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RE: Flooring the house in a grain bin
I've never built my own house, but I've helped with several and renovated a couple of centuries old cottages. The most recent build was with straw bales in stud frames. There is great pleasure to be had in building a new, alternative home or bringing a really old one back to life, even if it's not one's own. Your pleasure must have been fabulous.
I've been thinking about your hoists. If you think you still want them, try to scrouge a 6" I beam like you see in workshops. Makes them even handier and easier to use.
I can hardly wait for the insulation post.
I'm very interested in strawbale homes also. I considered insulating with strawbale but it takes up a lot of floor space and I was worried about sealing windows in walls lined with straw.
There is a straw insulated grain bin home at an ecovillage in Missouri. I hear they have had leak issues.
I agree, with a house like yours space is an issue, unless you put the bales on the outside. I've done that with brick or concrete, put foam on the outside. Straw would work too. With the mass on the inside you get a much more stable environment, the walls warm or cool the room quickly once you close the door. With a corrugated skin you have no mass, but I'm sure you found speed and cost to be reasonable compensation.
Window treatments are pretty much the same as with stick built homes except that the sill is much deeper. I've heard no more complaints about windows in 2' walls than in 6" walls.
Our walls didn't leak. 2" of sand/clay/lime render took care of that. The sand and clay came from a pit the owner dug on the property.