7 great reasons why you should consider building your next house with Straw Bales

StrawBale blog ^ | January 1, 2014 | Andrew Morrison

[cableguymn]

and tax collectors.

[skinkinthegrass]

*grinning*and it's great for "rolling around in", too.
*nudge/wink*
*nudge/wink*

[gorush]

Our ICF’s provide R50 (prior to the backfill of our earth-sheltered buildings). The first thing we noticed after moving in was the silence. Storms could rage outside but it made no difference. Our heat is in-floor geothermal plus the fireplace in the house and a cookstove in the bunker.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

UN Agenda 21 and the labor unions will never allow it.

[BuffaloJack]

My brother in Southern Ohio lives in a house that was built in the early 1800s. It’s stone on the outside and a stone on the inside with about 3 feet of ancient straw in between.

[skinkinthegrass]

nice house/spread, a lot of fences? wolves/Coyotes?

[mozarky2]

I have never, not ONCE, known you to be in a bar, let alone one full of flaming hay bales!

[gorush]

Deer, coyotes on the outside, dog on the inside.

[Rebelbase]

Where are the solar panels?

[skinkinthegrass]

figures..whoa! 6'/8' fence, jumpin' Coyotes.

[gorush]

We looked into it...doesn’t make sense even with the subsidies. We are getting a portable unit, though, that doesn’t attract as many zombies. We are anticipating an off-grid existence.

[bicyclerepair]

Seems SILLY when there are cement blocks available.

Like those in hurricane prone SFL where I live.

I’ll pass.

[familyop]

It’s a great idea except for the costs of having plans engineered and stamped by an engineering firm in your state—that and the costs of getting enough straw bales into some states (e.g., CO). If you’re building a whole house for yourself with limited savings, a totally conventional design is worth looking into for the purpose of avoiding the gangster/racket costs.

[2ndDivisionVet]

No one grows straw in Colorado? Huh?

[gorush]

There are 2.5 inches of rigid foam insulation on both sides of the concrete...which is very valuable here in central Wisconsin. You guys use it to keep the termites out.

[Cvengr]

To meet IBC or NDS by AF&PA, you still need steel reinforcement for wind and seismic lateral resistance and uplift.

Twigs, branches, or rocks? (Straw, lumber, or concrete)

[familyop]

"No one grows straw in Colorado? Huh?"

Straw is a product of cereal crops like wheat. On the CO Rockies, a few bales of straw can be found in some of the little pet/deity/feed shops at very high prices.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Oh drat! Failed to proofread again!

You still out there at that h—lhole? What’s going on!

[familyop]

Another point. CO is not the kind of old fashioned, free State that many people imagine. Those who call the political shots and make local government policies are not long moved or descended from places like New York (including most of those who lived briefly in California after leaving the northeast). It’s more of an eastern and southern European culture and less American in nature.

[dalereed]

3rd world crap!