Cob Blog

We have now started our project to publicise the product range we are selling. Our new sales manager David Lacey has been contacting hundreds of architects and the Building and Planning Control departments of local authorities in the South West, sending out details of the products.

We are also offering those we’ve contacted the chance to receive a short CPD seminar. This is a detailed look at how the products are used, technical details, case studies and the many environmental benefits of their use.

We have had an overwhelmingly positive response and are presenting to architectural practices from Plymouth up to Bristol and Bath. For the larger events we shall be taking our demonstration building along so people can really see how the materials are used.

We have a new product that will hopefully be added to our product range soon, it is the NBT Thermoplan block. Currently made in Germany, it is a high performance thermal block which we feel could be used for low level masonry in conjunction with Hemcrete or other walling systems. Watch this space!!

The final piece of news is that in the next few months we shall be buying a fleet of pan mixers (exciting eh!!!). These are to compliment the Hemcrete in that you cannot economically use a drum mixer to mix it. These mixers can mix 800 litres at a time and will output 2400 litres per hour quite happily. They are designed to go on either the back of a tractor or on a telescopic handler allowing them to be moved around very easily. For more details on how to use them contact us via phone or email.

I have just finished the last of my three sessions of teaching at SCAT (Somerset College of Art and Technology) in Taunton. With the help of another chap from the college we got 13 and 14 year old kids to wet down clay soil, fluff up straw and then mix the whole sloppy mess up into cob (that was the fun bit).

They made bricks from this mixture and stacked them all together to form various structures. We had igloos, pyramids, a fish, a half built barn, a very wobbly Eiffel tower and lastly an armchair. The chair was actually the most successful of all of the objects as it was built by the most enthusiastic group of all who really got into the spirit of mass cob brick production. Their team spirit was fantastic and in about an hour they built the chair which weighed around half a tonne. It was actually rather comfortable.

The Genesis Project at SCAT contains buildings which demonstrate construction with sustainable materials. It is a great platform to which delegates from many large institutions and companies come to give and receive lectures on sustainability and opens their eyes to a world of different construction methods. See www.genesisproject.com

We have also been booked in to display and at Zero Carbon Conference on the 26th September at SCAT so  see you there!!