[GSBN] Fwd: School built in Nepal - Seek for advise

[Sarah Johnston]

Hello James and Sona,

My guess is along the same lines as Graeme with regard to the fermentation being a likely cause.   I have had success using a wet sponge to remove staining from fermentation (just plain water).  The addition of Borax to the final layer of plaster may prevent this from happening in the future.  

Good luck!

Sven
 
Sarah & Sven Johnston 
Sol Design, Ltd. 
50A Connolly Street 
Geraldine 7930  New Zealand 
03 693 7369 
sol_design at yahoo.com 
www.soldesign.co.nz


________________________________
 From: James's <james.henderson8 at bigpond.com>
To: Global Straw Building Network <GSBN at sustainablesources.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, 18 June 2014 8:43 AM
Subject: [GSBN] Fwd: School built in Nepal - Seek for advise
 


Does anyone have any ideas for Sona?
Thanks James

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:


From: Sona Huberova <sonahuberova at yahoo.com>
>Date: 16 June 2014 9:47:39 AM AEST
>To: James Henderson <james.henderson8 at bigpond.com>
>Subject: School built in Nepal - Seek for advise
>Reply-To: Sona Huberova <sonahuberova at yahoo.com>
>
>
Dear James,
>
>
>my names is Sonia and we met at the
EBAA conference last year, we are the couple with the school in
Nepal. I have to organize fixing some defects on this first building
now and would like to ask for your opinion in one particular matter.
I just started to read your book so I thought that you may be able to
help us. 
>
>
>As you may remember, the school is
built with bamboo frame and wattle and daub walls, weaved and
plastered from two sides. After a couple months, spots appeared on
the inside of the walls, you can see in the attachment. The spots are
not seen on the outside, but we think that it is because the facades
were painted with cement-based paints at the end of construction,
which did not happen in the interiors.
>
>
>We are planning to fix the spots  by
painting the interiors with similar paint, although I am not sure it
will solve it for good. But we are puzzled why did the spots appear
in the same place. We let the villagers to mix and render the walls
in their traditional way, so the mixture is as follows:
>
>
>3 parts of soil (half in half mixed
from two soils, one more clayey, one less) 
>1 part of rice husks
>1 part forest grass finelly chopped
>1 part cow/buffalo dung
>
>
>The mixture has been left to rest for
six weeks or more. We were told that this is the traditional way to
render, and the mixture indeed was very strong after drying, alhough
cracked a lot and two more coats were needed to finish it. I am not
sure what sort of mixture they used for the final layers, but it
would againg be just a combination ot the above mentioned.
>
>
>Some of the walls were then filled with
loose soil, but we abandonned this so not all of them are. the spots
appear on the filled one as well as on the empty ones.
>
>
>We are surprised at finding the spots
as none of the local houses, rendered in this traditinal way have
this problem.
>
>
>Would you have an idea what may have
caused it? Have you ever encountered or heard of this sort of
spotting?
>
>
>Bamboo elements were pressure-treated
with solution of Acid Boric and Borax, do you think that may be the
problem? 
>
>
>We are planning to build more of those
school buildings in Nepal based on a standardized project, so we will
need to avoid the defects and their causes in future.
>
>
>Sorry for bothering you with it and I
would understand if you did not have time to answer to me.
>
>
>Kind regards
> 
>Sona Huberova
>+61 466 482 682
>meemARCHITECTURE
>
>www.meemarchitecture.org
>
>
>
>
>
>
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