[GSBN] Floods in Queensland, Australia

Tue Jan 4 18:50:41 UTC 2011

Thanks Lance

Timber bottom plates with gravel. You may pick up the the bales are laid on 
the flat edge, but they were baled with the straw vertical - it is what we 
had to work with when we got there. I am hoping that would have reduced the 
wicking of moisture to the centre of the bale, but at the same time it may 
reduce the drying capacity. They were lovely tight bales and well compressed 
with threaded rods. The neat fluid level seems to reflect that the last 
person to leave work locked the doors so the internal walls did not have the 
water pressure that the external walls had. No pics of the external lime 
walls yet  - I've just sent Col off to the airport this morning. We were 
told that this looks like it was water blasted for 3  days.

None of the walls were sealed. The internal clay was great. We could not 
sieve it so it went through the towns old bone mill then off to the cement 
mixing company. 3:1 with and fungicide in the final coat. The external 
render is lime. The temperature in Emerald at present is approx 20 - 32 C 
with post flood high humidity. Attached typical January. The town is 500 km 
inland, and somewhat dry and hot - but all norms are out the window this 
year with more rain on the way, and the wet /cyclone season at the end 
January - Feb.  So I guess we are calling it hot and humid at present.

Web site shows the simple passive solar designed building with the extended 
awnings  http://www.newtonhouse.info/emerald.htm

Chris,

From: Agency Development Pty Ltd
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 8:34 PM
To: 'Chris Newton'
Subject: RE: [GSBN] Floods in Queensland, Australia

What are these bales sitting on?? Do you have a timber rack above the 
concrete with a gravel bed???  You may be surprised how well these bales 
will withstand this event if they are well compressed.  The big challenge 
now is to get these bales dried out,  I would not start removing anything 
until I had given them a chance, and a helping hand to dry out.  I have seen 
bales absolutely saturated and allowed to dry and lost little structural 
integrity.  What is the outside render and has it been sealed??  Where is 
this building??  Injection of anti-bacterial and anti-fungal chemicals may 
slow the breakdown of the straw which may give you more time to dry them 
out.  You need to research what the breakdown process is (biologist) but is 
this environment I think it will be an anaerobic (no oxygen) process in the 
middle of the bale.  Please give me as much info about construction as you 
can.  Not sure if I can help.

Regards,

Lance Picton

Mooloolah Valley

From: Chris Newton [mailto:Chris at newtonhouse.info]
Sent: Tuesday, 4 January 2011 8:13 PM
To: (private, with public archives) Global Straw Building Network
Subject: Re: [GSBN] Floods in Queensland, Australia

Hi all

We have some photos today, tomorrow we will see it. No moisture meter 
required. That is water you can see on the straw. Surprised with the neat 
line the flood has left us on the inside. The full height walls were 
compressed with threaded rods. The walls under the windows have the slab 
sills sitting on some ply. The ply top plate was compressed using wire and 
gripples.

Chris

From: Chris Newton

Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 8:30 AM

To: larskeller at gmail.com ; (private, with public archives) Global Straw 
Building Network

Cc: Lance Kairl

Subject: Re: [GSBN] Floods in Queensland, Australia

Thanks Lars

We are bouncing ideas over breakfast. The bottom one or 2 bales are gone – 
given. There is a new flood level. We are considering that we should replace 
the bales with another material such as Hebel blocks (aerated concrete). 
Still waiting to eyeball the building.

Any word on the SB you did out outside Rockhampton John.

Chris

From: Lars Keller

Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 4:52 AM

To: (private, with public archives) Global Straw Building Network

Subject: Re: [GSBN] Floods in Queensland, Australia

Dear Chris,

I have no experience equalling this.

I have 2 experiences with water:

- water seeking down through very localised areas.

Then what happens always is that the water follows the "flakes" within the 
bale. And moves  straight down. Creating a black, bad line that can be as 
thin as a few centimeters, stretching from the leaking point to where the 
water can run out in the bottom.

What we have managed to do when we have found such a place very early on is 
drilling holes through the plaster to the wall, from both sides, and that 
way created a draft, which has dried it up so we didn't have to do more.

What is probably more relevant is the following:

- a workshop where the bales had been put straight on a concrete footer 
(bad), with a piece of tar-paper in-between the footer and the wall (ok), 
but the tar-paper had been folded up, app. 200mm on each side, creating a 
huge water-catchment device (BAD), and the house had no eaves for a long 
time (BAD), located in very windy and rainy Denmark, and no plaster (BAD).

The result was that the bottom 200mm went black and slimy. Absolutely 
utterly useless. And from exactly 200mm and up everything was fine.

There was earthen plaster on the inside.

What we did was the following:

we took one bale out at a time and replaced it. As it was the bottom bale 
and it was plastered on the inside it had been compressed a fair bit, so it 
was hard to get the new one in place. We did this by sliding it in between 
to sheets of aluminium with handles on. And then two persons on their backs 
kicking it in. The earthen plaster on the inside flexed and shook but did 
not crack. The length of the wall app. 40 meters.

All the best,

Lars

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