I was recently invited to be a guest on the Jefferson Exchange, a popular morning talk show here in Oregon and California to discuss straw bale construction. The program is an hour long and covers many aspects of building with bales.
The first fifteen minutes or so is primarily a conversation between me and the host. The remainder of the show is in a question and answer format whereby I answer caller’s questions. I hope you enjoy the audio podcast. I had fun making it.
To listen to this podcast on your computer please click the play button at the bottom of this post. Right click the following to download the podcast to your hard drive:
My Straw Bale Radio Interview: January 2008
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To listen to this interview now please click the play button below
About the Author
Andrew Morison is a specialist in straw bale and green construction. He has shown thousands of people how to build their own straw bale projects through his comprehensive series of instructional straw bale, concrete foundation, and plastering DVDs. You can check these out at http://www.LearnStrawBale.com.com.
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February 9th, 2008 at 8:31 am
You have said numerous times that you can’t build 2-story load bearing, but I’ve come across (in books and on the web) houses that were 2-story and load bearing. Why do you say it isn’t/can’t be done?
February 10th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
The reason for this is that the strength of the bales in the out of plane direction (perpendicular to the wall) is limited to a wall width to height ratio. If you go too high, the wall becomes weak under the load of the roof and can collapse. It is possible to build a single story with a loft if the roof pitch is steep. I am sure people have done multiple story load bearing houses, but it is very experimental and somewhat dangerous at this point. There is a lot to do in terms of testing before I would recommend anyone do it. Thanks for the question.