anyone know a succsesful way of getting things to fix into cob walls without falling off or pulling out
The only two ways I have found that work are to either hammer in a decent bit of timber and re cob around it or drill your hole fill with gripfil insert your rawplug leave gripfil to go off then screw into it.
cob is essentially clayey mud and straw.it can be either used as a coating over say straw bales or as a structural wall in its own right
I believe the technique is most widely used in Devon, due to it good quality clay subsoils. The technique has been widely used round here for about 500 years. The most succesfull way i have found as above is to hammer in a piece of wood, at a slight angle (opposing the load)where possible, then make good around it.
thats the best thing about cob if it gets damaged just slap a bit more mud back in let it dry and a quick limewash and its as good as new. really old well compacted cob can be as hard as concrete though. there is a bit of cob stuff up our way round Oxford too.
Cob is fine... untill... modern plasters/ renders are introduced onto it. These dont alow the cob to dry out after a damp period, keeping it in an almost permanantly damp state. You can imagine the rest!