Why We Are Using Cob Over Our Hyperadobe Earth Bags

In this episode we are going to why we are using cob over our hyperadobe earth bags.

Hi - We are Douglas and Keri! In May of 2022 we quit our jobs and sold our home in Denver, Colorado to move to our 36 acre off grid homestead property in Cochise County, Arizona. Follow along with us as we build our homestead from scratch!

Today we are going to show you why we are using cob over our hyperadobe earth bags. My kids, Tyler and McKenzie also make an appearance and learn how to mix and apply cob! We are also going to introduce you to our friend, Jess, who will be helping us out occasionally on our builds. Jess is also originally from Washington state and grew up in the same area that Doug and I did. She moved out to Cochise County for a change of pace and to learn about natural building. We have hired her to help out occasionally and she has been a tremendous help! Most of you know hyperadobe is incredibly labor intensive, so the extra set of hands is welcome!

We are using hyperadobe to construct our chicken coop from. This is a "test" construction project before we begin our actual house so we can learn the ins and outs of hyperadobe and make sure we know what we're doing! We use hyperadobe that we purchase from Volm Companies and it is a continuous bag and is made from 100% virgin polyethylene material with a built-in additive to prevent UV deterioration.

We are using lime plaster as the finishing layer and that does not stick all that well directly to hyperadobe, so we have to put a sublayer of cob over the hyperadobe which adheres well to the bags and then the lime plaster goes over the cob after the cob has cured for 2-3 weeks. Cob is really easy and fun to work with and we have almost all of the ingredients for it on our property. It is made from clay, sand, water, and straw. The straw is chopped small (we use a leaf mulcher) and added to the mix. The straw helps give it compression strength and keeps it from cracking...kind of like rebar in concrete. If you build with cob, make sure you use straw and NOT hay because the hay will break down and contains moisture which can negatively impact your mix. You can also use local grasses that are nice and dried out. How fine you chop the straw is how you want it to look. We did not want big pieces of straw sticking out :)

After the cob cures long enough, you can go ahead and lime plaster over that. We will be using lime putty mixed with sand and doing 1 rough coat over the cob, then 1 smoother coat over the cob, then a pigmented lime wash will go over that to seal and water proof it. Stay tuned because our next video will be all about lime plaster!

Check out our Cochise County Resources list at TwoRebelsOffGrid.com

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DISCLAIMER: Douglas and Keri are not contractors and the information contained in this video is for entertainment purposes. Please make sure to do your own research!

Once again, thanks for following along with us and we hope to inspire you to live your best life, whatever that might mean for you!

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Video Editing by Douglas on iMovie for Windows
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