Modern version 
Posted on 04/11/2009 9:50:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Your next home could be growing in a farm field this summer.
Energy-efficient straw bale houses, once considered a fad, are going mainstream, thanks in no small part to skyrocketing heating costs.
Those that own them swear by them, contractors can't keep up with the demand, and even municipal building permit approvers, cautious by nature, have gotten with the program. Best of all, straw is a readily renewable resource.
Straw is the dry stalks of harvested wheat, barley and other cereal plants. Tightly baled and used for exterior walls, straw is a strong, nontoxic building material with great durability: Straw bale homes and churches built by wood-starved pioneers in Nebraska and the Canadian west over a century ago still stand.
And it's hard to beat straw's insulating value, which proponents claim has an R-value of 35 to 50, double to treble that of a conventional wall.
"It's been way cooler all summer inside our house than it's been outside," says Harry Kits, who moved into his new, 2,200-square-foot straw bale home in North Gower, just south of Ottawa, this spring.
Mr. Kits and his wife Marianne Heinen's home is a modified straw bale design. Instead of the traditional solid straw walls, their home uses 400 bales placed on edge as infill between 14-inch deep wooden uprights roughly six feet apart.
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
Just out of curiosity - Has anyone tried wrapping each bale in plastic, prior to stacking it? Seems like it would help localize any moisture entry - You might end up with one wet bale, rather than an entire wall.
I live in an 18th century cedar log house.
[it used to be the blacksmith’s house which was part of a “business complex” on the wagon trail, west]
My window sills are 18” deep which mean I can put a lot of stuff in them or sit in them but I can’t see out of them worth diddly-squat.
It’s like trying to see out of a deep cardboard box with 200 year old “sick” hand spun glass panes at the other end...:))
[but the dogs dig jumping up in them and watching the woodland critters wander by]
I would *love* to have a huge picture window facing the ridge but I’m not real sure what happens when you start chopping 5 foot wide chunks out of a log house.
I suspect it would be disastrous.
If the straw gets wet you will also have mold, numerous critters crawling around in it and it will rot faster than wood. The non toxic statement made by this article is BS, it will be non toxic if it never gets wet, good luck with that.
I believe that they are dead straw not hay, they are sealed on stucco or whatever just as dry wood is, in fact there is no place for a rodent to move in the compacted bale sealed in stucco and drywall.
Sounds like you have a really cool old home....got any pictures?
Thick walls are common in places like New Mexico and Arizona where equally thick adobe has been used for years, my father used 100 year old adobes that he took from an old dwelling for his little hideaway house in New Mexico.
Modern version
I do know when I was stationed in NM there was a massive building effort using this straw bale construction. Basics involve a large slab, pole barn / timber frame style construction with the foundation a few feet off the slab. Large eaves overhangs and porches etc and the height of the foundation keep 99% of moisture away yet the home is covered with tyvek house wrap and stuccoed and is tough as any other exterior cladding per my observation in that “dry” environment.
Very warm and very quiet and the surprising thing is vermin proof as the straw has no seeds and is fireproof due the density of the bales due the compression they are put under during construction. If they catch fire they merely smolder.
I saw examples of this construction method in Nebraska as well on 100 plus year old farm homes. When they remodeled that old farm house they opened up a door way and that straw was a little gray towards the edges and bottom but the rest looked like it was cut and baled yesterday !
I have studied rammed earth, adobe brick, ICF, SIP’s and straw bale construction methods and straw bale is a strong 100 plus year design if done properly and all worst weather is considered.
Beware the “weekend” seminars.....they make YOU pay 300$ to help them build their home be it straw or other medium. Sort of a Tom Sawyer whitewash thang.......;o)
Yes....pretty much fireproof as were thinking..... if they do catch fire they smolder due lack of space to burn....... if it does catch a spark you can take an hour or two to leave , smoke a rack of ribs and still get out safely ......:o)
That is the post that needed to be made. Glad you posted it.
Conventional financing (Fannie/Freddie) unavailable. Almost impossible to appraise for value since comparable properties are scarce.
WoW!
Those are beautiful homes :-)
None that show the logs.
In the 1800s, my ancestors covered the logs with clap board siding.
We only discovered the logs when we started tearing out the interior mud & cow hair “plaster” walls to put up drywall.
*I* wanted to tear off the clapboard but my dad told me how much it would cost to have the whole thing “re chinked and mortared” and after I woke up [LOL] I decided to leave the siding be.
It was a “center chimney Colonial” and a 2 1/2 story brick chimney sat right in the middle of the floor in the living room.
*Nothing* beneath the house supported it.
The floor was so bowed from the weight of the bricks that you could put a full Coke can in one corner and it would roll into the opposite corner and then come back to you, again.
As we started to tear down the chimney, the house made the most terrifying “groans” you could imagine as the weight on the wood of the floors and walls was released.
[the bricks were *way* old, handmade and crumbling...much too unsafe to use for a wood stove]
The floor was still somewhat ‘wonky’ and though it was made with random width yellow heart pine boards, my crazy dad hated it and put down plywood sub flooring and tile.
Just about broke my heart.
[I love antique stuff but he hates it because it reminds him of growing up dirt poor in the Depression]
I have the scariest dug out root cellar you’ll ever see.
There are huge, unidentifiable spiders down there that have caused big brave men to run out, screaming.
:))
I am getting ready to build my “last” home aka the empty nest cocoon for our retirement years .........
I want near as zero maintenance as possible, super insulation values. Durability and longevity of materials. Solar water heating and power panels covering entire roof areas with glass door wood stove, geothermal hvac and electric boiler for radiant heating systems. All one level for ADA comfort and safety etc ....
The structure will form an enclosed secure courtyard so we can enjoy the outdoors without the worry of local criminal yahoo’s. Entry and exit daily through garage via a mudroom and good physical and electronic security features.
Zero maintenance landscaping as well........:o)
Just ideas I am putting on paper for right now !!
Stay safe !
And the smoke house that's been left be is halfway down this page:
http://gardensofnocturne.com/ruins.htm
[The site won't work in Firefox....I have no idea why...sorry]
Just, wow!
The ones I’ve seen are in the Southwest where rainfall is low.
Basically, bales are stacked up and bound together. Then stucco is applied over chicken wire. Of course, keeping the stucco cracks filled and repairing any damage is a biggie.
Building is quick if you have some experience but I can’t say how the cost compares with conventional building.
Several informative sites on the internet.
bump for later read
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