Re: SB: Bricks and Cedar on SB?

[Speireag Alden <Joshua.M.Alden.91@alum.dartmouth.org>]

Sgrìobh Kelly:

>  So, that brings us to this question...  If we are putting cedar (some brick)
>over the bales, is it sufficient to wrap the bales in housewrap, then
>plywood, then nail up the cedar siding - without putting a scratch coat on
>the bails?

     No.  You don't use housewrap with bales, because then you have a 
thermal chimney between the wrap and the bales, where three things 
happen:

     (a) Thermal value of the bale wall is compromised, because 
there's an air space where air can move upward across the face of the 
wrap, warming as it goes.  This severely reduces the insulative value 
of the wall as a whole.

     (b) This thermal chimney also works great for fires.

     (c) Rodents and other vermin love enclosed highways like that.

     If you must use siding, the put up at least one scratch coat of 
stucco (earth, lime or cement, in order of decreasing preference) 
before you do.  Then you should be all set.

-Speireag.
-- 
Speireag Alden, aka Joshua Macdonald Alden

If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but 
do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly 
useless parts?  To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution 
of intelligent tinkering.   -- Aldo Leopold, _A Sand County Almanac_ 

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