Straw Bale Homes - Advantages of Alternate Construction Methods

Let's face it. This planet is in a crisis. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. To create the energy we needed to sustain our modern comforts, we've polluted our atmosphere with countless gasses that will eventually warm the planet. A major part of this is the energy we squander heating and cooling our homes which is produced using fuels that emit greenhouse gasses. The solution is simple. Build homes that use less energy.

Earthen homes are at the top of the list. These are also known by the name of earth ships. Problem is that a majority of the living area on an earth ship is subterranean and doesn't meet many fire codes for egress as I understand.

One other is the chord wood house. This is also an excellent choice and I don't believe there are many downsides to this method except it's walls are nothing but firewood logs cut to length and put together with mortar like a brick house. I say it's a downside because we really need to save as many trees as possible. No, I'm not a tree hugger sorta guy, I just know that trees are the one element of nature that, if left alive, will scrub many of the bad gasses out of our atmosphere.

So then we come to building homes out of bales of rice or wheat straw. The straw is something we have been actually throwing away as waste in this country for years. Yet when put together as wall units, produce a very high restivity factor of R-39 to R-52 with a wall thickness of 14 to 16 inches. Wow, the common house built in America today using standard building methods is generally R-13 to R-19. R or resistivity is a number measuring a material's resistance to heat flow. R stands for resistance. Anyway, there is over double the difference in how much heating and cooling these walls can contain. Less energy used, less greenhouse gasses spilled into the atmosphere.

Once the walls are up, then the home is wrapped with a fabric that allows moisture to exit but not enter the walls and then is covered in about one inch of cement. These structures are as beautiful as they are functional. Even better is that only 20% or so of the structure is lumber so trees are saved. The cost is probably 50% less than standard construction methods and they last for ages. There are straw bale buildings in my area of Tennessee that have withstood the elements for well over a century.

Tim Davis is an Architectural Designer who has been in drafting and design since the late 1980's. He teaches Architectural Drafting over the internet at http://homedesign.8m.com, draws House Plans professionally at http://customhouseplans.8m.com and offers Free Strawbale House Plans at http://customhouseplans.8m.com/strawbale

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tim_J._Davis

My Ebook Titles and Websites

How to turn a barn into a home.
http://draftingservice.us/barnhomes/
Gives a breakdown of what would be needed to convert a Barn into a Home.
Ebook

House Plan Drafting 101
http://homedesign.8m.com
Architectural Drafting Class over the Internet. Covers Single and Two Story home plans.
Online Course

Learning to Draw House Plans in a No-Nonsense Way http://homedesign.8m.com/101ebook/
Architectectural Drafting Class taken from House Plan Drafting 101 in Ebook format.
Ebook

Received Text Ebook Directory
http://receivedtext.org
Directory with various ebooks and various topics
Website

Mechanical Drafting 101
http://draftingservice.us/m101/index.htm
Complete Mechanical Drafting Class. Offers free mechanical drawings for download.
Ebook

Architectural Details
http://homedesign.8m.com/details/
Architectural CAD symbols for use in Residential Drafting.
Downloadable DXF files

The Parsons Corner Ministries
http://parsonscorner.org
Biblical question and answer site. Includes message board.
Christian Website

Drawing a Simple House Plan on a Drafting Board
http://draftingservice.us/101boardlessons/
Free Architectial drafting board lessons
Ebook

Finding a Suitable Barn to Convert Into a Home

There is a trend lately to find unique and affordable housing and many have turned to converting a barn into a home. In my area of East Tennessee, there are some fine examples of this including the one I converted.

It's needless to say that there are many barns in various shapes and sizes all around. A vast majority are in bad shape. Please don't make the mistake of buying one that is labeled a unique fixer upper opportunity. Don't fool yourself. If a barn has gotten into the shape where the siding boards are starting to fall off, unless you're buying it for parts, my suggestion is to leave it alone. By the time the boards start falling off the sides, there's major flaws. The main trouble would probably be that the horizontal beams are rotting and the fasteners are turning loose.

The best candidate for remodeling would be one that was painted on the exterior walls and roof. This means that it was at least maintained to a certain degree by it's owners over the years. If your barn has some age on it, it would probably be best to first find all the areas that have been effected by weather or urine from the livestock that was kept in that barn. Animal urine sometimes has a high acid content and anything that has been contaminated with it really needs to be removed from the structure.

Look especially in the loft areas where hay may have been stored close to the outside walls. Chances are there may have been some rain water that had soaked in through the hay bales. This is where you will find most of any rotting of the floor boards. Take a look at the underside of the roof. If you see pinholes and sunlight coming through, water can also seep in. You'll either have to replace the tin roofing where you find these holes or dab the holes with a tar patch and then coat the roof with a fibered aluminum paint.

Inspect the interior walls and see what types of columns are used in your barn. 99% of all barns in the US are post and beam construction. If your posts are buried in the ground, check and see if there is any type of rotting. Older barns will probably not have pressure treated wood in their construction. If your barn is built with a wide open floor area, you are most certainly going to have to build masonry piers inside to support your floors and walls and also find a way to tie the existing walls into the new support system.

Check to see that the horizontal beams are not loose or if there is rotting between them and the columns. Look at the top plates for rot from water damage. If your columns are mounted on a rock or cinder block, check the bottoms of the columns for rotting.

Consult your local building inspector to make sure you can get the proper permits if needed. In my part of the country, building permits for remodeling are not required if you are in the county but your local codes may be different. It would be a shame to buy the barn only to find the powers that be will not grant the necessary permissions.

When I first began my project, all I had to work with was the old, empty barn. Being an old structure it was necessary to examine the entire building to make sure there wasn't any type of structural flaws. Thank goodness there was only one place that had to be bolstered. The inside front left corner was starting to slide off it's foundation stone. I solved that problem by hooking the column to my tractor and winching it back into place with a come-along. Then I built a buttress beside the column to keep it from moving again.

Tim Davis is a veteran Architectural Designer who also teaches architecture and drafting over the internet http://houseplandrafting101.com . He has just released an Ebook entitled "How to Turn a Barn into a Home". The info page for updates on this ebook can be found at http://draftingservice.us/barnhomes

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tim_J._Davis

Web Promotion with Message Boards

Search engines have change their methods considerably in the way they index sites. It's no longer just submit your URL then expect a flood of visits to your site. These search engines are wanting meaningful content and relevance to their links. I agree whole heartedly with their decisions at being more selective. Why? Quite frankly relevance eliminates confusion and promotes order. Because of this choice by the search engines it is now a whole lot easier to find specifically what you are looking for when you search.

And search engines are paying a bunch more attention to message boards and forums for relevant content. The reason is that these sites are where the more indepth discussions on subjects are taking place. And being such are a great opportunity to give your site the exposure it needs.

The way that you can receive search engine attention is as follows:

1. Find message boards who's subjects are similar to your sites content. If you have a website who's subject is marketing, find a message board related to marketing. If your sites subject is ebooks, find a board who's subject is ebooks.

And once you've located that particular board with that particular subject, register and take part in the discussions so that you can build a reputation as someone who is knowledgeable in that particular area. The search engines usually spider and index these boards daily and your post on the subject will be picked up by them.

Make sure you use an avatar with your account. Maybe a picture of yourself as this gives your posts a bit more substantiality.

2. Once you have established a number of posts on that board, look at the rules of that particular forum and see if they allow custom signatures. A signature is an area where you can post a little about you and what you do. It also shows up on every post you make in that message board and as a result, also in the search engines. I need to caution you though, do not go overboard on your signature. In other words, simply make mention of your site and the link to it. Do not try to openly advertise your product on the board. Many boards consider this as spam and will most likely get you banned.

3. Create your own message board and invite others to come and discuss your subject. I just recently did this myself and am now in the process of getting members. This puts the promotion in your hands. I does mean a bit more effort on your part but the rewards can be tremendous.

The forum I mentioned in this article is located at http://receivedtext.org/forum/ and is wide open to use if you would like to try the same method. I plan to write an article later on the subject of promoting your own message board.

Ebook Research and Marketing with Message Boards

A little brainstorming to find out more about what the public is looking for in an ebook subject. General suggestions on communicating with prospective readers.

So you have an ebook and you are wanting folks to know it's there. What do you do? Well I've been an author for several years now and have written articles, courses, and ebooks on subjects like architectural and mechanical drafting, humor, church history and government, bible version comparisons, charity, etc. I've been around the bush a couple of times. And of those times over the years, I've dealt with numerous techniques of marketing and researching to find out what people are interested in for subject matter. Problem is that I feel there must be more ways to communicate with readers for more ideas.

I believe I've come across an idea that a handy tool in research. Being an author, of course I have my ebooks in as many directories as I can. Just recently I opened my own ebook directory where I advertise my various titles along with other authors works. The one thing I hadn't tried was to create a message board or forum and attach it to my ebook directory. With this method I can invite visitors and authors of the books listed on my directory to discuss the books themselves and even get ideas for future ebooks.

I already know this method works because interactions on my support board for the drafting lessons, I periodically ask my students on the board what they think of different subjects and ask them what they would like to see next in a course. Many gladly respond with their own ideas and thoughts. Matter of fact they are pleased to be a part of the process.

One of those conversations went as follows and originally wasn't aimed at research. This particular student was just asking a question about one of the lessons:

Me - Thanks. Would you believe by the way that you are the first in 2 years that actually let me know they found the window missing??? Now what does that tell us?

Student: Tim, Yow! I'm not even gonna venture a guess! Now I'm almost afraid to mention that I reached the point in Lesson #7 where the center beam for the floor joists should be 12"...

Me - Man, you are right on top of it. Continue to enjoy. Hey, help me out with something, will ya? I have a few projects in the works. If you don't mind, which do you think would be the most popular or interesting?
The projects I have on the drawing board right now are:
1. Creating construction drawings for a strawbale home
2. Converting a barn into a home
3. Mechanical drawing on a drafting board
4. Machine Shop Drafting 101
5. Industrial drafting 101
6. Survey and Topographical Drafting 101
7. Creating construction drawings for an earthship

Student - These are some very interesting ideas! If I were to pick from your list, I'd probably go in this order:
1. Survey and Topographical Drafting 101
2. Industrial drafting 101
3. Machine Shop Drafting 101
These for the possible future earning potential for students, but for me personally, I'd like:
1. Creating construction drawings for an earthship
2. Converting a barn into a home
3. Creating construction drawings for a strawbale home
That's because of my "Mother Earth News" way of thinking, I do believe!

Then another student joined into the conversation with the following:

Other Student - I would like to see these choices from your list, in no particular order...
mech drawing on a drafting board
machine shop 101
industrial drafting 101
survey/topo draft 101
also if you may consider input... i would like to see a few 101's directed toward indust mech sytems, electrical, boiler plants/chiller plants, hvac etc... just my $.02....ya get what ya pay for...lol

Anyway, I thought I'd share this tidbit with you. Just by including the public in suggesting topics can give you a wealth of information.

The forum I mentioned in this article is located at http://receivedtext.org/forum/ and is wide open to use if you would like to try the same method. The drafting lessons the students I quoted were taking is at http://houseplandrafting101.net

Understanding Mechanical Drawings

A mechanical drawing is defined as a scaled illustration of a subject machine or mechanical part, or construction drawing of a fixture, product, or furnishing. It is a precision drawing, produced with the help of instruments, such as compasses, triangles, T-squares, etc., on a drafting board, or entirely in a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program.

Mechanical drawings are often produced in a reduced or enlarged scale of the subject so that definition of the parts and components can be easily defined. (ie. scale: 1 inch equals 2 inches, etc.)

A mechanical drawing will many times feature a fully assembled subject so that the concept of the subject can be more easily understood to the one reading the drawing. These are sometimes drawn in an isometric or 3d view to give more of the idea of substance and space to the subject. Then the subject itself is broken down into it's individual parts so that these can be clarified by dimensions and notes for fabrication in a machine, metal fabricating, or wood shop.

Mechanical drawings are use in fabricating things like steel beams and columns for building structures, automotive and machine parts, woodworking projects, reference drawings included with instructions for assembly, etc.

Ancient mechanical drawings can be traced back to ancient Egypt and were known as infographics. These either told a story or illustrated a process and were mostly carved in rock or drawn on papyrus. The more famous historical mechanical drawings came from the preindustrial era and were illustrations made by men like Leonardo Da Vinci.

Tim Davis has created a very complete course on learning to draw mechanical drawings in a CAD program at http://draftingservice.us/m101/. You will also find some woodworking plans on this site that are free to download.

Woodworking Plans

Searching around the internet you can come up with plenty of woodworking plans like tables, desks, birdhouses, bookshelves, dog houses, doll houses, etc. So how do you know if it is a good plan? Well, no matter the type of drawing, a good, usable drawing has a few things that you should look for:

1. Are the dimensions and notes readable if drawn by hand? There are some pencil drawn illustrations out there. Some good, some not so good and unless the drafter took care to make his lettering plain, there could be a problem as you try to build from it. The drawings should very clearly show dimensions and notes in such a way that it leaves no question as to how they relate to the subject.

2. Do all the views of the drawing look like they belong to the same piece? In other words, the quality of the projections will many times tell you if there was thought put into the design or if somebody was just doodling.

For instance, say you have a table top that measures 24 inches by 36 inches but the top looks like a square instead of the rectangle it should be. In other words, it's disproportionate. This can really cause confusion. Actually, the best drawings were drawn in a CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) program or on a drafting board with some controls over the images.

3. Is there a cut sheet attached to the drawings? A cut sheet takes the project apart and illustrates the various parts of the piece with specific dimensions for each piece. This is very important as it will cut your trial and error time down to a minimum.

4. Not always necessary by the way, but did the one making the drawings give specific notes about what types of fastners and glues to use? How about special joints needed to make the project sturdier. This is a big plus.

5. The really good drawings have an exploded view that shows parts placement. This is where the drawing is made in an isometric (3D) view with the parts out just beyond where they fit together. Another good example would be a finished photograph that shows most or all of the thing you are building. This helps you get a better feel for the overall project.

Hey, there are very few plans that are perfect. Whenever a human hand is involved in the creation of something, you have to expect some omissions or errors from time to time. But sloppy drawings can inspire sloppy end results if left unchecked.

Tim Davis has created a very complete course on learning to draw mechanical drawings in a CAD program at http://draftingservice.us/m101/. You will also find some woodworking plans on the site, free to download.