Straw Clay Building

For the next 6 weeks, I will be writing from a Timber frame straw clay building site in Lethbridge, Alberta. We will be using local/nontoxic/renewable materials to build a 4000sf retail building. (adjacent to a timber straw clay residence, seen here)



Stick framing is how the majority of the North American housing stock is built. In this process, many small stick are nailed together to create a skeleton for the building. Timber framing however is a traditional method of building with large dimensional lumber using joinery to attach the timbers. (The following is Not the timber frame I am working on, but it shows the scale of Timber to people)



In the following image you can see the corner joinery and the complete straw clay infill.



You can see images of the project I am working on at http://www.harvesthaven.com/newbuildings/workshop_sofar01.html

Once the timbers are all in place we will be adding the roof and then the straw clay. To fill the spaces between the timbers, you build a skeleton to hold the straw clay (I will detail that more at a later date). The straw is coated with clay slip and compressed into the wall.



I will be posting more details on all of these steps throughout the next couple of weeks. I must get to bed, I have cows to milk in the morning!