[GSBN] Fwd: Humidity within a bale house....

[John Swearingen]

Put briefly, straw is used as a growing media for mushrooms.  Although it
would be economical in the short run to combine your structure and your
growing media, in the long run you would be left without walls.
John "'ShroomZoom" Swearingen

On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 12:03 PM, <ejgeorge at riseup.net> wrote:

> Ironically, two messages just came through on the NBNE list regarding a
> strawbale root cellar and a straw bale walkin cooler with similar humidity
> concerns -- I've added them below if anyone wants to comment...
>
> ej
>
> ej George
> Certified Sustainable Building Consultant
> 607-387-3602
> ejgeorge at riseup.net
>
>
>
> Quoting "Rikki Nitzkin" <rikkinitzkin at earthlink.net>:
>
>>
>>> 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.es
>>> http://casasdepaja.blogspot.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
> Straw Bale Root Cellar...Yea, sounds crazy no?
>
> My client wants to spare the cost of building an underground bunker for a
> root cellar. I proposed to incorporate one in the straw bale ?connector?
> between the old bale home and the new bale home (this is the Earth Sweet
> Home Institute in Dumerston, VT). I generally understand the basic
> principles of a root cellar; temp, humidity, air. To spare you all the
> details of the design my main concern is the desired level of humidity. Two
> of the four walls of this above ground root cellar are straw bale and of the
> two, only one, (the longest), is exposed to the outside. The other two
> including the ceiling are conventionally framed with cellulose or rigid with
> an AB. What have people used to make the interior plaster have close to a 0
> perm rating? And is this just a crazy idea of mine?
>
> andy mueller
> greenspace colllaborative
> www.greenspacecollaborative.com
>
> hmm...
>
> my root cellar is in my basement.  two walls are basement foundation walls,
> without damp-proofing or insulation.  the floor has no slab, just gravel and
> footer drains.  the other two walls are stud framed; they and the ceiling
> are insulated with batts and sheetrocked.  I applied a two-coat epoxy paint
> to the rock to make a vapor-impermeable and scrub-able surface.  The
> interior humidity should be in the 90% range, optimally; given that relative
> atmospheric humidity in the winter is very low, ventilating this air makes
> for drier than ideal conditions requiring regular misting and spraying of
> the room.  This is where both the diesel wall surface and the drain floor
> come in really handy.  Also, things do get very funky in there, so being
> able to wash the walls down in h2o2 or other disinfectant is important.
>
> If you wanted to trick out the interior plaster to be waterproof, I suppose
> you could just go ahead and apply a similar strong paint to the surface; I
> wouldn't bother with anything that couldn't receive a good vigorous
> wipe-down, and I'd aim on getting the surface as smooth as practically
> possible.
>
> I hope this helps...good luck and keep us posted!
>
> Deva
>
>
> From: Jacob Deva Racusin <buildnatural at googlemail.com>
> Subject: [nbne] straw bale cooler
> To: nbne at lists.riseup.net
> Date: Monday, April 6, 2009, 1:38 PM
>
> Alright, Andy, I'll see your root cellar and raise you a produce cooler...
>
> I just spoke with a client who runs a farm with his wife, and they want to
> build an insulated cooler to store their produce after harvest during the
> summer.  They would like to use straw as an ecologically-friendly
> insulation
> material.  They will be putting up the walls within the envelope of an
> existing
> barn; they would remove the siding from the walls where the bales would be
> located, build internal-wrap bale walls (barn framing to the exterior,
> plaster,
> and re-side.  Commercial air conditioner will control interior climate.
>
> Am I missing something in thinking that straw with good plastering interior
> and
> out will be able to handle this situation?  We're looking at 80-90 degF and
> high humidity (70-100%?) outside in the summer, and 35-40 degF and much
> lower
> humidity inside.  Of course condensation inside could be an issue, but the
> plaster should be able to control that I would think/hope, if the space is
> kept
> ventilated (which it will with powered air conditioner).  Bigger concern I
> suppose is condensation in the wall, which seemingly would be most likely
> close
> to the interior, thus a very well-detailed exterior plaster coat will be
> key.
> This won't have the same pressures of high interior humidity (and
> associated decomposition) as the root cellar, although cleaning will still
> be an
> issue to some degree...
>
> Am I being too risky in recommending bales, or does this seem reasonable?
>  It
> kinda seems like baling in the southeast, only a bit more extreme...I
> appreciate
> any feedback or resources.  Anyone know of any precedence?
>
> Best,
> Deva
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>



-- 
John Swearingen

Skillful Means
www.skillful-means.com
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