Natural insulation is the name of the game for each of our wall assemblies. The first wall we tackled is a double stud cavity wall along the north end of our barn. Taking loose straw from our locally harvested and baled straw bales,
and clay slip (a diluted natural clay and water mixture), we mixed it all together like a vinaigrette over a salad to create a light straw clay. Once all mixed up, we used flat wood panels as form work and stuffed our wall cavities with the light straw clay mix. Tamping down all of the mix into the cavities proved to be very labor intensive, but a good way to work out any other of life's stresses!
And, it was so satisfying to remove the forms and move them up the wall (slip form), and see the section of the light straw clay stay in place.
This wall has a significant amount of moisture in it (due to the clay slip mixture), so we will be letting it dry out for a couple of weeks before applying plaster to it's surfaces.
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