Final Foundation Plans

Monday 23 January 2012

Spent the day in Lefkas town, various errands to do with car insurance and MOTs, and tried to get to see Constantine, but he had a day in the tax office and couldn’t get away.  But later we got a call from him to say he was in Nidri, so we met up at George’s and discussed the latest developments.  The foundations are now lighter overall, , but longer on the cob side, which does look more stable than previous drafts.  So - back to the drawing board (literally) - and redrafted.  The final (I hope) plan looks like this:

Foundation section - note elongated footing which centres cob stem wall on the ring beam.

Foundation plan showing extent of underground ring beam, concrete plinth and little crosses for each timber upright.  These extend outside the cob walls at three places to the south to support the roof where the walls curve.

And a wall section showing the full height at the gable ends – to check that there is enough cob – given a 5 degree taper – to leave sufficient thickness at the top.  The 5 degree taper is recommended by the Cob Cottage Company in the US for structural integrity – and it means less cob at height, which is all to the good.