I received an email today about a bale landscape wall. The wall will be about 4′ tall and 125′ long. The questions ranged from what type of foundation is best and what kind of waterproofing is needed to where to find bale needles. I have included my response below.
Sounds like a fun project! If you keep the wall at 3 bales high, you will end up with a four and a half foot wall, roughly. You will need to raise the bales off of the ground by at least 6″. The foundation you use depends on the soils you have. In most cases, you should be able to dig a trench deep enough to drop below the frost line and then fill it with compacted gravel. For the top 6″ before the top of the trench, and for 6″ above grade (12″ total) form a concrete bond beam. You will need to hold the bales off of the concrete with pressure treated sills which should be attached to the concrete with anchor bolts about 4′ on center. I suggest using 4×4′s and then nail 20 penny nails into those sills at 6″ on center on both sills (there will be one on each side of the foundation to support the bales as in the house details.) To protect the bales from rain, which is important as you suggest, use either a metal fabricated cap (specially made) over the top of the wall or a pond liner draped over the top and down the sides about one bale course under the plaster. The barley straw will be fine as long as it is dry and the bales are tight. You will want to wrap the wall in mesh so to strengthen it. Finally, we have bale needles for sale and twine can be purchased at your local farming supply store. You will want two needles so that one on each side of the wall can be used to sew the mesh together quickly. Good luck with the project.
About the Author
Andrew Morison is a specialist in straw bale and green construction. He has shown thousands of people how to build their own straw bale projects through his comprehensive series of instructional straw bale, concrete foundation, and plastering DVDs. You can check these out at www.LearnStrawBale.com..
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March 15th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Hey Andrew! Building is still in the plans. I love the retaining wall as a first project. I will use it as a garden wall. I really love the quonset greenhouse. Thanks for the wonderful week long class last year. I still think of it often.
-Deb
March 15th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Great Debbie! Glad you are putting your knowledge to use. Send pictures when you can. strawbalephotos@gmail.com
July 19th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I would like to build a straw bale wall to act as a sound barrier from the road.
Is it possible to build on top of an existing one metre high dry stone wall?
The wall is half a metre across but has wire mesh fencing sunk into it leaving a depth of only 40cm. The wooden fence posts are spaced one and a half metres apart with mesh attached all the way along. The wall is approx 100m long and I’d like to go one and a half metres high. Is any of this possible
July 27th, 2009 at 8:47 am
As long as the wall is sound and can handle the extra load of the bales, you will be fine. Sounds like a great use for an old wall.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:53 am
Thanks Andrew!! I just need to persuade my man now that it´s a good idea.
December 6th, 2009 at 5:03 am
I’ve got a problem with viewing your page properly via the most recent version of Opera. Looks fine in IE and Firefox however.Hope you have a really great day.
December 8th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Thanks for the feedback Calvin. I’ll let my webmaster know. Have a great day!
March 29th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Hi. I am interested in building a bench/wall around my pool and. I would like to include a way to have a garden be part of the wall.
I am also interested in having a canopy extend over the bench across the pool giving the pool shade…
Can you direct me on where to look for ideas of how to accomplish this?
thank you…
March 30th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Hi Judy. I hope you don’t mind me tooting my own horn here. I am teaching a landscape wall workshop in New Mexico this September (www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com) and that will be a great way to learn the details of the construction. We’ll likely have some details to build into the wall there as well and I can answer your specific questions in person, hands-on, if you can attend. Hope that’s a good option for you.