Campus tours:Cob Floor
From HUG Wiki
Initial plans called for the entire western half of the floor in Old Main to be made out of cob. After getting a hint of the effort required to accomplish this an alternative plan was formed. Instead of doing the whole floor in cob, a small section was reserved for experimentation. The Earth you see in the center of the floor was completed during the summer of 2006.
A natural cob floor requires several layers of finishing oils and waxes. If desired, paints can be added to the top layer. A well-done cob floor looks and feels like leather; however, we chose to mix polymers into the cob to make it harder. This section of floor allows us to observe just how tough the cob is, whether it shrinks or expands and how the paints are impacted by foot traffic.
