Comments on: Need for an Engineer

By: crownjade

crownjade — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:28:03 +0000

Hello Stan. I am a structural engineer with licenses in 9 states, including AZ (CO, CT, ID, KY, MN, NM, PA, WY). Half of those states are for strawbale projects I have done. I am experienced in strawbale and would love to help you. I am in Colorado and working out of state is not a problem, as long as you have an electronic set of plans you can email, or a paper set to mail. I am also a timberframe engineer so fully understand your post and beam construction. Along with being a trained and experienced engineer, I spent a lifetime, over 35 years, building houses, additions, commercial, installing solar, insulating, sunrooms, carpentering, superintending, framing, and everything else possible. I don’t over-engineer, but practice the Art of Engineering. Let me know how I can help.

By: Patrick Preciado

Patrick Preciado — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:03:03 +0000

Stan, I am looking for an engineer. I have the plans but know I will need engineered plans for the permit. I live in Phoenix and will be building my second straw bale home soon. The last one was in the San Bernardino Mountains near Lake Arrowhead. The planning department had engineered blue prints and wanted to see them at each inspection. So, maybe you can tell me where to find an engineer that is familiar with straw bale post and beam construciton. Oh, one more thing. The engineers who designed the house I built in California cost the owner an extra $150,000 by over engineering the home. The sizes of the beams were massive and cost a lot of extra money. Just something to think about to those who hire an engineer and get a CAD blueprint. Make sure it is no overkill, the cost is high.

By: Stan Scholl

Stan Scholl — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:51:30 +0000

I have designed and built a two story straw bale house and San Diego County required engineering. I am a Civil Engineer and did it.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:39:30 +0000

Cliff,
I have thought about writing a book, but there are already so many out there that I don’t think it would be worth all of the effort to try and “re-tell” the story of straw bale construction. I am approaching the task of teaching straw bale construction from a different angle with my DVDs and web content.
In terms of the straps, I assume you mean for load bearing construction. If that is the case then you can find them at http://www.Cordstrap.com along with the tools necessary to tighten them.

By: Clifford Haning

Clifford Haning — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:16:21 +0000

Andrew why don’t you write a book on straw building?Also where do you get the straps to draw the bales down? I and others would like to build but don’t know where to get these straps. Thank You Cliff