Читать книгу More Straw Bale Building - Peter Mack - Страница 57

You can’t order bales from the local construction supply yard, unlike most other building supplies — not yet, anyway! So, when it comes to finding your bales, you’re on your own. However, anywhere grain is harvested, so is straw. Chances are good that there is straw within a reasonable distance of your chosen building site, even if the site is urban. Many cities are built near or on prime farmland, and the farmers who have maintained their land near these areas are often producing some grain crops. But how to find the right farmer with the right bales?

Other Baled Stuff

Bales of straw are not the only way to create energy-efficient buildings out of useful by-products. Very successful structures have been created using bales of boxboard, waxed cardboard, shredded paper, nonrecyclable plastics, and car tires. Straw, too, comes in other baled forms, including jumbo bales (3-by-3-by-9 feet and 4-by-4-by-12 feet) and super-compressed bales (jumbo bales squished down to regular bale size).

Straw bale building is all about using abundant resources available locally, and sometimes the above baled materials may just meet these intentions better than the straw bales we describe. In some cases, straw bales can be used in conjunction with other baled wastes. If you choose any of these materials, know that there are people who already have experience with them, and do as much research as possible. You’ll find that many of the concepts and construction details covered in this book will apply to these other baled materials.

3.2a-f: Straw is not the only baled “waste” that can be used to build. Buildings have been created using bales of boxboard, shredded paper, non-recycleable plastic, waste agricultural and lumber fibres (under the name Stranbloc), used car tires and waxed cardboard.

— Chris Magwood The Last Straw, no. 42, focused on many of the above alternative baled materials. You can find TLS online at <www.thelaststraw.org>.