StrawBale.com

My Consulting Services

Andrew — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:45:09 +0000

Wondering if your construction plans are adequate to build from? Want to save thousands of dollars on your home construction? I can help you. I have helped hundreds of people achieve their goals and I can help you too. I offer all kinds of services from personal success coaching (www.CoachingBuilders.com) and basic project assistance to 12 month project consulting. I have something for everyone and would be happy to help you create the dream you’ve held in mind for so long.

1. General consulting about straw bale home applicability in specific regions.
2. Initial plan review for basic layout and function.
3. Construction Drawing review with full blown analysis of all straw bale aspects as well as general and specific design considerations.
4. Project consulting with building department support and assistance.
5. Monthly consulting packages for homes under construction.
6. Yearlong package consulting covering the entire scope of the job from start to finish.
7. Personal success coaching (www.CoachingBuilders.com)

Because no two consulting jobs are the same, I offer a number of different ways to pay for the consulting you choose.

1. By the hour with a minimum of 2 hours on each job.
2. Project Packages. These packages allow you access to me on an ongoing basis over a period of:
a. One month
b. Three months
c. Six months
d. One year

The one year package is the most economical way to go if you are actually building a home because a full year of my consulting helps you walk through both the design and construction phases with an expert at your side. I have had very good results with my past clients. Here’s what some had to say.

“I wish I had brought Andrew on earlier in the process. Once he got on board, things smoothed out tremendously.”
Eric G. -Oregon

“The help I got from Andrew was great. What started as a simple plan review ended up saving me thousands of dollars in the long run. The number of mistakes on my plans was crazy, even though I had an architect do the drawings. ”
Sarah P. -California

“I worked with Andrew during the construction of my home. I acted as my own contractor. The support I received from him was priceless. His technical knowledge of straw bale construction was why I decided to work with him, but I really feel like the personal support he offered me throughout the process was what helped me succeed in building my own house.”
Janet F. -Arizona

If you are planning to build your own house, I strongly recommend you hire me to help you along the way. There is a lot to know and it’s easier to hire me to fill in the blanks than it is for you to learn what I have amassed over 12 years in the trade. As an industry leader in Straw Bale Construction, I can help you make your dream a reality and help minimize the stress of the process at the same time.

Contact me today to learn how I can help you.

Group Discounts for Straw Bale Workshops

Andrew — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:07:03 +0000

Here’s a new idea. I’ve been trying to figure out how to help people out in the slow economy. Here’s what I came up with. For groups of 5 or more people, I will discount the tuition of each participant by $200! That’s a big savings and remember, you still get 3 healthy meals a day, a place to camp, and all the instruction on straw bale construction.

Motivate your friends and sign up together to save money on your tuition. You won’t find a better deal out there. Sign up today at www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com.

The Many Uses of Vinegar

Andrew — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:14:46 +0000

Working with Natural Hydraulic Lime, you’ll want to have a big bottle of White Vinegar on hand. It has a lot of great uses, beyond making volcanoes with baking soda! I keep a gallon of white wine vinegar under my kitchen sink and in my tool trailer.

The first use and most immediate when working with lime, is to neutralize that lime when it gets somewhere you don’t want it. For example, if you get plaster on some woodwork, you can quickly wash it with vinegar to minimize the staining of the wood. This fix won’t be perfect, but it will make a big difference which may be that space between ruined and “not a big deal.”

Another use for the vinegar is in a similar fashion, but a more personal way. You can use the vinegar to neutralize the lime on your skin. If you get some in a cut, it will sting like crazy. Add some vinegar to the cut (yup, that’s going to hurt too) to stop the long term burn of the lime in the cut. A little pain in the short term for some long term relief. Here’s a link to some great natural cuts and scrapes salve. This works great to heal those dried out, scraped up hands. Natural Salve.

Yet another good use: Throw some vinegar into the soak cycle of your laundry when your clothes have lime on them. It is very hard to get the lime out for good, but a long soak in vinegar water (strong on the vinegar) will help. Soak the clothes for about an hour or two and then run them through a cycle. Once more, with laundry soap this time, and your clothes should be almost like new (at least like what they were before you started leaning the hawk on your chest).

Best practices when working with lime plaster: Wear good gloves. Wear glasses. Don’t lean the hawk against you. Clean out cuts and use band aids right away. Keep your tools and yourself clean!

Hello to All of you “Out of States” People

Andrew — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:32:37 +0000

I just wanted to drop a line to all of the people who live outside of the United States, I can’t help but notice that there has been an increase in interest from people outside the States over the last month or so. I have sold more DVDs to you, received more feedback from you, and answered more questions on the blog and via email in the last month than in months prior. I’m happy to have you here. Please feel free to drop a line about what you are up to and what projects you have underway or on the books.

Once again, welcome!

Firmly Attach the Mesh to Protect Your Plaster

Andrew — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:22:06 +0000

When working with straw bale buildings, some people wonder whether mesh is necessary or not. I personally think it offers so many advantages that I don’t consider not using it anymore. So with that bias in front of me, I want to share a really important detail about mesh application.

Mesh must be attached firmly to the wall it covers. If it is left loose, then the plaster will hang on the mesh and may separate from the wall as a result causing cracking and potential failure. The best scenario is for the plaster to hang on the bales and for the mesh to be embedded in the plaster. This provides the best strength for the plaster.

Be sure to staple your mesh well at all wood intersections and tie any loose areas through to the other side of the building. Landscape pins are not a great solution. They work well in certain areas, like attaching blood lath around niche, but for holding loose mesh, nothing is better than staples to wood and sewing mid-bale areas.

Take the time to make sure your mesh is tight before you start plastering. Imagine yourself as plaster hanging on your mesh as you inspect the entire house once you think you are ready to get mud on the walls. Pull on sections of mesh to see how tight they are. Check the areas at the top of the wall, around windows and doors, random field areas. That final inspection may be the difference between a beautiful home and a cracked plaster failure.

Thanks for a Successful Plastering Workshop

Andrew — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:22:09 +0000

Thanks to all of you who came out to the free plastering workshop last weekend. We got a lot accomplished and I’m happy that you all learned a bunch. I was bummed that we never got a chance to take a group photo. Oh well, I guess it was not meant to be. Thanks for traveling as far as you did and from coming from as close as you did (depending on who you are!). We got a lot accomplished, but did not finish the buildings.

I may teach another workshop in the next few weeks using a spray gun to apply the plaster! Stay tuned.

To be continued…….

Spray the Plaster

Andrew — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:05:18 +0000

I can’t believe it, but I have been converted! I never thought I would stand on the side of spraying plaster as I have always believed that hand troweling is better; however, I was convinced of it this last week. After talking with Steven, a master lime plasterer from Scotland, I am fully convinced that spraying is the way to go. As you may know, Scotland is known for having very old buildings, castles like the one above even, that have been plastered and mortared with lime for centuries. The knowledge that Steven shared with us has been passed down for generations and is something I could easily understand through his teaching.

Here’s the deal, when sprayed on to the wall surface, the lime is compacted as it hits the wall. This compaction works in a way similar to pressing back as described in yesterday’s blog. In addition, the force of the impact of the spray helps to drive air out of the lime. On the other hand, when troweled on, the action can actually put air into the space between the substrate and new coat. This can lead to sheeting and plaster failure.

Traditionally, plaster was cast on to the wall. This means literally throwing the plaster on to the wall. For the same reasons as described above, this method has endured for years. There is a skill to a proper cast, so the idea of a machine that can do it for you and at a higher rate of application is a great idea. In fact, Steven says he would use it for all new applications, just not for historic work where the art of hand casting is still the first choice.

Spraying the wall and following the sprayer with a trowel to push back the plaster and create an even coat produces a strong plaster and a strong bond. You can actually leave the plaster with the cast texture if done properly which creates the necessary key for the brown coat and increases the surface area of the wall. This is great because it aids in the carbonation process by exposing more of the wall to the air. If you cannot leave the texture in place, be sure to press back the plaster and then scratch it to expose more surface area to the air for carbonation and to provide key for the brown coat.

Press It Back

Andrew — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:05:15 +0000

One of the cool things I learned this last week about lime plaster is the use of “pressing it back.” I had never heard this term, nor had I heard of the concept. It is quite simple and yet creates a very powerful effect on the strength and quality of the plaster.

I had always been told to lay my plaster on the bales and then, as soon as it was stiff enough to hold a scratch, run the scarifier over the wall. This produced a scratch or key for the brown coat to hang on. One of the problems with this is that the mud is often uneven in its level of stiffness due to the uneven thickness of the mud over the bales. In addition, this uneven application often created areas where the thicker mud slumped off of the wall a bit and thus were not as tightly anchored in place. I always went back and worked those areas a bit more before scratching. This extra working can actually weaken the plaster even more as the free lime and the aggregate get separated similarly to what happens when concrete is over worked and the “cream” comes to the surface.

Pressing it back is when the scratch coat is left alone until it reaches a “leathery” condition. This is a bit stiffer than what would be used for the scenario described above. Once at this point, a somewhat flexible trowel is used to press the plaster back upon itself and to push the plaster deeper into the wall. This increases the bond with the substrate and compacts the plaster itself. This compaction strengthens the plaster and reduces cracking by compacting the space between the lime and the aggregate. Keep in mind that during the drying process, H2O is lost and that space needs to be occupied by something. The lime stretches to fill those spaces as it grows during the carbonation process, with the absorption of CO2. The pressing back pushes all of the material tighter and strengthens the bond as a result. After the wall is pressed back, the scratching is completed. Although the scratching will be shallow, enough key will be created and the strength of the plaster and its bond to the substrate will be greatly increased.

Interesting Approach to Adding Openings in Load Bearing Construction

Andrew — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:05:41 +0000

I just got an email from someone who plans to install his windows and doors the following way. I think it is an interesting idea as it will provide for very good compression of the bales and a very quick construction of the walls. This is in line with how additions can be added to existing straw bale homes. I always suggest that if people have specific intentions to expand later on down the line that they plan for the expansion by leaving electrical out of the area where they plan to cut in the new hallway.

Check out the idea sent in via email and let me know what you think about it.

1. The spaces required for windows and (over sized) doors are not left open but
rather the walls are built as full walls with no spaces. The lintels for the
doors and windows are however, put into place.
2. Once the walls are at roof height, wall plates are in place and the bales
have been compressed and have settled (some 2 days or longer after
compression), the door and window spaces are removed via chainsaw or other
appropriate method, from below the lintel.
3. The sides and bottom rails of the door/window spaces are immediately put
into place and the sides are attached to the bale wall by pinning through the
timber into the bales with wooden dowels. Care will be take to ensure that any
part-bale section within the space that are small enough to fall out, are kept
in place. This should not be a problem however, since once the bale compression
has taken place, the compressive force should keep the straw in place even after
being cut.
4. The pre-made window can then be attached to the frame or constructed within
the frame from scratch. Doors are made to fit the space.

An Awesome Workshop Just Completed! Four More Chances to Join Me This Summer.

Andrew — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:00:59 +0000

What an amazing week this was. We just finished a seven day intensive workshop in Williams, Oregon with great success. As always, I feel like I have a whole new group of friends from all over the world. There were people from Oregon, California, Washington, Wisconsin, Illinois, Scotland and London (soon to be back home in Israel). What an amazing group of people!!!

We finished up ahead of schedule on this cute little building and managed to throw in some acid staining on the concrete floors Sunday morning! The food was great and the company even better. We were even blessed to have a master lime plasterer in the group all the way from Scotland. I have never learned so much about the science and art of this great material as I did this last week. Thank you Steven!

This was the first workshop of the summer for me and I am fully charged and ready to go with the rest of my workshops. I am super excited to teach people the new information I gained about lime plaster and the ever growing wealth of information I hold around straw bale construction. I always learn something new at every workshop, and this was no different (even beyond the lime plaster information).

I have 4 more seven day intensive straw bale workshops planned for this summer. The next workshop is June 15-21 near Willow Creek, California. I really hope that you will join me. You can learn more about what I teach and sign up at www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com.