Dealing With Rain Splash Back on Your Strawbale House
Straw Bale Construction - A Community Member Question Answered
Since I live in sunny England there is of course an issue with rainfall and splash back onto the plaster wall. Do you have any suggestions that can help me with this problem?
- Strawbale Community Member
There are two main ways to protect against rain splash on a strawbale house.
The first is to use a house wrap or building paper around the bottom three courses of bales. Simply staple the wrap to the bottom toe up under the bales and then use landscape pins to hold the wrap in place along the top edge. This works fairly well.
The other option is to build pony walls that actually raise the bales away from the floor by about 2 feet or so. Two feet is a good number because you can use one piece of either drywall on the interior or plywood on the exterior ripped in half to cover twice the distance in the sheathing.
This also provides a chase for all the wiring and plumbing in the walls. You can use the space below the pony walls (short framed walls) to run all of that stuff while avoiding the bales entirely.
In the strawbale house design phase, you could also discuss the use of rain screens with your designer or look into the necessary framing for this design detail.
The key here is to look at how the rain screen will be mounted and factor in moisture management not only from external sources (rain) but also the build-up behind the screen to allow for drying out and minimizing the chance of rotting your beautiful bale walls.
Bale on,
Timbo & Dainella
ps. Don’t forget landscaping to direct rain and splashback away from your walls!
Interested in diving into design details?! Us too! Check out our workshops and on-demand learning courses to take another step forward on your straw bale home.
