A note from our friend Bruce King:
Friends and colleagues —
I’m very happy to tell you that ASTM International has approved publication of revisions to ASTM E2392, Standard Guide for Design of Earthen Wall Building Systems.
This has been a four year project for me and for the Ecological Building Network, and you helped make it happen! This building standard now provides:
– prescriptive guidance for affordable seismic safety,
– engineering guidance where it is practically available, and
– discourages the use of cement, especially applied as render over earthen walls.
Various industries tried to stop this project, and it has been a sometimes weird experience, but we are now done. It has taken four years but was worth it, for we now have a document that we can work with anywhere in the world.
If you already have a draft from any time in the past two years, then you have something pretty close to the final language. If you want the formal document, you must order it from ASTM International, where it will be ready with all final edits by late January. Upon request, ASTM will also translate it for any country holding a memorandum of understanding with ASTM (which is most countries). http://www.astm.org/index.shtml
Thanks, and warm greetings from cool California,
Bruce King
bruce-king.com
ecobuildnetwork.org