Spirit of South Dakota Lakester

[Tman]

Wow Trent it looks like you even have electricity in there. I feel your pain. I'm a couple of weekeknds away from finishing our master bath remod. A 2 year project. Good thing Amy wanted the race car as well.

We do in fact. I get some interesting looks when I tell folks it is a straw bale house. But, it has weathered 114mph gusts that blew a modular off its foundation out here.

Just got back from Toms new place. His shop is awesome so we have a second place to work on the car. I brought some house/shop warming beer and our local made Rhubarb Wine to christen the place. We talked Bonneville and engine plans. And since I have garage doors on my mind I made a big save for him by spotting the garage door bracket that had broke loose and was only held up by one bolt. He was lucky the door had not crashed on his dailies! Turns out one lag only went into sheetrock!

[Dr Goggles]

We do in fact. I get some interesting looks when I tell folks it is a straw bale house. But, it has weathered 114mph gusts that blew a modular off its foundation out here.

You'll be fine unless a big bad wolf turns up.

I spent my teens in mud-bricks, my brother and I made them all by hand....always saw bale houses as a great idea for the more extremkem climes, good to hear about your progress T.

Dr G

[Captthundarr]

Saw some stuff on the tube about building bale house some years back. I thought it was too neat. 2 shops is 2 much. Amys car is in the driver way and the tools and parts are in the garage. One day I'll scrape up some cash and put a two bay in the back yard,oh ya.

[Tman]

I am just happy to have my pal Tom this close. 400 miles was the distance before. He is exicted to get settled and to work on some toys. His 56 Chevy comes home next week and he found a 409 powered Biscayne to play with as well.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Quick tangential question:  You mean there really is such a thing as a bale house?  Nancy and I were touring on the Gold Wind a bunch of years ago and saw what sure appeared to be a bale house - a BF bale house, at that - someplace out west.  Might have been Utah, might have been Oregon, might have been someplace else.  But it certainly was a bale house.  We still talk about it once in a while - still thinking it was a one-off.  Now you go and tell me that they aren't that uncommon.  Prove it -- show me photos!

I now return you to the regular thread ('cept that I'm waiting to see photos )

[Buickguy3]

   Jon,
  They have been building the bale houses here on the Crow Indian Reservation for a few years. I'll see if I can find a link.
  Doug 

[Buickguy3]

Here ya go Jon. 
    http://www.communityservices.nd.gov/uploads%5Cresources%5C207%5Cstrawbale.pdf

  Doug 

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Well I'll be go to hay.  The house we saw was pretty big -- really big.  And it didn't have stucco or cement or anything but bales walls (outside, at least).  But there's no question -- the house was made of bales of something.  Now if it had been in northern California the bales might have been locally-grown weed, but I'm pretty sure it was regular straw (from the color, not the aroma).

Thanks for the information, ladies and germs.

[Tman]

Well I'll be go to hay.  The house we saw was pretty big -- really big.  And it didn't have stucco or cement or anything but bales walls (outside, at least).  But there's no question -- the house was made of bales of something.  Now if it had been in northern California the bales might have been locally-grown weed, but I'm pretty sure it was regular straw (from the color, not the aroma).

Thanks for the information, ladies and germs.

Straw, not hay Jon! And our is pretty big as well. 38x50 footprint. 3800 sq ft up and down total. What you saw was probably under construction before they stuccoed it. There are several here in the Black Hills. Nebraska and Wyoming have a lot of history with these. They came about along with the invention of the mechanical baler. Imagine living in a dirty sod house and seeing these nice clean bales of straw? It didn't take them long to figure out that they made better building blocks than dirt!

[Seldom Seen Slim]

The straw house we saw showed every indication of having been there for a good number of years - tings like driveway wear and tear, yard kinda tended but now weedy, and so on -- certainly did NOT look like it was under cornstruction.  But it was strange-looking to us from the UP.

[Jack Gifford]

Buickguy- thanks for the link. I quickly looked it over, but didn't read the whole thing. How do they keep the stucco from cracking in time? Is some framing (wood, etc.) employed?

[Tman]

Buickguy- thanks for the link. I quickly looked it over, but didn't read the whole thing. How do they keep the stucco from cracking in time? Is some framing (wood, etc.) employed?

Jack, ours is a hybrid. Part of the bales are load bearing and part are in-fill with post construction. For load bearing you pre-tension the bales. Our has a box beam on top that gets cinched down with cable to the bottom plate. As for the stuccco, it works as well as on a stick built house.

[Buickguy3]

   Here's a link to several local articles around our area.
http://billingsgazette.com/search/?l=25&skin=/&sd=desc&s=start_time&f=html&q=straw bale house

  Doug 

[Tman]

Minor curve in the road. Lost the daily job a few days back. Looking for something new and working on developing the parts business. Thankfully our overhead is low and we have a safety net. The plan is still to be at Speedweek. I do not know if I will be driving the truck, keeping my safety gear budget in reserve but thanks to Doug Odom I do have a 20 suit. Thanks Doug!

[Roseville Carl]

Damn Trent that sucks, hoping the best for you in finding another one .......... Carl