Cob Building - How to prevent cracking cob walls

Are you using enough straw and the right kind of sand? Round Sand will not bind together? Washed Plaster sand is not the same as play sand.

In Florida, there doesn't seem to be many straw bale suppliers, if if there is its very expensive. What are some alternatives?

What would you do Alex?

Do cob houses have a lot of dust inside once complete?

I believe your cob is cracking because you are putting to much clay into your mixture. If you are certain that is not the case it may be your straw. Are you using actual straw, and if so what kind? I am building a cobb house, and have had a great experience with Tractor Supply baled straw. The straw is a bit shorter and more slick than I would like, but like I said it works for me. I would not add anymore until you reevaluate your mixture. How did you come up with the mixture you are currently using? Do you practice the drop method for troubleshooting? Good luck. Check out my channel for to see my cobb house videos.

There is the correct proportion of clay, sand, and straw, but there are retraction tensions that are larger on the surface, which dries faster, than on the inside and some cracks may arise because of this. From my experience, shade helps a lot with cracks.

No cob houses have no dust in side

Would this be from adding too much water to the mix? When it dries the clay contracting.

add sodium silicate or potassium silicate at the ratio of 2% to 3%

Get to the piont thanx

Hello, we have just started our cob building and are having a similar problem we did think it could be to do with drying. We are building on a stone stack and we didn't wet that first, but it's our first project. We are pretty sure we have the mix right but still a bit worried about these small cracks. Did your project turn out ok? Did covering it help with the cracking? Do you have any tips pointers or advice? Thank you for your time and video