[Strawbale] cement stucco problems?

[Travis Miller]

On Oct 14, 2006, at 9:36 PM, Mark Bigland-Pritchard wrote:
> nants'
> moisture-generating behaviour was like.
>
>> In the second example of the California winery, was the constant 80%
>> relative humidity:
>> 1.  as a result of ambient outdoor humidity levels being that high or
>> 2. as a result of extreme conditions created by occupancy/building  
>> type ?
>>   (ie tall building and/or large temp differentials between
>> indoor/outdoor  creating a condition where moisture was driven into
>> the wall)
>>
> It was the result of the high indoor humidity apparently necessary for
> the winemaking process - the barrel room was kept at a constant 80% rh
> according to the report.  The wall location with the highest rh values
> actually was lower than 80% for most of the time, but still at values
> that were high enough (and for a long enough duration) to be in the
> danger zone for mould attack (though the report authors didn't report
> any signs of mould or deterioration).  Have a look at the document -
> it's on the EBN site.
>

I'm not very familiar with wooden cooperage, but my understanding is  
that having a high humidity helps to maintain the integrity of the  
barrels and prevents wine spoiling bacteria from getting into the  
barrel.  There is a lot of water usage in wine making and brewing.  I  
don't know what the figure is for wineries.  On average, breweries  
use 4 or 5 barrels of water per barrel of finished beer.  A lot of  
that is used in cleaning equipment.  For a lot of that cleaning,  
water heated to 160 F is blended with caustic soda to remove proteins  
from the vessels.  I'd thought about how one may be able to have a  
straw building for a brewery but the amount of humidity created in a  
brewery is considerable. I'm also concerned about vapor diffusion  
into the bales and splash from doing wash down of vessels and floors.