What is "Easy" about Fast Cob and Natural Building?
If you've attended one of our Workshops, you would have heard us say the word "easier" many times...
If you've received our emails about Fast Cob, you would have read the word "easier" many times...
If you read through this website, you'll read the word "easier" many times...
If you've received our emails about Fast Cob, you would have read the word "easier" many times...
If you read through this website, you'll read the word "easier" many times...
By "Easier"...what do we mean?
Oxen were used in Wales and Southern England to mix cob hundreds of years ago. Without having experienced this first hand, we can only imagine that building three foot wide walls with animals was easier than what we do with Fast Cob. But nothing today can compare...
When we say Fast Cob is easier, we mean:
Of course, we are NOT saying that Fast Cob is as easy as lying on a couch. Converting a pile of earth into vertical walls is hard work, but Fast Cob makes making those walls easier than any other technology existing today. And it's even easier than converting living trees or concrete into walls. Easier, and it comes with the bonus of allowing those trees to keep absorbing carbon dioxide and not firing a cement kiln that creates an enormous amount of pollution.
All building techniques, including Fast Cob, require a lot of energy to build structures. Fast Cob utilizes natural processes first and then it uses a minimum of imminently renewable human power. It's that simple.
Fast, Simple, Easy. Fast Cob.
Oxen were used in Wales and Southern England to mix cob hundreds of years ago. Without having experienced this first hand, we can only imagine that building three foot wide walls with animals was easier than what we do with Fast Cob. But nothing today can compare...
When we say Fast Cob is easier, we mean:
- Our technique is at least 10x faster to mix materials (compared to "West Coast Cob"), and enormously easier on our bodies.
- Our technique is at least 30x faster to build walls (compared to "West Coast Cob").
- You won't have a mortgage to pay off when you're finished building (working any job is hard work; our workshops are more than affordable and the tools and materials are "dirt cheap").
- You won't have loads of garbage to dispose of when you're finished building (any excess material can gently melt back into the earth).
- Your building goes up faster than every other existing building technology today (unless you pay thousands upon thousands for tools, machines, power, already milled materials, and labour; see the note about NOT having to pay off a mortgage above!).
- Building is simpler and faster and inherently intuitive...lying a roof on super-strong walls is so much easier and safer than trying to defy gravity with posts, which not only get in the way of building, they degrade well before the walls will.
- Maintenance can be non-existent...you'll have to replace your roof when it wears out and maybe apply a fresh coat of plaster every decade or two for high-wear areas.
- No machines means no extra on-going expenses, air or noise pollution, and no complications...plus it's completely safe.
- Because there are no machines involved, it is faster than mixing by machine! (paying for, transporting, running and maintaining the machine is a significant time and energy drain; what it produces still has to get on the wall, and our technique is at least 30x faster!)
- Structures built using the Fast Cob technique are finished sooner than by any other method (you can leave them as is or plaster and whitewash or paint them...either way, it is so much faster than putting multiple layers of expensive [and usually toxic] materials on the wall to finish them).
- Our technique can be learned and done by anyone with a desire and a fully-abled body.
- Our technique can also be done by less-than-fully-abled folks: a man who is considered "disabled" was incredibly grateful to have been empowered to build on his own with our technique...after failing to be able to with the "West Coast Cob" technique.
- Our technique can be used by older folks, too: an older woman who couldn't squat or kneel used a table to outmix many fully-abled folks!
Of course, we are NOT saying that Fast Cob is as easy as lying on a couch. Converting a pile of earth into vertical walls is hard work, but Fast Cob makes making those walls easier than any other technology existing today. And it's even easier than converting living trees or concrete into walls. Easier, and it comes with the bonus of allowing those trees to keep absorbing carbon dioxide and not firing a cement kiln that creates an enormous amount of pollution.
All building techniques, including Fast Cob, require a lot of energy to build structures. Fast Cob utilizes natural processes first and then it uses a minimum of imminently renewable human power. It's that simple.
Fast, Simple, Easy. Fast Cob.
