[GSBN] Tall walls and wet clay

[laura at greenweaverinc.com]

I have had two interesting issues come up and thought it might be 
interesting to share with the list.

One on project, a straw bale public library in southern Colorado with 
tall walls (which are compressed mid-height), the specs are for the 
interior to be earth plastered above the 3' wainscot of drywall over 
ICF. The question that has come up is that with tall walls and earth 
plaster, should the plaster preparation over wood change in any way 
over what the plaster subcontractor would usually do. He is 
accustomed to not using building paper over wood framing in the bale 
walls, but does use a plaster lath to span to the straw. I am curious 
about both potential shear movement and compressive load of the 
plaster itself with tall walls and whether either of these have been 
addressed differently for taller walls. (Tim Owen-Kennedy- this makes 
me think of the winery.)

On another project, an office building in PA, they have located great 
clay, with little expansiveness, but when sourced, is very wet and 
not easily processed. Living in the dry west, this is not something I 
have much experience with. I remember Sam Droege's comment in TLS 
about breaking up wet clay by soaking and using a mortar hoe in a 
garbage can. Projects on a larger scale in areas with very wet local 
clay might look to some more mechanized proces - either spreading out 
the clay and turning, or soaking and processing with mixing 
equipment. One builder in NY once told me that he gave up using his 
local clays because of this and uses bagged ball clay. If we are 
hoping to see projects use local material, this may be an issue to 
address (or perhaps has been already in those damp climates unlike 
mine).

Just trying to spur on our conversations again,

Laura



Laura Bartels
P.O. Box 912, Carbondale, CO 81623
Ph 970-379-6779, Fax 970-963-0905
laura at greenweaverinc.com
www.greenweaverinc.com