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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. (more…)

Dun, dun dun…… Can you feel the excitement? I just got back from working on a project in Portugal and the plaster machine was one of the coolest I’ve seen. This monster mixed up to 1 1/2 bags of lime plaster at a time (35 kg bags). The capacity was not what made the machine exciting as some of the mortar mixers I use here in the States will mix twice that capacity at once. What was cool was everything that the machine was able to accomplish. Here’s a run down.
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Mixing plaster is as much of an art as it is a science. It’s important to keep a consistent mix from one batch to the next and this isn’t always easy to accomplish. One of the most common mistakes people make when creating plaster mixes is to lose track of how much sand has been put into the mixer. Have you ever mixed plaster with a bunch of folks helping you? If so, you know exactly what I mean.

Picture this: you’re using a 5 gallon bucket to place sand into the mixer. You need 4 buckets of sand for every bag of lime you add to the mixer. Your helpful friends are filling up the bucket as fast as you empty it and you guys are totally cruising through the mixing process. Suddenly you ask your friend “is that 3 or 4 buckets?” In return you get what a friend of mine calls a “goat face,” a look of complete disconnect. Now you retrace your steps to try and figure out how much sand is in the mix. You look at the plaster tumbling on the paddles in hopes of recognizing the texture of the mix. IN truth, neither of you have any clue how much sand is in the mixer. There’s a better way.
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Have you seen a bunch of these in your house? Do you have what you thought might be termintes only to discover that termite treatments don’t do much to battle the infestation? If so, you likely have an infestation of psocids. These tiny little insects are also known as booklice and barklice and are known to feed on old books and other natural materials. It’s rare to have them infest a straw bale house, but it can happen. In most, if not all cases of home infestation, the insects come in on the bales and are already in the straw when you build your house. They take a relatively high level of moisture to live and so keeping your bales dry will almost always end any infestations. Here’s some more information about these insects, how to stop an outbreak, and how to minimize your risk of infestation to start with.
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There are a lot of things to consider when buying straw bales for your construction project. Here’s a bullet point list of the absolute “must haves.”

1. Long straw. Be sure to ask your source is the bales are long straw or chopped/thrashed straw. A bale harvested by a combine will be thrashed straw and the short pieces make for a very weak bale. These are a poor choice for building. A long straw bale will typically be 14″ tall (2-string) and 16″ tall (3 string).

2. Look for a cut edge and a folded edge. If the cut edge is not clearly visible on one SIDE of the bale, it is probably a thrashed bale and the “cut edge” is likely facing up or down. Again, don’t buy these bales.

3. Color. You want a bright, golden color. Brown or black bales have seen moisture damage. Dull bales may have been stored for a season or longer. They can be acceptable if the other details check out; however, fresh bales are best if you can find them.

4. Moisture Content. Bales should be around 8-13% moisture content when checked with a bale probe. Under no circumstances should the bales reach higher than 20%. At that level, mold growth is supported.

5.Density. The easiest test is to pick up a bale by one string. If the bale deforms in any way, then don’t buy the bales. If the bale stays completely in shape, then the density is acceptable. (more…)

Chainsaws are an active part of straw bale construction. There are some other options for cutting bales, of course, but a quality electric or gas powered chainsaw is still my favorite. It’s really important that safety be considered when working with any tool and a chainsaw is no different. There are times when a small section of bale needs to be cut off and the temptation to have someone hold the bale while you cut is great. Without that person holding the bale, it’s unstable and tends to shift as the cut is peformed. Thisd makes for a messy cut and a dangerous situation for the saw operator.

You can see in the picture what I recommend. By using a piece of wood long enough to get the bale holder away from the saw and the “kick area” of the saw, he is able to provide adequate support for the bale and allow the chainsaw operator to work without added risk. The “kick area,” by the way, is the apace which the saw would cover if it bound up and kicked back. Kick back happens so fast that there is no way a person could move out of the path, especially if they are not the ones in control of the saw as they would have no indication that the saw was about to kick until it was too late.

Again, the simple use of a piece of wood makes this situation safe. Notice also that both men are wearing safety glasses. No, it’s not sawing hard wood, but yes, stuff can still hurt your eyes.

Here are some basic safety guidelines to keep in mind when working with chainsaws. This is only a partial list, so take whatever precautions you need to stay safe.

1. Work on a stable table. I like to use another bale or even better, two bales run perpendicular to the bale I’m cutting.

2. Keep your body out of the kick area.

3. Wear safety glasses and hearing protection.

4. Work in a well ventilated and light area. You need to see what you;re doing and breathing gas fumes all day won’t make your day any better!

5. Clearly mark your cut in advance and follow the line.

6. Watch for bale twine!

7. Be sure your helper is safe (see above).

8. Clean the sprocket and guard area often to keep it clear of straw. Jammed straw can throw a chain or catch fire.

9. Keep the saw well maintained. Oil and properly adjust the chain.

10. Always unplug electric saws and turn off gas saws before performing any maintenance or adjustments.

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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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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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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Hi everyone. I think it may have been a long time since some of you have had a chance to review my straw bale minutes on YouTube.com. I haven’t spoken much about them recently, but there are a lot to check out. Start by clicking on this link to see some of the most popular videos. I hope you enjoy them.

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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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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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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Concrete stakes are essential to just about any foundation project. In fact, they are used on almost all concrete projects that a home owner is likely to encounter. If you recognize the stakes in the image above, then you must have used them before. If you don’t know what they are, allow me to explain. Concrete stakes are used to hold the concrete form boards in place prior to and during a concrete pour. They stay in place until the concrete has hardened enough to remove the forms. At about $5 each, they are not cheap, and an average home foundation can easily use 200 or more of them. Making sure that you are able to get each one out after the pour is well worth the effort, but does not always happen.
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Ever wonder how to get plywood to the roof when you are working by yourself? How about making sure your concrete stakes don’t become a permanent member of your concrete foundation? There are always little tricks of the trade that make the job easier. Many of them are made up on site out of necessity and others are passed down from builder to builder. Here’s a couple that I’ll pass down to you.
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(image from www.huffingtonpost.com)
When preparing to build a house, money is always a concern. How much will it cost? Where should you focus the money you have? These are basic questions which are always on the page for people as they prepare to build. Make no mistake about it, building a house will be the most expensive thing you ever do. For most people, it is the most in debt they will ever be and so allocating the funds wisely is very important. The energy involved in having so much money tied up in one investment is the root cause for many people’s anxiety and stress when building. Making a few simple decisions up front could be the difference in how much that stress affects you.
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Okay so it’s not poop, but it could be from a distance! These are piles of extra concrete. It is so important to calculate materials well and it could be the straw that breaks your back. (I meant that pun by the way.) In this case, the truck load was too short for what the concrete guys had planned so they had to thin the slab thickness which ultimately left a lot of excess concrete. To be sure, I mentioned it to the concrete company owner. It was a mistake, and not a huge deal because the slab in this case was so small; however, on a big job, the little extras can run wild quickly.
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All too often the conversation about how to protect bales in a straw bale wall is held without any mention of how to protect those bales prior to their installation. So, how do you protect the bales once they arrive on site and before you install them? For some reason, most likely Murphy’s Law, it will rain once the bales have been delivered, even if you are building in the middle of the desert! I consider a fresh stack of dry bales to be a rain magnet.
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Hi folks,

Welcome to the Straw Bale House Blog! My name is Andrew Morrison and I am a full-time contractor specializing in…yep, you guessed it..straw bale construction!
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