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Strawtron

May 23
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Replacing Concrete with Wood: Pier and Beam Foundation

By Timber Framing, Strawtron, Hand Tools
Timber frame pier and beam foundation

Standing at the future floor height... we are way up there!

Many people are shocked at the giant size of the sill beam timbers we are using (myself included), as they are very burly 8×12 white oak beams. They are no joke. Lately I’ve been thinking about a concise way to describe our foundation design, and I’ve decided to make clear sense of it by explaining that we are replacing concrete with wood. These are serious pieces of wood, and they ought to be as they are supporting a heavy straw bale house with a living roof.

Anyway, we’ve had a lot of excitement the past week wrangling with the 8×12 beams, and setting the first three onto our concrete pier foundation.

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May 17
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Timber Framing Begins: Building the Strawtron House Platform

By Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing, Strawtron, Workshops
Timber framing

Making wood chips... er, timber framing beings!

Today was a historic day in the “Strawtron” building timeline — we began timber framing and building our house platform. Yahoo! A few nights ago, we got our delivery of massive sill beams and floor joists, including some honking 8×12 white oak beams at 16 feet long each — requiring no less than ten people to carry them 30 feet into our newly erected “wedding tent”, the temporary shade/weather structure we constructed for our Timber Frame Workshop.

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Apr 09
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Building a Concrete Pier Foundation For Our Straw Bale House: Part 2

By Foundation, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Concrete Pier Foundation

Time for the concrete pour for our foundation

Late last week, I wrote about the techniques for doing building layout with batter boards and the 3-4-5 triangle rule, in preparation for building a concrete pier foundation. (Actually, that method works well regardless of the foundation type.)

In part two, I’ll talk about how to work with concrete pour tubes and actually install the concrete piers. Check it out below! Read More

Apr 06
Love1
concrete pier foundation

Building a Concrete Pier Foundation for Our Straw Bale House: Part 1

By Foundation, Strawtron
concrete pier foundation

The completed concrete pier foundation

Two days ago, we completed the concrete pier foundation for our new straw bale house! Yahoo! In eight hours, and with pretty intense labor, we managed to get our holes dug, our concrete piers poured, and finally, revel in the excitement of having a finished foundation for our current house project.

In this first how-to article, I’ll describe how we prepared the site and transferred our foundation plan to the ground using batter board layout. I’ll also explain why we chose a concrete pier design for this building.

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Apr 02
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3 Reasons To Build Your Own Attached Greenhouse

By Strawtron, Design, Winter, Heating
Attached Greenhouse Design

Inside a beautiful attached greenhouse full of life…

Building your own greenhouse is a great idea if you are a gardener and want space to start seedlings, or grow plants that require a longer growing season than your climate can normally provide.

But a standalone greenhouse is one thing — an attached greenhouse design for your house brings in a whole other host of benefits to be considered that extend beyond the conveniences of growing food more easily.

Read on ahead to learn about all the reasons to consider an attached greenhouse design for your home — they include providing additional free heat, extending living space, and supplying space to grow food for a longer period of time.

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Mar 29
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Good Balcony Design Ideas For Your Natural Home

By Strawtron, Design, Straw Bale Building
Balcony Design

A shady, beautiful balcony with climbing plants

Our new straw bale house plan features a balcony design on the west side of the building. The purpose of this balcony is two, if not three-fold. Not only is it a place to sit and watch the sunset, but it provides other more functional purposes, too. Here are some good tips about how to plan a successful balcony design for your new home. Take note!

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Mar 26
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Flea Market Tool Finds: Froe

By Timber Framing, Strawtron, Hand Tools
Woodworking tools: froe and maul

An old froe and mallet

Every month, I make my pilgrimage (er, it’s really just a short trip, I guess) to the local flea market, the so-called Dog and Gun. Usually I go in search of old hand tools, especially woodworking tools. The latest find was this very old froe.

A froe is a tool used for cleaving wood — very often they are associated with splitting shakes, but they can be used to pare down wood for making handles, or whatever other reason you would have to cleave wood. They are used by striking a wooden mallet on the top of the blade (seen at right in this image). They are not sharp — they are basically a glorified wedge on a stick.

They are extremely useful, however. Recently, I spent a lot of time starting to split out blanks for wood pegs for the future timber frame. The handle is shot, so I need to make a new one, but for $20, it was a nice deal. This one’s quite old, too. I like when you can tell that an old woodworking tool has a lot of history.

(New froes are at least $50 or more, by the way.)

Jan 18
Love0

2012 Natural Building Internship: Build a Straw Bale House

By Work Exchange, Timber Framing, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Workshops


The Year of Mud is happy to announce that we are seeking an intern during the 2012 building season. We are offering a rare natural building internship opportunity — the chance to help build a straw bale house from the ground up, and to participate in two complete natural building workshops in an inspiring ecovillage community.

Interns will help to organize and get full participation in our Timber Frame Workshop, and Straw Bale Workshop. Come experience what it is like to build a natural home from step one at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage!

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