Fixing Natural Building

 


Some cracks in the Bench

The backrest of the bench and the tiles that were coming off.

A new layer of plaster to smooth out where tiles used to be.

Cracks filled with Earthen Plaster

Cracks filled with Earthen Plaster


Cob Bench at H St. and Samoa, Arcata

Part of my Engr. 305 project was to fix up past natural building project which are in the community. One of the sites in on 4th St., F St. and Samoa in Arcata this was a past Engr. 305 project. There is a three seater cob bench. The tiles were coming off and there were a lot of cracks too. My group took a trip out to survey what needed to be fixed and on our second trip brought some earthern plaster. We filled the cracks with plaster and attempted to piece together the salvaged tiles. While we were fixing we noticed that large communities of Rolli Pollies and quite a few spiders. This is to be expected of course since the bench is outside, but as we continued we noticed that the Rolli Pollies were helping to crumble away the cob as their made there homes inside the cob. We also saw worms which were going through the cob bench. We were very surprised that they could move through the cob so well.

 

The Enemy

After our time fixing we decided that for this natural building project the Rolli Pollie is the enemy.

 

Other Natural Building sites:

The Blue Ox, Eureka. (Cob Oven)

A Private Residence in the Arcata Bottoms (Straw bale wall  with earthen plaster)

 

 

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