The stronger your wall, the better. That seems obvious, yet I see house after house where the walls are loose and poorly stacked. Many people don’t reinforce their walls with mesh, choosing instead to plaster directly on the bales. That’s another topic for sure, but it comes back to a simple point: you MUST have strong and stable walls, especially if you don’t reinforce them in some way. Otherwise, you have a loose stack of straw bales waiting to fall over. There are several steps to consider when creating a strong and stable wall. I’ll list them and then focus on one important aspect. I could write a full article on each aspect outlined below, so please don’t underestimate the importance of each.

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The sad and ugly aftermath! In a recent workshop we discovered that the sand that was ordered for the plaster was not acceptable. I blame myself for this mistake as I did not catch the problem in time and allowed the plaster to be mixed. As is always the case, a mistake can be either just that: a bummer, or it can be a learning piece. What I learned in this scenario is the importance of finding the right sand for your plaster mix.

I spoke with the sand yard directly and told them what I needed. The dispatcher seemed to understand completely and the next day, 10 yards of angular, variable size sand was delivered to our very remote building site. There was no sending it back if we didn’t like it, it was what it was and it turned out to be the wrong stuff. The issue was that it had no fines in it.
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It’s not unusual for people to get excited about plastering their straw bale structure. After all, this is when a simple structure starts to look like a home. When the plaster goes on, suddenly, the building gets a new lease on life and it really begins to feel like completion is near. This is also a very difficult aspect of the construction process and one that will be very visible for the life of your home. When people come to visit, the plaster is likely the first thing they will notice about the home. It will either look great and wow them, or it won’t. Of course, you’re likely hoping for the wow factor! Okay, back to my point. Take a look at the photo above. What problems do you see? I see one major problem that happens far too often. (more…)

I just got an email from a man who wanted to know what I thought about moving a straw bale structure. He plans to use more modern techniques, but I imagine the same concerns would apply with either technique. My concerns are laid out below. I’d like to hear if anyone has experience with this or thoughts on the matter.
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Why would I want to do that? You may be asking yourself that very question and rightfully so. The answer may be simple or complicated depending on the situation. It may be that you have a series of wall sections that need thinner bales than the rest of the house due to framing and engineering requirements. One place where this is common is at the top of the wall system. It’s not unlikely to have a large beam at the top of the wall supporting the roof. That beam, hopefully a 4x something, will not allow you to reach the outside face of the wall with the plane of the bale and you’ll have an entire section of bales that’s 4″ too wide at the top of the wall. In some scenarios, you can simply turn a bale on edge and it will fit perfectly. In others, you can’t. I’m not a huge fan of using lots of loose stuffing in the house to fill larger voids like this. I think that starts to weaken the wall in the end. In fact, the tight fit of the bales to the top plate is one of the ingredients for a tight and solid wall. By cutting down regular bales by the required 4″ (in the scenario described above) you can install regular bales, stay with the running bond pattern, and install them tight to the top plate. Only minimal stuffing will be required.
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There are so many reasons why I suggest you not build your house with the straw bales on edge. It’s hard to know where to start. I’ll just lay out the first ten that come to mind.

1. Strings on the exposed face mean no notching around posts and thus a thermal break at each post.

2. Bales are not sturdy. If you throw a bale off the stack it will land on the flat 99 out of 100 times, not on edge.

3. Any framing in the wall eliminates the running bond system, thus weakening the walls.
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Many people have recently asked me about landscape walls. I find this interesting as I’m planning a landscape wall workshop in the Spring of 2011 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s amazing to me how the Law of Attraction really works. Once I commit to something, things start to happen that would otherwise seem like coincidence. This is just another example of that in my life. Anyway, I’ve drawn up a cross section of a landscape wall and rubble trench foundation for you to check out below. This is a basic design that can be used in most locations. Some building departments allow for rubble trench foundations within the codes while others are less accustomed to them. Be sure to discuss the potential to use this design before you commit to the design. You may need to make changes to the system or simply educate the building officials around the effectiveness of the rubble trench design.
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If you have interior partition walls in the straw bale structure you’re building, you’ll need to attach them to the structure before you install your drywall on the interior walls. Keep in mind, I’m not talking about drywall over the bales, just on the interior framed walls. The two biggest problems with interior partition walls in straw bale houses are:

1. The stud that sits on the plane of the bale wall where the two walls intersect is in the way when baling.

2. There’s nowhere to nail mesh along the wall intersection.

I’ve outlined how to deal with both of this issues in this post. The picture above is descriptive of the solution to the second issue.
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Image from www.LifeUnplugged.net

I’m not a big fan of bales in the roof as you likely already know. They are so heavy and there are several areas of concern in regards to using them above head.

1. The frame needs to be drastically increased in size and/or spacing to support the extra load.

2. Plastering over head is VERY difficult and tiring.This can be alleviated by using planking in place of plaster for the finish.

3. The R-Value gained is not anything better than what you can get with regular insulation materials (either blown in or batts and either natural materials like cotton or wool or conventional ones like fiberglass).

Personally, I stick with light weight insulation materials in the roof and leave the bales for the walls; however, if you want to use bales, you can use an assembly that looks something like this:
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If you’ve ever made an electrical spike for your straw bale home, you know just how dangerous the process can be. At the seven day comprehensive workshop in Hurley, NY two participants and I created a set of jigs that make the process really safe and thus MUCH faster. I’d like to say thank you to Gerard and Mia for their help and input on the jigs. As a furniture maker and a metal artist, their input was vital to the success of these jigs. I’d also like to thank Ian who took time over dinner to draw the jigs and a spike in Google Sketch Up so you can all benefit from the creation. He has created a file that you can view with the Sketch Up Viewer if you don’t have Google Sketch Up on your computer. Here’s the link to get the viewer:
http://sketchup.google.com/download/gsuviewer.html. If you want to download the entire Sketch Up Program for free, here’s the link to that: http://sketchup.google.com/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=sketchup. Ian has some cool websites that you might be interested in as well. I thought I’d give them a plug while I’m at it. Check out www.IGKEquestrian.com and www.NorthBrookFarms.com when you have a chance to see what he does. As I’ve mentioned before, this jig is a safe and fast way to make electrical spikes. Please take the time to review the drawings below and build the jigs for yourself if you plan to use spikes for your electrical installation.
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Picture this. Your bank loan is on a strict timeline. Your plastering job seems overwhelmingly huge because you plan to do it yourself. You don’t have any money in the budget to hire a professional crew, so your options are few. How do you speed up the process so that you can finish the job on time and avoid bank penalties? Good news, you have some options.
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I remember visiting a job site some time ago during the plastering stage. I noticed that the plastering crew had removed the protection around the windows and the floor where it meets the wall. They had done this so that they could remove any debris from around the tape that was in place from the scratch and brown coats and thus apply a clean finish coat to the wall. This is a good idea as the little bumps of dries plaster can actually contaminate the finish coat quite easily. Remember that when you scratch the first coat, there will be a lot of debris left on the surface once those scratches dry. Similarly, when floating the brown coat, sand grains and other material can ball up and dry on the surface. If you don’t knock those pieces off of the wall, especially where they might be stuck to the tape around windows, etc, you can end up with these dry contaminants in your finish coat. Now, removing the tape as mentioned above is a great idea, yes; however, the plastering crew had begun applying the finish coat of plaster without replacing the window and floor protection. This is not a good idea at all.
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Here’s an interesting question I received today.  Actually, it’s not just the question, but the overall concept that I like.  I hope to hear more about this idea of multi-story load bearing structures in the future.  Perhaps you have some input to share…

Andrew,

Although you said that you could not have a 2 storey LB building  because of the wall thickness/height ratio – could it not be done with a box beam between the floors with a second beam beneath the roof. Surely this would then start the ratio again? From other straw bale builders I gather that the bales would support the weight and therefore with an interim box beam this has to give it sufficient strength?

Here’s what I said in response (with a little expansion):
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Lots of people want the look of adobe homes when they build with bales.  The biggest risk to that is in the inset window details.  If this detail is not properly constructed, there’s a good chance, not just a small chance, but a good chance, that you’ll end up with water damage beneath your windows.  I’ve posted a sketch of a quality flashing and construction detail for this application that will help you ensure water tight seals around your windows.
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Here’s a great tip for framing a post and beam structure where the framing will be buried in the bale walls. This is something my crews figured out a couple years ago and I’ve been trying to find the best way to explain it: video, drawings, teaching people at workshops, etc. Finally, I’ve decided that I just need to write about it and give you a hand drawn sketch to get the ball rolling. I’ve been teaching it at workshops for years, but have not had time to make a video about it. So, here it is:
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The most common time I am asked the question of how to identify moisture issues is when someone buys an existing straw bale house. Moisture is not often a problem in straw bale homes as long as the house was built well. That said, there may be issues that show up over time. Here are some basic things to consider when wondering about moisture issues in the home.
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Sometimes even the best planning can result in a mistake. For example, I recently heard from someone who purchased a house and found that there is no dryer vent through the straw bale wall to the exterior of the home.

Here’s a quick step by step guide to installing a vent after the fact. Be sure that you do this job with the power turned off to the house. I suggest you turn off all of the power, so there’s no risk of hitting a live wire buried in the bales.

It’s best to cut a larger hole than what you need as trying to cut a perfect size hole in a bale wall can be difficult. By all means, try it if you want as you can always enlarge your first attempt and continue with the method below. Much will depend on what size vent (or other protrusion you’re working with) you are trying to install. It will also depend on the density of your bales.

For the larger box method, start by using a rotary hammer drill with a chisel bit to remove the plaster. I suggest you score the outline of the area heavily with a scoring tool so that the plaster doesn’t continue to break in all directions as you go.

Cut out any mesh in the wall. Be sure to leave enough mesh when you cut it out to later anchor the framing that will go in the hole. You’ll need to bend it out of the way for now.

Use a chainsaw to plunge cut the straw out of the hole. Again, watch for wiring here!!!

Insert a small wood frame into the new hole and anchor it to the wall by attaching the bent back mesh to it.

Insert the dryer vent exterior wall fitting.

Insulate around the piping.

Trim out the new box with a wood detail, tile around the vent pie as necessary to hide the repair, or replaster the area with a skim coat over the entire wall to hide the repair.

Connect the dryer vent to the stub out.

Get going on the laundry that’s been piling up!

If you plan to build with bales, you absolutely must have a moisture meter with a probe. It is so valuable that I consider it a “must have,” not a “it would be cool to have” tool.
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Many of you have written to me in recent months asking about using straw bale walls for soundproofing against noisy streets and neighborhoods. I have responded to a lot of you individually, but figure it’s better to give everyone this information as well.
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I don’t know what the weather is like where you are while you read this, but it’s pretty rainy here today! It’s always a concern for bale builders that the rains will come at just the wrong time. In fact, I’ve said it before that as soon as your bales arrive on site, you can expect rain, even if you live in the Sahara! It’s Murphy’s Law I guess. Anyway, I’ve got some simple and cool tips for you to implement when building your house and the storm clouds start to roll in.
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