Re: [LUG] Book: Beginning Ubuntu Linux + further ramblings

On 28/02/2008, Tom Potts <tompotts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Wednesday 27 February 2008 21:31, M.Blackmore wrote:
> On Sun, 2008-02-24 at 12:13 +0000, Tom Potts wrote:
> > polyurethane! No! - use straw!
>
> If he can extend the roof eaves over far enough to keep it dry, it'll be
Theres no reason why straw etc cannot be made into contiboard type insulation
- no heat required and compressed just enuf to make it inflammable.
> fine for a few hundred years with mud, horseshit and lime mortar. Lime
> because it breathes, cooks at about 600c instead of 1200c or more for
> cement, and absorbs back most of the CO2 driven out of the materials.
>
> But modern stable PUrethanes are an allowable material as the qualities
> of exceptional insulation and durability mean that it is a justifiable
> use of oil feedstock ... the sort of thing we should be reserving oil

Tom
There's often enough rat holes to take cabling ?
Yrs Robin

> feedstock FOR, I would argue, rather than stupidly burning the stuff!!!
Absolutely not necessary and a pollution disposal problem.
We have the microsoft approach to building - small flaw requires total
replacement of system, and the returns encourage sloppy design - to be
charitable. A pressed straw sheet may only last 20 years as a weatherproof
covering but if designed properly can be unscrewed (?) and replaced in 10
minutes that doesn't matter.

>
> I've done a bit of straw bale and other green/traditional materials
> (i.e. pre-brick/block non-stone from before the mass transport of the
> rail age) building back in the 70s and 80s.
>
> Also, we're trying to rustle up a local green group to build my
> garage/workshop with sloped rounded shape and green living cover semi
> buried into the slope of the garden amidst the ancient hedge this
> summer ... also seems boy scouts might be interested in a live project.
Check out late iron age through to Saxon structures. These are actually quite
sensible designs for using renewables. Laziness is the mother of invention
and people took to designs that were time-efficient in the long run.
>
> Now all I need to do is source a heap of second hand/recycled timber to
> do a strong enough roof for turf, though I have toyed with the idea of
> using straw bales to engineer an igloo structure having built igloos as
> a kid in Canada in the winter it might very well be possible to
> construct a self corbling structure in this way, but the downside is I'd
> have to use something non renewable on the outer skin as it would lack
> eaves to keep rain clear of the surface.
Non renewable!!! - ever heard of thatch?
Straw is/was a phenomenally useful product. Myopic accountancy driven farming
has resulted in short straw grains. A reversal to older longer straw
varieties would slightly reduce yield of grain and massively increase
production of other product(s) long straw .The long straw could be processed
into thatching 'boards' that could be easily placed on to a roof with little
skill - and is now worth more than the grain would be!
>
> I spotted a very good pair of books in the local bookshop last summer -
> The Green Building Bible (or Builders Bible??). Very comprehensive, in
> two volumes, I know a bit about building having been in the trade as a
> youth and a pioneer environmentalist doing hands on stuff in the early
> days along with some weird and wonderful self build housing coop stuff
> in the 70s and 80s, and it was all good stuff on the pages I leafed
> through. Highly recommended.
>
> Local mental health charity recently did a large meeting hall out of
> straw bale - Restore in Oxford - which I went to have a good look over
> during construction as it was a major undertaking being of considerable
> height and length and width - most straw bale work in the UK has so far
> been ancillary "shed" type structures or infilling for a wooden
> framework, this was just heaped straw bale (though using ratcheted
> stainless steel tiedowns onto the groundplate to compress and stabilise
> the structure - I think they can be forgiven for not using hazel or will
> withies >;)
You must always forgive lack of imagination!
>
> How well does wifi go through couple of feet of straw bale and about
> 4-6" of mud and horsepoo and lime?
should go right through the straw - and then the 4" cob/daub covering will
seemingly stop it dead in its tracks! However it does not need to be anywhere
near that thick. But with straw bails there lots of room for conduit for
cat6+.
Tom te tom te tom

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