Oh, the joy of stacking bales! It goes so quickly at this stage that everyone in a work party gets excited and everything flows really well. Getting a good system going to ensure there are people busy on each wall as well as a few people making custom bales for around window or door bucks is important to keep up this fast pace.
The work party on this part of the baling consisted of about 5 to 10 people at any time of the day, and the main part of the baling was done in about a day and a half.
We used 1″ x 1″ wooden stakes driven down through the courses of bales to stabilize the walls as they went up. The stakes were about 3 feet long each, and we started using them as we stacked the third course of bales. Other methods are possible to stabilize the walls during this phase, such as bamboo stakes. Neither wood nor bamboo will draw condensation; we don’t use rebar for this reason.
The bales were also securely tied to the timber frame structure, and the plaster stage will further solidify the walls.
