More Straw Bale Building: A Complete Guide To Designing And Building With Straw

A completely rewritten and updated edition of this straw building classic.

Straw bale houses are easy to build, affordable, super energy efficient, environmentally friendly, attractive, and can be designed to match the builder's personal space needs, esthetics, and budget. Despite mushrooming interest in the technique, however, most straw bale books focus on "selling" the dream of straw-bale building, but don't adequately address the most critical issues faced by bale house builders. Moreover, since many developments in this field are recent, few books are completely up to date with the latest techniques.

More Straw Bale Building is designed to fill this gap. A completely rewritten edition of the 20,000-copy best-selling original, it leads the potential builder through the entire process of building a bale structure, tackling all the practical issues: finding and choosing bales; developing sound building plans; roofing; electrical, plumbing, and heating systems; building code compliance; and special concerns for builders in northern climates. New material includes:

• more extensive sections on electric wiring and plumbing
• updated sections on bale finishes and finishing
• a section on prefabricated straw bale walls
• a wider selection of case studies, photographs and illustrations
• a section on common mistakes
• budgeting for low-, medium- and high-cost projects, and
• new testing data that is in no other straw bale book.

Down-to earth and complete, More Straw Bale Building makes the remarkable benefits of straw bale building available in the most comprehensive and practical book on the subject to date.

Chris Magwood is a professional straw bale builder and consultant who has constructed over 40 straw bale buildings, and consulted on many more. He has taught workshops and seminars across the continent and overseas, co-authored one of the first straw bale how-to books, Straw Bale Building (New Society, Publishers, 2000) and edited The Last Straw Journal , an international quarterly devoted to straw bale building, since 2001. Check out his website at www.chrismagwood.ca.

Peter Mack has been building and inventing for most of his life. A founder of Camel’s Back Construction , he has helped refine bale building into a fine art and has provided guidance to other builders and homeowners on countless projects. An inventor, instrument maker, machinist, fitter welder, and avid mountain biker, Pete brings diverse skills and ideas to the straw bale community.

Tina Therrien began building with straw bales 10 years ago when she became a partner in Camel’s Back Construction , Ontario’s first straw bale construction company. She continues to build, plaster, teach workshops, and do presentations across the province with a team of experienced builders.