Cost of Building with Cob
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Q: I would love to build and live in a Cob house. I can't afford to buy a house and I hear the Cob house is cheap to build. Can anyone help me with information on how to get started? I live in Fort Worth, TX and I think these houses are just adorable. If you know of anyone who will help build a cob house or help someone get one that can't afford to buy one that would be great too!

A: The materials needed to build the walls of a cob home - clay, sand, and straw - can indeed be very inexpensive. However, remember that the walls are only a small part of the work and materials that go into a house. In a conventional house, the walls usually cost less than 25% of the total price of the building. With a cob home that proportion may be far lower. The most expensive parts of the house are the roof, windows and doors, finishes, appliances and fixtures. None of those expenses are reduced by building your home out of cob, except possibly the finishes.

Another thing to remember is that when building a conventional house, the cost of materials is generally lower than the cost of labor. In the case of a cob home, the materials can be very inexpensive but there is a great deal of labor required. Because of high labor costs, many professionally built contracted cob homes end up at about the same price per square foot as a conventional custom-built home. I would say that the value is far higher in that a cob home will probably be more beautiful, more durable, and more efficient than a conventional house, but cob homes are not necessarily cheap.

The best way to keep any house cheap is to do as much as possible of the labor yourself, or to find a work force that you don't need to pay, such as your friends, family, and neighbors. One of the great qualities of cob is that you can easily learn to do it yourself. Then you can teach your friends and family in exchange for their help on your project. To learn more, I'd recommend first reading "The Hand-Sculpted House" (Evans, Smith and Smiley, Chelsea Green 2002) and then taking a hands-on cob workshop. See www.cobworkshops.org for a listing of cob workshops all around the country.