[Greenbuilding] Was: Where to Find Hempcrete. Now: Hemp bales for housing

[Frank Tettemer]

Stephen Collette BBEC, LEED AP, BSSO wrote:

 >> /"I did work on one straw bale house where we built with hemp bales. 
If anyone is considering it, I would strongly advise against it, simply 
because those stalks are very strong. For those who have played with 
bales, know you cut it open, and retie to make a smaller bale by 
separating the "flakes". This doesn't work with hemp, as the stalks are 
8+ feet long, and so you drag and try to cut (very hard to cut) and 
curse and make a general mess. Never again."
/
I would like to simply underscore the important part of what Stephen has 
talked about in reference to hemp bales.

I have also had the experience of building with hemp bales. The clients 
for that house had at one time created a frozen non-dairy desert called 
"Cool Hemp", so naturally they went out of their way to obtain hemp 
fibre bales for their home.  The fibres are so tough and resilient that 
a chainsaw blade would be dulled after only a few cuts, and then it took 
five minutes to file and sharpen the teeth. We found hemp bales so 
difficult to work with that we only used them as full bales, and used 
Wheat straw bales for all the components around windows and doors that 
needed to be cut.

As Stephen has so aptly cited, "Never Again"./
/

-- 
Frank Tettemer
Living Sol ~ Building and Design
www.livingsol.com
613 756 3884