AW: [Strawbale]Re: bales on the side

[Dirk Scharmer - Architekturburo WAND4]

Hi!
Bales on edge?: I'll do two projects with infilled bales on edge in the next
months, we tested it again today morning, I think it works perfect. Why on
edge?: Because the higher insulation, the lower depth of the wall, the more
effective and cheaper construction (especially under the 'senseless' german
building supervision requirement of construction distance of <1m). And in
germany we have a lot of wood. 
The austrians and scandinavians have experience with bales on edge in infill
systems for years, and Chris Magwood in doing prefab loadbearing-walls with
bales on edge.

Mark: No doubt about the inside string, I argue minimum 30 Minutes fire
resistance (Test according to German DIN EN 1363) with 1-3cm clay plastered
inside strings, I'm optimistic to have 90 minutes too, because during the
test there is no load vertical to wall face.

Plastering worked well.

Density: Taha Ashour found in his thesis, that bales on edge are a little
bit smoother, especially at densities <100Kg/m3, but >125kg/m3 they are
nearly as well compact as laid flat. 

Fotos of our todays testing: www.fasba.de/downloads/CIMG1174-kl.jpg and
www.fasba.de/downloads/CIMG1187kl.jpg


Dirk Scharmer