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.

Q: I'd like to ask if cob house building is cheaper than buying a manufactured home.

A: Cob building can be extremely inexpensive if you do it yourself. The materials for the walls are very cheap. However, keep in mind that walls are only a small cost of any building: foundations, roofs, windows, doors, floors, finishes, cabinetry and so on are typically a much higher portion of the cost. Also, if you a hire a professional crew to build your cob house, you will end up paying a lot for labor. The best way to keep costs down is to build for yourself (or using non-paid labor sources like workshops and work parties) and use as many salvaged materials as possible.

Q: I am from the Philippines and I would like to learn to apply natural building techniques such as cobbing and use of earthbags to our farm. I would like to apply these to buildings we would put up in our farm such as storage facilities for equipments and crops, livestock shelter and a farmhouse. For now, the immediate need is to apply natural building techniques to housing designed for livestock raising, specifically hog fattener production. I know that given proper construction tools and techniques, cob houses and earthbag buildings are superior than conventional ones in terms of cost efficiency and how these structures can withstand stress. So I would like to ask for your advice on which is more viable and cheaper for our immediate concern, that is housing for livestock raising: cob building or earthbag building?

A: Either cob or earthbag building could be good options for you. It is hard to say which would be appropriate without knowing a lot more about your site, climate, soils, and other conditions. Both can also be very inexpensive, again depending on local availability of materials.

Q: Recently I stayed in a cob house (see picture-skymeadowretreat.org). The owner mentioned it was built by people who were doing a project in learning so it was free. I have an acre of land in the Adirondacks in Upstate NY. Since loosing my job, home, etc. in CA, I'm living in my car with a paralyzed dog and trying to get creative about how to get shelter. How much is a small cob house with a wood stove? Are their programs where I can have one built? Are there payment plans? Any suggestions?

A: A cob house can be very inexpensive if you build it yourself or have a source of unpaid labor. Some tiny houses have been built for as little as a few hundred dollars (with virtually all of the materials found or salvaged); several thousand dollars is more typical for the materials cost of a tiny, un-permitted cob house. A good way to get some of the work done for free is to sponsor a cob workshop to work on your home. You will have to find an experienced teacher willing to work in your area. Usually the best way to do that is to take a cob workshop yourself, to establish a relationship with the instructor and to educate yourself about what is involved. You could do an internet search for cob workshops or go to cobworkshops.org or nbnetwork.org. Be aware that even if you partner with a cob teacher or school, there will still most likely be plenty of work for you to do beforehand and afterwards. I have yet to see any building get finished in a workshop.

Q: I stopped by your cozy little cob house and would like to know roughly how much money you have spent building it.

A: (Benjamin) I would say that the house alone was $4K to $5K. That was mostly because I had to by all the sand and clay. Also the solar power was expensive. In Oregon, Yanto Evens built a house for $500, which was quite amazing and comfortable.