[Greenbuilding] Earth (was Re: Biochar as Annual Cycle Building Dehumidifier)

[RT]

On Fri, 03 Jul 2015 15:46:14 -0400, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> What is 'clay slip'?
>
> On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 12:42 PM, Koehn Chris <chris at koehn.com> wrote:
>>
>> We’ve recently completed a home using “chip and slip” walls: 12” deep  
>> Larsen trusses filled with wood chips coated in clay slip and manually  
>> >>compacted. The clay-straw / clay slip folk seem to be experimenting  
>> with variable ratios of clay vs. chips: I would quantify ours as  
>> “middling” - >>enough to bond the chips and a bit more. Not very  
>> scientific, sorry.

For those who are unfamiliar with earth as a building material,  Dr.  
Gernot Minke's 1994 classic  "Das neue Lehmbau-Handbuch"  (which guys like  
WatJohn (aka Dr. John Straube) had to read in the original German when it  
first appeared)  has been available in English (and Spanish and Russian)  
for awhile and is even available as a free download in PDF version now.

Just Google " Building with Earth" and/or   " Design and Technology of a  
Sustainable Architecture   Gernot Minke" and you should find a PDF  
document that is about 22 MB in size.

In the aforementioned, you will find useful data and tables ( ie thermal  
conductivity values for a earth/cellulosic fibre  mixes for densities  
ranging from lightly-coated with clay slip mixes to heavily compacted  
rammed-earth type mixes  ... and perhaps of interest to Eli,  "Absorption  
Curves for Solid and Lightweight Earthen Mixes"  where relative humidity  
is plotted against moisture content to yield curves for 16 different mixes  
so that Eli could simply go to the appropriate curve and read off the  
answer to his query.

For the non-numerically-inclined, the text provides an excellent  
introduction to earth as a building material for First Worlders in the  
21st century.

To utilise the hygroscopic properties of earthen mixes as a humidity  
buffer for living spaces,  it would be more a matter of incorporating it  
into the walls and floors in place of the more common North American  
materials like painted gypsum board  or plywood  rather than trying to use  
fans to move air through /around a small quantity of loose material.  For  
some examples of what the finished material can look like, the work of   
Syuhei Hasado (via Satomi Lander's site  http://www.landerland.com ) may  
provide some inspiration.

http://www.syuhei.jp/english/img/portfolio.pdf



-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom DT7-64
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
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