[Strawbale] Mushroom building

[Mark Harrison]

Hi Rikki,

Here in the UK we of course havea high humidity pretty well year round and we have successfully built commercial straw bale buildings using walls that are lime plastered and quite capable of looking after themselves. I also have first hand experience of building a livestock house (for pigs). The non-structural bales were recorded at 16% moisture when they went in and were kept dry, lime plastered on the outside but left natural on the inside with a close pattern wire mesh to protect the surface from being eaten! Fungi did grow on the exposed surface of these internal walls but we controlled them by using an off the shelf mold inhibitor which still allowed the walls to breathe. The buildings were taken down after 5 years of pretty continous use. I have spoken to my colleague David Thorne and he is adamant that the bales were as good as the day they went in though he didn't test the moisture content.

My view is that the excellent thermal insulation of straw bale walls is a perfect opportunity for your application as you can get a very stable internal environment especially if you exploit straw in the roof. The techniques to allow zero thermal bridging, managed ventilation and a breathable envelope are key along with the ensuring the right bulk density, moisture content and low embodied microbial levels of your straw. 

Good luck!

Mark
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rikki Nitzkin 
  To: GSBN ; "ESBN" 
  Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 7:26 PM
  Subject: [Strawbale] Fwd: Humidity within a bale house....






    I have recently gotten an email from a man who wants to build a SB mushroom farm. He would like to know if it is a problem that the INTERIOR of the building has a humidity level of 75-90%.


    I usually prefer to use breathable earth plasters (or lime), but I am wondering if this would be a good case to apply a WATERPROOF (cement? latex paint?) plaster to the interior of the building to avoid excess humidity in the walls.


    Any thoughts/suggestions?


    Rikki Jennifer Nitzkin
    Coordinadora de la Red de Construcción con Balas de Paja


    www.casasdepaja.org
    casasdepaja at yahoo...
    http://casasdepaja.blogspot.com/












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