Thanks for the link to the moisture study, there is plenty there to make one think twice about straw or wood as a building material- however i've decided to take the plunge and try strawbale walls for myself.
We will insulate our workshop with straw this year and then we will have a daily way to watch and see what happens....
The workshop is in an old farm driveshed and we will place the straw inside the vertical wall boarding. This will cover the old elm frame but we have removed a post and crossbeam so there is some new framing that will show....
By the way thanks mark gillis for introducing this topic and i feel your comments on disposal of styrofoam and renewable resources are importand if we all want to keep making timberframes well into the future. And i'm thinking of hundreds and thousands of years when i write that. The trade-off for using renewable resources may be that straw tends to rot faster than plastic and people may have to change thier walls a bit more often.
Also, one of our clients has found a straw panel of some kind being made in Ottawa. I don't have a contact for these panels but will forward when i can....
take care
-mark davidson.
