January 15th, 2025

​Fast Cob! The Fastest Build on Earth!

You probably know that cob buildings will outlive any wooden building, and that they are fire-proof, insect/rodent-proof, sculptural, gorgeous, non-toxic and all natural...those qualities are what inspire many people to want to build and live in a cob house.
But can you believe that the technique that we alone developed is the fastest way to build, period?

Of course, that's a challenging claim to prove, but a professional carpenter's experience as a newcomer to our technique said that our technique is as fast as what his profession - using thousands of dollars of power tools - can achieve.

My own experience, in comparing how carpenters build off-grid to what we do, shows that there is actually no comparison...Fast Cob is hands-down faster and simply easier than any timber frame approach.

Big statement.  But we have proof.  Hard proof.  Proof that will last hundreds of years!

And with that, I'd like to announcement our 2025 Fast Cob Workshop Dates:

• Focus on Finishing: Thursday May 15 to Monday May 19 (over the Canadian Victoria Day Long Weekend)
• All the Basics of Building: Thursday June 19 to Monday June 23
• Advanced Fast Cob: Thursday August 7 to Monday August 11

Thursdays and Mondays are travel days with a Welcome Dinner and Farewell Breakfast included.

This year we can welcome 7 people to each workshop, thanks to our amazing chef, but beware that space is obviously limited; once we are full, we are truly full and no other workshops will be offered in 2024.  In fact, our All the Basics Course has already started to fill up!

Our Focus on Finishing 3 day intensive workshop will do exactly that: we show you our "first layer" of plastering (which nobody else does and makes building less stressful), the finish layer with two different aggregates (sand and lime), and natural pigment paints (with a DIY recipe).  Upon request, we'll also pour a cob floor (you will see the beautiful floor that was poured two years ago).

We've made finishing not only gorgeous, but very easy.  Our lime plaster is perfect for areas subjected to water spray (like showers and sinks and weather-facing walls).  The sand plaster is limit-less in its applications and making.  The natural paints are completely non-toxic at every stage and fully vibrant and colour-fast as any other pigment, ranging from bright white, to yellows, oranges, reds, greens, deep blue, purple and black.  All from Mother Earth.

Our All the Basics of Building 3 day intensive workshop will focus on our mixing and building technique so that you can develop muscle memory that you will never lose.  In between hands-on sessions, we'll do talking tours of actual foundations, roofs, and plumbing and electrical installations.

This year, we'll build an outhouse from start to finish that is anything but rectilinear; although our workshops are all about learning (these are workshops not workcamps!), the technique makes building so fast and fun that I'll be surprised if we don't put on all the rafters after learning how to peel (the bark off of) them.

If you've been wanting to break away from the chains of civilized life and build your own home that is fire-proof, insect-proof, rodent-proof, and possibly earthquake-proof (we'll see how big the next one is), this is the technique that will revolutionize your life, and you won't create an ounce of garbage in the process.  But you will create buildings that your descendants will cherish and utilize for generations.

The Advanced Cob 3 day intensive workshop debuted two years ago.  We will take your skill to the next level.  Your mixing will not only speed up noticeably, the ease will surprise you.  And we'll immerse you in the intimidating step of attaching rafters to cob walls.  This involves cobbing the rafters into place after determining the height and pitch of the roof...easily the most complicated task of building any building, regardless of material.

Please note: only people who have completed an All the Basics Workshop will be invited to attend the Advanced Cob Workshop.  The mixing and building aspects of Fast Cob will be enhanced, so at least the basic understanding that everyone gains during our All the Basics Workshops is required to ensure that this workshop can focus on the technical challenges of speeding up the technique in general as well as adding a solid roof to cob.

The roof itself will be made of metal, the longest-lasting (other than slate) and lowest cost (over its lifespan) material currently available.  We'll see and examine liquid membrane roofs, hand-split cedar shake roofs, and many other metal roof examples in between our workshop sessions.

Every roof has multiple layers, and we'll experience installing all the standard ones: the main decking, tar paper, and then the metal itself.  We'll also install a glass skylight that is far from standard but has proven to work like a charm without the exorbitant cost of building in and buying commercial skylights.

And if you're curious about why the Finishing workshop is scheduled before the Building workshop, I had an intuitive thought in 2018 that was confirmed by the professional carpenter who attended that year: by seeing how to finish a cob building first, it allows you relax and build with even more ease, overcoming the common tendency to be a perfectionist when building.  That tendency makes perfect sense when building with wood (mistakes are expensive!), but Fast Cob is the ultimate in forgiving.  I even call Fast Cob the "Art of Imperfection!"

I'm also pleased to offer a $100 discount per workshop to anyone who registers for more than one at the same time.  We also continue to offer $200 discounts ($100 to each person) for any two people that register for the same workshop together.  Please know that these discounts can not be combined; this means that the maximum discount per workshop per person is $100.

The same professional carpenter who attended two of our workshops in 2018 compared the output in a day and he was certain that Fast Cob was as fast as wood-frame construction (that requires $10,000s of power tools).  Since then, we've made the mixing twice as fast and much easier...I'm over 60 now and can mix all day while my daughter doesn't even get tired!

If you're worried about our workshops getting cancelled, in 19 years we haven't even delayed one, much less cancelled any.  They can make up anything they want, but we'll keep hosting our workshops according to our schedule.  If YOU can't make it, then your deposit can be applied to any workshop you can make, with no expiry date.

 Please see our Workshop page online for all the details about all of our workshops.

For me, the best aspect of living in a cob building is that they act like a thermal battery.  When they turn up the heat (via HAARP or in China or from the 10,000s of satellites), our home is still cool enough to sleep comfortably - upstairs!  When the snow falls, the floor that is heated from the Rocket Mass Heater is bare-foot warm when we get up after a long sleep.

If there was any sense to the civilization that engulfs us, cob buildings would be the norm and the forests would be safe and plentiful again.  I will not comply with their plan to denude the planet.  And if you empower yourself through our workshops, you'll be amazed at the world you can create, affordably and without dependence on anything but yourself.  How's that for a revolution in building!