Is it possible to satisfy housing codes using cob?
If everyone were to say we can’t do it because of building codes, then no one would ever give it a go, and we’d never be able to see how these buildings react in different conditions, whether it’s quakes, fire, whatever. It’s ridiculous what you have to permit in this area. At one point in time, there might have been really good reasons for those codes and permitting issues, but I think those things need to be reevaluated and looked at for many reasons. How does cob hold up to earthquakes and fires? They did a quake test with a shake table, where they do seismic testing on different methods of building. They put it on I think 9.5, which is off the scales, there hs never been an earthquake that big ever, they could not make the building collapse. It cracked, and part of it gave way, but it never fell in on itself. The other thing that comes to mind is in New Zealand, there’s this beautiful Victorian [in a village] that has been flattened a few times by earthquakes, and this little cob s
