Looking for straw bales? I recently met a bale broker who can deliver quality straw bales across the US. He works with over 120 farms and many trucking companies to provide excellent service. I have used his bales and was very happy with them.
Archive | Bale Types
Baling With Jumbo Bales
Baling with jumbo bales, by which I mean the REALLY large bales that require pretty substantial machinery to place, is possible. However, there are multiple considerations that need to be addressed to determine if the extra cost in foundation materials, plaster and roofing materials make it worthwhile. In this Straw Bale Minute, I address each […]
Make Your Own Hand Baler
This article is reprinted with kind permission from the Oak Hill Homestead blog. They cut and bale their hay by hand. One could modify the size and application of the baler to bale straw by hand. This solution could work very well in areas where mechanical balers are not available. We don’t own a tractor, […]
Straw Bale Gardening
It’s not unusual to end up with extra bales after building a straw bale house. In fact, I recommend it. Those extra bales are great to have around as steps or scaffolding supports when plastering. Furthermore, I would always rather have a few too many bales than not enough when building. The question is, what to do with the extra […]
Can I Stuff the Wall With This?
That’s a question that I have been asked potentially thousands of times over the years teaching workshops. I like that people ask the question, actually, because it shows me that they are paying attention to the details and wanting to make the house the best it can be. The answer is usually “yes” but has […]
Plastic Encased Straw Bales
Several of you have, over the years, written to me about using straw bales that are wrapped in plastic. The suggested benefits of this have ranged from no need for additional vapor barrier, to ease of stacking, to being able to mortar the blocks together. Although this would seem like a good idea at initial […]
Buying the Right Straw
There are a lot of things to consider when buying the best 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 […]
Resizing Straw Bales with a Portable Sawmill
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 […]
10 Reasons to Never Stack Your Bales on Edge
There are so many reasons why I suggest you not build your house with the straw bales on edge. It’s hard to know where to start. I’ll just lay out the first ten that come to mind. 1. Strings on the exposed face mean no notching around posts and thus a thermal break at each […]
A Tool You Absolutely Must Have
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. Use the meter to check the moisture levels of bales before you buy them. I randomly check about […]