[GSBN] Question about SB insulation at foundation/ceiling

[Frank Tettemer]

Well now,
that is pretty interesting.
Thanks, Joyce, for sounding the alarm.

Before I actually (physically and personally), had built any SB houses, 
I naturally ass-u-me-d that bales in the floor and ceiling were a good 
idea.
It is too bad that the article in finehomebuilding references the 
experimental work of Michel Bergeron, of ArchiBio, in the 
ground-breaking book of Steen/Steen/Bainbridge/and Eisenberg.  I love 
the book, and it is what gave me hope for the idea of burying bales 
below grade.

Fortunately for me, Linda Chapman, (archi. from Ottawa), talked with me 
about doing this in the early nineties.
She had boldly gone where no one had gone before. And the floor rotted.

And there was the evidence from the huge three-story yoga retreat 
centre, built in Quebec,
which was such a rotten embarrassment, that I won't mention it anymore.

Then there's the theory that if you stick each bale into a garbage bad 
before you bury them under the floor ...
just to say I did, I took a bale, put it into a garbage bag, and placed 
it into a weather-protected shed, to see what happened.
First of all, it took three trys with the garbage bad to place a bale 
into it, without it being punctured by straw.
Secondly, during the summer of 2000, which was a fairly wet year, the 
bale self-composted, with out having had a drop of rain on it. I imagine 
that relative humidity was all it took. It was full of mildew in two 
months time.

I have to say, though, that the idea is so intriguing, that it captures 
the imagination of quite a few clients, who would wish me to design a 
foundation using straw bales.
Maybe it's just a stupid idea, here in a climate with huge weather 
extremes, (+35C to -35C), and many days of damp rainy weather?
Maybe all the ideas have not been tried as yet?

Frank

-- 
Frank Tettemer
Living Sol ~ Building and Design
www.livingsol.com
613 756 3884