<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">This list is a fantastic resource for learned info and is greatly appreciated I can tell you.<div class=""><br class=""><div class="">The fire thing is scary - there is no requirement in NZ for single dwellings to have fire resistant ceiling materials, but we do need to have smoke alarms near bedrooms and escape routes.</div><div class="">The really scary thing is that the fire people here advise that a dry house with an open attic with light timber rafters or trusses for roof framing will burn from end to end in 60 secs.</div><div class="">Goodness knows what adding an accelerant like straw (without a good clay coating) might do. I would advise against it.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I would use straw coated with clay - pretty much a LEM mix - if my structure allowed it to happen easily and I was considering it for my own house but the work required and extra weight decided against it </div><div class="">and again recently I considered it on another design but the considerably increased extra depth of the roof structure to accommodate it, along with the extra cost, work, and weight, decided against it again so I went with wool insulation in both cases.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I am also not convinced that cellulose/paper insulation with borax retains it fire rating over time - I have seen examples of old (only a few years) cellulose insulation that would not ignite when new, ignite readily with a match and it seems to keep burning quite happily.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Cheers</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Graeme</div><div class=""> </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 26/10/2017, at 5:36 AM, Bruce EBNet <<a href="mailto:bruce@ecobuildnetwork.org" class="">bruce@ecobuildnetwork.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div>Don’t you love it when someone else chimes into these discussions ahead of you, and says everything you wanted to say? <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I sure do. Thank you Derek and John; what they said.</div><div class=""><br class=""><div apple-content-edited="true" class="">
<div style="letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div class="">Bruce King</div><div class="">(415) 987-7271</div><div class=""><a href="mailto:bruce@ecobuildnetwork.org" class="">bruce@ecobuildnetwork.org</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<br class=""><div class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Oct 25, 2017, at 7:56 AM, John Straube <<a href="mailto:jfstraube@uwaterloo.ca" class="">jfstraube@uwaterloo.ca</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">I would echo Derek’s concerns exactly. Loose fluffy straw burns very quickly and you may as well say you lost the house.<br class="">Adding clay slips will increase the fire resistance to the point is acceptable, as will dense bales with some sort of clay slip top, but once you do that, you have a heavy and labor intensive roof insulation.<br class="">Cellulose with 20%+ borate treatment is inexpensive, gives good R-value, is widely available, and is very good at fire resistance.<br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">On Oct 25, 2017, at 10:00 AM, Derek Roff <<a href="mailto:derek@unm.edu" class="">derek@unm.edu</a>> wrote:<br class=""><br class="">I have a different concern about using straw packed at low-densities in the roof. I think that the fire risk increase is much more of a problem than the decrease in insulation value. If you have seen flakes of straw or loose straw burn, you will be aware that they are much more flammable than standard bales. Straw flakes are probably about half the density of a building bale, and loose straw might cut the density in half again. <br class=""><br class="">Losing the roof in a fire usually means losing the whole house’s integrity and value. While enclosing the flakes or loose straw for the roof in plywood, for example, would help somewhat with fire resistance, I recommend against design choices that depend on a few things going right to avoid a catastrophic failure in a fire. <br class=""><br class="">An additional consideration that has been mentioned here before, is that while bales may be relatively inexpensive, placing them in the roof requires increasing the size and number of the roof’s structural elements, which will likely raise costs more than the amount saved by using bales instead of other insulation materials in the roof. Using lower density straw diminishes that problem to some extent, but straw is still likely to be significantly heavier than other kinds of roof insulation, for an equivalent insulation value. <br class=""><br class="">Derek<br class=""><br class="">Derek Roff<br class=""><a href="mailto:derek@unm.edu" class="">derek@unm.edu</a><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">On Oct 25, 2017, at 4:34 AM, Rikki Nitzkin <<a href="mailto:rikkinitzkin@gmail.com" class="">rikkinitzkin@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br class=""><br class="">Hi!<br class=""><br class="">I don’t know if you all remember, but not long ago I asked about the MAXIMUM density of a SB before it begins loosing thermal properties… most people agreed that we should not worry about a bale being too dense.<br class=""><br class="">Now I ask about the opposite question: is there a minimum density?<br class=""><br class="">The other day we were talking about using flakes of straw to insulate a roof. One of the builders insisted that is was important that the insulation cavity was filled with highly compressed straw, and another said that as long as the cavity was properly filled (leaving no big holes for air to circulate) that the density of the infill is not important, as the straw (loose or dense, but enclosed in the insulation cavity) impedes the circulation of air, and that is what insulates.<br class=""><br class="">Can any of you technicians refer me to studies about insulation properties and how they relate to density? or at least clarify my doubt: Is it important to highly compact the insulation in the roof? and why… so I can explain it better.<br class=""><br class="">thanks!<br class="">Rikki<br class=""></blockquote><br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">Gsbn mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:Gsbn@sustainablesources.com" class="">Gsbn@sustainablesources.com</a><br class="">http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/gsbn<br class=""></blockquote><br class="">Dr John F Straube, P.Eng.<br class=""><a href="mailto:jfstraube@uwaterloo.ca" class="">jfstraube@uwaterloo.ca</a><br class=""><a href="http://www.johnstraube.com" class="">www.JohnStraube.com</a><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">Gsbn mailing list<br class="">Gsbn@sustainablesources.com<br class="">http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/gsbn<br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div>_______________________________________________<br class="">Gsbn mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:Gsbn@sustainablesources.com" class="">Gsbn@sustainablesources.com</a><br class="">http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/gsbn<br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></body></html>