RE: Durisol walls for a basement?

["J. F. Straube" <jfstraube@uwaterloo.ca>]

I would not recommend sirface-bonded durisol (or stess skinned panels of any
sort other than metal faced) for long-term high loads.  Long term high loads
exist in full basements.  Hence for a full basment, I dont think surface
bonding would be the way to go.
A concrete filled Durisol wall (the 10" block is thick enough and usies the
equivelant of 6" of concrete) would do the trick.
Surface bonding works great for high intermitent loads (eg wind, EQ) but no
so good for long-term loads.  Why? Because wood and concrete and Durisol and
Rastra creep (elongate under sustained load).  While not likely to be a
problem in most cases (lateral basement loads are not often as high as we
design for), the potential for bowed walls is not worth it for mst
manufacturers who plan to be in business in 20 years.
Sustained vertical dead loads are not so bad, since the stresses are almost
always low.  BTW -- there are Durisol surface bonded houses out there, some
2 storeys, and panel systems have been made elsewhere in the world for some
time (now here in North America).  McMaster University and UW have both
tested the surface bonded Durisol system.

---------------------------------------
John Straube
Civ Eng Dept and School of Architecture
University of Waterloo
T: 519 888 4015
F: 519 888 6197

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-strawbale@crest.org [mailto:owner-strawbale@crest.org]On
Behalf Of The Van Wey Family
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2000 8:02 PM
To: strawbale@crest.org; greenbuilding@crest.org
Subject: Durisol walls for a basement?


RT got me to wondering about this Durisol thing. I reluctantly must
admit here for you baleheads that I will not be "building with bales".
In lieu of that however, I would like to use as friendly building
materials I can and recycle everything that I can for this project. Now
for my question/clarification:

Did I understand you right about the surface-bonded Durisol? Can I use
that for a full basement foundation? Keep in mind that the house will
have a 36x40 footprint, and it will be 2 stories with an attic for
future expansion. The design is a basic saltbox colonial. Looking
forward to the answer to this.

Also, how would this configuration compare to a poured concrete wall as
far as costs go?

Thanks,
Shane Van Wey
"somewhere in the middle of Montana..."