SB: Re: A couple of notes about no pin systems from Maryland

["Rene Dalmeijer" <rened@cistron.nl>]

Sam,

> I retrofit an old house by ripping out the interior walls of the building
> and adding bales on edge to the existing plaster walls on the interior
side
> of the exterior wall.

I would be very wary of the above approach to SB retrofitting of an existing
building. The best place, moisture wise, for the bales is on the outside.
This does complicate things if the roof overhang is not big enough. In most
cases you will  have to add extra roof. Besides this window framing should
be moved out which is also quite a bit of work. The upside is you don't lose
floor space and the interior walls can stay up.

In certain climates (very dry) it could be acceptable to have the bales on
the inside. In these cases it is still very important to make sure that you
do something about the moisture barrier in the existing wall it should be
interupted or removed. Before stacking up the bales as you describe puncture
the the interior surface of the walls at regular intervals with a hole saw.
Patch up the holes with a mesh to keep critters out. Butter the bales on the
surface that will mate with the existing wall. The best method is one as
used by Tom Rijven. He makes a thin clay slip. Creates a very shallow tub
using a think plastic membrane wrapped around 2x2's big enough to allow one
sided dipping of a bale in the slip bath. Put the bale out to dry usually
this takes at most a few hours and if really hot less then an hour.
Experiment with the slip consistency until you get good coverage and
adhesion. Its best to chose a very hot and dry period to do this. The
quicker the bale dries the better.


Rene Dalmeijer