[Strawbale] [!! SPAM] Re: Strawbale Digest, Vol 41, Issue 5

Fri Apr 10 15:54:12 CEST 2009

Rikki,

I understand the building will be a mushroom farm, the point is the overall 
building ventilation management, By putting an impermeable vapour barrier on 
the inside of the straw wall you will create a problem for sure. The ability 
for straw walls to breathe is a key feature, which you need to maintain at 
all costs, with mushrooms you will not just have high humidity you will also 
have a fairly even temperature, probably with less variance than in a 
dwelling, keeping this humidty in and maintaining the temperature will allow 
you to control the movement (wicking) of moisture through the bales. Lime 
plaster on both surfaces will create the right inorganic vapour barrier that 
because it is bonded to the straw will act as an composite solution. The 
bale density is also important and I would try to optimise this at 110kg/cu 
metre if not a bit more to take out the absorbent factor.

Regards

Mark

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rikki Nitzkin" <rikkinitzkin at earthlink...>
To: <strawbale at amper....muni.cz>
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 12:19 PM
Subject: [!! SPAM] Re: [Strawbale] Strawbale Digest, Vol 41, Issue 5

Yes, thank you. I understand this issue. I said the same thing when
contacted for information. However the case is not that the walls grow
fungi. The idea is that this person wants to build a MUSHROOM FARM. He
wants the mushrooms to grow inside the building, not inside the walls.
But for the mushrooms to grow he needs 75-90% Humidity inside the
building (as if it were a Sauna). So the question is how to avoid that
this necessary humidity affects the walls that surround it.

I know that some people have made SB Saunas, so I suppose that the
solutions that work for that would work for this...but am unsure as to
what solutions have worked, and more importantly which ones have
failed...

sincerely,
Rikki

El 10/04/2009, a las 12:00, strawbale-request at amper....muni.cz
escribió:

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>   1.  Mushroom building (Mark Harrison)
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> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 21:27:38 +0100
> From: "Mark Harrison" <mark at harrisonembrey...>
> Subject: [Strawbale] Mushroom building
> To: "European strawbale building discussions"
> <strawbale at amper....muni.cz>
> Message-ID: <9B2D0E39561049C8B9952C7B4C97BBD4 at user82348697ac>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> 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 Construcci?n con Balas de Paja
>
>
>    www.casasdepaja.org
>    casasdepaja at yahoo...
>    http://casasdepaja.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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