Ref.: Cob: straw clay insulation questions

[ortoneda]

Well, straw-gypsum would be fast and a good solution, if you make it with hard gypsum (little water and a fast, frantic setting) it would be hard as a rock and weather resistant (up to a point), if you make soft gypsum (easier to mix with the straw, longer curing, more porous and light and cheaper in materials), you could make panels for places with less exposure. Straw-cement is also an idea, there was a posting on that in this list not long ago. In rural areas of Spain it is used something they call "poor man's cement", that is eight parts soil (any soil) and one part portland cement. I've used it adding some lime, two parts more, with good results. In Central America they boil sulphur powder and mix it liquid in the adobe mix. I don't know how toxic that may be . I guess you could kill yourself with entirely natural and ecological means just as well. Asphalt is used also as stabilizer for adobes. As if you warm it it can be every bit as toxic as sulphur gases and just as !
natural. I would go that way, to try by whatever the means to secure the curing and stabilize it fastly so you can build on top of that as soon as possible. Good luck
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