Re: Alternative outside wall finish

[Richard Schmidt <rrschmid@polymail.cpunix.calpoly.edu>]

One thought on this method. Bales are notoriously non-uniform in
dimension. The system Pierre proposes would effectively align one side of
the bales, causing ALL of the dimensional variations to appear on the
opposite  side (the interior wall) instead of being "averaged" between the
two sides. This could produce a very lumpy
interior wall, and require a lot of plaster to bridge from lump to lump.
Other than that, the idea would probably work OK.

Richard 

On Sat, 29 Jan 2000, Pierre Masson wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> I've been thinking for some time about alternatives to the stucco rendering on 
> exterior walls (whether lime, portland, earth and clay, etc).  Here are my 
> latest ideas on a way to do this.  This would be for non-load-bearing infill 
> strawbale walls.  Please see the attached jpg file, for details.  The problem I 
> had was in incorporating a thin stucco layer between the shingles, for 
> instance, and the bales, so as not to create an air channel for flames, 
> critters, etc.  My solution is to use ladders made of 2x6 and 2x4, or whatever 
> dimensions would be required by the size, load requirements, etc, and to 
> insert the bales in between.  Nothing new here, this has been done by 
> others.  I think there's a picture in "The Straw Bale House".  The trick for me 
> will be to do all the exterior sheeting (diagonal 1x T&G boards, OSB, 
> plywood, whatever) and the shingling or clapboard or other exterior finish first, 
> then install the bales.  I would butter the exterior side of the bale with stucco 
> (say 1/2"), then shove it in between the ladders, so that it would make good 
> contact with the inside face of the sheeting.  On my drawing (plan view), I 
> have inserted a sheet of newspaper that would separate the stucco from the 
> sheeting to make it easier to make eventual repairs on the outside finish, but 
> I'm not quite sure that it would make much of a difference anyway.  The 
> inside could be finished with a standard earth, lime or stucco rendering.
> 
> Another advantage is that when the bales are finally installed, there is no 
> danger of them getting wet... not trivial.  I would also the roof already done at 
> this stage, so it would be fairly easy to store the bales in the shell of the 
> house.  I'm planning to use this technique this summer on a small building, 
> and see how everything works out in actual practice.
> 
> Disadvantage would perhaps be the amount of wood required, but this would 
> worth some number crunching (and the wood could probably be mostly 2x4 
> and 2x6, which are fairly small cross-sections, specially if one were to use 
> rough lumber which is really 2 x 4, not 1.5 x 3.5 (8 square inches versus 
> 5.25)).
> 
> Comments and other ideas are quite welcome. 
> 
> Bye for now, Pierre
> 
> Pierre Masson
> Prince Edward Island, Canada
> pmasson@isn.net
>