[GSBN] new system of building the straw bale structure

[Mark Piepkorn]

At 08:53 PM 6/7/2009, Joyce Coppinger wrote:
>concrete columns are poured into the walls as a support system. The 
>load bearing is in all of the concrete, Hay said.

This is the way Erem Birkani's BaleBlock system worked. Except he 
drilled 4" columns into the bales (two per bale) rather than notching 
spaces into bale-ends (which I think is what the article described, 
poorly). That this guy has gone forward with this idea indicates to 
me that he hasn't done anywhere near an appropriate amount of 
homework on using straw bales as a building material.

I also think it's amusing that reduced wood use is given as a green 
feature when he's building smack-dab in the middle of a couple 
million acres of big, straight pine. That's a lot of locally 
available renewable resource. Using trees isn't evil when it's 
environmentally reasonable. I do get that he's going for fireproof on 
the cheap, but he could achieve the same level of fire resistance 
using wood columns instead of concrete.

I'm disappointed in his idea of having a 3,000-square-foot second home, too.

I can get away with saying these things because I'm so very perfect 
in every way.


Mark