Roof Insulation Options for Cob Houses

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With “The Cob Builders Handbook” you can learn to make cob, design your own cob home and set out to build it.
With “The Cob Builders Handbook” you can learn to make cob, design your own cob home and set out to build it.
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Earth, the plants, and their matted roots provide some insulation on a sod roof. It’s probably a good idea to supplement it with some other type of insulation and/or reflective material, because when the sod gets wet the insulative properties decrease significantly.
Earth, the plants, and their matted roots provide some insulation on a sod roof. It’s probably a good idea to supplement it with some other type of insulation and/or reflective material, because when the sod gets wet the insulative properties decrease significantly.

Cob (an old English word for lump) is old-fashioned concrete, made out of a mixture of clay, sand and straw. Becky Bee’s  The Cob Builders Handbook (Chelsea Green Publishing, 1998) is a friendly guide to making your own earth structure, with chapters on design, foundations, floors, windows and doors, finishes and, of course, making glorious cob. From sod to straw, wool to wood, there are a variety of roof insulation options for cob houses. Learn about the pros and cons of each material in this excerpt taken from “Roofs: Insulation.”

You can purchase this book from the MOTHER EARTH NEWS store: The Cob Builders Handbook.

Insulation can be anything that creates still air spaces. Lots of roof insulation makes a house comfy. In most climates, insulating the roof is extremely important.

The temperature inside your house will always try to equalize with the outside temperature. A generous layer of roof insulation will help a lot in keeping heat inside when it’s cold out, as well as keeping the hot summer sun from making your house too warm. So insulate your roof!

How much insulation?

  • Published on Apr 19, 2013
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