Editing Cob (material) (section)

{{Short description|Building material made of soil and fiber}}
[[File:Cob wall mud construction.jpg|upright|thumb|Building a wall out of cob]]
'''Cob''', '''cobb''', or '''clom''' (in Wales) is a natural [[building material]] made from [[subsoil]], water, fibrous [[organic material]] (typically [[straw]]), and sometimes [[Lime (material)|lime]].<ref>Wright, Joseph. "COB(B, sb3. 1.", ''The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, or Known to Have Been in Use during the Last Two Hundred Years''. London: H. Frowde;, 1898. 676-677. Print.</ref> The contents of subsoil vary, and if it does not contain the right mixture, it can be modified with sand or clay. Cob is fireproof, termite proof, resistant to seismic activity,<ref>{{cite news |last=Goodnow |first=Cecelia |title=Thinking of building a cob home?|url=http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/article/Thinking-of-building-a-cob-home-1251753.php |newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|date=October 5, 2007}}</ref> and uses low-cost materials, although it is very labour intensive. It can be used to create artistic and sculptural forms, and its use has been revived in recent years by the natural building and [[sustainability]] movements.

In technical building and engineering documents, such as the [[Uniform Building Code]] of the western USA, cob may be referred to as "unburned clay masonry," when used in a structural context. It may also be referred to as "aggregate" in non-structural contexts, such as "clay and sand aggregate," or more simply "organic aggregate," such as where cob is a filler between [[Timber framing|post and beam]] construction.