[GSBN] Straw bale survives the recent New Zealnd earthquake

[Frank Tettemer]

AT exactly 1:00 minute into the video that Bruce linked us to, there is 
a view into the wall, between a wider crack.  It looks a lot like 
Chicken Wire that was used as a plaster lathe.  Isn't chicken wire one 
of those materials, (like rebar stakes), that has evolved over time, to 
be replaced by something less stretchy? Like welded fencing wire, or, 
Tenax cinteflex plastering lathe?   Considering the stretchy nature of 
chicken wire, I posit that the plaster render itself was the active 
material in absorbing the shaking energy.  Kudos to plaster!
Frank Tettemer

/A straw bale home in Pahiatua succumbed to the quake.The home's plaster 
is split, with cracks visible both inside and out.The occupant, Belinda 
Payton, said she was vacuuming the floor and heard some rumbling. "And 
the floor started shaking and I just ran out the door," she said. "We 
had a look inside and it was just like a bombsite. I was was shocked. 
It's unlivable." 
<http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/earthquake-claims-roll-in-amid-clean-up-aftershocks-5804294>/

Actually, all the news reports talk about minor damage and no injuries. 
Though one set of commercial buildings would need to be torn down, there 
wasn't a report 
<http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9629660/Severe-quake-rattles-lower-North-Island> 
of another residence being seriously affected. The Kiwis seem to take 
6.3 in stride:/ "//Pam Lochore, wife of All Blacks great Brian Lochore, 
said photographs had fallen off shelves and "a rugby ball went flying 
across the room" ...." /Not enough to severely interrupt a broadcast of 
a dog race.... <http://youtu.be/Fgh3lptxESI>

The damage to the strawbale looks to be much as we anticipate....major 
cracking in the sacrificial stucco but the structure otherwise in tact. 
  It looks horrible, though, and Belinda is clearly shaken, but I don't 
see damage other than plaster cracks--no broken windows or toppled 
structure. The plaster obviously absorbed a great deal of the energy.

John "Rolling Motion" Swearingen
............................................................................................................ 


On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 3:04 PM, Bruce EBNet <bruce at ecobuildnetwork.org 
<mailto:bruce at ecobuildnetwork.org>> wrote:

This TV spot sort of makes it look bad -- but the SB house is standing, 
when the neighborhood is not.  Courtesy of Hugh Morris, with a fancy nod 
to Graeme North.  Any of you Kiwis know which house this is?  Did you 
build it?

Bruce King

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/residents-count-cost-north-island-quake-video-5804861