Straw Bale Details: A Manual for Designers and Builders (Natural Building Series) [Spiral-bound]

Chris Magwood (Author), Chris Walker (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Natural Building Series | Publication Date: April 1, 2003

Straw Bale Details is the perfect companion for those who are serious about building with straw. It focuses entirely on the specific design theories and practices that result in well-built, long-lasting bale structures. It extends the range of books like Straw Bale Building through large, easy-to-read architectural drawings rendered for a wide variety of building options, including load-bearing and post-and-beam designs. A range of foundation, wall, door and window, and roof-plate scenarios is presented, along with notes and possible modifications. Also included are the most recent testing data to help base designer and builder decisions on sound science.

Chris Magwood is coauthor of Straw Bale Building and editor of The Last Straw Journal. Chris Walker is a Toronto architect specializing in sustainable design.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Magwood and Peter Mack are professional straw bale builders and consultants who have constructed over 40 straw bale buildings, consulting on many more. They have taught workshops and seminars across the continent and overseas, and are authors of one of the first straw bale how-to books, Straw Bale Building (New Society, Publishers, 2000) which has sold 20,000 copies. Chris Magwood has been editor of The Last Straw Journal, an international quarterly devoted to straw-bale building, since 2001. He is also the coauthor of Straw Bale Details.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 68 pages
• Publisher: New Society Publishers (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865714762
• ISBN-13: 978-0865714762
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,148,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars getting down to it, August 12, 2005

By 

Stephen C. Burns - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Straw Bale Details: A Manual for Designers and Builders (Natural Building Series) (Spiral-bound)

This is a great book for people who have looked at the picture books and decided to build in strawbale. It is excellent whether you are an owner builder planning to prepare your own plans, or simply want to pass the detail on to your architect or draftsperson. I like the spiral bound layout which allows you to leave the book open without breaking the spine. The authors have considered most types of strawbale construction (e.g. with and without cellar, timber floored, concrete slab,etc) but a big negative for me was that it deals only with single storey details. I want to build two storey and would have appreciated information on how to incorporate the middle floor into the strawbale walls, both for load-bearing and post-and-beam buildings. If you've read architectural plans before, you'll be able to decode how to build a strawbale house... if you can't, you won't have a use for this book. All in all - a winner for the serious strawbale builder (cheaper than a strawbale workshop and you get a resource you can keep!)

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like the title says, Straw Bale Details, August 27, 2005

By 

A. Burchfield (Conway, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Straw Bale Details: A Manual for Designers and Builders (Natural Building Series) (Spiral-bound)

If you're interested in strawbale building this is a nice little book on many of the details involved.
The first 20 or so pages tell about various facets of the concept, they're followed by several short chapters (each with a written detail section)on things like walls, windows, foundations, electrical wiring and so on. Each of these sections consists primarily of architectural detail drawings of the chapter subject.
There's a lot of detail here but I don't think it's enough for the total novice to go out and build from. You(if you're a novice)will need a lot more information on construction than is provided here. I guess that Amazon probably has all of the books you'll need, I think they do have all of the strawbale books listed in the short bibliography, those are worth a look.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not that great, August 30, 2005

By 

Pamela Klecan "solarwoman" (MN, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Straw Bale Details: A Manual for Designers and Builders (Natural Building Series) (Spiral-bound)

I was very excited about receiving this book but I was very disappointed when I did. Not much info and the black and white drawings have a Notes section that is not numbered to correspond with the drawings or the one page text for each section. Overall, I feel this book was not a help at all.