Corners at Risk! Help

Greetings permies:

So my lady and I built a load-bearing strawbale house without the help of corner guides. As a result, unsurprisingly, it seems that 2/4 of our corners have bowed.

It's been a distressing experience because of the high winds we've been experiencing here in western New Brunswick, Canada. I don't feel the corners will fail, but I do feel something ought to be done to improve the predicament.

Have any other builders experienced this kind of snafu? If so, how did you remedy the corner? Or is it just a matter of moving on and putting it out of one's mind with an exercise in hope? I've posted photos for better understanding.

Thanks in advance, fellow permies.

Aeron

I wonder if it might help if, whether from the inside or outside or both, you drove in some long stakes, whether of wood or metal, at a sharp angle up and down into the corner to try to pin the bales to one another every which way.  Having the roof in place will make this difficult to do straight vertical, which would be the best, but it might still help.

@alderburns
Thanks for the suggestion. The corners are staked pretty well as is. I hopped inside and braced the corners with some hefty boards running from top plate to bottom plate. Some folks we've spoken to seem to think it's not actually much of a problem and that it can be resolved by some trimming and pulling and further bracing if needed.

Watching corners is always hard when the walls are going up ! Helpers are not so good at keeping track of it, one of the worshops I helped with, we wished we had one or 2 more people who were experienced as teh bales stack so quick, you want a person watching each corner !  


How did the bowing happen ?  Did you leave it to settle on its own or did you pre-load it by using some type of compression ?

Is that Tyvek just there temporarily until you are ready to plaster ?  

Damien Vallero wrote:@alderburns
Thanks for the suggestion. The corners are staked pretty well as is. I hopped inside and braced the corners with some hefty boards running from top plate to bottom plate. Some folks we've spoken to seem to think it's not actually much of a problem and that it can be resolved by some trimming and pulling and further bracing if needed.

My initial response was the same as Alder, driving something into the corners to try and get the bales together. But with your comment, I don't think it is a big deal as well. I was chatting with some of my roofing friends, who happen to be the best roofers in la (more info here: http://housetopexperts.com), and they stated pretty much what you've stated. As long as the roof is structurally sound, it can be resolved with some trimming. It may not look the exact way you envisioned it if you need to brace it any further, but should serve the purposes you need to.  xcv