Straw Bale DVDs

If you are considering building a straw bale house, by what means will you learn about the process? Books can't tell you everything, and it can be hard to find the time or money to go to a straw bale workshop.. though worthwhile once you have decided that you are going to do strawbale construction. But I think the best way to learn straw bale building methods is to get an informative straw bale DVD, which you can watch several times and share with your family or friends who might be building with you.

(My husband and I produced a two-hour DVD, A Sampler of Alternative Homes. It includes four strawbale homes, built by various builders, all in Colorado. It's a very good introduction to natural building, but it is not a how-to. I do recommend it if you are at the stage of thinking about what method of construction to go with.)

For a really useful series of how-to straw bale DVDs, I recommend  the ones created by Andrew Morrison of StrawBale Innovations in Oregon. Andrew knows both how to build with straw bale (having created a 15-house complex must have helped!) and how to teach clearly, in a way that is understandable. My own experience in video and DVD production makes me appreciate how well done his programs are!

Here's a link to a page where he describes his straw bale methods and DVD. In a short video -- which is partway down the page -- you see some of the construction methods used:

Sure, I'll take a look at Andrew's information
about his strawbale DVD and about strawbale building.