Thinking about building a structure to answer some questions

[just_sawing]

I (in the future) plan to build my home.
1 does any one here have personnaly used Clay Straw insulation?
2. Has any one here used Tyvek with Clay Strw?
3 Has anyone here placed paneling over clay straw.

What I am going to do is build a small play house just to work out some problems. The structur at this time is planned to be pole barn modified with studing inbetween and clay straw insulation. I will use log home siding for the out side and beaded board on the inside(It helps to own the sawmill)
I have worked out that I can build my 1200 foot home for probably 20K total but want to build a small one just to play.

[just_sawing]

Has anyone here used Clay Straw personnaly

[michiganfarmer]

never even heard of it. Sorry.

[paul]

I haven't used it yet, but it is on my list of things to try. BTW, you might want to add some sawdust to the mix. Somewhere I heard it makes a firmer wall with sawdust and clay mixed half and half. All sawdust and clay works, but isn't very strong.

==>paul

[Messianic4]

Sounds great...if it works out..let me know before my dh and I start building our log home in about 3 years or sooner. We just bought land and are currently going to live in the home on there..but we have a dream of building a log home... but if we can have the look..but made cheaper..all the better.

[Steve L.]

Originally Posted by just_sawing

Has anyone here used Clay Straw personnaly

I've never heard of any construction method by that name, either, but you might want to do a Web search for 'cob buildings' and or 'adobe'. Both of those methods use unfired clay/sand/straw mixtures.

I've thought about building with cob, but haven't tried it (yet).

[crobar]

maybe you've already been to the site but you might look at www.dirtcheapbuilders.com.

[fishhead]

Here's a commercial sized solar heated COB building.

http://www.hugllc.com/

[raymilosh]

It sounds like you're describing slipstraw, sort of. My nextdoor neighbor used it for insulating the earth floor of his house from the earth...but that was a horizontal application.


He built his walls with straw bales and applied earth plaster to both sides. The first layer of earth plaster incorporated a lot of chopped straw to increase strength (like incorporating steel into concrete). That also sounds like what you're describing. I spoze you could build the walls that way, but I think you'd need to incorporate lots of structure to hold it all in place. One way that is accomplished is to attach many small sticks to the studs. (Like the way wattle and daub is done)

From what I understand, the walls need to breathe. If tyvek doesn't breathe, I would suggest not using it...it would trap moisture and cause rotting.
Based on his house, my kids and I built a fort using pallets as walls and structure, stuffed full of straw with earth plaster on the inside and outside. We also incorporated chopped straw into the mix to help it hold itself together. It has held up fine for several years, despite the fact that it is resting within 4 inches of the earth and gets wet during driving rains. It is a viable method for building well insulated walls. I can send pictures of the construction if you wanna see them.
Ray