Basically our SB wall system is a buck/beam system; whereby the bucks (ladder type structures each side of the window/door frames) provide start and finish points for the bales. The top box beam (another ladder type structure)runs around the house above the bales. Within the buck/beam idea there are a number of techniques and the one we used (purely through Craig & I thinking it through as opposed to an obvious choice) was leaving the bucks 'tall' and running them through the box beam. This is supported just above the required height of the wall and the bales built up to it (i won't cover details regarding bale raising as they're in every book and best done rather than described). In our case this was 2.4m.
Once this height was reached the box beam was cranked down; acheived through running pallet strapping as a loop under the sill plate, up the wall and over the box beam. Once tightened this effectively pulls the box beam down towards the sill plate, thus compressing the bales and making the wall really secure.
The following 4 photos illustrate a important few bale techniques:-Fitting bales between bucks around a corner. Bloody hard to do well as corners love bulging out in all directions; as this one continued to do despite everyones' best attempts. (Nicky & Greg eventually tamed it just prior to the plastering!)
Filling in gaps! Making and fitting custom sized bales; when there just isn't enough room for a 350 x 450mm bale! The one technique not sown is chainsawing bales down their length.Lastly stuffing small holes with twisted bundles of straw.
The following 3 photos show walls raised but not compressed; hence the largish gaps and wonkyness. The third shows the debris from chainsawing!
The last 3 show the end results of everyones hard work; plus plenty of unused bales (for infilling the upper wall section; yet to be done)
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