Adding utility lines to your wall after plaster has been applied to your straw bale house is not as hard as you might think. The sooner you realize your mistake (leaving out the utility line) the easier it is to fix. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, consider this: You raise the bale walls […]
Our Straw Bale Minute video series provides answers to many, if not all, of your straw bale construction questions in short, snippets. We all have a minute to spare to improve our understanding and skills. After all, a minute or two a day could improve the quality of your project and save you thousands of dollars (and minutes) on your straw bale build.
It’s important to understand the glossary of terms for straw bale construction framing. If you don’t know what something is called, you’ll have a harder time ordering the right materials from your suppliers. In addition, if you don’t know the right terms, you’ll have a harder time discussing things with your contractors, even if you’re […]
It’s the million dollar question you’ve all been wondering about: is it enough to have just gravel in your toe ups or do you need something more? Okay, it may not be a question worth a million dollars, but making a bad decision here can indeed cost you money. In some cases just a little […]
Nobody ever looks forward to repairing water damaged bales, but from time to time, the need exists. I hope you find this recommendation valuable.
The importance of protecting natural plaster can’t be over stated. It’s not the same as conventional stucco and it needs specific conditions for application.
The primary place where both owner-builders and contractors fail when building a home is in the estimating of construction costs. Learn some tips to help you avoid that pitfall.
In this article I discuss using American Clay plaster over a Natural Hydraulic Lime plaster, making sure that cure times are accounted for.
I recently received an email asking if it was possible to get the interior walls of a straw bale house flat and smooth. I have included the email and my response to it below. Question: Are there any alternatives to finishing the interior walls of a straw bale home with plaster? More specifically, can I […]
Plastering has a lot of challenges to it from mixing recipes to application techniques. Some challenges may not be obvious from the start, so be sure to spend some time learning what you need to know before you jump in. Today I spoke with a client who had spilled Natural Hydraulic Lime (NHL) all over their […]
