Sally Bennett spent eight years building an environmentally friendly shed using cob. She learned how to combine subsoil clay, sand, and straw and tread them before placing them on her wall. After retiring earlier than planned in 2023, the 69-year-old suddenly had much more time to devote to the process.
Sally held an unveiling of her masterpiece for family, friends, and neighbors. She wanted the day to be ‘a bit of a thank you’ to all those who’ve helped her with the project over the years, especially with the hard work of treading the cob mix.
“I can laugh about it now, but there were moments went I was in a little bit of despair,” the grandmother-of-five said. “My inspiration was a cob building course I took down in Suffolk with my daughter and son-in-law.
“When you do these things, you get full of enthusiasm for it, and I decided I wanted to build myself a cob house. It’s just such an environmentally good thing, and thermally efficient. I soon realized a house was probably too much for a first project, but I also needed a new shed on the allotment.”
“My son helped me build the foundations, which are normal house bricks we got from skips. You have to tread it for half-an-hour until you get the proper mixture, and it can only be done in the summer when there’s no chance of a frost.
“The roof is wooden, covered with a pool liner, and the plan is to make it a green roof. At the end of the day, it’s just a shed, but it’s going to be a great place to hide from the rain.”
Would Sally build her own cob house at some point in the future? “At the rate I build, I don’t think I’ll have time,” she said. But I certainly wouldn’t be put off buying a cob house because I now have the skills to maintain it.”
You can read the original article at www.knutsfordguardian.co.uk
I love the ” Using prehistoric methods” . It reminded me of the paper clip. why? because both are so effective that they have not changed much through time.
Cheers
It looks nice…