Stop motion straw bale and earth plastering
Sustainable New Construction 2014 student Ben Bowman set up his camera and took some great sequences of the construction process at our teachers’ union office project. Here are the two sequences of straw bale installation and earthen plastering. In many ways,...
New system for straw bale walls
Over 20 years of building with straw bales, I have constantly experimented with new ways to integrate bale walls into buildings that are simple, cost-effective and energy/resource efficient. From load bearing to prefab panels to a variety of framing systems, I thought...
Framing systems for teachers’ union office
Wood framing is a conventional building practice that we use quite frequently at Endeavour. For the teachers’ union project, we are using wood framing for both the floor system and the exterior walls. The walls and floors may not look very different from...
Framing and Bales for the Farm
We do a lot of straw bale work at Endeavour, but it’s such a normal part of what we do that there haven’t been any posts that show us putting in bales for a long time! Over the past few years, we’ve arrived at a framing system for our bale walls that...
Prefab Bale Walls on Second Floor
In a repeat performance of crane work and team work, the Endeavour crew installed the prefabricated straw bale wall panels on the second story of the home. Once the panels and framed window openings are linked and plumbed, we’ll be ready for the roof trusses and...