Visit some good friends of Blue Rock Station...

The Complete Vaulted Straw Bale Workshop (7 Days)

May 24th - 30th, 2008

When I was looking to learn how to build with straw bales, I was disappointed that my only choices seemed to be to attend very expensive workshops out west somewhere that assumed I wanted to become a contractor.  

We felt that there were many (like us) who wanted to understand the skills involved and perhaps get our feet wet (or our hands dirty) with smaller projects before getting overwhelmed with the complexities of traditional contracting and project management.

Many straw bale projects are simply conventional buildings (and building techniques) than incorporate straw bales as “fill.”  This project focuses more on the “green” in green building.   So we will use recycled and recovered materials where ever possible.

This basic project incorporates most of  the skills and techniques that you will need to tackle much bigger things (like building your own Earthship or building that dream mansion out of straw bales).  But the scale of the Vaulted Straw Bale building is small enough for a beginning “green builder” to learn without being overwhelmed - useful techniques for big or small building projects.  Also the Vaulted Straw Bale building is pretty cool all by itself and makes a great garden shed, play house, guest room or hunting cabin.

This seminar will walk you through the entire process of building a straw bale structure using a pounded tire foundation.   This is the same technique we used when building our Earthship - just using the rammed earth as a foundation rather than completing it to full wall height.

We will begin with site preparation, building a foundation, framing the structure, building vaulted walls using straw bales, building walls and free standing structures using cans and bottles, and the various aspects of earth plastering.

As part of this seminar, you will be provided with complete step-by-step design and construction plans to build your own vaulted structure (so don’t worry about taking notes).

The Workshop Agenda includes:

• Orientation/ quick tour of Blue Rock Station
• Site selection and preparation
• Tire selection and basic Earthship construction concepts
• The Art and Science of pounding tires
• Water issues and “French” drains
• Concrete “half-tires”
• Installing the sill plates and locking it all together
• more water-proofing
• Framing the structure.
• Creating the vaulted guide “falseworks”
• Securing the base row of bales to the foundation
• Cutting and retying bales to size.
• Cutting saplings to girdle the bales.
• Lashing the bales to the saplings.
• Theory of straw bale, load bearing versus non-load bearing
• Water issues (keeping the bales dry)
• The theory and practical uses of can/bottle walls (such as pillars, walkway boarders, small garden buildings, etc).
• How to mix the concrete plaster (exterior) and mud plaster (interior).
• Forming bottle walls within conventional framing.
• Forming “free floating” bottle/can walls.
• Using cans and bottles as part of a straw bale or tire wall.
• Exterior coating for outdoor walls and structures.
• How to mix the various coats, including cobb, base coat, scratch coat, finish coat and exterior coats (areas exposed to the weather).
• Applying cobb.
• Applying the base coat.
• Applying the scratch coat.
• Applying the finish coats.
• Creating shelves or other free-form objects
• Finishing and sealing options.

Given the size and nature of this project, we can cover the work site in a canopy - so the event will proceed rain or shine (and believe me, after pounding tires for several hours it is the “shine” you are more worried about).

Also, as many of the steps within this project require time to dry - we will work on several projects that demonstrate the skills necessary (in other words, we won’t build one straw bale vaulted building start to finish).

Come prepared to work hard, have fun, discuss politics, eat terrific locally grown food (lunches and snacks are provided), make friends, sweat, have a proper cup of tea - then sit in the shade and admire all you have accomplished.

Workshop logistics (such as what to bring, where to stay, meals, local attractions, directions, and the like).

Class size is limited to 15 students, so please reserve your spot early.  You will also see below that deep discounts are available to those who register early.  For reservations, call us at (740) 674-4300, e-mail annie@bluerockstation.com  or register instantly and pay by credit card by clicking the little buttons below...