[Strawbale] Fwd: Futility of quantifying properties of natural materials (was Re: compressing or not

[Dave Howorth]

On Tue, 2014-03-18 at 18:17 -0700, Menno Houtstra wrote:
[snip]
> although i must say that in the cases that i described it is about a
> compressed strawbale wall inside a concrete building.
[snip]

That statement rings alarm bells for me with regard to possible
condensation problems and consequent rot. Whether there could be
problems depends on a lot of factors, but if you're in a northern
European climate and the bales are up against concrete external walls,
there may well be a problem.

You might also want to read up about the chimney effect if unplastered
bales are stacked alongside some other structure.

You may well have already considered these possibilities but I thought
it safest to point them out.

Cheers, Dave