Cob stables?

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Jinx94

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As mentioned a while ago, eventually I would like to have my own breaking and schooling/livery yard. I have just contacted someone about whether cob would be suitable for building stables, but I would like to hear your opinions!

Would it put you off that the stables are made of cob? Do you feel that it looks unprofessional? Would you expect livery prices to be much lower because of the material? I know the last one sounds daft, but am curious about the answer!
 
I think they'd be lovely, as long as the horses didn't eat them ! Wouldn't they be very expensive though ? What sort of roof would you have ?
 
I'm still researching, but they're actually pretty cheap - apparently (unless you're really, really extravagant) cob houses are unlikely to cost more than 10-20k to build :) Not sure about roof yet! A lot of people seem to put turf on theirs? :S I would probably put guards of some description on any surfaces to protect them from crib-biters though.

Here's a link to a video about it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2E03Z8Jn2vw
 
I come originally from the West Country, where cob buildings were common. I gather they last well if the moisture doesn't get into the cob, if it does, I believe they may collapse without warning.

My parents would never view a property if it was built of cob for that reason.

Personally, I wouldn't risk housing my horses in a cob building but maybe I'm an old fuddy duddy. Maybe techniques have moved on now and cob can be made more resilient to damp?
 
Tiddlypom said:
I come originally from the West Country, where cob buildings were common. I gather they last well if the moisture doesn't get into the cob, if it does, I believe they may collapse without warning.

My parents would never view a property if it was built of cob for that reason.

Personally, I wouldn't risk housing my horses in a cob building but maybe I'm an old fuddy duddy. Maybe techniques have moved on now and cob can be made more resilient to damp?
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Oh dear! Will definitely be very specific asking about that as it isn't something that has come up in my research so far! Wouldn't want to risk anything like that - I'd been considering about using it to build my own house too!
 
I'm referring back to the 1960s and 70s. I remember it well as often a lovely old Devon farmhouse or cottage would come on the market, but as soon as 'cob' came up on the Estate agents particulars, that was the end of it as far as we were concerned! Back to boring old brick buildings instead.

Definitely worth checking out as to modern ways of overcoming this quirk, I may be worrying you unnecessarily.
 
Maybe, but I'm glad you mentioned it as I probably wouldn't have thought to ask otherwise! The method I've been looking at uses straw bales which are then plastered with cob, followed by plastering with another porous material - does that sound at all similar?
 
Our house is cob, my sister has just renovated a cob cottage that required a lot of rebuilding. Whilst materials are cheap it takes AGES to do it properly. Personally I would never consider building in it unless I had to. Not sure what you would gain from having cob stables anyway, personally I would block build then use a rough render to look like cob.
 
jrp204 said:
Our house is cob, my sister has just renovated a cob cottage that required a lot of rebuilding. Whilst materials are cheap it takes AGES to do it properly. Personally I would never consider building in it unless I had to. Not sure what you would gain from having cob stables anyway, personally I would block build then use a rough render to look like cob.
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I just love the look of cob building and wanted to know if it was a viable option :)
 
I know what you mean although I think it will look odd if the other buildings are not cob. A good rough render on block will be much easier, you will be able to screw into the blocks as opposed to having big wooden pegs to hold things onto the walls. You have to keep It very dry, render in lime to let it breath, the only plus is its warm to live in! Our walls are 2'6/3' thick and the chimney breast is 5', in fact when we took the roof off we found a big cupboard behind the dry lining in the bedroom, it is basically built into the chimney breast. I now have a new walk in airing cupboard.
 
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