Site Prep for the Cob Building

So I have settled on the placement on my cob shed.  I am putting up against the deck on the south side of my house, with easy access to the mower and other stuff I plan to store inside.  I laid out my ideas with sticks and rocks, just to get a feel for the actual size and shape of my design ideas. 

The Cob Building Plan

I am planning to use this shed to store lumber as well.  I had this beautiful plan at first, then realized I was going to have to carry lumber through the door, and then try and spin it around to put it away!  That would have made a fun story at the very end…. sorry to disappoint you though, I figured it out before spending all this time and energy on the cob building.  I also realized that after building the 12-16 inch thick walls the interior space was going to be tight for storing wood.  So then it hit me like 16 tons of “Urbanite”….  Why not use the low space under the deck for storing wood?  So my original  plan (well the dumb spin the lumber plan was my original, but I’ve tossed it out and am now calling this one my original plan) calls for kinda a split level shed, with low walls built under the deck for storing lumber and other such long pieces of material.  The door is directly across from the lumber shelf, allowing me to be able to take lumber and pipe directly in and out without and spinsies. 

Digging, Leveling, Stapling, and Stapling Again

So now to begin digging the foundation trenches and leveling the area.  I have a shovel.  Luckily I also have a few friends and one of them named Chuck agreed to loan me a few other hand tools.  So now I also have a sledgehammer, a mattock, a trenching spade, and a spud bar.  Perfect tools for the job!   

However I soon ran into a problem.  Digging foundation trenches under the deck was going to require either a much shorter shovel, or a much higher deck… neither of which were at my disposal.  So a plan adjustment was in order.  Why does there need to be walls under there at all?  If there was a way to keep water coming through the cracks in the deck from getting into the area, perhaps I don’t need to build any wall under there at all.  I surmised that a large sheet of wood hanging from the joists under the deck, tilted slightly down and out might do the trick.  Then I surmised that a much cheaper alternative, at least for the short term was a large sheet of plastic.

So for $6 I bought a 10” x 25” roll of plastic and began stapling it to the underside of the deck.  I put about 30 staples all along the short edge and stepped out to take a look if it was actually going to work.  A gust of wind caught the giant sheet of plastic, billowed it like a sail and promptly ripped it completely from the deck. 

I eventually worked it out, tested it, and so far it seems to be working.  The plus is my newly planted Clematis will get plenty of water!  I do need to add some wood blocks at the critical points to hold the plastic in place there, but for now I can store wood there safely. Plus my daughter Shyla loves to crawl under there and bat at the water on the inside of the plastic, giggling as it dances and bounces about:  win/win.

 

Next Steps

All of the dirt from the foundation trenches and leveling will be used to actually make the cob.  Shyla on the dirt pile at about the half way point in this process, so by the time I was finished it was a pretty decent sized pile.  So after about 8 hours of digging I’ve managed to carve out enough to move on to the next step, building the foundation.

I am also considering trying to figure out the roofing concept first.  We’ll see.So here is a solid look at the actual layout of the Cob Shed.  The ends of the West wall in particular are have "knobs" on the end.  I've read that cob is stronger when is has some curve to it rather than long straight sides.  I figured adding a bit of bulk at the ends here might increase that stand alone walls strength, particularly since it will likely support a roof beam. 


Ticker
Money invested so far:  $56
Time invested so far: 14 hours