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1、Where can you buy straw bales? A good place to start is stock and station agents. Often they will know of farmers who sell straw bales. Generally harvesting will take place in early summer, so that is the best time of year to look for straw bales. Bales can be purchased from stock feed suppliers, bu
2、t normally they will be much cheaper direct from farmers, preferably direct from the field after harvesting and baling. Before buying straw bales, check that they are reasonably tightly bound, have a generally good appearance, are not distorted, are dry and do not show signs of having previously bee
3、n wete.g. signs of mildew or rotten straw. Check the cut facesthey should be cleanly cut without folded or loose areas. The type of straw seems not to be very important, but straw that is composed of stiff, rather than soft, stalks and has mainly long stalks is probably better. Some suggest that the
4、 higher silica content in rice straw is desirable, though oaten straw, for example, has stiffer straws than rice straw and can produce a better face for plastering when well trimmed. One could analyse the finer points of the different straws, but there are much more significant issues to consider. U
5、sually the straw that is most readily available is the most appropriate, because the cost, particularly the transport cost, probably will be substantially lower than for other options. Handling and transporting bales Handling and transport of straw bales can be a major effort and significant expense
6、, and it can present substantial health and safety hazards; so how and how far to transport, and who does the transporting, should be carefully considered at an early stage. Standard straw bales are quite heavytypically a bale weighs about 20kg but they can be considerably lighter or heavier, depend
7、ing on how tightly they 13 Handling, transportation and storage have been bound and their length. They are also an awkward size to handle. Therefore, one should be fully conversant with the theory and practice of safe manual handling before attempting to load a truck, build a wall, or do any handlin
8、g of straw bales. This subject is covered exhaustively in safety publications. Transporting straw bales is not trivial. Except perhaps for the very smallest of jobs, an experienced carrier should be engaged to collect and transport the bales, and to stack them in the storage location. An untrained p
9、erson might stack bales too high on a truck, not tie them down sufficiently securely, and not drive the loaded vehicle with the care that is necessary. If a car-trailer is used to transport bales, be carefula car trailer cannot safely carry many bales before it becomes unstable, too heavy and very d
10、ifficult to properly secure the load. Storing straw bales The best practice is to have the bales delivered to the site after all other preparations have been made and everything else is ready for wall construction. Thereby, most of the problems of storage can be eliminated. If the bales will be requ
11、ired at a time other than during the harvest season, it might be necessary to store them for some time. Check with the supplier of bales to determine their availability at different times of the year. The bales must be kept dry at all times. Once wet through the bales will dry very slowly and are li
12、kely to rot. Do not presume that there will be time to place all of the bales in the structure before it rainsprobably it will take longer than estimated, perhaps much longer! It is important to plan carefully the storage of bales before making procurement and transport arrangements, even if a very
13、short storage period is anticipated. If the bales can be stacked inside a building, that is ideal. If they are to remain there for any length of time (say more than a few weeks) precautions against attack by rodents should be taken. If rodents build nests in the stack of bales, they can cause substa
14、ntial damage; they eat out cavities for nests and they eat the baling twine. Apart from rodent baits, an option is to lay a line of builders lime on the floor around the edge of the stack; a line about 50mm wide and 5mm thick should suffice, but it should be checked from time to time. The rodents do
15、 not like to cross such a line of lime. Bales can be stacked directly on the ground if it is acceptable to sacrifice the bottom layer of bales, because they will get wet or damp. Rather than attempt to protect that layer with plastic sheeting beneathwater will still get inone can stack that layer ed
16、ge-on (with the straws vertical). Water will not wick up the vertical straws as much as it will up a bale of horizontal straws. A layer so stacked will keep the rest of the stack dry, provided it is adequately covered. Practical straw bale building94 After completing the stack, it must be securely c
17、overed to prevent water ingress. Assuming a place has been chosen that will not be subject to flooding, the next task is to protect the stack from rodents before it is covered. Use the line of lime method as described for a stack in a building. The best non-building cover for the stack is a heavy-du
18、ty tarp, properly tied and loaded. However, if that is not available, plastic sheet designed for use as an underlay under concrete slabs is suitable. This should be available in 4- metre-wide rolls, 50 metres long, and is not expensive. However, if it is not properly secured, it will flap in the win
19、d, and high winds will soon destroy the cover. The following method works. The stack must be fully covered, right to the ground. If the plastic sheet is not large enough to cover the stack without joins, it can be joined using duct tape. Overlap the two pieces of plastic by about 200mm and carefully
20、 seal both edges of the join along their whole length. Cover the stack so the plastic sheet extends about 500mm beyond the bottom of the stack. Cut or fold the excess and neatly fold the main sheet as necessary to achieve a snug fit of the plastic sheet. The excess that extends onto the ground shoul
21、d be held down with a good layer of soil, rocks or sandbags. Handling, transportation and storage95 Fig. 31When bales are not stored correctly they can quickly become useless for building. The cover can still be destroyed by moderately strong winds, so the next, and final, step is to hang weights, s
22、uch as old car tyres, on ropes that run over the top of the stack. These must be hung at as many places as necessary to dampen any tendency for slightly loose sections of the plastic to flap in high winds. Pay particular attention to areas where the plastic is joined with tape. Horizontal, circumfer
23、ential ropes can also be used to secure the hanging weights more firmly. Finally, the stack should be inspected regularly to ensure that the cover remains secure. Such a stack is not very convenient for intermittent access to use some of the bales. Therefore the building program should be managed to
24、 avoid use of the bales in too many stages. The stack must be fully re-secured after bales are removed. Clearly, if it takes this much trouble to protect the bales, they should be delivered only when everything is ready to place them in the walls. Plan ahead. The bales are just about the last thing needed. Practical straw bale building96