[GSBN] Only in walls you say ? (was re: Question about SB insulation at foundation/ceiling GSBN Digest, Vol 10, Issue 32

[forum at lamaisonenpaille.com]

I've used bales in a roof and I'm happy with the result. I'm not worried 
about water in that case as good ecological solutions exist to shed the 
water that might come from above and are still open to water vapour 
coming from below (woodfiber panels).

I agree that getting them in place was not allways easy, even though the 
roof trusses were well designed to receive the bales. It's difficult to 
have plaster between the ceiling and the bales, to optimize the thermal 
preformance, and filling the holes between bales etc. is time consuming. 
All in all I found it more time consuming than I thought it would be and 
I see no evident ways of making it go faster the next time arround. I 
since figured that loose infill seems a more logical way to go in a 
conventional roof. Just like the inclusion of ecological building in the 
GSBN, rather than just talking SB, I find that it is 'healthy' not to 
want to stick bales just everywhere as if it was the most magical 
material out there.
And of course RT hits the nail on the head bringing our attention to sb 
vaults. Maybe, like Chis Magwood once suggested on this (wonderful!) 
GSBN, rather than making little improvements to conventional techniques 
that have come to be by continuous little improvements, we should make a 
big jump into an 'other dimension' ;-)

André - yes, please do pour me some of that dry stuff - de Bouter
France


Le 25/01/2012 19:17, RT a écrit :
> On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:48:09 -0500, 
> <GSBN-request at sustainablesources.com> wrote:
>> Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:07:52 +1030
>> From: "Bohdan Dorniak" <bohdan at bdcoarchitects.com.au> wrote:
>
>> Strawbales should only be used in walls
>
> [huge big <snip>]
>
> It'd be interesting to hear (read) the thoughts that are knocking 
> around in the Skillful Meany's noggin in response to Bohdan's 
> declaration (above).
>
> For those who may not recall, John played a starring role in the 
> creation of :
>
>              
> http://www.skillful-means.com/projects/vault/lou_harrison.htm
>
> Come to think of it, I would imagine YakWoman's noggin might have a 
> few rattles to contribute as well:
>
>        http://www.one-world-design.com/international.asp?pid=11&image=35
>
> That is to say, bales would seem to lend themselves well to being used 
> as the insulation core for thin-shell and exo-skeleton-type domed and 
> arch structures, where the straw could be installed as a continuous 
> layer uninterrupted by framing members.
>
> So long as a ventilated rainscreen-type cladding were provided over 
> top of the exterior plaster and a wet-applied plaster with 
> temperature/shrinkage reinforcement incorporated applied to the 
> interior to ensure an effective air barrier,  I see no reason why 
> Bohdan's declaration could not be revised to include "roofs".
>