Saturday 11 September 2010













































We started stripping the straw bales out.  When we had the bale moisture probe we had marked about 60% of the bales in this wall (south) as being wet.  However, when we started dismantling it, the wet patches were much more extensive.  We did not manage to salvage a single dry bale from the entire wall.  The wet patches were very localised, making it difficult to pick them all up with the moisture probe.

It looks like the two main paths for the water into the bales were: tracking down the hazel stakes; and running down the timber posts, particularly where the additional posts are either side of window openings.  We think the bales would have faired better if the top 1/2 course of bales had been fitted.  This course was not staked with hazel and being orientated in the opposite direction would have prevented a buffer for the bales below.

The straw in the south wall is now stripped out.

No comments: