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Welcome to the December 2006 “Building Green” podcast. This is my monthly Q&A session where I answer your green building and straw bale construction questions. This month I answer the following questions:
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Popularity: 13%

Perhaps the most important aspect of straw bale building has nothing to do with bales. In fact, it has everything to do with holes in the walls. Windows and doors present the most likely areas for water infiltration and bale damage in the entire house. For this reason it is extremely important to pay extra attention to these areas during construction. For windows, I use two part flashing. The first is called counter flashing and is put in place before the window or door is set in the opening.
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Popularity: 9%

It is often difficult to tell the quality of any home, let alone a straw bale home once it has been in existence for a few years. With bale homes, there are usually not experience home inspectors who can help as in conventional homes as the details of straw bale homes are often beyond the scope of what inspectors know. For that reason, you may be left inspecting the home yourself. Here are some things to consider.
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Popularity: 14%

Many areas that have a building code that recognizes straw bale construction call for protection against rain splash. The most common form of protection comes in the use of roofing felt or building paper. Many jurisdictions require that the protection be wrapped around the bottom courses of the bales in a wall assembly, usually extending up to the third course of bales. The biggest problem with this requirement is the wrapping of the bales with the paper.
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Popularity: 3%

It is very common for home owners to want a fireplace these days and the addition of flames into a straw bale wall assembly is often a cause for concern to the local building inspector. Most of today’s stoves, either direct vent gas units or wood units, are designed to have minimal clearance around them to flammable materials.
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Popularity: 3%

Exactly where the top course of bales will end depends directly on the size of the bales and the height of the wall. In addition, the way the frame is built will also have an effect. For example, if the floor/ceiling joists are sitting on top of the beam, then there will be a section of framing that will need to be notched out of the bales whereas if the floor/ceiling joists are hanging on the beam the bales will end tight to the floor/ceiling system without any notching for the beam.
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Popularity: 3%

If you are building a straw bale addition as an infill structure, in other words with a frame other than the bales that will support the roof, then all you need do is attach the frame of the addition to the existing home where the two meet. That can be as simple as adding a stud in the corner at the transition and nailing it or lag screwing it into the existing frame.
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Popularity: 3%

When stacking bales, it is often thought that the interior toe ups should be placed the same distance from the exterior plane of the wall as the width of the bales, in other words, 18″. In truth, this is not a good idea. It is best to space the toe ups so that the interior plane of the toe is about 1 1/2″ bigger than the overall bale thickness. This allows for adjustments in the bales to achieve a flat wall in a minimum amount of time. It ultimately takes a bit more plaster to complete this system, but it is well worth the effort.
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Popularity: 3%

Bale walls have a tendency to wiggle and seem weak during the baling phase and often don’t find their strength until the mesh, bamboo stiffeners, or other strengthening materials are put in place. We strengthen the walls in a simple and quick manner with the use of scrap wood blocking.
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Popularity: 3%

When building with bales, it is often necessary to match a bale wall with a plywood sided wall. As an example, when a run of house wall lines up with a run of garage wall, the transition from bale to plywood needs to be taken into account. If you frame the walls of the house in line with the walls of the garage, they will not work out once the plaster is applied.
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Popularity: 3%

If you plan to use a finish slab of wood on your window seats, you will need to build some type of “sub-base” to attach the wood to. This is also true for granite slabs or other finish seats. We build ours from two 3/4″ slabs of scrap plywood screwed together. We cut them about 3″ narrower than the seat and never wider than the distance from the window to the edge of the bales so an apron can be attached to hide them.
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Popularity: 3%

When creating the soft curves at window and door openings, the question is often asked: is it easier to bale right up to the edge or hold the bales back? We have found on our job sites that if you hold the bales back from the edge, in fact, hold them back to the beginning of the curve, you can more easily shape the corner the way you want it.
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Popularity: 6%

I always suggest that people keep all plumbing lines out of bale walls. Sometimes this is not possible and water lines need to be run through bales. The most common example of this is with hose bibs. Frost proof hose bibs need to be run back into the wall about a foot or so. For that reason, and also per our local plumbing code, we cannot place them on exterior stand pipes outside of the structure. In order to keep the risk of water leaks out of the bales, I build water line isolation walls which completely separate the bales from the pipes.
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Popularity: 7%

I received an email this morning from some folks in New Zealand. They are wondering if it is okay to leave the plaster off of the outside of a house if they wrap it with metal panels instead. I have attached their email below along with my response. In addition to my original response, I have thought of more to say on the subject. The additional information is noted here as well.
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Popularity: 4%

I am often asked how many bales will be needed in my client’s straw bale houses. I too have to know the answer to this on all of my own projects. There are a number of ways to calculate the bale requirements. Click the following link (www.StrawBale.com/articles/straw_bales_house.html) to see an article I just wrote for www.StrawBale.com on the three most commonly used ways to calculate bale quantities for your straw bale house. My preferred method, the second of the three listed, is given here.
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Popularity: 4%

If you build your straw bale walls without the use of mesh on either side of the wall, you will need to attach the bales to the structure in some other way. The most common is shown in the image above and involves cutting 4″ wide x 12″ long (or so) pieces of plaster lath and nailing them to the posts at the top of each course.
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Popularity: 3%

I am often asked if a straw bale house can be built over a basement. The answer is always yes. A raised floor system, either over a basement or crawlspace, is no different than building a second floor on a bale home. Interior footings will likely be necessary to carry the load of the floor system. In some cases, you may need to step these down into a lower sectional basement for continued support. Once they are poured and in place, you can build your stem walls. You can use poured concrete or block, depending on your desired finish result.
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Popularity: 12%

I recently received an email asking if it was possible to get the interior walls of a SB house flat and smooth. I have included the email and my response to it below.

Question: Are there any alternatives to finishing the interior walls of a straw bale home with plaster? More specifically, can I do drywall or something similar that gives me the crisp, smooth, flat surface typical in most homes?

Answer: You could do the drywall on the interior of the house, but it would be a huge waste of time as there would be many extra steps necessary to achieve this.
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Popularity: 4%

The conversation about electrical wires continues. Here’s a reply to my last comment that adding extra cost in the form of electrical conduit to an already costly building process is unnecessary.

Comment

Conduit is CHEAP ……. Look at the cost of Romex as compared to conduit and ordinary insulate wire. Conduit functions as your ground lead and thus simplifies your wiring as well as providing a good tight system where wire is invulnerable……..
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Popularity: 9%

I have been a member of a straw bale list serve for quite a few years and every so often an interesting conversation emerges. This one is an ongoing debate about the safety of running electrical wires through straw bale. I’ll keep you posted as this conversation evolves. (The comments of other people are in italics.)
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Popularity: 8%