Grand Designs Channel 4 tonight featured Kevin McCabe’s huge cob castle in Devon. It was great the programme showed how sculptural and easy cob is to build with. However we were surprised to see polystyrene used on the external walls and cement foundations. Polystyrene is counterintuitive – cob is all about having a building that breaths and uses only sustainable and natural materials. We use straw bales in some of our walls which offer amazing insulation instead. It’s the common sense, cheap and sustainable solution. And we never use cement in our foundations – we want the whole building to breath to ensure the cob walls stay dry. We use a gravel foundation with

Come on one of our cob courses and we’ll show you how to build your own cob house!

Oh and here’s the link to the Grand Designs cob house episode. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/4od#3587236