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Wondering if your construction plans are adequate to build from? Want to save thousands of dollars on your home construction? I can help you. I have helped hundreds of people achieve their goals and I can help you too. I offer all kinds of services from personal success coaching (www.CoachingBuilders.com) and basic project assistance to 12 month project consulting. I have something for everyone and would be happy to help you create the dream you’ve held in mind for so long.

1. General consulting about straw bale home applicability in specific regions.
2. Initial plan review for basic layout and function.
3. Construction Drawing review with full blown analysis of all straw bale aspects as well as general and specific design considerations.
4. Project consulting with building department support and assistance.
5. Monthly consulting packages for homes under construction.
6. Yearlong package consulting covering the entire scope of the job from start to finish.
7. Personal success coaching (www.CoachingBuilders.com)

Because no two consulting jobs are the same, I offer a number of different ways to pay for the consulting you choose.

1. By the hour with a minimum of 2 hours on each job.
2. Project Packages. These packages allow you access to me on an ongoing basis over a period of:
a. One month
b. Three months
c. Six months
d. One year

The one year package is the most economical way to go if you are actually building a home because a full year of my consulting helps you walk through both the design and construction phases with an expert at your side. I have had very good results with my past clients. Here’s what some had to say.

“I wish I had brought Andrew on earlier in the process. Once he got on board, things smoothed out tremendously.”
Eric G. -Oregon

“The help I got from Andrew was great. What started as a simple plan review ended up saving me thousands of dollars in the long run. The number of mistakes on my plans was crazy, even though I had an architect do the drawings. ”
Sarah P. -California

“I worked with Andrew during the construction of my home. I acted as my own contractor. The support I received from him was priceless. His technical knowledge of straw bale construction was why I decided to work with him, but I really feel like the personal support he offered me throughout the process was what helped me succeed in building my own house.”
Janet F. -Arizona

If you are planning to build your own house, I strongly recommend you hire me to help you along the way. There is a lot to know and it’s easier to hire me to fill in the blanks than it is for you to learn what I have amassed over 12 years in the trade. As an industry leader in Straw Bale Construction, I can help you make your dream a reality and help minimize the stress of the process at the same time.

Contact me today to learn how I can help you.

Here’s a new idea. I’ve been trying to figure out how to help people out in the slow economy. Here’s what I came up with. For groups of 5 or more people, I will discount the tuition of each participant by $200! That’s a big savings and remember, you still get 3 healthy meals a day, a place to camp, and all the instruction on straw bale construction.

Motivate your friends and sign up together to save money on your tuition. You won’t find a better deal out there. Sign up today at www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com.

Working with Natural Hydraulic Lime, you’ll want to have a big bottle of White Vinegar on hand. It has a lot of great uses, beyond making volcanoes with baking soda! I keep a gallon of white wine vinegar under my kitchen sink and in my tool trailer.
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I just wanted to drop a line to all of the people who live outside of the United States, I can’t help but notice that there has been an increase in interest from people outside the States over the last month or so. I have sold more DVDs to you, received more feedback from you, and answered more questions on the blog and via email in the last month than in months prior. I’m happy to have you here. Please feel free to drop a line about what you are up to and what projects you have underway or on the books.

Once again, welcome!

When working with straw bale buildings, some people wonder whether mesh is necessary or not. I personally think it offers so many advantages that I don’t consider not using it anymore. So with that bias in front of me, I want to share a really important detail about mesh application.
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Thanks to all of you who came out to the free plastering workshop last weekend. We got a lot accomplished and I’m happy that you all learned a bunch. I was bummed that we never got a chance to take a group photo. Oh well, I guess it was not meant to be. Thanks for traveling as far as you did and from coming from as close as you did (depending on who you are!). We got a lot accomplished, but did not finish the buildings.

I may teach another workshop in the next few weeks using a spray gun to apply the plaster! Stay tuned.

To be continued…….

I can’t believe it, but I have been converted! I never thought I would stand on the side of spraying plaster as I have always believed that hand troweling is better; however, I was convinced of it this last week. After talking with Steven, a master lime plasterer from Scotland, I am fully convinced that spraying is the way to go. As you may know, Scotland is known for having very old buildings, castles like the one above even, that have been plastered and mortared with lime for centuries. The knowledge that Steven shared with us has been passed down for generations and is something I could easily understand through his teaching.
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One of the cool things I learned this last week about lime plaster is the use of “pressing it back.” I had never heard this term, nor had I heard of the concept. It is quite simple and yet creates a very powerful effect on the strength and quality of the plaster.
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I just got an email from someone who plans to install his windows and doors the following way. I think it is an interesting idea as it will provide for very good compression of the bales and a very quick construction of the walls. This is in line with how additions can be added to existing straw bale homes. I always suggest that if people have specific intentions to expand later on down the line that they plan for the expansion by leaving electrical out of the area where they plan to cut in the new hallway.
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What an amazing week this was. We just finished a seven day intensive workshop in Williams, Oregon with great success. As always, I feel like I have a whole new group of friends from all over the world. There were people from Oregon, California, Washington, Wisconsin, Illinois, Scotland and London (soon to be back home in Israel). What an amazing group of people!!!

We finished up ahead of schedule on this cute little building and managed to throw in some acid staining on the concrete floors Sunday morning! The food was great and the company even better. We were even blessed to have a master lime plasterer in the group all the way from Scotland. I have never learned so much about the science and art of this great material as I did this last week. Thank you Steven!

This was the first workshop of the summer for me and I am fully charged and ready to go with the rest of my workshops. I am super excited to teach people the new information I gained about lime plaster and the ever growing wealth of information I hold around straw bale construction. I always learn something new at every workshop, and this was no different (even beyond the lime plaster information).

I have 4 more seven day intensive straw bale workshops planned for this summer. The next workshop is June 15-21 near Willow Creek, California. I really hope that you will join me. You can learn more about what I teach and sign up at www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com.

I guess the trowels were just a sign of more to come in regards to baling and Japan. Below are the details of a workshop being held in Japan. I am not the one teaching the workshop, nonetheless I wanted to let you all know about it in case you have always wanted to learn straw bale AND have always wanted to go to Japan. How about doing both at the same time?!
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I got an email the other day from a company that works with Japanese trowels. These trowels are amazing, especially for detail work. The shape and flexibility of the trowels makes them perfect for working with detailed plaster jobs.
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For some reason, I did not get the people signing up for the plastering workshop that I had planned. My guess is that most of you plan to hire someone to plaster your house, so why bother taking a class to learn how to do it. I get that, yet I can’t seem to jive that with the number of plastering DVDs I sell. So, the next idea is that the cost of the workshop is too much for you all during these hard times. Well, how does FREE sound?
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Getting a straw bale home appraised is one of the harder aspects of construction. Why? Because there are not very many, if any, comparable sales of straw bale homes out there. So how do you jump this hurdle? There are a couple ways to do it.
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We are just two weeks away from my first workshop of the season. At this point I only have a few spots left in the May workshop, so if you are interested in that date, please sign up today to secure your spot! Visit www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com to sign up now. Time is flying, so sign up now.

This is one of the coolest and most beautiful straw bale construction concepts I have seen in a long time. Although not something for the owner builder per se, this technique makes the potential for commercial straw bale construction a reality and can even be used in residential applications if the site location and project scale are right.
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When building curved walls, some of the most difficult aspects to deal with aer those that don’t naturally curve. For example, large windows in a curved wall will create an area where the window either sits inside the plane of the wall or outside that plane. There is no way to bend the window, other than buying expensive curved windows, so you have to get creative in how you finish the window installation. You might add an over sized sill to handle the difference, or hang the whole thing out side the plane of the wall with a creative faux finish. It’s up to you.
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Several people have written to me asking how to find the welded wire mesh I use on my bale homes. It is hard to find, no doubt, but it can be found, I promise. Unfortunately, I don’t have a long list of suppliers. All I have is my West coast supplier. If you have successfully found the material in your part of the world, please let us know where and save the rest of the SB folks out there some time and sweat!
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Here’s a great article about the effectiveness of straw bale walls in earthquakes. This study shows how strong they really are by subjecting the 14′x14′ straw bale house to 200 percent more shaking than was seen in the Northridge, CA earthquake of 1994 which holds the largest measured ground acceleration in the world. You can view the article here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090403104229.htm or read it below.
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Image from www.allposters.co.uk
I received a request from a woman in Central New York for help starting a straw bale support group. If you live in or near that area and are interested in being a part of this great venture, please respond to this post. Having a group of like minded people focusing on a common goal is very powerful. Not only will it be a resource for you when you start your own project, but the energetic strength of focusing your intentions in a group setting will start to remove potential barriers before they even show up. I have seen this work in my own life and support this type of connection whenever possible.

Do you have an intention to build with straw bales?
Do you live in or near central New York?
Do you want to connect with others who share a similar dream of living in a bale house?
Do you want support in your dreams and to support others in theirs?

This is the place to start creating that support. I hope you are inspired to join and make something special together.