I’m coming back to Australia in March to teach my second Australia workshop. I’m super excited about it and I hope that you will join us as we build a great project in West Wyalong for Graham and Tuula, our hosts. I had such a great time last year in Lameroo and was amazed at how much we accomplished on the large project there. I have high hopes for a similar experience this March.

We will cover everything from foundations and framing to baling techniques and rendering with lime putty. Feel free to bring your own building plans and/or ideas with you and we can go over them during the evening. Of course, once the building portion of our day is over, there’s always the evening fun! We play music, talk straw bale, tell jokes, and generally have a blast with folks of like mind.

You can sign up for the class and/or learn more about the West Wyalong workshop here. Again, I hope you can join us March 10-16 for a week of fun and learning.

www.reachingfortheheavens.wordpress.com

You wouldn’t be the first person to try and carry a piece of plywood up a ladder by yourself. You might be the first to do it without hurting yourself! When working alone we are faced with many difficulties that would otherwise be simple for people working in groups or pairs. One of these is getting plywood up to a roof structure. Here are a couple options to consider, based on the size of the job at hand. Read the rest or post a comment »

Here’s a message I received this last week. Don’t know how long these will be around so call soon if you want them.

——-

• Barn stored straw bales for sale. Intermediate Wheatgrass (2′to 3′ stems).
• Have used this type on my own straw bale house.
• Contact Scott at 308-672-0877 or Scott@supremehay.com.
• Trucking can be arranged.

www.tm.org

I was recently talking with Gabriella about our business and we both realized just how lucky we are. There are a number of reasons that we consider ourselves lucky, actually a better way to say it is that we are grateful, but one big one came to the forefront during our conversation. It is that we love what we do. The more we spoke, the clearer it became that the reason we love what we do is that we are passionate about it. We truly believe in what we are doing and that makes our “work” not really work.

In this realization, I had the thought about other people in the world. How many of them are living their passion and how many are simply living to survive? So many people have gotten stuck in the machine of our culture, so stuck that they don’t even notice it anymore. They go to work each day at a job they don’t like so they can make enough money to pay for all their stuff (flat screen TVs in each room, multiple cars, a closet full of shoes, and so on). Beyond their stuff, a huge portion of their paycheck goes to pay a mortgage or rent on a house that’s bigger than they actually need. Wal-Mart and other corporations would have them believe that they are living the American Dream, but if they stop long enough to take a look from “outside their life” they may tell you otherwise. A friend of mine once asked me “are you thriving or surviving?” and that’s exactly the question I have for you. Read the rest or post a comment »

www.inhabitat.com

I just received an email in which a man asked about using bales below grade, as in an earth-bermed house. He wants to use bales due to their high insulative value, but is concerned about the effects of moisture on the bales. I too would be concerned about the moisture. We are trying to figure out a way to make it work as it would be a great marriage for sure! Read the rest or post a comment »

I’m really excited about offering an even more in-depth straw bale workshop than I currently offer. It would cover pouring a concrete slab foundation, framing the building, baling it, plastering it, and everything in between including electrical installations, plumbing (as necessary), niche installations, bale prep and more. All of this would be covered in a hands-on format so you would actually layout and pour the foundation, frame the building, and so on. The extended workshop would be two weeks long instead of the standard seven-day class. Read the rest or post a comment »

I am trying to compile as much information as I can about two major subjects as they relate to straw bale construction. The first is mortgages and other straw bale funding options. The second, which I will discuss in another post, is insuring a straw bale project. It’s no secret that the mortgage industry is not what it used to be. I imagine that we could have a long conversation relating to the reasons for the sudden decline in available financing; however, that’s not what I’m most interested in. What I really want to know is: how do we move forward under current conditions? I would love to hear what you know about how to make financing a straw bale project happen. Consider that the lack of straw bale lending can stop projects in their tracks and your input could be the difference between success and the abandonment of a dream.

Perhaps you recently started, or even completed, your own straw bale project. Did you get financing? Did you get a standard mortgage or did you have to get creative? What was your down payment percentage? Were you able to use local financing or did you have to shop around to a larger, more national scale market? Any and everything you can share with me is appreciated. Read the rest or post a comment »

Regardless of what you think about the insurance industry and how they help or hinder our economy, one thing is true for right now: home owner’s insurance is required in almost every scenario imaginable when building a house and living in it. Of course one can build a house with cash and choose not to insure it; however, if you plan to get any type of financing, you will be required to show proof of insurance. That’s easy when building a conventional house because insurance companies don’t think twice about insuring them. It’s harder when building anything outside of the “norm” of conventional thinking. And guess what…straw bale construction does not currently fit into the “norm.” That’s why I need your help. Read the rest or post a comment »

This is a rather personal blog entry and I hope that you can “hear” it without your filters on. You may agree or disagree with me and that’s fine. I am not trying to convince you of anything nor am I trying to change your mind about anything you currently hold as true. What I do hope is that you will ask yourselves some questions and that you will look deeply in what is true FOR YOU.

Read the rest or post a comment »

If you are like me, you want to keep a large assortment of screws around the house for all kinds of uses. Keeping them organized can become more of a challenge than not having screws though if you don’t have a solid plan and place to store them all. I tried the expensive “screw bags” for a while but didn’t like them. I find the easiest and least expensive/most enjoyable way to store a bunch of screws is in small glass (or plastic if you prefer) containers with screw on lids. Simply label the glass with what’s inside (tape works well for this and then screw the lids to the bottom of a shelf. Use two screws so the lid won’t turn when you twist the jar. The cool thing is that you can still use the shelf since the jars are suspended.  You can take the jars to the site of the work and return them to the shelf when you are done. It’s super easy and organized. It’s the most enjoyable way to store screws (and other items) because you get to eat the food that comes in the jars! The more screw sizes you have, the more you need to snack on that favorite food item. I hope your perfect jar size isn’t mayonnaise as that might be a bit sickening.

It may seem like a simple part of the overall construction process, but getting the foundation right is incredibly important. The biggest reason for this is that any mistakes you make in the foundation will only get worse as you go up. It’s known as compounding defects and it means that mistakes grow. Here’s an example: You notice that your slab foundation is 3/4” out of square when you start framing. It’s also 1/2” out of level across the total building. You figure, “well, I can handle that. I’ll just adjust it in the framing.” As you complete the framing, you get up to the roof and notice that the building is now 1” out of square and 3/4” out of level. Bummer, but you figure you can capture it in the roof framing. By the time you metal roof shows up, the square panels don’t fit on your out of square roof and you have “to make it work.” In the end, everyone and your grandmother can see that the roof is out of square and the simple mistake in your foundation has ruined the look of the house. I’ve actually seen this happen to someone. It was a “simple” mistake and it just got worse and worse as he went up in the construction process.

Here’s another reason that your foundation deserves the highest focus and attention to detail: your entire house sits on top of it! If you skimp here and something fails, it’s not an easy fix. Is it worth the extra few dollars to add a bit more rebar to the slab? Yes. Ensuring that the foundation is built to the very best standards possible is very much worth it. Here are some simple things to look out for when building your foundation and/or slab.

1. Make sure that the rebar is the right size and is laid out in the right spacing for your soil/geological conditions. A typical residential house in the United States uses #4 rebar in the foundation walls and #3 in the slab on an 18”x18” grid pattern. The layout for the foundation rebar depends on the size of foundation wall and the local codes.
2. Do not allow any rebar to “daylight” or even come close. No rebar should end or be placed within 4” of the edge of the concrete. Rebar closer than that can draw moisture from the outside and rust. That rust will creep down the rebar and, over time, render the entire rebar system useless.
3. Pay extra attention to the layout of your foundation and slab. Make sure that the corners are square and level. The closer to perfect you are, the better, but in no case should you be more than 1/4” out of square or level for a roughly 2000 SF house. Use a laser level if you have one or the best standby of all time: a water level. It’s the cheapest level you’ll ever buy. It’s basically some clear plastic tubing, water, and a little red food coloring to help you see the level lines better. You can even use this set by yourself.
4. Wait until the water has evaporated off of the top of the slab before you start finish troweling. If you press that water back into the surface of the concrete, it will weaken it. Allow it to cast off the water it doesn’t “want” and then get on it for the finish work.
5. If you plan to acid stain your concrete, don’t over finish the surface. If you polish the surface too much, you will seal it beyond what the acid stain can react with. You can definitely get the surface smooth, don’t get me wrong, the key is not to power trowel the heck out of the slab.
6. Use a stepped foundation when applicable to minimize concrete use. If you have a sloped site, step the foundation up or down the hillside to work with the topography. Be sure to measure the steps and keep them in line with the bale courses so you can step the bales too down the road if that works with your design. This won’t apply in all cases, but if it does, it’s great to get it right when stepping the foundation to keep your bale work easy.
7. Spend some extra time around your foundation bolts when finishing the slab. Many people don’t put a lot of attention here because they figure “it will be buried in the wall so who cares if it looks good.” This is one way that mistakes compound. When you add your 4×4 toe ups to a series of foundation bolts sticking out of poorly finished concrete, you will quickly find that the 4×4’s won’t sit flat. The thick 4×4’s won’t bend like a 2×4 to fit flat either, so you will be left with a toe up that’s up in the air in some spots and flat in others. This not only allows for air gaps through which bugs can also travel, but also messes up the framing before you even start it. Finish those areas well and you will be happy you did.
8. Use Wedge Bolts or other “after cure” anchors for the interior toe ups. By adding the interior anchor bolts after the concrete has been finished you can get a better finish on the concrete (not only for the bolts as described in #7, but also for your floor which will come very close to the anchor bolt locations). Using the drill in bolts also makes the layout and installation of the interior toe up a lot easier and more accurate.
9. Be sure to vibrate your form boards to eliminate “honeycombing” of the concrete. This not only improves the strength of the wall, but increases the beauty. This can be as simple as pounding a hammer against the form boards while the concrete is still wet. Do this BEFORE you finish the surface as the vibration can make the surface of the concrete drop a bit.
10. Use adequate bracing for your pours. There is nothing worse than having a form board blow out during a pour. It means more concrete will be used and your nice straight line will be shot. Use lots of diagonal braces to support the forms during the pour.

When framing your roof, don’t waste time lining up your rafter tails. Let them run wild and cut them all at once when the frame is complete.  Decide where you want the ends of the rafters to be and then snap a chalk line from one end of the house to the other. Use a jig made from scrap plywood to mark the plumb cuts on the rafter tail sides (a top piece sits on the top of the rafter and another piece lays out the plumb cut line for the rafter tail). Mark the line and cut the tail with a skill saw. Move your way down the wall until you reach the end. This ensures a perfectly straight fascia line, even if your initial framing job was less than perfectly straight!

Have you ever needed to drill a hole in the ceiling and found yourself tasting plaster for two days? You’re not alone. Here’s a simple trick I learned years ago. Take a disposable pie tin and drill a small hole in it, just big enough to allow the drill bit to stick through and rotate freely. Now when you drill the hole, the pan will catch all of the droppings. Brilliant!

Everyone has heard the phrase “Good Hat and Good Boots” in relation to building a house. Well, maybe not everyone, but I bet a lot of you have. It means pay attention to your roof and your foundation. These two areas are very important; however, because they are relatively boring in the grand scheme of things, they often get less attention than they should. People building a house often like to spend time thinking about their amazing new kitchen or their fancy master suite, not their roof and how it’s built.

The catch is that how your roof is built is perhaps one of the most important details in the entire project. Why? There are several reasons. Here are a few.

1. Insulation Value. Everyone talks about how amazing straw bale houses are for creating a super insulated home. That’s true, but only as true as the roof is insulated. I think it was grammar school where I learned that heat rises.  That law of physics is still true today and if your roof is not properly insulated, that law will ruin your super insulated home. There’s simply no point in building a house with R-40+ walls and an R-30 (code for vaulted ceilings) roof. Over insulate whenever you can. I find that two layers of R-21 insulation fit perfectly into a cavity created by 2×12 framing or 11 7/8” engineered lumber. Those are the two most common rafter sizes in vaults, so there’s no reason you should not have at least an R-42 roof. If you are using trusses, the insulation can be even higher.
2. Strength. As I mentioned above, the most common rafter size these days is 2×12 framing or 11 7/8” engineered lumber (BCIs or TJIs). Don’t skimp on design or implementation here. I remember reading an article several years ago about a man who was killed when his “straw bale house collapsed” (according to the newspaper). When I read further, I saw that the straw bales had, in fact, not collapsed nor had they caused any damage to the house. Instead, a large snow load had caused his under-sized rafters to collapse under the weight of the wet snow. A tragedy for sure, and one that could have been avoided if the rafters were sized properly.
3. Protection. The roof obviously does a great job of protecting you during weather; however, the protection I’m talking about is more about proper passive heating and cooling design. Be sure to take the time to properly design the roof overhang to provide the proper shading and solar gain for your latitude. Every site is different as is every design (I hope), so it’s really important to take in account all of the factors you have on hand. For example, site slope, latitude, potential shading from neighboring structures or landscapes, standard weather patterns for the area, and so on. The more data you can amass, the better.
4. Slope. The slope of the roof can impact many aspects of the home. The steeper the roof slope the quicker an overhang will encroach on window views as it is extended, the faster water and snow will slide off of the structure, and the less practical roof repairs will become. If the roof slope is too low, water and snow will build up and won’t drain away quickly. This can cause leaks and damage may occur to the house. A medium sloped roof may be the perfect choice not only for the above details, but also for the inclusion of solar panels to power the house and heat the water. As always, the exact slope will depend on the design and the natural impacts of the site.
5. Overall Design. The more complicated your roof design, the more expensive it will be to build. It’s hard enough to build a good roof with even the simplest design. If you add lots of valleys and hips (intersections of other roof lines, etc…) things get complicated quickly. After all, the roof is built up in the air. That’s not easy to do. Then once framed, the complications continue when t comes time to flash and waterproof it. Finally, the installation of the finish material itself is also complicated. What you use for the finish material can also have a large impact on the functionality of the roof.  Standard asphalt shingles don’t make a good surface for water collection, metal roofing (although great for water collection) can reflect the sun and heat into neighbor’s properties, natural materials like slate have pros and cons as do the recycled “fake” counterparts. Check out all the details before you make a decision. Also, don’t look only at sticker price. Consider the lifecycle cost of the material. If a metal roof will last you 50-150 years, will provide water collection, and will reflect heat away from the home, then perhaps the added sticker costs are worth it.

This is just a sampling of the things I encourage you to consider when thinking about and/or designing your roof. There may be other site-specific things I have not listed and those are always important to pay attention to.

Here’s a note I recently got from Surkhab abd Darcey at PAKSBAB, the Pakistan Straw Bale Appropriate Building organization I’ve mentioned in the past. Please take a minute to help them out.

PAKSBAB is competing in the GISTech-I competition for innovative solutions to economic development problems. Please click on this link to watch our video and then vote for us by clicking on the YouTube “like” button!

Please help us spread the word. Forward this email, post the link on Facebook, Tweet it and/or or share it on your blog. Voting ends Nov. 17, 2011.

Thank you for your support!

Surkhab and Darcey

Surkhab Khan, C.O.O.
Darcey Messner Donovan, P.E., C.T.O.
Pakistan Straw Bale and Appropriate Building (PAKSBAB)
www.paksbab.org

There’s no question that your local climate will have a large affect on your home, whether it be a bale home or a home made of concrete block. In fact, the climate is often a driving force in people’s decision to build with bales. I’m sure you’ve heard people talk about how hot their climate is or how cold it is and how if they only had a more efficient home, they could better stand the extremes. Unfortunately, some people decide to build a straw bale home before they consider the potential affects that their climate could have on it until its too late. It’s important to know what might happen to your home before you build it because there may be steps you can take to minimize those affects if you plan ahead.

Below are some of the affects that climate has on a bale home. Some of these may seem obvious while others may not. I’m sure I’ve missed some, so feel free to add your own in he comments section.

Read the rest or post a comment »

I’m currently in Baja Sur, Mexico on a 4 month adventure and research journey. As I travel this beautiful part of the world, I am struck by how perfect this area would be for bale homes. Unfortunately, there are very few around, and I mean VERY few. I have heard from some who have built with bales here and have heard from others who tried but were told it wasn’t possible by local builders. One reason they were told no is that there are no straw bales in this part of the world. I have not been here long enough to discover if this is actually true, but I can say that I have not seen any so far. There are indeed straw bale homes in Northern Baja, so I know that the technology and expertise to build these homes exists in Baja overall, it’s just not obvious if that has moved into Baja Sur or not.

Read the rest or post a comment »

How often do you stop doing stuff? I mean really stop doing stuff. This would look like disconnecting from your TV, your email, your computer, movies, and everything that’s not directly related to you or something you can touch. I’m in the middle of doing that for the first time in a long time. Here’s what I’ve learned so far in the first two or three weeks of a roughly 4-month journey.

It’s not easy to do, at least for me. I should mention that I decided to not only stop all the “extras” but also moved with my wife and 11-year-old daughter into a REALLY small pop up tent trailer and moved to Baja, Mexico. (There is a plan, yes, but the reality in the immediate time frame is that things are very taxing for us all.)

When all of the distractions go away, I find I’m left with a lot of time to think and feel. Think and feel the things that are otherwise blocked out by the ‘busyness’. Much of what I’m finding, thinking and feeling is amazing and beautiful and some of it is painful and ugly. I believe that we all have those places that are not so fun to look at or experience. I’m currently experiencing some of mine. I’m grateful for the opportunity to do so, no matter how uncomfortable it is, and I want to encourage us all to take the time in our lives to stop and experience life, for real, in its unedited, uncut version.

Here’s a guest article by Paige Taylor. Paige is a creative writer from the University of Texas El Paso. As an aspiring writer she specializes in writing about travel detestations and tourism. I hope you enjoy her perspective. If you too would like to write a guest article for us, please let me know. Here’s Paige’s article… Read the rest or post a comment »

As we all know, world financial markets have taken a beating in recent years. “Taken a beating” may be an unfair statement. Perhaps “imposed a beating upon themselves” would be a better way to say it. Personally, I feel like they have created their own fall and should be responsible for their own actions, like the rest of us, but that’s another topic for another blog.

One thing I have heard more and more often recently is that banks that used to fund straw bale construction are no longer funding. Why? Because they say such projects are “too risky.” Again, it’s not green and/or alternative projects that are risky, it was the banks’ inner workings, but I digress… This unwillingness to fund green projects has put a pinch on the green market and has made it much more difficult for owner/builders to get the financing they so need to complete their homes.

I know that some of you have been able to secure financing for your straw bale projects. I also know that those who are struggling to attain financing would LOVE some guidance from those of you who have been successful. If you have a success story, can name a bank who will make loans on bale projects, or otherwise have some great advice, please post it here. We all need your help. Thanks.