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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;color:#595959;mso-themecolor:
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<b>Adobe South</b><br>
<b>A:</b> 5 Lancewood Rise, Onerahi, Whangarei<br>
<b>P:</b> 09 436 4040 <b>M:</b>
027 490 2324<br>
<b>E:</b> ian@adobesouth.co.nz<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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none;mso-border-insidev:none"><tbody></tbody></table><!--EndFragment--></div></div></div></div></div><div><br></div><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div style="font-family:Calibri; font-size:11pt; text-align:left; color:black; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: #b5c4df 1pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 3pt"><span style="font-weight:bold">From: </span> Graeme North <<a href="mailto:graeme@ecodesign.co.nz">graeme@ecodesign.co.nz</a>><br><span style="font-weight:bold">Reply-To: </span> Global Straw Building Network <<a href="mailto:GSBN@sustainablesources.com">GSBN@sustainablesources.com</a>><br><span style="font-weight:bold">Date: </span> Monday, February 10, 2014 9:10 AM<br><span style="font-weight:bold">To: </span> Global Straw Building Network <<a href="mailto:GSBN@sustainablesources.com">GSBN@sustainablesources.com</a>><br><span style="font-weight:bold">Subject: </span> Re: [GSBN] Straw bale survives the recent New Zealand earthquake<br></div><div><br></div><div><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi John<div><br></div><div>I am sure that there would have been a continuous reinforced concrete foundation, and bond beams.</div><div><br></div><div>Graeme</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> <br><div><div>On 7/02/2014, at 1:11 PM, John Swearingen <<a href="mailto:jswearingen@skillful-means.com">jswearingen@skillful-means.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">Thanks, Graeme. We look forward to your first-hand inspection! <div><br></div><div>From what you noted, there was no tie beam or foundation holding together the "ground embedded posts". If that's indeed the case, then as the rolling waves passed through the house, the posts would have swayed independently,like boats' masts in a marina. This would be an eccentric movement that the straps may not have been able to effectively restrain.</div><div><br></div><div>John "Mastadon" Swearingen</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 1:17 PM, Graeme North <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:graeme@ecodesign.co.nz" target="_blank">graeme@ecodesign.co.nz</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Hi Everyone - A very preliminary report:</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Ian and I have now reviewed the council file on the damaged strawbale building and can report so far that:</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">1) The drawings are rudimentary and show little construction detail but they do show the roof held up on timber beams, supported on a series of ground-embedded posts. Lateral bracing is from crossed and tensioned metal straps so the plaster skins were not expected to take lateral in-plane loads - or not intentionally anyway.</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">2) The drawings for the walls show an exterior weather protecting cavity. We have no evidence that these were installed from the photos we have seen so far.</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">3) There is an earth roof drawn at 100mm thick over a rubber membrane on plywood - presumably the ply roof gave some diaphragm effect.</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">
4) The heavy roof appears to have survived the earthquake but we surmise that the structure has flexed quite a lot in the earthquake with that heavy roof, and this may have induced the severe plaster damage that we have seen so far. </div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">5) The drawings show an earth floor - we have no idea yet how this has feared.</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">6) We have been told via the grapevine that the building already had moisture issues but whether that was roof or walls, or had any bearing on the earthquake damage seen we do not know yet. The Council file is silent on that matter as far as we are concerned. </div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">7) The drawings were given a building consent in 2003 and the building was signed off as being code compliant by the Council in 2005.</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">
8) We are willing to travel and inspect the building, but we first need relevant permissions unless we go in a very unofficial capacity.</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">
Cheers</div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Graeme</div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div></font></span><div><div><div class="h5"><div>On 27/01/2014, at 2:21 PM, Lance Kairl <<a href="mailto:sabale@bigpond.com" target="_blank">sabale@bigpond.com</a>> wrote:</div><br></div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div lang="EN-AU" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div><div class="h5"><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas"><u></u> <u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">Hi all<u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">My two bobs worth.<u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas"><u></u> <u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">
To me it looks like a post and beam structure with the posts in the centre of the wall, Perhaps with Only straw as the bracing , render skins in that case would only partially absorb forces!<u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">
In the shake it would compress the straw on one side and then the other as it sways, creating stresses further along the walls,<u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">
And with any oscillation of the posts result in a vertical crack in the render adjacent to the post.<u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas"><u></u> <u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">
Note crap window sill / render detail .<u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">I'm glad we don’t build them like that, and don’t have 6.5 + quakes to deal with.<u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas"><u></u> <u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">Like many of us would love to be there to inspect and learn.<u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas">Cheers lance.<u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas"><u></u> <u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas"><u></u> <u></u></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "> </span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><u></u> <u></u></div></div></div><div class="">_______________________________________________<br>GSBN mailing list<br><a href="mailto:GSBN@sustainablesources.com" style="color:purple;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">GSBN@sustainablesources.com</a><br><a href="http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/GSBN" style="color:purple;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/GSBN</a><br></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
GSBN mailing list<br><a href="mailto:GSBN@sustainablesources.com">GSBN@sustainablesources.com</a><br><a href="http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/GSBN" target="_blank">http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/GSBN</a><br><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><font face="'trebuchet ms', sans-serif"><span style="font-size:x-small"><font color="#666666">John Swearingen<br>Skillful Means Design & Construction<br>
2550 9th Street Suite 209A<br>Berkeley, CA 94710<br>510.849.1800 phone<br>510.849.1900 fax<br><br>Web Site: <a href="http://www.skillful-means.com/" target="_blank">http://www.skillful-means.com</a><br>Blog: <a href="https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com</a></font></span></font></div>
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