It’s been awhile since we sent out a Straw Bale Building newsletter but Ecoville ArchiTechs and bale building are rolling along. We hope you are having a good summer, too.
We are teaching a Straw Bale Workshop on July 30, 31 & Aug 1 on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation in South Dakota. We are excited to be working on this project. The building is a large barn/workshop space for OLCERI, a sustainability school. The Permaculture Guild is hosting the workshop and you can get more information at http://www.permacultureguild.us/straw-bale-course-at-pine-ridge/ This is a wonderful opportunity to learn straw bale building in an indegenous cultural setting!
This spring we worked on 5 Straw Bale house plans which were offering wall raising opportunities, all in Tennessee. Due to health issues, officialdom, and other extenuating circumstances 3 of them won’t be completed this year. The others are in the early building stages, not ready to set a date for straw. We will update when there are details to share.
One of the projects is an exciting straw bale retrofit of an old apartment building in Nashville. They are also incorporating a living roof, serious enough for gardening, and a Vertical Garden in Patrick Blanc fashion. See http://inhabitat.com/2007/01/15/vertical-gardens-by-patrick-blanc/ for beautiful pictures.
So keep your eyes open for more info. It’s an experience you won’t want to miss!
Would you like enough space and land to follow your dreams with plenty of elbow room? A rare opportunity is available for the right neighbor.
John Annesley designer and builder of a wonderful Papercrete home and shop has decided to sell 15 acres of land adjoining his property in the SW desert. This could be the perfect chance to build a home while having a neighbor close by that is very familiar with papercrete, paper-adobe, earthbag, ferrocement, and burlapcrete construction as well as years of conventional construction experience
John has collected the essentials like a papercrete mixer, gas powered air compressor and mortar sprayer, cement mixer, metal fabrication equipment, most conventional construction and woodworking tools and is willing to share his collection with another person building their home.
The price is right and the opportunity is wonderful.
Contact John Annesley to find out if this could be your future development.
Ed Kliman of Texas Music Forge will be spraying surface bonding cement on his home this Summer. Ed did a great job of sharing the progress as he and his wife built a home with Surface bonded concrete block on his web site. The home included thin shell vaulted roofs supported by dry stack block. It is an inexpensive and beautiful way to build a home.
When Ed is not building his home, he works as an accomplished musician and performer. Here you can hear and see some of his works in Shakespeare.
We are building a new section that will be all about stucco. If you have any interest in stucco application, how to mix stucco, or many variations of stucco recipes, please check out our site. The material will range from the definition of stucco, to the many types of stucco mixes.
The latest page includes stucco mixes with step by step instructions to start your mixing. Then there are mixes for a scratch coat, a brown coat, ferrocement, carving plaster and more. What is your favorite mix? Please send us your favorite plaster or stucco mix, and we will share it on our mix page.
STEVE KORNHER IS HOSTING TWO CONCRETE VAULT WORKSHOPS
WHERE: SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE(SMA), GUANAJUATO, MEXICO
WHEN: FEBRUARY 7-13, 2010
Both workshops will focus on vaulted roofs, stair railings, terrazzo and counter tops. Also spraying and finish plaster, light weight and hard sculpture, doors and windows, stains and colors, garden benches, and anything else you specifically request. Cost is $700 with a 10% discount for couples. This Price includes:
Instruction and materials: We will be working on vaults, movable formwork, light weight concrete, sculpture, bucket mixers, and use of fibers. PLUS- basically whatever you want–terrazo, sand casting, stairs, and rails, FC doors, poured dirt …I have tried a lot of stuff from The Owner Built Home, so most anything from this book is possible/probable.
Transportation in SMA –we’ll need a van or a couple of taxis to visit sites and for daily rides from town to the ranch/work site.
Wonderful lunches featuring the local cuisine.
For more information please email Steve Kornher at mxsteve@gmail.com
Rodney Volkmar built this 130 foot strawbale wall. The first coat was applied in less than six hours. The crew took turns mixing, spraying and troweling to help the project move along quickly.
Note that the wall was built with a layer of tar paper and chicken wire on top. This helps to shed water off to the sides instead of soaking into the bales.
Pamela Volkmar uses the stucco sprayer to spray the straw bale stucco fence, while David trowels.
A sakcrete mason’s mix was used to save mixing and application time with the (stucco) plaster sprayer. A mortar mixer is the preferred machine for mixing plaster and stucco. You can recognize a mortar mixer by the rotating paddles. This will give a smoother mix with less water. A concrete mixer can also be used but will be more work and not mix as nice. You can spot a concrete mixer because the outside drum rotates.
The finished strawbale wall was stained with natural pigments to look great!
Stucco & Mortar Sprayers
If you want to learn how to stucco, or want to apply stucco or mortar to a wall or strawbales, you will like this stucco sprayer for spraying traditional plaster, lime and natural earth plaster, and stucco and mortar mixes.
Rodney and Pamela Volkmar designed a vaulted straw bale cabin. It has an A-frame facade of a small stucco house. With all the materials at the site, Rodney feels this design, even on a larger scale, could be completed in two weeks.
This strawbale home started with a cinder block and earth bag foundation. Next the wood frame was constructed.
The straw bales were then stacked between the wood frame and pinned into place vertically and laterally with bamboo sticks. This added maximum strength to the house.
The final step was to spray earthen plaster over the structure with the stucco sprayer. According to Rodney, the stucco sprayer saves a huge amount of time and labor.
Stucco & Mortar Sprayers
If you want to learn how to stucco, or want to apply stucco or mortar to a wall or strawbales, you will like this Stucco sprayer for spraying traditional plaster, lime and natural earth plaster, and stucco and mortar mixes.
