Re: Straw bale, Rastra block
From: Fred H Olson (fholsoncohousing.org)
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:41:16 -0700 (PDT)
Lynn Nadeau wrote:

> Our common house was not built of strawbale, but of Rastra block, a type
> of large building block made of ground up styrofoam and concrete. Also
> called EnerGrid.

A UU friend is building a green house near us (so we walk over
periodically to see progress). It's not in cohousing.  She's using
Faswell block that sounds similar to Rastra Block.  Faswall blocks look
like concrete block but are made of specially treated wood chips and
concrete and have about 4" of rockwool insulation on the outer inside
edge. These block do not use mortar, instead they are stacked (not
staggered), have rerod inside vetically and horizontally.  After each four
feet are stacked they are filled with concrete (so they are refered to as
a "form" system). She has a blog with construction pictures at:
http://barbsgreenhouse.blogspot.com/

Faswall is one form of Insulating Concrete Forms (ICFs) construction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulating_concrete_forms

I think we are in a period of many different innovative construction
techniques which have various advantages and disadvantages and only time
and experience will tell which are optimum in what conditions.

Fred  my blog, see below

--
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
Communications for Justice -- Free, superior listserv's w/o ads:
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612-588-9532 (7am-10pm CST/CDT)   Email: fholson at cohousing.org


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