On 3/5/2010 3:38 AM Dean Hoffman spake thus:

JIMMIE wrote:

My friend and I were discussing building adobe home in areas where
adobe would not normally be used, Like here in North Carolina. We are
aware of its shortcomings for doing this but was trying to come up
with practical ways of overcoming them. Basically it gets down to are
their ways to make adobe hold up in wet climates short of mixing
concrete and calling it adobe.

I wonder what people use on the straw bale houses. Maybe the same
stuff would help on the adobe buildings.

Straw bale construction, while also very interesting, is a different
concept from adobe, at least thermally speaking. Straw acts as an
insulator. Adobe, on the other hand, is not a very good insulator,
contrary to popular conception; it's actually better at storing heat
than keeping it in or out. So an adobe building acts like a giant
thermal flywheel, storing heat at night and keeping the inside warmer,
while keeping the inside cooler during the day during hot weather, or
keeping the inside warmer than it normally would be during winter. In
that sense, it's the ideal building material for any climate, hot or cold.


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