[Strawbale] Re: the BIG question

[Rene Dalmeijer]

Paul, Michael,

I will reserve my remarks to certain points your respective mail.

First of the BIG question:

The big question in SB building is dealing with moisture. Convection 
currents within a SB wall could potentially contribute to moister 
problems developing but only as a secondary effect. The main 
contributor being leaks in the interior plaster finish of the SB wall. 
All leaks can allow moist interior air to enter the straw and condense 
on cold surfaces like the outer plaster finish. The amount of moisture 
moving through an intact plaster interior is of no significance and 
would normally not cause moisture problems in the SB wall barring very 
serious cold bridges due to poor detailing. The main issue is thus the 
prevention of leaks and maintaining the integrity of the interior 
plaster finish whatever is may be.

Watching his experiments crumble back into the reclaimed swamp at the 
mouth of the Rhine
Rene Dalmeijer
On May 11, 2006, at 12:00, strawbale-request at amper....muni.cz wrote:

> Hi Michael,
>
>
> It is a shame that there does aopear to be a tendancy to try and ignore
> problems/failures in in case the "cause" is damaged. I think there is a
> tendency to panic at the eleventh hour and put on a ciment based 
> finish.

I am sure this is not the case most people at least on the main SB 
lists are very open about failures. this openness is one of the main 
features contributing to the rapid worldwide development and growth of 
SB building. I can assure you disseminating lessons learnt is a 
fore-mount issue of the international SB community.

I suggest it is also a good idea not to bash different practices in 
different regions of the world as there are different solutions to 
basically the same problems. Local circumstances have a strong 
influence on what works where. So instead of bashing each other I 
rather suggest we listen constructively to each other and then select 
what you think will work in your specific circumstances. In the 8 years 
that I have been involved I have learned a lot from these free 
exchanges in the same time I have rejected even more as being 
unsuitable for my circumstances. The choice is yours to make, but 
please respect other peoples preferences. It might just be that testing 
and experience will show, over time, that what you rejected actually 
works very well. I say profit from others 'hair brained' experiments.