Subject: Re: straw bale

From: [email-masked] (John A. Stanley)
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 12:36:18 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, Louise P Liu ([email-masked]) writes:
>Does anyone know of good sources, articles or books, about straw bale 
>construction?

   Out on Bale, (un) Ltd.
   1037 E. Linden St.
   Tucson, AZ  85719
   (602) 624-1673

They sell a variety of books and videotapes.

OOB's annotated bibliography:
___________________________________________________________________

Adobe Today's Earthbuilder. 1985. Stabilized mud plaster.  Issue 45:
12-15.  A concise, well-illustrated guide to determining the correct mix
of sand and clay-rich soil for a mud plaster and the correct amount of
emulsified asphalt needed to stabilize (i.e. make water repellent) that
plaster.

Bainbridge, D.A. with A. and B. Steen. 1992. Plastered straw bale
construction. Self-published. The Canelo Project, HCR Box 324, Canelo,
AZ 85611.  This 45 page booklet by long-time straw-bale
builders/believers is a treasure trove of well-organized
information-with lots of photos.  A thorough introduction to straw-bale
construction, past and present.

Bainbridge, D.A. 1986. High performance low cost buildings of straw.
Agriculture, Ecosystems, Environment 16:281-284.  Includes a table
showing the composition of five types of straw and gives a range of RSI
0.01 to 0.02 mm^-1 for baled straw (using a value of 0.125 mm^-1, 24" of
baled straw would provide an RSI of 7.6 or an R-value of 32.5; 16" would
have an RSI of 5.1 and an R-value of 28.9)

Bainbridge, D.A. and M.A. Myhrman. 1991. Straw bale building systems.
Proceedings of the Biennial Congress of the Internation Solar Energy
Society, Denver, Colorado, August 19-23, 3(1):2611-16. Pergamon Press.
Describes four common ways of creating bale walls. A) simply
dry-stacking and pinning the bales, B) adding mortar (earth or mud)
between the bales, C) including a ladder truss in the bale wall, and D)
using the bales and non-structural, insulating infill in balloon frame,
pole frame or post-and-beam buildings.  Includes a brief section on
recommended construction detail.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Housing Technology Incentives
Program, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A OP7. 1984.  An innovative
straw/bale mortar wall system. NHA 5799 84/08.   Describes the results
of testing done in Canada on a sample wall created by laying up straw
bales (460 mm or 18-1/8" wide) with a cement-line-sand mortar.  A
mixture of the same materials was then plastered onto each side to
create a layer 20mm (3/4") thick.  These results indicate sufficient
load-bearing capacity for standard residential construction, an average
moisture content of 13.36% (indicating no need for a separate air/vapor
barrier), an insulative quality (RSI 6.17 or R-35) two to three times
that for typical (1984) wood-frame construction and a very impressive
performance in the small-scale fire test (a maximum temperature rise of
110 degrees F in four hours).

Doolittle, B. 1973. A round house of straw bales. Mother Earth News
19:52-57.  Describes how the author and friends built a funky, 20 ft.
diameter straw-bale structure, expending 80 person-hours of labor,
$21.00, and a little gas money for the truck.  Vertical poles, their
tops linked by encircling strands of scroundged barbed wire, supported the
radiating, sloped roof poles.  Bent straw bales, on edge, were used to
create the 6 ft. high wall just within the circle formed by the vertical
posts.  The roof skin, windows, a door, some straw bale furniture, and a
wood stove finished it out.  Neither the inside nor the outside of the
bales was plastered.  Photos and many drawings.

Gagne, L. 1986. A straw-bales/mortar house demonstration project.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A
OP7. 42p.  This report describes the construction of two houses in
Canada using a straw bale/mortar exterior wall system that the author
had previously used to build his home.  Detailed results of a fire
resistance test performed on a stuccoed straw-bale wall are provided, as
are estimated cost figures.

Johnson, D. 1990. Old tricks work with new bale shapes. The Dakaota
Farmer 108(4):34-35.  7900 International Drive, Minneapolis, MN, 55425.
The author summarizes the results of four years of observation of
unplastered straw-bale livestock shelters in North Dakota.  Owners are
generally pleased with the performance and durability.  Various sizes
and shapes of bales have been successfully used.  Tightly packed bales
of flaw straw tied with plastic twine have proven to be the most
durable.  Four representative buildings are described and illustrated by
color photos.  For three of these, costs for materials are given.
Several use straw for the roof as well as the walls.  Advantages listed
for such buildings include low initial investment, ease of construction
using available labor and salvaged materials, and superior insulation
(with resulting benefit to the livestock).

MacDonald, S.O. and O. 1991. A straw bale primer. Self-published. P.O.
Box 58, Gila, NM 88038.  Steve and Orien MacDonald, a father-and-son
team from south-western New Mexico, both live in straw-bale structures.
Their excellent line drawings and informative captions emphasize
techniques for low cost buildings without a post-and-beam framework.
This primer packs a lot of practical information into a few pages.

McElderry, W. and C. 1979. Happiness is a hay house.  Mother Earth News
58:40-43.  Describes how the authors, inspired by an oncoming Minnesota
winter, used $400, materials they could scrounge or harvest and
considerable labor (their own and their friends) to create a substantial
30 ft. "diameter" hexagonal post-and-roofpole home with hay bale walls
and a hay-between-plastic-under-sod roof.

Myhrman, M. 1990a. One man's straw bale odyssey. Permaculture Drylands
Journal 10:8-9,13. P.O. Box 27371, Tucson, AZ 85726-7371.  A
chronological description of the author's growing interest and
involvement with plastered-straw bale construction, starting in May '88
with a visit to Steve and Nena MacDonald's home-under-construction near
Silver City, New Mexico, going on to a trip to the Sandhills of Nebraska
to document the roots of the tradition, and ending up with the author
designing and coordinating the construction, in Southern Arizona, of a
small bunkhouse with load-bearing straw bale walls.

Myhrman, M. 1990b. HAY, HAY! Could this be the answer to the housing
problem?  Green Revolution 47(2):1-3. The School of Living, RD1 Box
185A, Cochranville, PA, 19330.  Subtitled "Plastered Straw-Bale
Construction - an abbreviated primer", this article gives a brief
overview of the historical Nebraska tradition and the modern revival.
Includes two photos of historic Nebraska buildings and one of a modern
building under construction.

Myhrman, M. 1991. Straw-bale update: into the mainstream. Permaculture
Drylands Journal 14:3-5. P.O. Box 27371, Tucson, AZ, 85726-7371.  A
continued chronicle of the author's involvement with the growing
phenomenon of plastered bale construction.  Covers the period from March
1990, when his first, small building was in process, to March 1991 when
he participated in the wall-raising of the 1400 square foot Carabelli
residence near Santa Fe, NM.

Strang, G. 1985. Straw-bale studio. Fine Homebuilding 12/84-1/85:70-72.
Describes the construction, by architect Jon Hammond, of an 18 by 22
ft., 4X4 post-and-beam, straw-bale infill studio near Davis, California.
Corrugated roofing is supported by three roof trusses and 2X6 battens.
Fiberglass insulation provides R-19 in the ceiling.  Concrete slab
floor. Not including labor and salvaged doors and windows, he spent
$1,500 (getting the required 100 bales for $1.00 each).  Good photos
and a very helpful cutaway drawing.

Tilley, R.D. 1991.  Blueprint for survival.  Architecture May
1991:64-71.  This article focuses on the Laredo Demonstration Blueprint
Farm on the outskirts of Laredo, Texas, designed by Pliny Fisk III and
Gail D.A. Vittori, co-directors of the Autin-based Center for Maximum
Potential Building Systems.  Although the author only mentions
incidentally that the walls of the five major structures consist of
stuccoed straw-bale infill (two were hand plastered, three were faced
with a sprayed-on cement finish supplied by a local swimming-pool
builder), the photographs are impressive.  Cost figures for the building
are given as "$473,000 -- $20 per square foot (building)."

Velonis, E. 1984. Rubble-trench foundations. Fine Homebuilding
12/83-1/84: 66-68.  Rubble-trench foundations are an attractive option
for reducing the amount of concrete needed to create the wide,
above-grade footing needed for a straw-bale wall.  The author deviates
>from  the design used by Frank Lloyd Wright in that, although Wright's
trenches were only 18" deep in Wisconsin, he recommends trenching down
to the frost line (4 1/2 ft. Wisconsin).  Wright's design appears to
have stood the test of time, which suggests that the added cost of
deeper trenching and more rubble may not be justified.

Welsch, R.L. 1970.  Sandhill baled-hay construction.  Keystone Folklore
Quarterly, Spring Issue: 16-34.  Describes the results of research and
field-work carried out in the late 1960's on the use of baled hay and
straw as a construction material in the Sandhills of west-central
Nebraska.  Welsch includes some fine historic photgraphs and the
approximate locations of several of the buildings.  His later article in
Shelter (see next entry) is a shrunken version of this one.

Welsch, R.L. 1983.  Baled hay.  Page 70 in L. Kahy, ed. in Shelter.
Shelter Publications, Bolinas, CA. 176p.  This single page article in
Shelter appears to have been largely responsible for the modest revival
in baled straw/hay as a building material.  It includes fascinating
information about baled hay structures built in Nebraska, mostly betwen
1900 and 1935, plus an illustrative cutaway drawing of a load-bearing
wall with a window opening.

Wright, F.L. 1970.  A suitable foundation.  Page 141 in The Natural
House.  Horizon Press.  A brief, but fact-filled description of a "dry
wall footing" successfully used by Wright even in areas like Wisconsin
with a deep frost line.  Eliminates the need for concrete below ground
level.

--
John A. Stanley                    [email-masked]