[Strawbale] response to lime plaster cracking

[Raftercat5 at aol.com]

From: "Leanne Rellstab" <lmcclain at wyoming.com>
Subject:  [Strawbale] cracks in the plaster

...We've put on probably three coats of lime plaster, and got the typical  
cracks in the plaster as it dried.  We rubbed all of these out.  Now  that we 
are on the final coat, every room is cracking along the bottom of the  box beam. 
 As time goes on, these cracks are getting worse.  One room  we've put on a 
lime wash, and the cracks really show here!  I'm trying to  figure out why this 
is happening, and what to do about it.  
 
 
Leanne:  Did you cover the wood part with tar paper before plastering  it and 
the strawbale part of the walls?
What ratio of lime plaster to sand/clay/whatever did you use?  I wish  I 
could tell you why it happened, but I didn't build mine yet.  We plan on  
experimenting with different mixture combinations of sand/lime for the 3 coats  we 
intend on putting on the walls.  Maybe someone here can tell us the  'perfect' 
ratio of ingredients?  Until then, maybe you can try to dry it  out by putting a 
fan in the room.  Hopefully, you'll get some warmer  weather soon so you can 
open the window a bit.
- Kathy