[Strawbale]lime and earth plaster and heating systems in bale walls

[Rene Dalmeijer]

Jeroen,

At 07:36 AM 10/12/04, you wrote:
>I try and start to drain the foundations next summer.

Why wait till next summer? I suggest you start as soon as possible. The 
winter can actually be a good drying season off course depending on the 
weather. The lower the temperatures the better.


>In the mean time I would love to get rid of the fungus without using
>chemicals. I have stript the wall (it's only one inner wall though load
>bearing) for the lower 20 centimeters or so. Because the earth plaster
>wouldn't cure at all.

You can use vinegar to kill fungus this is also usual practice on wooden 
boats to kill off fungus when they have moisture problems. Earth Plaster 
does not cure but dry

>I hope lime will be able to cure so I can finish the
>wall.

This is a very bad idea: first of all the plaster will get a bad start in 
life; second you will effectively capture the moisture behind the plaster 
allowing it to only dry very slowly even though the lime plaster is 
relatively permeable. The fact that the earth plaster is not drying 
actually tells me quite clearly that putting lime plaster over this wall 
will lead to a failure of the plaster and could lead to more problems 
further along the line.

>Here comes this shrinking problem (or not) because there is a heating system
>installed  in the wall the same way as a heated floor is with plastic tubes
>running hot water through it.

The heating will help tremendously to dry the wall once you have removed 
the moisture source.

>  This means big and rapid changes in the temperature off the plaster. So
>will this be a problem for lime? Earth plaster is working really well and we
>have had no cracks.
>
>Does anybody have experience with strawbale wall's using this heating
>system? We are planning an extension to our house and would love this
>heating system there also.

Yes this wall heating is quite general practice including SB projects and 
at least one I know about in the Netherlands. Look at my website 
http://home.hetnet.nl/~rene.dalmeijer follow links to SB 
houses>Middelharnis for a picture of the tubing being installed on the 
surface of a SB wall (click on the thumbnail next to the text) The owner 
can tell you details of the installation.



Rene