[GSBN] Emerald update (GSBN Digest, Vol 33, Issue 17)

Sat Feb 5 07:16:47 UTC 2011

Thanks guys
Thanks Guys

I had  a look at an informative site last night on what the Aussies are doing with perlite and vermiculite  http://www.australianperlite.com/perlite-concrete.htm. Great products – though if you look at the EE – all that vermiculite has to be imported from the Kiwi’s and the perlite from another couple of thousand KMs south. 
Emerald is beyond the black stump. Once upon a time they had a lot of precious stones. Now they have a big dam with lots of cotton, wheat, oranges. (all gone with the the big wet and not durable for the future). The town is thriving between the cotton and coal industry. Everything gets trained in/out. Brisbane is 1000km from there. 

I guess the biggest issue for us are
1..  we need a product that will withstand the flood conditions that this building has just been through. ie bottom bales in water for 3 days, second bales in water for 1 day. As much as all us wished to be able to use straw again, the evidence from monitoring the walls for 1 month was overwhelming. The straw was rotting. 

2..  our stake holders included local council, Qld Tourism, insurer, engineer, builder etc we needed to give them the confidence that the solution was long term / climate change friendly.  

3.. It needs to be able to do the job the bottom 2 rows were doing – supporting the non load bearing walls, and its render, insulation, aesthetics.

4... Then we looked at options that were achievable from an engineering point of view. Colin is standing behind me wanting to know how you pour this product into some framework 2 bales high while supporting the SB walls above? These are great option for ground up construction (along with those lovely mussel shells), but is going to be a bit of a brain teaser for restoration work. Though we open to here how if your miles ahead and were missing something obvious. 

Colin tells me that it will be a bit of trial an error, that is why he will be on site with the builders from the go. 

My understanding is that they are thinking of leaving the external wall of lime intact. A few extra expansion joints before work starts.
Working segment at a time.
Breaking some holes through the width of the wall using Lance’s coring piece.
Placing beams through these which will be supported by jacks. 
Removal of straw below (still leaving that lime on the external surface)
Having the light weight blocks to work into this space will be beneficial – there are threaded rods at 900mm centres, some tie down wires, low window sills, doors etc to work around. The benefit of the super insulation EPS blocks is the fact that it is super light weight, cheap, engineered for the load, can take on a curved form where needed, and can be worked into this space in a timely manner. 
Patch render, make finish good, go home. 
We’re not worried about those little termites. We have them everywhere in Qld, doing what termites do. We construct to stop the problem at slab level – end of story. 

Chris

From: Kelly Lerner 
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 9:56 PM
To: ArchiLogic at yahoo.ca ; (private, with public archives) Global Straw Building Network 
Cc: SB Yahoos 
Subject: Re: [GSBN] Emerald update (GSBN Digest, Vol 33, Issue 17)

My (late) two cent's worth to add to RT's thoughts on EPS under bales. 

I agree that EPS is overkill in terms of insulation and has the added problems of possibly creating moisture issues and is loaded with fire retardant (in addition to the issues of global warming potential, susceptibility to insect attack, high embodied energy, etc). 

I'm moving towards using compacted perlite as under-slab insulation in Spokane, WA. I wonder if you have any natural, mineral based material like perlite or pumice locally available? If so, you might want to check it out. Just a thought. We used a cavity brick wall filled with pumice-like coal slag as an insulated wall at the base of strawbale walls in northern China. Not perfect, but locally available and a good moisture resistant wall base under strawbale walls. 

Thanks for sharing so much of your process. Huge gift to the SB community!

On Jan 27, 2011, at 11:22 PM, RT wrote:

  On Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:00:03 -0500, <gsbn-request at greenbuilder.com> wrote:>

    Message: 1

    on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 09:21:17 +1000

    "Chris Newton" wrote:

    Re: Fw: Emerald update

    Currently we plan to replace [all of the flood-damaged bales] with engineered high density expanded polystyrene foam blocks.

    Of course we are really interested in any other greener product out there that will meet the needs, we have a few months up our sleeve to explore and experiment.

    I guess we are now looking at replacing 2 layers of bales around the whole building. I hear conversations between Lance and Col about supporting the upper bales in various ways while the damaged bales are removed, and having to put a new capillary layer on top of the expanding foam.

  [snip]

  (for full text of message/thread, see
       http://greenbuilder.com/pipermail/gsbn/2011q1/001252.html )

Kelly Lerner, Architect
One World Design Architecture
509-838-8812
www.one-world-design.com

Have you read Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House? Available in Bookstores across the Universe. 
www.naturalremodeling.com

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