[Strawbale] Re: Glass bottle insulation

[Tim Owen-Kennedy]

The only things that I can think of that might be available in your part of
the world would be scraps from cork manufacturing or hemp hurds the inside
fluffy part of a hemp stalk. Either would likely be mixed with a binder like
clay or lime to be more stable. Unfortunately, with our mild climate,
insulating an earth cuppled floor is pretty rare for the
build-with-what-you-can-find croud out here. We've been using deep sand bed
solar radiant systems in more extreme climates but that's again more room
than you have. If all you have room for is a single layer of bottles I don't
see that you're risking much but the time involve with getting and
installing the bottles. I would mortar them together though if I were you.
We've had some interesting things happen with floors that shrunk away from
their under material as the clay dried; leaving a small gap that the bottles
could roll around in. anyway, let us know how the bottles work. I always
like to think of ways to be able to test new systems (like comparing it
having not done it in another place in the same house) but it is a hard
thing to isolate how well the floor insulation is actually performing in an
earth coupled floor. I'll talk with Michael Smith and see if he has heard of
anything else for floor insulation they were doing some thing with redwood
bark

Best of luck,

Tim

Tim Owen-Kennedy, President
Vital Systems Natural Building & Design, Inc.
P O Box 751, Ukiah, CA 95482
www.vitalsystems.net
888.859.6336


-----Original Message-----
From: strawbale-bounces at amper....muni.cz
[mailto:strawbale-bounces at amper....muni.cz] On Behalf Of rikki nitzkin
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 10:46 AM
To: strawbale at amper....muni.cz
Subject: RE: [Strawbale] Re: Glass bottle insulation

Tim,

Your advice is easy to understand. thank you.  I only have about 10 cm for 
insulation so two layers of bottles may be a lot.  It is good to know that 
straw-clay isn´t such a good idea.  I did wonder, but thought that if it was

in the book . . .Do you know of any other natural/recyclable insulation for 
floors?  I suppose wool is too soft for under a clay floor, and volcanic 
rock has to be purchased. . .



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