high percentages of long, unbroken straw.
Baling machines affect bale quality, too. An improperly adjusted baler will tighten one string more than the other, producing lopsided, curved bales. If there are many such bales, avoid purchasing, since it will be difficult to bend and straighten each bale (however, if you’re building a round house, these are the bales you want!). Each bale has a cut side and a folded side. The folded side will always be shaggier than the cut side.Examine both sides to see if they are relatively smooth and even. Smooth bales will require less trimming later on and are more desirable.
3.5: Common bales come in either two- or three-string sizes, with roughly standard dimensions.
Check bales to be sure that there is not too much grain left mixed in with the straw. While some seed heads inevitably make their way into bales, large pockets of seed or a high percentage of straw with seed heads intact are grounds for declining the purchase. These seed heads attract pests and can activate microbial activity in your finished wall.
Grain crops are often treated with chemical fertilizers and sprays. While these chemicals have passed tests for use in food production, you may wish to find out which products have been used on any straw you purchase. It is possible to find straw that has been grown organically or with a minimum of chemical interference.
What Price, Fair Bale?
As an agricultural product, straw bales vary in price from season to season and from region to region. Common prices vary from Can$2 to $5 per bale.We like to offer farmers the best possible price for their bales, rather than negotiating the lowest possible price. One of the advantages of bale building is the creation of a valuable product for farmers, and we believe it is important to foster good relations with bale suppliers. The cost of your bales will be one of the lowest on your budget, even if you voluntarily offer top dollar. And offering a generous price helps guarantee that the bales will meet all your requirements.
You can also request that the farmer bale you some half-sized and smaller bales. This is a simple adjustment to make on the baling machine, and the resulting smaller bales will minimize the amount of time lost to cutting and retying bales during the wall raising.While this may cost a bit more, it will be worth every penny later on!
Transportation costs may be included in the price of the bales or may be additional. Be sure you find out. If you live close to the source, the farmer might deliver the bales at quite a reasonable cost, or you might be able to make a few trips with a truck and trailer. If not, the farmer may suggest appropriate transportation.
Commercial carriers are also an option. Negotiate carefully with your carrier; bales require a lot of effort to move, load, and stack, and they make a big mess. Settle in advance all issues of labor and cleanup. If you have a crew on hand to load and unload a truck, it will save time and may be necessary before some transport operators will consider moving straw.
Storing Your Mound of Straw
Once you’ve bought your bales, you must decide where to put them. If possible, try to leave the bales in their storage barn until you actually need them. Moving and restacking bales is a lot of work, and can be minimized by having the bales arrive at your construction site very close to the time of the wall raising. If the bales arrive early, they must be stored.
Our favorite means of storing bales onsite is to have them delivered in a transport trailer. You can have the trailer delivered to your site and pay a small rental fee to have it remain there until you need the bales. This keeps your bales high and dry, and if the trailer has been parked close to the building site, you just have to swing the doors open and unload directly to the walls. A standard sized trailer can hold up to 520 well-stacked bales, which is usually enough for houses up to 2000 square feet. Special bale trailers (used by hay brokers) hold up to 720 bales, are low to the ground, and are accessible on three sides for easy unloading.
In the previous version of this book, we gave instructions for storing bales on your building site. Creating a proper bale stack, one that will stay dry and stable, is more work than we’d recommend taking on unless you have no other option. Outdoor stacks must be elevated from the ground with a moisture barrier under-neath.
3.6: A transport trailer is a great way to move and store bales. The trailer can be rented and left on your site until you need the straw, eliminating one round of loading and unloading.
3.7: From the back of a transport trailer onto an elevator and immediately into the wall: the best way to do it!
The stack should be made with a peak at the top to encourage water runoff, and well-secured, waterproof coverings must be in place. We have yet to see an outdoor stack that hasn’t lost some bales to moisture, and they have definitely been responsible for some builders losing sleep on windy rainy nights.
Post and beam builders may be able to stack their bales under the completed roof of their building. Remember that bales must still be elevated and protected from water and dampness on or in the floor.
Purchase More than You Need
Plan to have extra bales on hand to compensate for broken, poorly tied, or damp bales in the stack. Extra bales can come in handy around the building site as step stools, makeshift work benches, boot scrapers, and comfortable seats during breaks.
Handling Bales
You should take some simple precautions when working with bales. Lift by their strings and wear gloves to avoid pinched or sliced fingers. Longsleeved shirts cut down on straw scratch to your arms. Remember to use proper lifting techniques to avoid hurting your back. Depending on how and where they were harvested and stored, your bales may be quite dusty; if so, use adequate breathing masks (proper respirators, not flimsy dust masks).
In all our time building with bales, it has been very rare to come across bales that aren’t suitable for building. So don’t worry too much. Focus instead on good relations with the farmer, and proper transportation and storage schemes.
The color, size, shape, and smell of bales make them unlike any other building material. They’re fun to play with, so go ahead and play.
CHAPTER 4
The Red Flag Questions
What about fire? What about moisture? What about insects and pests? What about mortgages and insurance? What about longevity? These are the most frequently asked questions about straw bale construction. They all have answers that should alleviate your concerns.
How Straw Bale Walls Work
Before addressing common concerns about straw bale walls, we need to explain how straw bale wall systems actually work. To be accurate we should really use the term plastered straw bale walls. The plaster — and there are many different kinds — is what seals the bales against fire, rain, wind, bugs, and big bad wolves. The plaster also
