course, if we maintain it, this house will last long. But it has been built by a community and will be maintained by communal effort. This is the kind of building - houses and communities together - that South Africa needs - urgently!

Finishing up

2008-07-14T02:08:00.001-07:00

Well, we moved in a couple of months ago - so things have slowed up a little on the final bits and pieces. Externally, there are some plaster areas you can see here we've been waiting for a while to finish off: here Amos deftly throws up for Ntokozo to put onto the south wall.
The wood faces on the north side are difficult to waterproof - but Flanagan Construction have really helped us out here with good ideas on doing so while still leaving the work looking neat, thanks to Carl in particular whose work you can see here on the joins between floors, and of course to Charlie who helped us out with the bigger picture.
Here's Wazeer putting in the 'beam filler' - wood that all had to be individually cut to join the curved roof to the straight window tops.

Inside, most of the walls have been painted using our own mix of lime, clay and tumeric, on site, then sealed naturally. But in some places - like here in the kids' room - we wanted something brighter. Conventional paints play havoc with cob walls so we've tried a few of the natural options - this is a primrose yellow from Breathecoat.

Sculptural fun

2008-04-18T06:18:00.000-07:00

One great reason for working with cob is it's ideal for creating niches and unusual shapes. Here's our bedroom wall - and the artist in her studio!

You can build in shelves out of spare pieces of wood, without needing any nails; or you can just knock holes out of the wall to create extra variety.
Here's our own little church/temple effect downstairs!

Laying the floor

2008-04-18T05:39:00.001-07:00

The floor has had a concrete slab, as we're in Muizenberg by the sea and vlei and the water table level is an issue! However, we've put in a lovely warm earth floor on top of it. It's got horse dung in it in place of straw, as a binder. The dung has to be well soaked and separated or you get black patches of dung showing up in the floor (we had to fix a couple of areas); but otherwise it's similar to mixing cob (and really not smelly!)
If you lay the whole lot at once it'll crack as it dries, but if you do it in layers you need to ensure the top is roughened so that the next layer will bond nicely to it.
The next layer was much smoother but you need to stay off it for a few weeks. We humans managed to do so, but not everyone did...
This has then been fixed up and a thin top layer put in certain places, with the traditional 'feta lid' burnishing happening once things were fully dry. At time of writing downstairs has not been sealed yet - an Envirotouch rock sealant is going to be used for this. You can see something of the final burnishing through the pentagon hole here: this has just been closed up with a specially cut piece of plywood! The top floor has been sanded and then sealed with Envirotouch wood sealant for floors.

March Update

2008-03-03T04:28:00.000-08:00

We're a bit reliant on others for photos at the moment owing to a mishap with our camera. All these photos have been offered for our personal use on the blog but not necessarily for you to re-use. Thanks to Mark Wessels for this family shot, which shows the house with bitumen gum unceremoniously draped over the roof. Our cobbing team learned to sew the waterproofing together (with the aid of a blowtorch!) Of course the cob insulation is totally fireproof, which came in handy with a south-easter pumping all week we were putting it on. Doing it ourselves saved a bunch of rands and gave our guys experience with a new skill - on a very complicated roof.
This one's thanks to Esa Alexander of The Timeswhich did an article earlier this year.
Here's a view from the roof, when we were covering the leichtlehm with a simple clay/sand mix for smoothness. It looked beautiful until we added the bitumen-gum waterproofing on top! (Thanks to Ian Evans from the UK Independent).
Here's another shot (thanks to Linda!) of the side before the front door went in. There's supposed to be a wood panel above around a built-in cupboard: all our hold-ups at this stage are around carpentry, and although the cobbing and plastering took over a year in total (including inside plastering), it would have been no quicker any other way given the amount of specialist wood in this house. YOUR cob house could involve a lot less wood to speed things up and cheapen them; although the wood is, of course, very beautiful!

Electrics - and that girder

2008-01-19T23:22:00.003-08:00

In most houses you get a series circuit of electricity conduits around you as you stand or sit in a room, meaning you are constantly contained within an electromagnetic field - not the healthiest way to live. Our cob floor is yet to go in, so our maze of conduits is mostly going below our feet, and where not it's going straight up and down the walls between floors, avoiding much of the electromagnetic field effect.
At last - the engineering feat of the girder is safely positioned above the garage entrance so we can cob the final upstairs wall (or rather, mostly, adobe brick it).
Recent publications including shots of the house include Men's Health Living (November issue) and Home magazine (Jan 2008 issue).

Roof insulation

2008-01-19T23:12:00.001-08:00

First insulating layer is cardboard, this is used pretty widely for insulation but we're using flat boxes as it's also to cover gaps in the timber so that no clay dust comes through from the next layer.
Next layer is called "leichtlehm" - presumably a German invention, it means 'light-clay'. Made with as much straw as can soak up a sand/clay mix and water. You could do this barefoot (I did!) but it's quite prickly.
Then comes the complicated bit - getting it up two stories in a convoy of buckets and pulleys...
Finally it gets put in place, about 10cm thick in the end after much stamping down. As with the cardboard, we're just covering the area over the internal part of the house.

New views inside and outside

2007-12-10T04:58:00.000-08:00

In some places we're using "adobes" - cob bricks. They can go quite high quite quickly and provide a strong thin wall in places where we don't want the thickness. Here is one near the front door.
There are more adobes here above the kitchen doorway, a doorway that had to be cobbed on one side but attached to the plumbing brickwork on the other side. Thick cob walls above would have been too much for the lintel.
Here's a view from the living room through one of the big north panels.
Another doorway upstairs and some scaffolding in process at the internal entrance to the guest bedroom.
As upstairs gets completed we can see where the east light will come in to our bedroom...
...and the 'brahmastan', a central still-point that's left empty from foundation to sky (a sky-light will be added later, and probably some hanging plants)
...there's another mountain that's only visible from the guest bedroom
and in this area are windows that will give a sea view and a view of the Hottentot Holland mountains in the distance respectively, here seen with built-in shelves that have been simply cobbed onto.

Complications and delays

2007-12-10T04:29:00.001-08:00

This is the one wall that has really been held up. There were due to be a couple of big windows upstairs above the garage entrance, but the cable got in the way when the engineer added that to the design to keep the gum pole straight! So hiding the cable in cob is necessary, but the cob is too heavy for a regular wood lintel over the garage door. Gavin (our engineer) has now constructed a big girder to go in instead, and we have a curved arch left over to make it all look nice - but nothing goes here until the carpenters have put that girder in.
All the big north facing windows were designed and built before the real, organic shapes of the holes appeared - and they are different to the window sizes. So everything here gets a lot more complex, and requires some clever carpentry to make it all watertight. Next house we'll only build these up once the space has been created!
This internal cob wall has collapsed a couple of times along the way - because it dries MUCH more slowly than other walls, as it gets much less light and heat to dry it. We're well warned now for when we add the cob floor, at least. You can see that this wall also connects to the front door, with its wood panel above. Like the north windows this also had to be resized as it was built before the second storey was laid - and was too tall!

Latest articles online

2007-10-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

While we continue to juggle joinery and cobbing, there are some new articles available online about the house: online in South Africa at Urban Sprout or further afield at the Norwich Evening News in the UK!

Beautiful roof, and cobbing upstairs

2007-09-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

The complicated curves of our wooden roof have finally been completed. Now we wait for the rain to stop so we can add an insulating layer of cob leichtlehm - "light-clay" onto the roof. The outside walls downstairs have had a first protective layer of plaster added (lime/cob mix - lime naturally hardens when rained on), burnished with feta lids to give the smooth finish. We're now having to throw cob balls up the stairs...

so we hope to be ready to move in soon - and that means the last few months to invest in our scheme before we open for business, see below!

AND the cobhouse was on TV recently, Free Spirit on SABC3 on September 16th. More details to follow. Remember: more public workshops coming up September 30th, October 28th, November 25th, 9am to 1pm in Muizenberg!

Work in progress

2007-08-01T01:33:00.000-07:00

We're busy plastering and roofing - a little delayed by weather but with several good workshops recently. View here the latest article online from Property Scout and put in your diary our next workshop dates: Sundays August 26th, September 30th and October 28th, 9am to 1pm at the plot. Phone 021 788 6613 for more details.

For a little fun check out Salsa a la Cob - a video taken earlier this year at the plot!

Eco-friendly Investment and Sponsorship

2007-07-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

To find out what this is all about have a look down the blog (and to our older posts) where you can see pics and also impressions of the final result. If you support us - please copy this info and send it on to other interested people, or organisations (particularly the second part!). And, of course, send us your money...!
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WANT TO SAVE THE PLANET, DO SOMETHING POSITIVE FOR SOCIETY, AND HAVE A UNIQUE HOLIDAY (OR MAKE SOME MONEY!)?

Join the MUIZENBERG COB HOUSE INVESTMENT/ TIMESHARE SCHEME

Bureaucracy makes it tricky for us to get finance for such a cutting-edge eco-friendly building, but this means we’re opening an investment opportunity to raise our final R80 000 – a small amount in the property market, but what we need to really make our organic Bed and Breakfast house a success. R80 000: that’s just 80 people investing R1000 (£70) or 16 investing R5000 (£350) each! And, as you can see below, it is a safe and worthwhile property investment.

Your investment gets you 2 possibilities:

Timeshare
You (or anyone you nominate to enjoy it) can cash in any amount of your investment for organic B&B accommodation* , whenever you choose (subject to availability), and always at special highly discounted prices that will stay fixed until the end of 2009, and thereafter only increase annually strictly in line with inflation rates. A R1000 investment would get (in 2008) 2 nights in peak season for a family of 4 – or 5 nights for a couple off-peak! For big investments we are also willing to vacate the whole house for a negotiable period we are also willing to vacate the whole house for a negotiable period, again at a discount for investors.
For 2008/9, standard B&B prices for investors:
Off-peak (May-Sept) : R100 per person per night (R50 per child)
[Typical Muizenberg prices: R200]
Peak (Oct-Apr) : R150 per person per night (R75 per child)
[Typical Muizenberg prices: R250]
* Our unique fully organic B&B accommodation will be available for up to 4 people, in an area with a separate entrance and ensuite shower/toilet. You will experience organic food, in rooms made and furnished with organic materials, all in a beautiful holiday home, with toxic chemicals avoided wherever possible in the building process. Muizenberg’s famous beach amenities, vlei, public transport and shops are a short walk away, and the mountain towers impressively above our garden.
We anticipate being open for business at the beginning of 2008, but if there are any delays in the final touches we will contact all investors with latest news at the beginning of the year.
A financial return on the sale of the house
Any amount of your investment which you have not used for “timeshare” will be returned to you at a proportional rate if the house is sold i.e. if the house costs R1m to build and sells for R1,5m, a R1000 investment would be returned as R1500.
Although it is difficult to accurately value an unfinished house, we have obtained a provisional independent valuation from a Muizenberg estate agent. If the house is completed with the finishes we plan, it would be likely to sell soon for between R1,8m and R2,2m, a fair profit given an outlay of approximately R1m (including the price of the plot).

We would ask you to commit to investing for five years. If we have not yet decided to sell the house after that time you would then be entitled to ask for your money back (assuming you had not made use of the 'timeshare' option), although we would then not be able to guarantee a return at property market rates. We would still, however, encourage you to keep your timeshare investment with us after that time! You can make your investment to bank accounts in the RSA or the UK and once confirmed we will send you a certificate showing the rand value of your investment and confirming your entitlements. Contact us by e-mail (simric1@gmail.com) or on 021 788 6613 for bank details.

We are also very open to donations and sponsorship from individuals or organisations. Here’s why we think our house is worthy!

Our house is the first “cob house” in an open suburban city street in South Africa, and has been seen by thousands of people during the building process. It is being built in an energy efficient way using recycled, natural and non-toxic materials like sand, clay, straw, and wood. It features walls that naturally keep the house warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and a passive solar design. It will include a grey water recycling system and on-site renewable energy generators to help us in our aim to be off-grid.
The building site provides a safe and empowering experience for all ages to be involved in. Our prominent, convenient location has made practical education about eco-friendly building technology available to many people for the first time. The owner-builders are both qualified teachers and have run workshops on site with hundreds of people already. Besides workshops for the general public, we have had many school groups (at both primary and high school level), university students, teachers and lecturers (including many architecture students), and even a group of bankers on site getting muddy!
We have attracted interest from officials in the municipality and government departments keen to learn more about green building, and hope to hold workshops with these groups as the building progresses. Once the main house is complete we will still hold open days, and workshops to practically build outbuildings – and so will continue to establish our home as a site for sustainable building awareness and environmental education.
Building this way involves more labour and time, but uses much cheaper materials than conventional building. We are thus investing our resources in empowering skills development and job creation. Our “cobbing” team is led by a black foreman – the first fully black team we know of in South Africa - and as they become more confident with their skills they will be more able to lead workshops and train up future “cobbers”.
One reason why more homes of this type are not being built to solve the housing crisis and create jobs, in a sustainable way, is a negative perception among most South Africans towards “mud huts” as old-fashioned. Building a stylish, elegant house like this helps shift that perception so that eco-friendly buildings can truly be aspired to by our people.
We are building on a brown field site rather than a green field site. This means the house is in an urban area, on the site of a previous building (apparently a beach cottage, “Bonnyrigg”, once built for Cecil Rhodes!) Most new expensive developments in the Cape are on prime agricultural or resource conservation land. It will become increasingly important to preserve our “green field” sites around Cape Town as global warming affects South Africa’s natural resources.
We are generating much publicity – in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV and on the internet – which would also be beneficial to any sponsors wishing to promote their green credentials. (Our first small business sponsor has been very happy with the publicity so far!) All donors would be acknowledged by being listed on a small plaque on the property, but obviously for larger donations we can converse about the exact ‘reward’ a sponsor would get.

Learning curves

2007-07-04T03:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a view of one of our lintels - old railway sleepers, with a special groove routed to help keep rainwater off the window and wall. You can see below the white limwashed wood that is becoming embedded in the cob walls, to help distribute the weight of the joists.

The walls in the 'sun room' in the east are complete now although we're leaving plastering for later.

The biggest headache for us has been the roof. This has nothing to do with the cobbing and ecological aspect, but is to do with the elegant curved, 'organic' structure our architect favours. It looks beautiful on paper, but finding carpenters and builders prepared to work with the complicated angles involved has taken a year and a half! We finally have an expert on site and so the curved trusses are at long last going up. The delay has held us up a little as we can only build the second storey cob walls in rainy weather once the roof has at least basic covering on. Meanwhile we have been continuing with workshops including most recently Muizenberg High School, who are keen to come again! One good thing about all the rain has been to see how well the walls have coped, even before the final lime plaster that is the real protection.

You can see here the north face, which gets most rain, and most sun. A couple of the large windows that will make up most of the face can be seen awaiting installation inside the house. Not much cob here: this should cut down on re-plastering on our most exposed face, gives us passive solar energy, and gives the house a magnificent mountain view.

School visits and more workshop photos/ news

2007-04-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

Grade threes from Michael Oak Waldorf School building their first mud wall! From left, Michael, Sunya, Caitlin, Connor, Azhar and Alexander.
Below: Stockpiling and throwing cobs: Jordan (bending), Jacques, Isabella (bending), Nawaal, Andisiwe (foreground), James, Aziz, Ben

Measuring sand for the tarpaulin mix:Sunya, Connor, Chelsea, Sisa, Caitlin, Alexander, Andisiwe

Below: All kinds of feet getting muddy!

A public workshop - showing all ages getting involved, from 3 to eighty-something... and you can even juggle with cobs, apparently!

Recent building pics

2007-03-12T06:21:00.000-07:00

We have more pics coming - and there are some below. In the mean time you can check out Annie K's website 'All About Building' to see some more photos of the house at this stage - no action shots but you can see where we've got to!

A Mud Hut in the Suburbs

2007-03-07T05:19:00.000-08:00

Reprinted from The Big Issue South Africa, March 2007 issue

Simric Yarrow writes about an unconventional building project in Muizenberg, Cape Town

About 10 years ago I first heard about earthen houses at a slide show presentation. The claim was made that, in the right location, an RDP housing grant could build you a double-storey 3-bedroomed house, with most materials (including second-hand windows) available for next to nothing – except for some ingenuity needed for the roof. Even better, the living walls were all natural and eco-friendly: made from clay, mud and straw, able to breathe so that they were cooler in summer and warmer in winter than conventional houses.

But the clincher, for me, was that communities could safely get involved in the building process – even children – with limited training and monitoring. In fact, ‘cob’ houses need a lot of labour, but in a country that has lots of labour, and lots of people needing decent low-cost housing, it seemed a godsend of an idea. Ten years later, the government may be progressing from shoddy breezeblock starter homes, but calling in ‘expert’ developers still misses a valuable opportunity to empower and build a community, not just a house. In some countries, rural communities will build an earth home as a present for newlyweds. Sisa Ngcuka, now part of our cob-building team, remembers watching curved rondavels being built as he grew up in the Eastern Cape. “They were made to last, built with great care,” he says. It helped him develop a real feel for building. “Now I’m a perfectionist, checking each day’s work is just right.”

So why aren’t these houses springing up everywhere? There are two reasons, and the first is pure bureaucracy. Despite acknowledgement from senior figures within the Housing Ministry over the years that techniques like adobe and cob are acceptable ways of building a house, there are no regulations for these ‘unconventional’ techniques. Consequently no housing subsidies are available for communities wishing to build out of earth, and no bank will give bonds for our cob house. New Zealand does have strict earth-building standards, and our engineer is making sure we comply with these – partly so that we can trail-blaze for future builders. In the mean time we have been lucky enough to raise most of our finances privately – and we have some necessarily novel plans for raising more!

The second reason lies in public perception of what makes a ‘real house’. It seems that there is, generally, little pride among South Africans in the heritage of African ‘mud huts’ like Sisa’s rondavels. West Africans may proudly think of their own great mud buildings, like Timbuktu’s Djingareyber mosque, but for urban South Africans of all colours a real, sturdy house must be made of fired bricks and mortar. How ironic, given that many of the oldest, most beautiful colonial buildings in the country are also made of ‘mud’ – such as many old Cape Dutch homesteads.

This is the perception we hope to help shift. There are quite a few methods of building with earth used presently in South Africa – such as straw bale, rammed earth, adobe, or our own cob mix. Almost all of them are being built outside the major cities, in beautiful rural locations. There have been a few houses built in greater Cape Town, but until now they have been on secluded plots in areas like Constantia and Hout Bay. By contrast, we’re building 200m from Muizenberg beach, on a suburban road with lots of inquisitive locals and tourists passing by: quite a first!

Making the cob mix is a real hands-on experience – and ‘feet-on’, as the cobbers get into a grape-crushing style tribal dance. Then we ‘knit’ the mix onto the wall, without moulding any bricks at all. The name comes from the west of England, where a ‘cob’ is a round loaf much like the muddy shapes we slap onto the wall. There you’ll find 16th-century cottages built like this and still lived in. The technique’s advantage for us is you can make elegant curves in your walls that bricks don’t allow. This is also what appeals to our architect, experienced cobber Etienne Bruwer. Etienne trained up Amos Mantshinga who now confidently organises our building team, Umanyano Cobbing. Members of the team also help us run public workshops, and now we have school parties booked too to experience the process. Kids get to learn about eco-friendly building as well as the immense satisfaction of contributing to something real, useful – and messily fun! We’ll be building through 2007, but even when the house is complete we plan to carry on offering building workshops on site. Not to mention celebratory pizzas for all budding builders from our cob oven!

Workshop updates and news

2007-03-07T05:08:00.000-08:00

In the last couple of months we've had quite a few people on site coming to learn more and help build. In particular, Habitat for Humanity have been sending volunteers to learn more about alternative building in a hands-on way. This NGO usually builds in the townships, but this is an opportunity for them to expand their skills into eco-friendly methods. Habitat for Humanity were also responsible for co-ordinating a visit by volunteers from First National Bank in early March (nobody from home loans though yet!) The banks may be struggling to fund earth building, but the word is getting out there! We also had our first schools visit, with more lined up. Thanks to Janine for providing the photos from Habitat's first build, and you can check out more at her website: www.eggsandbacon.co.za

Public workshops are currently once a month, on the last Sunday, from 9am to 1pm. The suggested cost for first-time cobbers is R50, and the workshop will take you through the basic processes (as seen in the photos below) and hopefully answer your questions. Next workshops: March 25th, April 29th, May 27th.

If you cannot make those times, or want to make a special arrangement for a school or other group, contact Carey or Simric on 021 788 6613.

January photos

2007-03-06T02:01:00.000-08:00

Packing the walls

On a January workshop, all ages getting involved! You can see in the background Alistair bending down to fetch some newly rolled cob. This is being packed onto the walls in front, and knitted/ kneaded into place. the walls have also been moistened up again to help the new layer bind to the old.

Children's activities
Amos helps Jack and Zorya load sand into the wheelbarrow - and Zorya cools off in one of the buckets of muddy water, which add to the mix, moisten the walls, and clean feet and hands!

Leaving room for the windows

and the tongue-and-groove is now mostly on for the first floor, on top of the joists. Late Jan 2007

Stomping the mix

On a January workshop - onto the tarpaulin goes our mix of clay, sand, straw, water, and of course bare feet - which mixes the cob better than any concrete mixer yet devised!

December 2006 photos

2007-03-05T02:57:00.000-08:00

Kids in the clay

My two kids have loved being at the building site, as you can see, and apart from a lot of hosing down being needed, it's a wonderfully safe yet real building experience for kids. We've had kids aged 3 to 14 so far and one school visit so far. The clay is imported at minimal expense from a municipal dig close by as Muizenberg's own soil is basically sand. The mix in the cob ends up being about 20% clay, the rest being sand, straw and water. Some people are lucky enough to have the right kind of mix already on their building site!

Getting our feet stuck in - building the walls at last. Bare feet is the best method for mixing the cob so that it hangs together well. Cement mixers have been tried elsewhere but are not ideal. You get to feel when you have got the right texture, and your feet get a good work-out/massage in the process!

Garden wall view

This was the first wall the team built, while perfecting the right cob mix from our materials. As you can see it has been plastered beautifully, and with some nice curves. The plaster is basically a mix of cob with some lime, to which you can add pigments. The conventional brickwork you can see is in the centre of the house, around the plumbing/ toilets, and taking some of the strain off the posts for when the roof goes on (which will be before the cob walls reach that height). The temporary steel fencing will of course be removed! You can just get a hint of the mountain view behind.

The joists are on!

Our first floor is wood, and is far from a straightforward geometric pattern. This part features a pentagonal shape! The giant poles are gums that were being chopped down as unwanted alien vegetation (too water-thirsty for our climate). They've been protected with an all-natural varnish; also plastic at the top, until the roof goes on, to keep the top from cracking. Below you can see Siza getting going with a tarpaulin mixing cob with his feet. This was the level of the cob walls in early December. The house walls have yet to be plastered, of course, and the drying process is slow.

Michael using our giant sieve

This is to sift the sand from our site until it's usable for the cob mix.

2007-03-01T01:30:00.000-08:00

Now it's down to the earth in Muizenberg

Article by Patrick Burnett as printed in Saturday Argus, Jan 20 2007, and reprinted in False Bay Echo, Jan 25 2007, and also Business Day February 2007. Text copyright West Cape News, no reprinting without permission.

AN ENTERPRISING COUPLE ARE CAUSING A STIR BY USING ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIALS TO BUILD THEIR DREAM HOUSE.

A Muizenberg couple are taking eco-friendly building to the suburbs, constructing a house using gum poles and mud walls which they hope will blaze a trail for alternative, down-to-earth housing.
Not only is Simric and Carey Yarrow’s house being made almost entirely from eco-friendly building materials, but when finished it will harness the sun and wind for energy and recycle household water for use in the garden.
Although a small market, eco-friendly housing and even whole villages are not unknown in South Africa. But the Yarrows’ house is unusual in that it is being built in Muizenberg surrounded by brick and mortar homes and 200m from the beach.
Electricity and water shortages in Cape Town over the past year would seem to be a vote in favour of houses which minimise water and electricity consumption. But the Yarrows’ effort to build their dream house has been an uphill battle.
Lack of recognition for alternative building has prevented them from getting a bank housing loan – a problem that threatens to restrict the growth in the market for eco-friendly houses.
The project began last year and interest has been so great that the couple have put up a board outside the plot informing the public about the house.
They are also holding once-monthly workshops where anyone who is interested can squelch in the mud and learn about alternative building.
Part of what the Yarrows hope to do is raise awareness about the possibilities of eco-friendly building.
Speaking on-site this week, Carey, a sculptor, said she had always dreamed of building a home in the country that integrated with the environment.
“When we spotted this plot I thought why not do it in town? It won’t blend in with the environment but it will bring nature back into the city in a way that will alert people to the possibilities.”
Husband Simric said: “At the moment there is a general perception that people have to have brick houses, but it is possible to have a house that is built in other ways. I just think the reason people don’t go this route is through lack of awareness.”
The finished double-storey house will consist of a main section with two bedrooms, a lounge, kitchen and bathroom. A separate one-bedroomed bed-and-breakfast flat will complete the house.
All the woodwork is treated with environmentally-friendly products and thick poles sources from alien gums are being used to support the roof.
Only a small part of the house will contain a bricks and mortar structure, with the rest of the walls being constructed using an age-old technique known as cobbing.
This entails beach sand, clay, earth, water and straw being mixed together and stamped to a smooth consistency with the bare feet – with whoever can be roped in being invited to stamp about in the mud bath. Layer upon layer of the final mixture is then used to create thick mud walls.
Cobbing has been chosen because the materials are sourced locally, there is no excessive run-off into the water table and bricks and cement are avoided, both of which have negative environmental implications due to their manufacture, said Simric.
The thickness of the cobbed wall insulates the house so that it is cool in summer and warm in winter, using less energy for heating and cooling.
North-facing walls will optimise the earth credentials of the house, soaking up the sun for warmth.
A grey water system will recycle water from baths, basins and the washing machine.
The house will initially be on the electricity grid, but Simric said they hope ultimately to be off-grid and energy self-sufficient.
He said he believed that not using alternative technology missed a valuable opportunity to empower people to build homes and address the housing backlog. But bureaucracy was a major blockage to widespread adoption of the technology, he said.
Not only did the Yarrows have to get an architect to vouch for their house in order to get councile approval, but financing through a bank proved impossible. Simric said banks required approval from the National Home Builders’ Registration Council (NHBRC) before they could finance a house, but because the NHBRC had no guidelines for approval of alternative building, it was not possible to get a bond from a bank. As a result the Yarrows have raised funding privately.
Finding companies to do the work has been another difficulty.
Stephen Forder, who is doing a master’s degree in sustainable development at Stellenbosch University and who lives at the Lynedoch eco-village about 10km outside Stellenbosch, said: “I think this kind of building will become more mainstream as issues like global warming become more pressing.”
He said one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions was the production of building materials. Forder said getting planning permission for alternative building projects was a huge problem and South Africa was a long way behind taking advantage of developments in clean building technology.
The reasons were that the climate was “very forgiving” and energy was also cheap, meaning there was no immediate impetus to use different technologies.
Ann-Marie Moore, architect-in-training at Eco Designs Architects, said people were beginning to understand that there was “a corner of the market that is asking for more sustainable, eco-friendly developments.”
“Now we have a lot of interest from larger developments and increasing requests for renovations to make homes more eco-friendly,” she said.
Gavin Lutge, the freelance structural engineer involved in the Muizenberg project, said people were more interested in building in a way that was not damaging to the environment. As regards NHBRC approval, Lutge said the NHBRC did not have regulations for the construction of eco-friendly houses. As a result, the Muizenberg house was being built based on New Zealand codes.
But Kgomotso Mahlobo, chief operating officer for the NHBRC, said her organisation was “very interested” in alternatives and how these could be supported.
She said the backlog in housing was because of the constraints of constructing houses with bricks and mortar. If there was an alternative using acceptable standards that were SABS approved and complied with the building regulations of South Africa then “I don’t see how we could not support it.”
When asked for comment, the Absa group – one of the largest home-loan providers – confirmed that it did not finance alternative buildings.
Absa said: “Absa does not as yet finance eco-friendly houses that are built using alternative materials.
However, we are consulting with the NHBRC regarding this issue and exploring ways and means on how we can best accommodate this emerging building trend in our home loans and housing financing products.”
Builders had also been invited to propose innovative financing solutions, it said.

Seeing the house sign

2007-02-26T04:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.blogmark.co.za/files/L316%20Cob%20House.pdf

This will take you to the house sign, but you'll need to press 'back' to return here.

Artist's Impressions

2007-02-21T05:50:00.000-08:00

Cob in the City

2007-02-21T05:43:00.000-08:00

Originally published in Biophile SA, Feb 2007

By Simric Yarrow

Cob is, like adobe bricks, rammed earth, sandbag structures and straw bale, one of the natural building techniques presently used in South Africa. All of them use natural materials – sand, clay, straw – to create solid structures that breathe with the surrounding environment, being naturally cooler in summer in warmer in winter than fired bricks and cement. Of these, we’ve chosen cob to build in, as it also allows you to sculpt elegant curves: there are no straight bricks involved in a cob wall!

However, we’ve also chosen an unusual location to build in. Most alternative buildings are safely tucked away in isolated rural spots; the few in Cape Town are in secluded areas like Noordhoek or Constantia. The people who find a cob house are thus typically already looking for it! By contrast, we’re building on a suburban street in Muizenberg, 200m from one of the city’s busiest beaches. All kinds of people are now being surprised at a cob construction for the first time, leading to bemused comments to neighbours or even radio stations!

Our prominent location does come with certain pitfalls. Technically, you can build a sizeable cob house for next to nothing, using soil from your site, salvaged windows and doors, and being clever with your roof. This is simply not possible when the city council’s regulations need to be dealt with, and joinery all needs clear advance planning – though at least we’re avoiding using merinty, a commonly used hardwood that is clear-cut from tropical rainforests, and we’re also steering clear of chemicals in the treatment and protection of our wood. Besides this, we have naturally had to get our clay by begging from other excavations, since all our site offers is beach sand. And the foundations – especially around the load-bearing gum poles that will hold the roof – faced the snag that we hit the water table at less than 2m. We had to use some concrete reinforcement at short notice – don’t tell anybody! All in all, the costs have mounted, but it will still be considerably cheaper than building a conventional house on the site.

One of the costs we’re happiest to pay is labour. Cobbing is a slow, labour-intensive process, and doing it all ourselves is just not practical with two small children. But we’re happy to pay out on giving people jobs, rather than on the energy used in making bricks and cement. Cobbing should be one method used for building new housing in this country: communities can empower themselves doing it, and honour the great South African traditions of mud-building, like the Transkei rondavels – or the old adobe farmsteads in the Cape. Beautiful, healthy houses can be built with pride, rather than tiny breezeblock monstrosities or ‘expert’ housing built with no connection to the community.

But there is a problem: the South African general public see a ‘proper house’ as being made of fired bricks and mortar. No matter that cob houses in the rainy west of England have been there for 400 years! So we’re hoping that our building process over 2007 will help to shift perceptions. We’ve already held several public workshops (on the last Sunday of each month) and have schools lined up for outings this year. Children, of course, get very empowered too by using their hands and feet to mix the cob, and they get the satisfaction of doing something really useful, and getting really muddy with it!

In fact, when the house is complete we’re sure the public education will not stop. The plot is big enough for us to continue holding building workshops on the site for years to come! And we aim to offer a really “organic” B&B experience for guests, once we’ve moved in. We plan to fit the house with as many ‘green’ aspects as we can – such as solar power generation and grey water, though the house also has an excellent design for passive solar heating and cooling.

One of the more sticky facts about alternative building is the lack of finance available. Housing ministers and officials have made positive noises about adobe-style buildings over the years, but there are still no national building standards relating to these kinds of buildings. And because of that, no housing grants or subsidies are available for previously disadvantaged communities wanting to build this way. Moreover, no banks will give bonds for these buildings, because without standards to adhere to, the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) cannot inspect them and certify them – and the banks demand an NHBRC certificate. Our engineer is making use of strict earth-building regulations from New Zealand to test our building for structural and material soundness: we hope to be a test case for altering regulations, so that future builders can get the finance they need. For us, we have been lucky enough to raise most of our money as soft loans, but the B&B is an integral part of our finance plan. So if you’d like to book somebody a mountain view, seaside holiday in an organic house with organic breakfast available, and support our project at the same time, get in touch!

Cobhouse

Organic Building Consulting

Samhitakasha (A Place of Unity)

Welcome to the Organic B&B...

Interiors

Short update

Return of the cob workshop

Seagrass in the guest room

Still a construction site, at a slower pace!

Interior painting too...

Exterior painting

All the photos

The Tyre Wall

Why we're doing it

Finishing up

Sculptural fun

Sponsored Roof Window!

Laying the floor

March Update

Electrics - and that girder

Roof insulation

New views inside and outside

Complications and delays

Latest articles online

Beautiful roof, and cobbing upstairs

Work in progress

Eco-friendly Investment and Sponsorship

Learning curves

School visits and more workshop photos/ news

Recent building pics

A Mud Hut in the Suburbs

Workshop updates and news

January photos

December 2006 photos

Seeing the house sign

Artist's Impressions

Cob in the City