Saturday, September 12, 2015

The Front Cob Bench

The spot right at the front of the house, between the doors has finally gotten a cob bench.  It took a while, and has a lot of mass.  First, I put in a foundation row of urbanite, and mortared it together.  

Then filled that area in with 1 inch drain rock. 

Then we got busy cobbing. I put at least 2 truckloads of crappy, uneven urbanite in there, as it isn't a structural piece, and that saved us cob.

The cob went all the way up to the window sill. 

Then, I did a finish plaster with fine, sifted sand and local clay.  We had the blue tiles left over from the kitchen job, and they match nicely.  Looks like I'm wearing camouflage! 

Then the bench got a good soaking of linseed oil: 

and then got a first, big coating of wax.  I hope to do another one or two, but it's a bit stinky, and we have some guests coming, so I'll wait until next week.   Then, Melissa has plans to make some outdoor cushions. 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi. Im in New Zealand. Found your blog a few years ago and check in from time to time. Such an amazing inspiration you and your family are. I hope to do the same here soon... Can I ask what sort of wax you used?? Thanks and all the best. Dan.

Tys said...

Hey Dan, sorry to take so long to get back to you, I hope you see this. Actually, I used a can of wax that I came across when cleaning up after my neighbors. I would normally have used some fancy (expensive) beeswax thing from one of those hippy builder stores, but since I had this can of old wax (like this: http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1420111&KPID=1190483&pla=pla_1190483) I just slathered it on and it seems to be working GREAT. Smelled a bit 'chemical-y' for an hour or so, and then just great surface. Survived the winter rains without any trouble.

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