Hempcrete A beginners guide to this up-and-coming wall- building technique French 8-Story Straw Bale Colorado Light Clay-Straw More Japanese Natural Building Mesh - How And Why We Use It On Bale Structures $10.00 USD Issue #64 Summer 2014 On the cover: PUBLISHER Odisea LLC EDITOR Jeff Ruppert ISSUE LAYOUT Satomi Lander WEB HOST Sustainable Sources GRAPHICS Morninglori Graphic Design PRINTER Publication Printers A new-build hempcrete house under construction Photo by Alex Sparrow The Last Straw is a quarterly journal documenting Submission Guidelines the natural building world. It was formed in 1993 to Copy should be created using Times New Roman address the lack of public information about straw font, 11 pt, no bold, no colors, no underlining except bale construction and has grown to cover all related for web sites, and no indentations for paragraphs. topics. We are reader-supported, meaning we rely Don’t take time to reformat copy you receive from on raw stories from the field. others; we can do that here. We’ve set up some format, spelling and other rules we could share upon request. The Last Straw is produced quarterly. For subscriptions and address changes, back issue Word Count – with 30 pt heading orders, printing and distribution, promotion, • 900 words fills one page classified advertising and the calendar of events • 500 words with two photos fills one page please visit our website at thelaststraw.org. • 700 words with one photo fills one page • 1000 words with two photos fills two pages Donated articles and photographs are always and sincerely welcome on any topic relating to straw- If several photos are used in an article and captions are bale and natural building. Letters to the Editor are added to the photos, the space for text will be reduced also encouraged. Remember, your input is what accordingly. keeps TLS up-to-date, functional and relevant! We work with offerings respectfully, though we may Submission Deadlines have to edit, postpone or decline their use. The Last December 1, March 1, June 1 and September 1. Please Straw team reserves editorial responsibility for the note that the story deadlines are important to our content of the journal. production schedule. Text and photos may be sent by surface mail or electronically to the TLS editorial TLS Editorial Office office. For complete submission guidelines for articles Jeff Ruppert and photos, see our web site at thelaststraw.org. Editor PO Box 1809 Contact the editorial office for information and input Paonia CO 81428 regarding issue topics and content development, (970) 704-5828 ideas for articles and issue design and other advice, [email protected] encouragement, complaint or controversy. © The Last Straw The Last Straw is printed entirely on recycled content ISSN# 1077-997332. paper, using soy-based inks. Inside Editor’s Note CONTENTS Summer is upon us and that means everyone is busy on everyone answer this question for their upcoming projects. The their projects. While the economy hit most of us hard in recent answer as to what is the best way to orient bales (flat or on-edge) 5 Editor’s Note years it seems things are picking up if the level of activity in is not really clear and concise. As with anything else it seems to natural building is any indication. The types and scales of various depend on a variety of factors. We hope you will find value in the 6 Rediscovering Lime in Costa Rica natural building projects around the world is truly amazing and responses, which were too long to re-print here. We have provided by Ryan Chivers seems to be on a widening trend. We are excited to share this latest a link to the full report and invite you to find the article on our issue, which exemplifies the diversity of natural building. Such website and comment further to continue the conversation. 12 Jules Ferry Residence diversity is deserving of the “natural” title. by Jeff Ruppert This leads me to our regular reminder of the TLS website. We Materials and feature projects seem to dominate this issue. On publish all of the articles found here online as we edit them. Some The Benefits of Using Welded Wire Mesh 15 the materials side we have two excellent pieces on the use of lime of them are restricted to subscribers, which means you have access by Andrew Morrison in the trades. Ryan Chivers returns and shares his experience to all of them, including past content that has been printed since in Costa Rica, sourcing and experimenting with local lime for a our revival earlier this year. This body of content will only grow. More Straw Building in Japan 18 recent workshop at Rancho Mastatal. Hemp is the new friend of What you can’t find in the printed version of TLS are the high- by Kyle Holzhueter lime in this issue. As the first part of a two-part series, hempcrete resolution images within each article where you can really see 23 Building with Hempcrete (hemp-lime): (or hemp-lime) is back on our pages with a more in-depth look details that are not always apparent in the magazine. Our website 6 Essential Tips for the Beginner (Part 1) by practitioner Alex Sparrow. Because hemp is an industrial crop is just as important to our survival as the printed compilation by Alex Sparrow in the UK, they are pushing forward, using hemp in all sorts of we refer to as the magazine. We hope you find both useful and interesting configurations, and generously sharing their experience. informative. 29 Light Clay-Straw Mountain Home Look for The Hempcrete Book: Designing and building with by Jeff Ruppert hemp-lime by Alex due out in October, and look for the follow-up As always, if there is something you would like to see changed or article in Issue #65. And there is a gift for those of you interested if you want to see us cover something of interest, let me know and 33 CASBA Rides Again! in buying the book. Read the details at the end of the article and we’ll bring it to you. Calling for All Bicyclists for 2015 and you’ll be able to receive a 30% discount if you pre-order by the end of October. Beyond In international news New Zealand has announced it will host the next International Straw Building Conference (ISBC) in 2016, Here in the U.S. we have some hope of industrial hemp, but much 34 Bale Orientation within Walls and Australia will host their annual conference in Adelaide in work still needs to happen to make this a reality. Hempcrete could September of this year. You can find both events listed on the back be a big part of our future if we could only free the fiber. 36 Book Review: cover of this issue and on our website in our events calendar. We Earthen Floors: A Modern Approach to hope to see you there. Our regular contributors, Kyle Holzhueter and Andrew Morrison, an Ancient Practice share their work and insights in Asian natural building and why we Finally, We would like to welcome CASBA members as use mesh on our bale walls, respectively. Kyle’s ongoing series 39 Classifieds subscribers of TLS. CASBA has subscribed their entire 23 on Asia continues with Japan and the unique use of tatami mats in membership, which supports our work and ensures their members wall construction. As in previous issues, we are treated to insight Events and Human Resources on the are receiving the best in natural building. We offer reduced and experimentation not found anywhere else but in the pages of back cover subscription rates to associations so if you are part of one contact TLS. us and we’ll get your members signed up. We feature another light clay-straw home here in Colorado. This With that I’ll let you get on to enjoying this issue. We look one is a great example of beautiful architecture and thoughtful forward to bringing you the next issue in October. And remember, decision-making by a couple who were able to take their time send us your articles or pictures of projects so we can follow up during both the design and construction processes. The results are and share them with everyone. I challenge everyone in all regions stunning, which complement the breathtaking view of the Rocky of the world to see who can be most represented in these pages. Mountains. We look forward to hearing from everyone. The views expressed by our authors do not necessarily To wrap up the issue we give you the results of our survey on bale represent our own. We retain the right to edit, change All the best on your next project! orientation. We asked our website visitors to answer a few short or refuse to print submitted content. All submissions -Jeff Ruppert become the property of The Last Straw. And remember, questions about how they prefer to stack bales on their projects. safety is of the highest priority on construction projects. We received nearly 50 thoughtful responses which should help 29 The Last Straw • No. 64 Summer 2014 5 Materials Materials and sold in huge quantities, and so is almost always sourced relatively locally. This report will focus on lime technology as it relates to building construction. The main uses will be formulations for plasters, stuccos and mortars for masonry. Two related raw materials will be covered. The first one is hydrated lime, which has been fired in a kiln and slaked with water.