Procuring cob foundation material - Urbanite

Rule # 1 - Don't screw up  (at least not this early in the project)

I realized the first step in building my cob building is preparing the site and laying the foundation.  I figured before I start digging anything I better be sure my shovel doesn’t black out the neighborhood or something!  So I called  811.   Know what's below, before you dig

Eight comes before 9, so 811 is what you call first, so you don’t have to call 911!   Calling it will get all the proper utility companies out to the site to mark underground utilities.  TIP:  In Ohio you can do it right online.

Procurement, bureaucracy, and cheap Urbanite 

Next step was to procure some material for the foundation.  If not protected properly, cob is prone to rapid erosion.  So cobbers call it “giving it proper boots and a hat”.  The foundation is the boots.  (The roof is the hat.)  I priced out stone and gravel and decided to try and scrounge something more economical.  So for several days, as I drove around I looked for piles of rubble.  I read that “Urbanite” makes good foundation material.  I have been noticing giant piles of bricks and rubble at the county road maintenance facility.  So I stopped in to inquire about getting some of it.  Funny thing, not even the road guys are allowed to move or take any thing from these piles (that have been there for at least 3 years).  The piles are the remains of the demolition of the old buildings that used to sit on the site, to make way for the new and improved maintenance buildings.  I’m guessing because it’s part of the government bureaucracy, until EPA has done something to confirm the rubble is free from … something, or safe for something, no one, not even the government is allowed to touch it. ironic isn’t it?

  

I finally noticed piles of “Urbanite” not far from my house.  After some inquires I found the owner.  He was quite happy to get rid of some of the stuff and charged my only the delivery fee.  So for $50 I got 16 tons of the stuff dumped in my driveway. 

 

What's in there

There is definitely some very big, unwieldy, and sort of unmovable pieces.  I'm told if I'm a bit lucky, with the brute strength Hercules, and an unbreakable sledge hammer.... i might be able to break them into more manageable pieces.  However I did manage to pick out some decent usable pieces in about an hour.  The pile hardly took a dent so  I am hoping there is plenty more buried beneath the dirt.  By the way, if you have kids, you should get a pile of dirt, my daughter has played more outside since getting the stuff then she ever did before.  (Robert Louv is a big advocate for piles of dirt in his book Last Child in the Woods.)

 

So now that I have a giant pile of “Urbanite” rubble in my driveway, I can’t very well turn away from this project now… so on to preparing the site!



Ticker
Hours invested: 5
Money Invested: $50