[Strawbale] Strawbale and brick walls

[Marcus]

Hi there,

I am helping a friend who is planning a new two storeyed brick/strawbale house with an earth roof. We have knocked down an older building on the existing site and have a lot of bricks. What he has in mind is to use the bricks to build the load bearing part of the structure and use strawbales for insulation. So the walls will be very thick.

The query is... that an architect friend said he wouldn't recommend putting strawbales in contact with the brick wall as moisture will wick from the brick walls into the straw causing a damp problem. He based his theory on the fact that wooden beams in Germany are known to be susceptible to rot when they go through brick walls. I can imagine that with an older house with
insufficient damp-proofing, moisture can wick up the walls to the height of the beams and cause a problem BUT... with a new house, with good damp proofing, I can't see where the moisture would come from.

The house would have earth plaster on the inside and outside (with a limewash finish) so there wouldn't be any barrier to stop vapour going through the walls.

Does anyone have any ideas about this or have heard any experience of people cladding brick houses with straw.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Marcus

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