[Strawbale] Welded wire mesh in Lime plaster

[Leanne Rellstab]

Doug wrote> I will put 2" square welded wire mesh 8" out from all wood framing before plastering.

Howard wrote back: Sorry, why would you do that?  Of course, I have not seen the plans so haven't a clue from what you've written what you intend.

Howard, 

I saw a post here on the forum that led me to a study done in California that tested plasters with welded wire mesh and without. Since they live in an earthquake area in California it was a very important study. The results showed that properly stapling welded wire mesh to wood framing increased the shear strength of the walls by about 400%. The study also showed that welded wire mesh extending out further than 8" into the plaster did not increase the strength by any significance. So I decided to put 14 gauge galvanized welded wire mesh into my structure.  We do have a few 4.0-4.5 Richter scale quakes around here about every 10-20 years.

Lime plaster definitely has some great properties and I can't wait to work with it. We will use either some Fly Ash or Volcanic Ash as the pusalon (sp?). I heard second hand from a renound lime plasterer that some tests were done with fly ash and lime to a ratio of 80% fly ash and 20% lime with some amazing strength results. Of course it was experimental so I wouldn't try it on our house. We will probably use what is normally accepted for pusalon.

Thanks for the reply
Doug