More strawbale plastering

Strawbale Documentation: Third coat of plaster

It's almost September...fall is in the air...we've been wearing extra layers, adding a quilt at night, and thinking more seriously about making a final decision on what woodstove to buy for our addition. The garden is nearing it's summer harvest end, and we've planted some fall crops like fresh greens and more kale. With all the rain lately we've been collecting an enormous amount in our 1200 litre tank (overflowing numerous times during some storms!), and I've been able to have fresh rainwater to use in all my soap batches! This makes a superior soap in my opinion.

We're also feeling the final push on the strawbale house addition - and the third coat of plaster is taking shape. We had a few groups of people come by to help, including local friends, and a few CRAFT interns from two nearby organic farms (Everdale and Ignatius Farm, both near Guelph). Thanks to everyone who has been so helpful on this project!

Strawbale House Update - Volunteers Welcome for Plastering Work!

We've completed one coat of the plaster on all four walls of the strawbale house!! This is a huge accomplishment, given the plastering started in earnest on the hottest days of the year. We are grateful for this weather though, as the heavy rains of July have held us back. Now we just need to ensure that the plaster walls don't dry out too quickly, which is easy enough to do by misting them gently every few hours during a hot day. There are three more coats of plaster to do, the top being a very thin skim coat to finish off. The walls are still very rough at this point, but with each layer we even out the bumps and lumps from the strawbales underneath, and the walls take on their characteristic rounded earthy look. Beautiful!

We are hoping to organize some workbees - if anyone in town is reading this post and wants to learn about plastering, please contact us or drop by. You only need gloves, and it's done by hand. The trowels are used in the final coat to smooth things out, or create a more evenly textured finish.

Documenting strawbale - clay slip

A quick update on the strawbale house - we sprayed on the clay slip yesterday, and today the lime plaster is being mixed for the first exterior coat. The clay slip helps prepare the wall, aiding with adhesion when the first full plaster coat goes on. Lots of work still ahead...

Documenting strawbale - starting exterior plaster

Here are a few photos of the straw bale house again. The wrap-around porch is now nearly completed (roof still to be added, and deck boards to put down). All the protective paper has been removed from the walls, the soffit and fascia are on (ahhh, no more possibility for birds, squirrels or mice to get into the roof!). Despite all the rain lately, we've managed to keep the straw walls dry. Tomorrow we spray on the first clay slip on the walls - we are renting a texture sprayer for doing this - and then the first coat of plastering starts on the weekend! Exciting! Hope to organize a workbee soon, as plastering will take several weeks and is hands-on labour intensive work...there won't be much time to blog here for a few weeks, but I hope to keep up a photo journal.

Documenting Strawbale Addition - 5

There has been loads of progress on the strawbale addition since the last documentation post. Above is a series of photos to show the developments. To summarize - we laid the radiant floor heating pipes and covered them with crushed limestone, on which we will lay our earthen floor. Then Greg picked up the strawbales, purchased from a local farm - a very exciting day to have them arrive in the huge moving truck! Of course, baby Maya is around most days to help supervise the activities...

By now, all the strawbales have been placed, and the walls are now filled in. As we are doing wood framing (as required by our city building department in order to get our permit), we need to notch every single bale to fit them tightly around the stud walls. This is immensely labour intensive, compared to load bearing walls or even modified post and beam, which most strawbale homes are built as. Thus, the photo of me using a small chainsaw to notch the bales! We also had to retie bales to be able to fit them into the smaller spaces, or triangular segments of the wall near the roofline. We are currently stitching on the mesh (chicken wire) with baling twine to hold the bales tightly in place and for the plaster to stick on. The walls will have an appealing organic undulating shape and curved corners, as it's impossible to have bales so tight that they form straight walls. This is the beauty and warmth of the strawbale "look".

We hope to start plastering on the weekend, including simultaneously the interior and the exterior plasters. We hope the weather stays warm and dry for at least another month! These coats of plaster need time to dry slowly, and we need 3 coats (scratch coat, second coat, finish coat).