Strawbales, p3
Setting Bales
One of the first things I noticed as we started placing the bales is how messy and choked with loose straw an otherwise clean job-site can become. It is important to keep up with removing loose straw from the floor as it is very slick and may present a fire hazard. Our straw bales measured approximately 48 inches long by about 17 inches high by 18 inches wide, with minor variations from bale to bale in length. The straw was from wheat.
The first bale course is being placed on the bale curbs.
The bales were set in a running bond, that is, the ends of the bales of any one course intersect the middle of the bales in the courses immediately above and below it. This pattern lends strength to the wall. Where a course's last required bale would be a partial bale of about a foot or less, the previous full bale was pushed to the open end and the short bale was forced into the resulting gap. If this technique is used with partial bales much larger than a foot, it can interrupt the running bond pattern.