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erinroe -> RE: Manure as building material (2/6/2010 8:44:12 AM)
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Thanks. I actually was reading about cob and it's uses, just the other day. They said it is, more or less, an easier form of adobe. However, they also said it's better for spilling heat out of a house than actually insulating it (which would be great if we were somewhere else except for the summer).
What I am specifically interested in - I don't know what they call it. It comes from Asia, I've heard elder Asians discussing it before - when I was a kid - and people used to be warned, too, that a good lot of enamel jewelry that is sold out of Asia is not really enamel, it's made by this method and only looks like enamel. I don't know if they curbed those sales, the accusations were proved false, or if it's a matter of no one cared, so they just kept it up, though.
Also, I read about it in a book that was about an Asian family who were among many families being held by some soldiers. I do not remember what country they were in, who the soldiers were working for, etc. except that everyone involved, at least in that part of the book, were Asians and it was in their own country.And, the story was told by one of the ones who were children of this family, by the way; so, it is a true story.
They were living in a very drafty dwelling of some sort, that had a ledge running down and separating one part more from the rest. I think it was when they were living in the cave. There was an older Auntie of some sort who they thought went crazy, because she started saving buckets of crap; first hers, then theirs too. She kept yelling at them not to waste it, if they wanted to survive and such as that. So, they started staying in one area and letting her have the other area all to herself, and trying to figure out what to do about her, and the smell, both. Then, one day, it got worse and she started playing with it! Or, that's how they viewed it.
She started stirring it, mixing it with other things, and eventually smeared it all over the walls and floors. So, then they were sure that she was crazy and she'd bring the wrath of the soldiers down upon them all, and were really freaking out. I think they tied her up. I can't remember. What I do remember is that the person writing the book said that, after a few days of curing, that area of the dwelling was no longer drafty, or smelly. It was covered in a beautiful enamel glazing that kept the wind out and made the whole place warmer. So, they let the Auntie go and she explained that it was the way people used to do their houses, all the time; a traditional method she had learned from her elders, which had fallen into disuse. Only, normally, it would be cow manure that was used, not human feces - it was just, in her case, desperate times calling for desperate measures.
So, when I talked to the Asian people about it, they did know about it, some - but, not how to do it. They knew that it was true, it was traditional, it was very long lasting, that it did keep the cold, wind, and rain out and that it was safe, once dried, because it did turn into an enamel sort of glaze that was waterproof.
I have never found anyone who could explain how it was done, though.
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