[Southern California Permaculture] earthen building testing

[Lindsay]

hi there community,

i can't tell you how excited i was to hear about quail springs
permaculture community spearheading some cob wall testing in the
area...to get the results into california (i believe) or at least local
building codes.  

ever since i took my PDC back in 2003...i fell in love with earthen
building.  since then, i have patched up old adobes in california,
helped with a cob cottage, traveled to india to check out CSEB efforts
in auroville, and have become connected with awesome folks like pun pun
farm in thailand (and visited them as well)...

it has been a dream of mine to live in an earthen building <3!!!

so, i pitched in...not much...but SOMETHING...to help these efforts move
forward.  it is criminal that appropriate technologies such as earthen
building techniques are not the standard in places where materials are
available!  

if you want to pitch in, here is the link:

https://www.quailsprings.org/earthquake-testing/

and, here is a recent email they sent out -- exciting news!

"Dear Donor, 

Thank you so much for your contribution which has made this project
possible.  Although things have taken far longer then we expected,  we
are excited to share that we have gotten great data from the first two
walls that were tested this past weekend.  We don't have exact numbers
yet, but we do know they have exceeded what we thought we would get. 
This is fantastic news for anyone hoping to build with cob. The
remaining two walls will be tested soon.  

We were also able to get an extension on the cob code that has just been
submitted, to allow this testing to be part of code, which has
exponentially multiplied the effects of these tests.  

As another facet of this process, Quail Springs is currently working
with the County of Ventura to legitimize our earthen buildings.  We are
working with a team of amazing people, including an engineer who is
helping identify needed changes we need to make.  We are optimistic that
if we do this work we will be creating a path forward that will make it
much easier for many others to build with local, non toxic, non
combustible, affordable materials. 

We have also applied for a grant to conduct official large-scale fire
testing of cob wall assemblies – also necessary for developing codes and
for building in more urban locations. The limited data available on
earthen walls suggests these would attain a load-bearing fire rating of
4hrs+ with no integrity failure, no flame passage; meaning these walls
are designed for 100-year firestorm. 

Please see the attached for more information about our efforts to
legalize natural building in the region! 

We can not thank you all enough, or express the magnitude of the effects
your support for this project is having. Stay tuned for another update
soon! 

In Gratitude, 

Quail Springs 

-- 
Andrew Clinard
Development Director & Board Director 
www.quailsprings.org & 805.886.7239"

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Take care, Lindsay Kolasa

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personal website: www.madhupamaypop.com