Strawbale engineering (was: sust. engr)

Tim,

Thanks for your comment.   I'm going to be working my first strawbale in the next week or two.  The owners have agreed to go fairly conventional on their vertical and lateral supports (using the strawbale primarily as infill), but I will review the links you've posted. While I have some concerns about these buildings, they appear to be no less sound than the poorly constructed frame buildings I run across on a regular basis (i.e. - most people ignore similar concerns in stick buildings).

Jordan

Pinyon Engineering wrote:

Subject: Re: sustainable companies

 

well some are trying to do the weird green thing.  check out http://www.strawbuilding.org/ that is the California Straw Building Association CASBA -- yes walls made of strawbales in high seismic zones (tax credit for using straw too!)  a few years ago they got money from the state to do a structural testing program on strawbale walls and shear walls (testing research papers at http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/).  the result is a new book by Bruce King titled Design of Strawbale Buildings (the nerdest strawbale book ever)  they did a full scale test of a plastered strawbale wall (got about 610 plf  as a design value) (they also passed a 2-hour ASTM fire test). CASBA also has a draft appendix for strawbale construction before the California Building Standards Commission.

 

I have designed quite a few strawbale buildings. anyway check out the resource list from the CASBA website for engineers and firms that are building with straw and thinking of the world in a different way.

 

wow ! !  it looks like I over spent my $0.02

 

Tim Rudolph PE

writing this from my strawbale home/office -with 24" thick walls @ R30 walls & R50 attic insulation

Pinyon Engineering

115 Eagle Vista

Bishop CA 93514

3 little pig jokes welcomed