[GSBN] The Straw Stuff

[Chris Magwood]

Hey all,

This past summer, we did a little experiment with our students that 
seemed to work well, and I'm curious if anybody has tried it (or has 
good reason to not try it!) before I go ahead and try it on a slightly 
larger scale.

We were building two walls with straw/clay, using a double stud framing 
system and using thin wood lath on the studs as the form/cage for the 
straw/clay. We then used clay plaster over the lath on the inside and 
outside. As usual in our climate, we were under the gun to get the 
straw/clay placed in time for it to dry thoroughly before plastering.

As we were doing so, I wondered if we might just use the same framing 
and lath system and stuff the cavity with dry straw instead slip-straw. 
So we built a sample frame and did just that. The wall was 12-inches 
deep (as was the straw/clay wall). We placed about 18-inches of lath at 
a time and then packed in the dry straw. We measured the density of the 
original bale and we were able to get the straw into the wall cavity at 
a slightly higher density than the bale itself. We had pieces of lath 
cut to go across the wall to keep the straw packed down at the intended 
density, but found we really didn't need them. The whole thing went 
together really, really quickly and plastered up nicely.

So can anybody think of a reason why this might not be a good idea? Yes, 
I know it's not as fun and natural as stacking bales... I'm still a huge 
fan of doing things that way. But so many people are building stick 
frames of one kind or another and then going to all kinds lengths to 
notch, trim and otherwise jam bales into those frames. This system fits 
a double frame wall really well, accepts plasters really well and in 
general seems like a decent way to go about using straw as an 
insulation. The thickness can be varied to reach intended insulation values.

Thoughts?...

Chris

-- 
www.chrismagwood.ca