[Strawbale] Locking bales in place to walls

[Leanne Rellstab]

> Dion wrote:
> Fantastic idea.  I used a method that worked *very* well, but was 
> incredibly labor intensive.  Cut a 4" wide piece of expanded metal and 
> used landscape staples to tie it to the bale, and roofing nails to tie it 
> to the post.  For a picture, see here:
>
>         http://www.woodsprite.com/images/half3198.jpg

When my wife showed me the box of landscape staples she bought to do the 
same thing you did and said we had to drill holes through the modified post 
and beam I said Whoa! I had some foam so we tried it and it worked on a 
short wall. Tomorrow I get to try it on some long walls with 12' between the 
posts. Fingers XXX!

A word of caution don't use to much and pre brace your posts laterally  with 
a 2x4 to prevent lateral outward pressure on the posts as the foam expands 
over 24 hours.  The nice part is the thought that most of the give will be 
within the voids of the bale. Too much spray and these foam nodules will 
grow out of the bale wall overnight, they can be cut off later.

Doug