[GSBN] your comments on gsbn for mark

[ejgeorge at riseup.net]

Quoting "Mark Piepkorn" <mark at buildinggreen.com>:

   Hi James,

         The GSBN list moderator forwarded your message to me. I'd be
very interested in having you clear up my misconceptions and supply me
with the facts I'm missing. There's potentially a whole lot of stuff
that wasn't in the one newspaper article I've seen about your methods,
and who knows how much of that was misreported.

         I'll forward any of our exchanges to the GSBN list so that
you can be of record.

         I don't know if you're familiar with that email list. Without
meaning to be presumptuous, I'll explain what you may already know:
GSBN stands for Global Straw Building Network. It was started over a
decade ago as a communications hub for key individuals in and
representatives of the strawbale and natural building movement
worldwide. I was a founding member. It's a closed list in an effort to
keep traffic light; many of the members are busy professionals. The
article about your project was forwarded to the list by the editor of
The Last Straw -  www.thelaststraw.org[1] - for comment and opinion.

You wrote:
just saw your comments on my home in hot springs, in regard to my
system of straw bale building... you should really do some research
before you spout off.... I would be glad to clear up all those
missconceptions for you if you would care to engage in some open
dialouge,,, but please get the facts before you condemn,,, reminds me
of all those closed minded rednecks I have all around me. hope to hear
from ya   james in hot springs south dakota

         For your convenience, I'll copy what I and others wrote below
- as well as the newspaper article - so that you can address the
errors more easily.

At 08:53 PM 6/7/2009, Joyce Coppinger wrote:
Wonder what you think about this fellow's "new system of building" a
straw bale structure.

I haven't seen it or talked with him - just read the newspaper
article.

Joyce Coppinger
Managing Editor/Publisher
The Last Straw, the international journal of strawbale and natural
building

The article appeared in South Dakota newspapers.

Straw bale buildings support green living for James Hay
By Karen Yekel

HOT SPRINGS ­ Nearly two years after the devastation known locally as
³Alabaugh,² James Hay is getting his home back together. Well, almost.
The straw bale structure he has worked on all winter is just about
ready to be inhabited by trucks and tools. ³This is my 1200 square
foot garage and shop,² said Hay, who has spent the past three months
stuffing straw, pouring concrete, and surfacing stucco at his place in
Pine Shadows.

The 55-year old part-time county resident lost everything but his
Toyota pickup during the holocaust that melted his collection of
Fairburn agates, as well as everything else he owned. He was uninsured
for his losses.

³I used to have shade and a view,² he laughed, ³Now I just have a
view.²

Starting over, Hay is creating a ³pretty much² fireproof set of
structures that will be his permanent home when he is in Hot Springs.

Hay¹s buildings are answering the call toward green living. The only
lumber is in the roof structure and the interior stays cool in the
summer and warm in the winter. ³A good thermal mass resists
temperature changes,² said Hay. The structure requires very little
insulation and has an R factor of between 40 and 55. ³The difference
is in how you stuff your straw,² Hay said.

³I have developed a new system of building the straw bale structure,²
he said, ³First thinking like a carpenter, and then a bridge builder.²
The garage/shop combination is his practice piece for the 3000 square
foot house he plans to build.

The process began with strategically stacking 400 bales of straw.
³You don¹t want it to get wet,² he said. A six-inch by six-inch groove
is cut into the bales; then steel rebar and quilted, woven wires are
inserted and cinched tightly. A concrete ³sidewalk² rests on top of
the bales and concrete columns are poured into the walls as a support
system. The load bearing is in all of the concrete, Hay said.

Once the concrete sets up, it¹s time for the ³scratch² coat of
stucco, which is scratched with a trowel for better adherence to the
bales; this is followed by a ³brown² coat with a smoother texture. The
finish coat will be tinted for a colored stucco exterior. ³It will be
self-sustaining,² Hay said.

Ironically, Hay¹s name has no bearing on his decision to build a
straw home. He said, ³I put up so much hay as a teenager I swore I¹d
never touch a bale again.²

Now he¹s returned full circle to the material that sustained his
farmstead, to a breathtaking view, to rebuild, and to renew his bonds
with the earthy materials that will make a home of his house.

At 09:37 PM 6/7/2009, Mark Piepkorn wrote:
At 08:53 PM 6/7/2009, Joyce Coppinger wrote:
concrete columns are poured into the walls as a support system. The
load bearing is in all of the concrete, Hay said.
This is the way Erem Birkani's BaleBlock system worked. Except he
drilled 4" columns into the bales (two per bale) rather than notching
spaces into bale-ends (which I think is what the article described,
poorly). That this guy has gone forward with this idea indicates to me
that he hasn't done anywhere near an appropriate amount of homework on
using straw bales as a building material.

I also think it's amusing that reduced wood use is given as a green
feature when he's building smack-dab in the middle of a couple million
acres of big, straight pine. That's a lot of locally available
renewable resource. Using trees isn't evil when it's environmentally
reasonable. I do get that he's going for fireproof on the cheap, but
he could achieve the same level of fire resistance using wood columns
instead of concrete.

I'm disappointed in his idea of having a 3,000-square-foot second
home, too.

I can get away with saying these things because I'm so very perfect
in every way.

Mark

At 11:14 AM 6/8/2009, Judy Knox wrote:
Mark is correct in his facts and, I think, in his evaluation. He
developed this system back in the early/mid 1990's and it also
included an rba of poured concrete... nothing like traveling light..

Judy Knox and Matts Myhrman
Out On Bale
         (James, I'm going to jump in here for a second - again, not
intending to be presumptuous - in case the unusual term "RBA" didn't
make sense. It's an acronym for "roof bearing assembly," as prescribed
by the Tucson/Pima SB code. Judy's partner, Matts, was a primary
author of that code. While we're on the subject, you might be
interested in this article from Environmental Building News about the
history of strawbale codes; it's behind a paywall, but the following
link will work for the next week -

http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2006/2/1/Ten-Years-Later-Strawbale-in-the-Building-Codes/?&accessCode=6t7xt7[2]

This link will expire on June 26, 2009. Heck, here's another article
you might enjoy about the Natural Building Movement from the same
publication -

http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2005/5/1/The-Natural-Building-Movement/?&accessCode=xvmw41[3]

This link will also expire on June 26, 2009.)

At 01:30 PM 6/8/2009, John Swearingen wrote:
We can all pile on!  This did seem like a good idea at the time, but
It's an inelegant use of materials... concrete seems strong but isn't,
except in big chunks.  A 6" post of concrete doesn't begin to compare
in utility to a wood post.

John

         I look forward to getting schooled. Seriously. Hope to hear
from you soon.

Mark Piepkorn



Links:
------
[1] http://www.thelaststraw.org/
[2]  
http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2006/2/1/Ten-Years-Later-Strawbale-in-the-Building-Codes/?&accessCode=6t7xt7
[3]  
http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2005/5/1/The-Natural-Building-Movement/?&accessCode=xvmw41