Acid Staining Floors While Protecting Plaster Walls
When acid staining concrete floors, it is important to properly mask off walls and doors so that none of the stain gets onto places where you don't want it. One of the hardest surfaces to protect is unsealed plaster.
Finish Plaster Texture Options
There are many of finish plaster texture options available for your straw bale home and knowing which one is best for you can be difficult. The best decisions are based on understanding the combination of application-technical difficulty, personal aesthetics, durability, crack hiding ability, and material availability.
Simplify the Installation of Roofing Felt Behind Your Plaster
I wanted to share a few great tips to simplify the installation of the roofing felt needed on wood that lies behind your plaster. As you know (or may be learning...right now...) you have to cover all wood that will end up behind plaster with roofing felt or an equivalent product.
Free Arkin Tilt Plans Offered for Victims of California Wildfires
I spoke with David Arkin about the incredibly generous and caring offer that he and is wife Anni Tilt are making for those people who lost their homes in the California wildfires.
Wire Ties or Poly Twine Bales?
I'm often asked if using bales that are tied with wire is a bad or good idea. The reality is that there are advantages and disadvantages on both sides of the question. I do have a preference though, and that is for poly twine over wire.
The Cost of Straw Bale Construction
When people talk about the cost of straw bale construction, they often get things a bit muddled up. They either come in way too low or way too high. Let's set the record straight, hopefully once and for all.
Creating Straight Bale Walls On a Crooked Frame
It was immediately obvious while working on the exposed timber frame that the natural cut timbers would not line up with the plane of the bale wall once complete. What we did worked out really well and created a beautiful and STRAIGHT wall.
Land Development Process Revealed
Allow me to share with you what I've learned over my 20 years as a professional builder and land developer. This is for anyone interested in the start to finish process of finding, developing, and building on raw land.
Strengthen Your Walls
For me, the extra work of compressing your straw bale walls is more than worth it and the quality of the overall job you will get as a result of this step is measurably better than working with soft or loose walls.
Repairing Straw Bale Water Damaged Walls
Water damage in straw bale walls is something that does not happen very often, especially in well built homes; but, even with the best construction practices, it can happen. When it does, it's important to know how to recognize it and how to fix it.
Straw Bale Home is Cover of Fine Homebuilding
For those of you who have been curious what it will take to help straw bale homes become more mainstream, this may be a part of the answer. David Arkin and Annie Tilt (Arkin-Tilt Architects) have received many awards over the years and their straw bale homes have at least twice graced the covers of Fine Homebuilding Magazine, this time in the fall 2014 edition of Small Homes Cabins and Cottages.
Plastering Overhead in a Straw Bale House
Plastering straw bale window and door wells can be challenging, but the end result is beautiful. Learn some important tips on how to do it in this article.