[Strawbale] Customizable bales

[Cyber-Oi! <dedapperekoe@yahoo...>]

I spoke to a woman who's building her own SB-house
right now and we got to the subject of bales (geez, I
wonder why?:P). She said the farmer where she usually
gets her bales can adjust the length of the bales.
This got me thinking. There are standard bales (of
roughly equal size) and jumbo bales, which are just
that. Problem is that there's nothing in between. In
regular construction engineering construction
dimensions are calculated accurate to the millimeter.
This prevents you from using more material (and thus
wasting precious resources) that strictly needed. I
wonder if there are baling-machines that can produce
customsized bales, thus allowing you to pick exactly
the right bales for each part of your building. Having
prefabricated bales drastically cuts construction time
(saves money) and so reduces the risk of moisture
getting into the bales during construction.

About the underground bales: I think that if you don't
go below groundwaterlevels, use a sillicate in your
plaster and provide good drainage along the face of
your walls (e.a. put some gravel between the wall and
the sand), it might be possible. Too bad I haven't got
the facilities to try such a setup out. :(


Kind regards,

Walter Faas, Leiden, the Netherlands 

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