[Strawbale] Structalath

[Denise Ohio]

>Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:25:18 -0700
>From: "Alan  Mason" <strawbaleguy at earthlink.net>
>
>Hate to sound like a shill here, but I was recently turned on to a product
>called Structalath, made by a company out of Canada
>(http://www.structawire.com/). The squares are about 1.5 inches on a side,
>and it comes in 38 3/8", 48" & 54" widths, although many conractor supply
>houses only carry the 38" size. I don't know what its status is for building
>departments generally, but inspectors in San Diego County have no problem
>with it. A stucco contractor I know in SD won't use anyting else anymore.
>
>I generally pay about $47 for a 38" x 150' foot long roll, a little more
>expensive than standard chicken wire stucco mesh, but far cheaper than 2x
>welded wire mesh last I checked. It works really well when tying bales
>together and otherwise. The company has or is developing numerous other
>products that the strawbaler will find useful.
>
>@


We have four extra rolls sitting on a pallet I have to bring back to the 
supplier. Not only was it cheaper than the 2", the Structalath was lighter 
and easier to cut, IMHO, though tensioning it vertically on the walls 
sometimes caused the welds to bust. Nothing terrible---it just meant we 
needed to tension more evenly.

We used 6" (four squares) laps, all tied with wire, and diamond lath on any 
wood (bucks in particular), rounds and curves, and at each corner. We'll be 
doing our color coat sometime in the next week to ten days, but we've been 
dried in for awhile and that feels pretty good.

We tried to spend the night inside last night. It was cold (we don't have 
windows and doors in yet), and while the kerosene indoor heater and good 
sleeping bags helpd, my fab girlfriend couldn't sleep because the neo-nazis 
across the street were having a party that included drumming and rebel 
yells. Stupid nazis.

>Methods of Work questions:
>When you put this lath on, do you start from the top row and work down
>the wall or go the other way?
>How many hands are needed to place this?
>
>Cheers,
>
>Chris Green.


Chris,

Like Alan, we nailed the top and pulled down. We used air staples at the 
top, but we had bottom of the wall flashing that we also had to nail 
through, and the galv staples wouldn't go through it. We tried a coil 
nailer, which had plenty of power, but the nails, while galv, were 
electroplated, not HDG. So we hammered in HDG 1 3/4" roofing nails into our 
PT bottom plate.

My fingertips ached for a week from smacking myself so many times.

There were two of us. I rolled out and cut the mesh, then placed the rolls 
along the wall. Our carpenter nailed the top (he's 6'4" and only had to use 
a ladder on the west end of the house), then we'd go back and pull 
everything down and nail it into place. The Structalath was easy to work 
with, and the dimples worked perfectly over the papered wood sections we 
had. And if I wasn't please with the tensioning levels, we'd either twist 
it (as Alan described), pin it, or wait until it was tightly sewn to see if 
there was going to be a problem.

Diamond mesh is clearly the devil's chew toy, though. When I showed the big 
rip I got across the outside base of my right thumb to our stucco guy, he 
laughed and showed me his scar. He says it's just the cost of using the stuff.

Our inspector was very pleased with what he saw. In fact, he took one look 
at the exterior wall by the front door, glanced around at the inside, said, 
"This place ain't going no where," and signed off. This is the first 
permitted loadbearing SB house in this county and the building officials 
have been great. Not only have they been cooperative and curious (in a good 
way), our building inspector in particularly has given us some tips that 
have saved us a few pennies.