Timber framed walls - Building Your Straw Bale Home - page 120

toilet roll holder is 300 mm forward of the front of the toilet bowl and 750 mm from
the floor.
Wall lining options for timber framed walls
Noise and heat control with timber framed walls
It is not at all uncommon for the installation of sound batts in the walls of the master
bedroom, or in walls between living areas and children's bedrooms.
The wall lining materials detailed below provide little resistance to noise travel apart
from the Kram © walls, which I will explain shortly. The noise issue is of particular concern
between toilets and bedrooms or where children's bedrooms share a wall with the parent's
room. If these issues concern you and you are planning to use conventional wall linings
there are solutions. Insulation batts for both noise and/or heat control can be fitted into
the cavity of the timber framed wall. If you are trying to avoid the introduction of
formaldehyde into your house you will need to investigate the use of sound and heat
insulation batts further.
Lathe and plaster and Kram © walls are the only lining methods I am aware of that
provide thermal mass within the house when timber framed walls are installed.
Kram © walls
When I first looked at straw bale construction the primary concern I had was the
aesthetic match or mismatch of internal walls to the straw bale walls. In our home in
Heathcote I have built what I call a Kram © wall, which finishes at about 150 mm thick.
We were initially unsure of what to call this system of wall lining. On thinking through
the total process of building the wall it became obvious as to what it should be called.
A Kram © wall is made up of a standard timber framed wall with wire netting fixed to
both faces of the wall, with straw filling the cavity between the wire netting. Cramming
the cavity between the wire netting with loose straw is, without question, the most
tedious and time-consuming part of this process. In an attempt to identify the total wall
system it was decided to name it a Kram © wall for obvious reasons.
When building Kram © walls, I use a pneumatic staple gun that fires staples with a
15 mm crown to fix the netting to the wall, however you could fix it with hand nailed
staples. If you do not have a heavy gauge staple gun I would recommend that you try to
hire one, as to fix the netting by hand will be very slow and frustrating. The wire netting
used was 40 mm × 1.4 mm, which is good for all applications for wire netting in a straw
bale house. The cavity between the two layers of netting is filled with loose straw, which is
compacted firmly into the cavity using a piece of 42 × 19 timber approximately one
metre long. The wire netting needs to be stretched tightly across the front of the timber
so that you don't get big bulges in the wall as the straw is compacted in the wall. This is
easily done using the tensioning tool and the polyester strapping.
Tensioning the wire netting prior to fixing it to the timber framed wall
Cut a piece of timber so that the length is equal to the width of the wire being fitted. A
good size for the timber would be 70 × 45 or 90 × 45 pine as this is less likely to split.
Hammer nails into the timber in a straight line in positions coinciding with the loops in