Building a Staw Bale House
(Page 5 of 10)
December/January 1995
By Athena and Bill Steen
During construction builders usually need custom-size or half bales. A bale needle comes in very handy for such modifications, and can be fabricated from a three-foot length of five-sixteenth-inch steel rod. The bale needle threaded with baling twine is pushed through the bale at the desired length and tied off before the old bale strings or wires are cut.
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Often the thickness of the walls, especially with smaller openings, blocks much of the light and view. Beveling the bales to create an angled opening allows more light to enter the room.
You can also cut bales lengthwise, notch them to accommodate posts, and carve into them for creating niches and shelves. The most common tool builders use has been the chainsaw, although people use a variety of tools, including antique hay saws, hand saws, electric grinders, machetes, and serrated kitchen knives. Mechanical tools produce a large volume of small straw particles and straw dust which can be hard on gasoline operated tools. Unlike electric chainsaws, gasoline powered chainsaws need to have their air filters and cooling fins cleaned regularly to prevent them from overheating and wearing out. The best manual tool we have used was an old hay saw, which unlike any others we have seen had very fine serrated teeth. We have found that we often use a variety and combina tion of tools, depending on the shape and size of the desired cut or the type of straw or hay that has been baled. For example, a sharp machete works well with wheat and oat straw, but is useless with the woody stems of Johnson grass bales.
Bale Wall OptionsLoad-Bearing Walls
In this wall construction system the weight of the roof bears directly on the bale walls without the assistance of any structural framework. Three-wire bales are most often preferred for this wall system, although two-wire bales have been used. The bales are laid flat and stacked like bricks in a running bond (joints staggered) and pinned together with any suitable material that reinforces the wall. Rebar and bamboo are most commonly used as pins. The first course of bales are impaled onto pins anchored into the foundation, usually two pins per bale. The subsequent courses are then pinned (again, two per bale) at the fourth, sixth and seventh courses with fivefoot pins. Door and window frames are designed to carry the vertical loads from above.
A horizontal structural assembly called a roof plate is laid on top of the bale walls to bear and distribute the weight of the roof. An ideal roof plate would be stiff enough to resist sagging or bending while carrying the loads from above, especially over door and window openings. Vertical 2x6s with 2x4 blocking on a plywood base make a good roof plate. Variations using TJI joists and various wood box beams are also being used, as well as masonry or concrete bond beams.
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