[GSBN] FASBA Fire test 8th January 2014: 8mm Lime plastered straw infill wall successful >90min

Fri Feb 7 20:28:08 UTC 2014

Well, the kind of off-gassing I'm most familiar with makes little kids
giggle, but I do recall that the Air Quality Control Board here in
California had problems with some noxious chemicals in the burning straw,
not just the particulates.

It's worth mentioning that in a most likely scenario takes a while,
hopefully a long while, before the straw becomes rampantly involved in a
fire.  By then, the furniture, ceilings, floors, computers and television
sets have all been smokin' for a while.

John

On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 9:44 AM, Bruce EBNet <bruce at ecobuildnetwork.org>wrote:

>
>
> Thank you for the report, and all the hard work!
>
> I agree about offgassing, and share your intent to be transparent about
> everything we know about straw and straw bale buildings, good and bad.
>
> And, while I'm sure that plenty of unpleasant gases and particulates come
> out of burning straw, I bet that, as a whole, the effects are much less
> harmful than the junk that come out of burning modern/industrialized
> building materials, especially plastics and the hundreds of petrochemical
> compounds that we routinely use.
>
> Bruce King, PE
>
>
>  <http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/buildwell-2014>
>  <http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/buildwell-2014>
>  <http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/buildwell-2014>
>
>
>  <http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/buildwell-2014>March 19 -- 22, 2014,
> Sausalito, CA
> www.ecobuildnetwork.org
> (415) 987-7271
> Skype: brucekingokok
> Twitter: @brucekinggreen
> http://bruce-king.com/
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 9, 2014, at 2:23 AM, "Dirk Scharmer" <ds at fasba.de> wrote:
>
> Something to share:
> Yesterday FASBA- Germany tested a straw insulated timber frame wall
> plastered on both sides with "lightened" lime plaster (graefix 73 pajalith
> declared to be 8mm thick), successful over 90 min according to DIN EN
> 1365-1 : 1999-10. Some weeks ago, we had an unsuccessful test of the same
> wall type without any cladding. We had assumed that the straw would be able
> to protect itself with the instantly arising charred surface. This could
> still be true, but we didn't consider that there is an overpressure in the
> burning chamber of 20 Pa when testing according to this standard. The
> uncladded specimen probably failed because of the very hot chamber gazes
> pressed into the burnable straw with 20Pa, and also because oxygen had been
> easily able to penetrate into it because of the absence of any cladding.
> The reason we did this first uncladded test was not to build uncladded, we
> did it because of a buerocratic and safety thing: After a successful test
> it is always only allowed to build exactly as tested if you want to have
> fire resistance acknowledged by authorities. Every detail, every material
> (cladding product...) has to be exactly the same, and we wanted to be free
> to use different types of plasters etc..
>
> With the successful lime plastered test yesterday we'll be allowed to
> build acknowledged REI30 walls this one type of lime plaster additional to
> the use of both sides clay as it has been stated before.
> Both walls had been charged with a load of 112 KN on a length of 3m. The
> requirements for a successful test are mainly: The specimen has to be safe
> in stability and spatial enclosure during the test burning.
>
> Fire safety requirements in Germany roughly summed up:
> <= 2-family house: REI 0 // <=3 storeys and 400sqm: REI 30 // <=5 storeys
> with unit size <400sqm walls has to reach "K2-60":
>
> 3- to 5- storey buildings:
> "K2-60" means that the three straw is 60 min protected ("encapsulated")
> against 200°C and the timber against 270°C during a "full fire". Research
> in the last two years for the 5-storey office in Verden/ Germany showed
> that this encapsulation is possible with, lets say, 50-70mm lime plaster
> and 70-80mm clay plaster (conventionally done by 2x18mm gypsum fire
> protection boards or 2x18mm gypsum fibre boards). The common 30mm lime or
> clay plasters might have a protection against this development of off-ing
> burnable gazes (straw/ timer staring to get brown coloured) for approx.
> 15-30min. Besides that, before a wall is failing during fire resistance
> tests there also could happen incomplete combustion with the danger of
> carbon monoxide poisoning and of course the danger of smoke. These are no
> standard criteria but should be of interest for us.
>
> Besides joyful-to-read-fire-resistance-results:
> Every straw builder and designer should keep in mind that straw insulated
> components (and of course the timber) are burning and off-gazing during a
> fire.That means even though we might have successful REI of 30min and more,
> habitants and fire fighters could be exposed to serious health hazards
> already actually during earlier minutes of a fire depending of the type of
> cladding and proper building details. During the testing yesterday we've
> been accidentally exposed to very high concentrations of carbon monoxide
> beneath the test specimen, enough for a decent headache, this wasn't that
> nice. Fire resistance, at least as it is implemented in Europe, in general
> means only stability and spacial enclosure over a specified time during a
> full fire. Successful tests don't say anything about health hazards during
> fire coming from the building components no matter what they are made of. I
> know, we as enthusiasts don't like these kind of intermediate shadows in
> the bright shining of straw building but if we want to be better than the
> others we have to deal with intermediate tones.
>
> If there is interest:
> If FASBA will receive donations of about 500 EURO in total with subject
> "Translation Fire test 2014" the test report could be published in english
> done by an acknowledged translator.
> Bank: GLS- Gemeinschaftsbank Bochum, Owner: FASBA e.V., Account: 800 7971
> 500, IBAN: DE 82 4306 0967 8007 9715 00, BIC: GENODEM1GLS
> or sending via paypal to info at fasba.de.
>
> Have a healthy, successful year 2014!
>
> Dirk Scharmer - Architect
>
>
> Fachverband Strohballenbau Deutschland e.V.
> FASBA e.V.
> Artilleriestr.6
> D- 27283 Verden
> Email: info at fasba.de
> www.fasba.de
>
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-- 
John Swearingen
Skillful Means Design & Construction
2550 9th Street   Suite 209A
Berkeley, CA   94710
510.849.1800 phone
510.849.1900 fax

Web Site:  http://www.skillful-means.com
Blog:         https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com
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