Summer 09 workshop update
The workshop and building season is off and we’ve been helping more people this year than any previous year having four wall raising/workshops on the schedule already. While the Alabama gig at Daniel and Carol’s was postponed and rescheduled due to the availability of good straw bales we did have a valuable learning experience there discovering that there was yet another kind of straw bale that we had not come across before. One of the farm equipment makers produces what they call an “inline baler” which orients the straw 90 degrees to what we had come to consider normal. Instead of the straws being long and folded laying flat they are cut on both faces and standing on end, the strings being now across the cut faces of the bales. This is a problem for us in that if the bales are laid with the strings in the wall the cut ends we like to plaster on are buried in the wall as well. If we turn them on their side then the bales cannot be notched for the 4X posts we generally recommend to keep the notches out of the string line. So in planning your straw bale home be sure to check. Suddenly I understood why some folks are covering straw walls with stucco mesh causing an increase in construction cost. The How To video with Andy Morrison of Strawbale.com, for instance, shows they are using inline bales.
We just got back from Linden, VA where we showed Jonathan, Susan and crew how to install the straw bale walls in their new home. One surprise we had there was that the local structural engineer had insisted on 4x diagonal timber knee braces at all the corner posts making it more difficult to notch the bales into the structure. We were unaware of this before arriving at the site unfortunately or we might have been able to get the design modified to accommodate the straw bales better. We recommend using flat steel braces on the outside face of the wall instead. Simpson Strong-tie makes diagonal shear bracing straps that can be used but we prefer 2”x1/8” steel flat stock lagged screwed in at the band and beams. We didn’t have a large turn-out I suppose due to the daily torrential rains that preceded the weekend but having a small crew helped us make sure that everyone was able to hear and see the information we were there to convey. We should reiterate that it is important to have the roof complete before installing straw. We had a great time in Virginia as we always do when people are building with straw bales.
We will be going back down to Daniel and Carol’s in a couple weeks, so if you are interested in getting some hands on experience with straw bale there is an opportunity. Then we have one in Arkansas in July and we have two more, a small cabin and large house, that have not yet set a date but construction is underway so we expect they will be ready a little later this summer. Straw bale building seems to be keeping us busy this year while so much construction in the area has slowed due to the banking crisis.
