[GSBN] Update on Emerald Floods.

Tue Jan 11 17:19:09 UTC 2011

        Emerald 5 Jan, Day 3
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      This album has 4 photos and will be available on SkyDrive until 10/04/2011. 

Hi All, thanks for the correspondence. It has all helped.

Colin flew up on the 5th January, 3 days after the floods subsided. The bottom row was fully submerged on 31,1st and 2nd January – looks like the 2nd bale was saved. The internal walls of clay have had the finish coat washed off but most of the body coat intact. The body coat has now been left in situ and the slumped mixture of mud and flood silt that is seen in these photos has been cleared away. The white ‘stuff’ and black ‘stuff’ seen in these photos are moulds and fungi that were already growing on Day 3.

The external walls look ok despite the original phone calls. The lime is all intact. The photo does not show it well but there are 2 stain levels. The lower one is at the top of the first bale and where the internal flood level went to. The second level is to the top of the second bale – this water level is also completely around the building. Colin’s initial thought is that it was splash up of flood water. I wonder if it is raising damp that is visible on the lime wall. Open to thoughts on this one? 

There is some pressure from the council to get the building operational ASAP so they can support the tourist industry post floods. The building is insured, but at this stage we are unsure whether the insurer will permit SB below the new flood levels. The council reps we have spoken to are keen to see her reinstated to her previous glory .

So what have we done, listened to a lot of advice (thanks all):- 

CLEAN UP
1. removed the slumped clay mixed with flood silt mix that is seen in these photos – Done

DRYING
1. leave the clay body coat and lime in situ (as advised by Jim and Graeme) – Done
2. opened the building for natural ventilation – Done
3. arranged fans for when the power is turned on – Done
4. daily moisture content readings by council – Done
5. We will apply a lime render over the clay body coat – considering this on our next visit on 21st January (Day 18). This will allow council to reopen the building.
And then there was some lateral thinking:-
6. With the current humidity natural evaporation may only be a couple of mm per day. I found this machine that does 28 litres per day. Any thoughts http://www.dampsolutions.com.au/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/1/products_id/3 
7. Core the width of bale and place socks fill with water crystals and change these as needed. Water crystals draw in moisture and hold up to 400 times their weight in moisture.
8. Re render with positive air displacement tubes and fans
9. CO2 into bales

MOULD AND FUNGI MANAGEMENT
1. light sprayed walls with chlorine (Sodium Hypochlorite) to kill current fungi growth. From day 4
2. follow up light spray of fungicide to minimise further growth. From Day 4
3. consider gas based fungicide (fogging) by licenced fumigator 

MOISTURE CONTENT
1. spoken harshly to weather bureau who continues to forecast showers for the area that has kept the temperature lower then normal but the humidity much to high http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ60801/IDQ60801.94363.shtml. Emerald is 500km inland on the Tropic of Capricorn. It has stopped raining in Emerald, but the wet season is still ahead of them and the first of the seasons cyclones building up off the coast !!! – They are not answering their phones.

Day 4 - moisture content in the centre of the 1st bale was 60 – 70%. Centre 2nd bale (100mm up) 16 – 20% 
Day 11 – moisture content unchanged.   Nearly all moulds and fungi gone 

FUTURE PLANNING
Wikipedia is not offering much hope :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mold_growth,_assessment,_and_remediation , and our building authority says “Absorbent items that have been saturated by contaminated water and cannot be cleaned must be disposed of.” and to “get the Moisture content of other building materials below 16% or throw it out”. I am unsure that we can achieve any of this best practice post flood damage advice.  http://www.bsadisasterrecovery.qld.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/Contractor/FLOOD%20-%20Contractor%27s%20guide%20for%20restoring%20a%20house%20after%20a%20flood.pdf

We must keep moving on this one so the building can be reopened. A large part of me states that this building can not be an experiment. It is a public building, and I would hate experimental restoration approaches turn into black goo. So we may be moving rapidly into replacement of the bottom row. Colin is playing with some ideas involving timber frames to replace the bales we remove give the new flood levels. 

And from our SB never say die community:-

Dear Chris,

I am Stefano from Italy. I am living in a straw bale house near Venice and in 2008 the river flooded and come into the house soaking the first layer of bales. 

I can understand your mood and I saw your photos with great anxiety.

Fortunately our the house is not loadbearing and we did not have any subsidence. We thought was a sporadic event, but actually happened three times in two years. So we decided to build an embankment all around the building (photos) with a huge quantity of energy and money so that it will not happen again. In September we tested: there was another flood, but the water did not come over the embankment !

Anyway we tried not to replace the straw bales everywhere practicing holes in the internal plaster deep enough into the wet bales and left the air passing through. Moreover we rented a blower that farmers use into greenhouse, directing the tube toward the wall alternating hot and cold air and. We managed to dry inside the straw quite enough. In some part facing north where sun never shines, we are going to replace bales section by section next summer, with warmer temperature.

I wish you a drier (but not too much!) 2011 and I send you my love

Stefano

Dear Chris, Colin and Lance, 
Luckily we had water into the house for one day,  three times  (3 floods ), but bales were submerged for “only” 20 hours each time.

We have lime render and clay plaster. We used lime putty (= seasoned slaked lime) and sand outside, no cement nor hydraulic lime, and clay, sand and straw inside. We did not use any instrument to measure moisture content, just hands. Few days after the flood we had mushrooms sprouting on the walls and rot and mildew smell.

Flood was in winter and we had almost three months of rain, high humidity and cold (5-10°C).

We made some holes into the wall and with the greenhouse fan and the plastic tube we blew alternately hot and cold air on the walls for probably 2 or 3 weeks. 

Someone suggested us to make holes into the walls and put twisted newspapers inside and change them 2 o 3 times a day. (too much work for us!) I think that making holes and let air pass through, probably cold  air in your climate (early morning, late afternoon and night), is better.

I should not spray any fungicide in my home, but lime wash (a little denser than normal) which has an high pH between 11-13 and it is natural without any toxic residues for human health. And probably is cheaper !!

We decided not to work on the walls, replacing straw bales and plastering, until we have the embankment. We completed it in September, after that it started raining and it is still raining. Next summer we will break some plaster to see how straw is.

If you have any question I will be glad to reply

Good luck

Stefano 

www.laboa.org

Shall keep you in touch with our progress. We value your thoughts and experience

Love Chris, Colin and Lance
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