[GSBN] Fire resistance of unrendered straw bales

[Bob Theis]

Hello Pete, 

Years ago, I made a survey of all the known fires in straw bale buildings I could hunt up  ( summarized in chapter 6 of The Design of Straw Bale Buildings ) . While the survey included  just 14 buildings, the clearest variable for  the amount of damage caused was whether the bales had been plastered. It was evident that a fire in an unplastered building with the wood framing exposed was the most likely scenario to result in the total loss of the building. 

So it is standard practice around here is to be conscientious about sweeping up loose straw during stacking, and -  with clay plasters  -   to get a slip coat on the bale walls as soon as possible.  

The fire tests to date include at least one on unplastered  bales ; check in at buildwellsource.org

Bob Theis



> On Aug 3, 2018, at 7:14 AM, Pete Walker <P.Walker at bath.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> Hi
>  
> I am writing on behalf of a leading straw bale builder in UK who has run into concerns from a fire safety consultant concerning exposed straw bales during construction. The consultant is happy to accept the fire performance of load bearing straw bale walls once rendered, but is concerned that the exposed (unrendered) straw bales present too high a fire load risk during construction. To limit this risk the consultant is requiring that the 2 and 3 storey bale walls are rendered in stages as the construction progresses (in sections of around 250 bales per time), rather than all in one go after completion of all the bale walls (around 750 bales in total), as is more usual practice. This will cause significant programming issues for the project.
>  
> Therefore, I am writing to enquire:
> 1)      Has anyone else had similar experiences? If so, how did it work out?
> 2)      Has anyone had experience of straw bale buildings catching fire during construction? If so, how did it work out?
> 3)      What other fire protection measures have you experienced? Are your walls/bale stockpiles covered by a fire protection layer during construction, before rendering?
> 4)      Does anyone have data/information on fire performance of unrendered straw bale walls?
> 5)      Any other words of advice?
>  
> many thanks and best wishes
>  
> Pete Walker
>  
> _______________________________________________
> Gsbn mailing list
> Gsbn at sustainablesources.com <mailto:Gsbn at sustainablesources.com>
> http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/gsbn <http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/gsbn>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sustainablesources.com/pipermail/gsbn/attachments/20180803/dafcd358/attachment.htm>