• Kilgore Trout
    link
    English
    25 months ago

    Yes, of course it has to be dry.

    • @bluewing@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      15 months ago

      And that is the trick isn’t it. A piece of wood gets rained on, it isn’t effected much if at all. When the sun comes out, it dries in less than an hour. But bales are much like sponges, they soak up water easily and dry out very, very, very slowly.

      Just how much do you try the average construction crew to keep those bales dry on a job site?

      • Kilgore Trout
        link
        English
        15 months ago

        Building clay-and-straw houses is not suitable for mass construction, I guess.

        You could say you need to live on the site :)

        • @Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          25 months ago

          It is on par with building a ground up stick house. Sure it doesn’t beat any kind of prefab or cook cutter houses. But neither does any other method.

        • @bluewing@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          15 months ago

          No they probably aren’t suitable for mass use. But, for one-offs they can be viable choices if you get a high quality contractor and construction crew that knows what is needed to build the structure correctly.

          • Kilgore Trout
            link
            English
            15 months ago

            The ones I saw were built by volunteers :D

              • Kilgore Trout
                link
                English
                15 months ago

                No, from international civic service.

                • @bluewing@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  25 months ago

                  So people who were highly motivated to do things right. And not your average contracting crew that needs to do the work as cheaply and fast as possible and get to the next job quickly.

      • @Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        15 months ago

        Well your average construction crew doesn’t build straw bale houses. The three I worked on it was a thing of real concern. We keep the bails covered before they were stacked. We would let the pile breathe during the day and cover at night. We would only stack a wall when we knew it would get finished and have the top cover on before the end of the day. And the exterior was sealed very early where the interior sealing was one of the last things to happen.

        • @bluewing@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          15 months ago

          The point is the, the “average” construction crews build the vast majority of structures around the world. And you are correct - they aren’t qualified.