What’s the construction cost per sq. foot?
Hi, I was just checking out some old posts about strawbale construction and discovered I had never answered your question about cost per sq. foot. The high quality, fully permitted, 2,600 sq. ft., 2 story home my brothers built in a wealthy county near Washington, DC. cost about 15 to 20% less than conventional construction. A small one bedroom straw bale home I visited near Pensacola, Florida, was built in the early to mid 1990s for a handicapped person by skilled volunteer labor. It was one story, on a poured concrete slab, on land owned by the young person’s parents. I was told it cost about $15,000, and in 2006 when I saw it, the cost might be $25,000.
You can probably find further information on this house in the International Strawbale Directory (Google). There is also a variety of information on the other 500 to 600 homes listed for the United States, which might give you an idea of the cost. By no means all SB houses in the US are on this list.