Your Time to Shine…Share a Success or Failure – StrawBale.com

Written By Andrew Morrison
February 7, 2008

happy couple on cliff edgeI am interested to hear from you and what your experience has been building with bales. Write a comment on this blog so we can all hear about your success and / or failure. I am always curious as to what other people’s experience is. This is your time to shine. Many are excited to get started and then quickly tire of the work while others thrive and have fun for days on end. Let’s open a space to share our stories.

I’ll get things started. My first straw bale structure was a small guest cottage. I practiced the art of baling on the cottage for days and found that some of the techniques that passed as requirements were a total pain in the rear end! Over the years I have found that some of the pains in the rear have gone away and yet some still remain. That said, I do love building with bales. That is strangely funny because I am allergic to the straw! I get rashes on my arms and chest and I sneeze a whole bunch.

When I was a kid I was a really good competitive swimmer. This is equally funny because I am allergic to high exposure to chlorine in pools. Considering I spent about 4 hours a day in a pool, that was interesting. I guess some habits die hard. I moved from chlorine to straw and I still submerge myself in it!

Over the years I have built many straw bale projects and I have taught thousands of people to build with bales through my workshops, How-to Videos and consulting work. I never seem to get tired of watching a bale building go up. My favorite house was designed to represent a mix between a Mexican Hacienda and a Mediterranean home. The look and feel of the bales within the design was more beautiful than any other home I have built. I still visit the house from time to time and I just love the way I feel as soon as I walk in.

What’s your story?

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Straw bale workshop participants applying cob plaster

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59 Responses

  1. Hi,
    Our community has just about completed a cob/bale cottage which we will use as a hermitage, a place for prayer. It sits on our “back 40″and is wonderful. We call her, Katie’s Hut.
    We began in June of 2005, stomping cob and putting up bales. We continued through 2006 with cob making and in 2007 completed the sassafras roof rafters and purloins. She was thatched this past October by William Cahill an Irish Thatcher. As you can see, this has been a long slow process doing it all with hands and feet and few persons for any length of time.

    Katie is 14′ in diameter and just about as tall. This spring we hope to finish the interior with the help of a natural plasterer from Chicago.

    We have learned a lot.

    We greatly appreciate your services on this website.
    Sr. Mary Baird

  2. By the way. I forgot to mention that if you have a picture somewhere on line of the structure you write in about, please send me the URL and I can add that image to your comment. You can include it in your comment or write it in separately.

  3. We are a couple who is interested in volunteering our time to help build, and therefore learn more about strawbale/sustainable shelters. We are a Canadian and an American, and would be willing to work in either country. We hope to begin building our own home in 2009. If anyone is interested in aquiring our services please reply and we can perhaps get in touch. Thanks so much!
    Sarah and Chad

  4. I am yet to build my own straw bale building, but I have worked on a few, and visited some more. Over the last ten years or so I have studied the building technique. I have helped with a small load baring shed, a post and beam shed, a hybrid second story addition, and a couple of homes. Aiming at each to help with, and learn a different aspect of the project; from prepping the foundation to stacking, to securing in different ways, to running power and dealing with supports for future wall mount items, to finish stuffing, to three coats of plaster (earth) and lime finishing and washes.

    As Amador County’s area’s first EcoBroker® REALTOR® I have the perfect excuse to visit all the area’s green, energy efficient, and healthy designed houses. I love the people, the process, and the buildings themselves.

    I would love to hear from as many of you in the straw bale world as possible, especially your experience with buying, selling, permitting, insuring, and financing your straw bale, cob, or other special homes. I am always looking to add to my already wonderful network of green real estate people, including buyers, sellers, builders, agents, and others. If you are interested in talking about this please get in touch.

    Michael Pulskamp
    Mainstreet Brokers
    24 Main Street
    Jackson, CA. 95642
    http://www.mainstreetbrokersonline.com
    [email protected]
    (209) 257-4590
    (916) 802-5896

  5. The largest problem we face is getting lending institutions to consider lending us the amount we need in the times of inflated costs and understand the resale /fire safty value of a straw bail structure.

  6. I would love to see photos of Sr. Mary’s hut!

    This past fall we built a little straw bale vault. We didn’t really know how-to exactly, but visited some at the Lama Foundation near Taos, NM and got an idea. I figured out that the arch is an Egyptian Arch, so using that formula, we built one. My friend, also named Andrew, decided to reinforce the bales with rebar and sew them with wire and have a ridge pole because he was concerned about the snow load here at 9500 feet! I didn’t want to use any cement in the building so he built the foundation of heavy boards, pinned with tee posts and fortified underneath with rocks. It isn’t finished yet, the inside walls and end walls are exposed straw but it is holding up just fine on the outside and we will finish it in the spring and summer, with a porch off one side and a small glass greenhouse off the other.

    I made a slideshow of the building process. Here is the link:

    http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v356/edgehabitat/?action=view&current=709f74db.pbw

    Here’s a photo taken at the end of December. It has snowed about 6 more feet since then!

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v356/edgehabitat/littlehouseinthesnow.jpg

    I’m happy to answer any email. See my website http://www.newmexicowilderness.org for the address. I’ll post another slideshow there as the building progresses in the spring.

    Peace! Mary

  7. Thanks for all the information . I personally are not building a straw house, but one is being built at the rear of my property, and I was anxious to read all about it.
    Here in England this a new thing, and I await with interest to find out what it’s going to look like. How much its going to cost, and the final question “who will live in a house like this”.
    Your Offee hazeldine

  8. Hi Andrew,
    I’m in the process of building a ‘practice’ straw bale structure to get my feet wet in using/building with straw bales. If all goes well, perhaps there will follow a straw bale home in the near future. Your site and dvd’s have been most helpful, as they are great references.
    One of the advantages I have found in building with straw is the forgiving nature of the walls; lines don’t have to be perfectly straight and angles don’t have to be perfectly square to be pleasing to the eye. In fact, such imperfections add to the aesthetics of the structue. Additionally, the thick walls make it all but sound proof – an added benefit!
    Thanks again for your work, Andrew.
    gene

  9. My wife, Linda, and I built our first hybrid structural/post and beam straw bale house in 1996 in the White Mountains of Arizona. We used the Straw Bale House as our guide and justification to local building regulators, albeit after the fact.
    We used Romex laid mid-bale for the wiring and it worked well. We used two string bales but the ones we bought were not as tight as I would have preferred. We built a wooden floor suspended on poles, placed 12 inch all thread up through the floor and impaled the first course. We used ½ inch rebar through three courses every course from the third up. We placed 2X12 boxes on top of the second course for the windows and a 2X12 frame for the front door, securing these with one-foot lengths of ½ inch wooden dowels through the wood into the bales. We used chicken wire sewed on inside and out with home-made bale needles. That was pretty labor intensive to get it all tight. We used three coats of stucco on the outside. On the inside, we used 2 coats of stucco and one coat of drywall mud mixed with sand and paint for the finish coat.
    We lived in it from 1996 until 2002 when the Roedo-Chediski fire swept through 450,000 acres of forest here, where our cabin was. It left fine, white, powdery ash of most local homes and concrete blocks that you could tap and they would crumble. Our house was different. The 250 gallon propane tank next to the house blew in the fire. The windows melted onto the ground without breaking. The aluminum window frames were in small puddles on the ground. Our roof burned. Our floor burned. But the straw bale walls were still in tact!
    The crew that came to dispose of the remains lost money because they could not scoop up buckets of burnt remains with their back hoe. The chicken wire and rebar kept the straw bale walls in tact so well, they had to vigorously chop at them with the back hoe to break them apart. As they did, we could see that the very top of the bales at the tops of the walls were scorched after the walls fell because of the exposure to 2,500+ degree fire, but the interior of the wall structures were still golden colored straw. Those straw bale walls survived better than most building materials in that entire 450,000 acres of destruction!
    Living in the cabin was indescribably nurturing and reassuring. Heating was extremely easy and efficient and in the hot summers, it was about 15 degrees cooler inside.
    We’ve been living in conventional structures for the past few years but we’re in the process of planning our next straw bale home / office. We can’t understand why everybody doesn’t want to build this way!
    Dr. Rick & Linda Boatright

  10. My dream is to build a 800 sq.ft strawbale add on to my house in Austin texas , but for now its just a dream .
    Keep up the great work ..
    thanks
    jay

  11. Hi, My husband and I along with a few helpers, built a beautiful strawbale home. It took us almost a year. It is 28 by 48. That includes an 8 foot porch on three sides. The ceilings are 21 feet high. We have a loft. I debarked all the post for the porch and also for the staircase. We used the pine trees from our property that were taken down for the driveway. I have to say, we love it. Put in bamboo cupboards, quarts counter tops, we have radiant floor heat and I couldn’t be more happier. We really did everything without knowing the fullness of the labor that it envolved. haha Now, we look at what we have done and think, HOW DID WE DO THIS. Everyone who has seen it loves it. Thanks for all your info. Lori

  12. Hi Andrew,
    I am building a straw bale studio as I am a Fused Glass Artist and need a place other then my house to work. I am using an infill structure system or post and beam. To begin with I had to wait 11 months for a permit and we did not tell the regional district it was a straw bale…one could only imagine how long I would have had to wait. It is supervised by an engineer and my boyfriend Victor} is a long time contractor. It measures 18 w x 34 l
    The bales were on their way for 4 or 5 months and I can hear them growing under the snow in Alberta somewhere as we speak. Or maybe northern B.C. or Saskatchewan ! The structure is all up and the electrical is ready and the cedar soffits are all done. THe gutters are installed, and the roof insulation is completed. Were waiting for the bales! Will get back to you in the Spring when we have further completion Not everything runs as smooth as you want.

  13. This is an ongoing construction progress report of the Straw bale house in Bridgeport, hosted by Rosemarie and Urs. Please view the Photos, Database, Calendar and Messages for detailed information. Yahoo Groups “bridgeportstrawbale”
    Thanks for your interest in green building. The building is about 4200 square feet large. The structure is composed of two cabins like buildings, set parallel to each other and about 34 feet apart. That space in between is taken up with a two-car garage, staircases and a big loft. One of the cabins is the in-law unite and the other the main house. The load is carried by an internal log frame and clad on the outside with a continues straw bale wall. The permits are all ready and I’m just waiting for winter to break so I can start excavation for the basement and lay the foundations.
    I’m a licensed contractor, mostly retired but was involved in a few unusual projects. We are looking forward to our home in the mountains.

  14. Hi there,
    We have constructed the shell of our home, which is a post and beam structure. The weather put a halt to our progress so…. this spring we will continue. We have some overhangs to finish and then we will be putting up the bales. My husband and I designed and built the house mostly by ourselves. It has been extremely fun and challenging. We are really looking forward to putting in the bales… they are stacked up under a tarp just waiting for the right weather.

    Carla and Abraham Heide

  15. Mary S.,
    That’s an awesome little structure. Eager to see the inside. Thanks for the info to put my pics online. Will try it soon.

  16. Sr Mary I’m so glad you like it. The inside is just straw right now. Not sure how to finish it but am thinking either salvaged boards at various angles on the arch part, and clay plaster on the end walls to help keep the wind out.

    I look forward to seeing your pictures. Thank you!

  17. My name is Kevin Carroll. A friend and I built a 300sq foot “Pod” near Taos New Mexico this summer. It took 4 months and cost about $21,000 The land was $4K and the solar system was $6K so that only leaves $11K for the rest of the project. We used some strawbales (in the North and East Walls) and Cob and Light clay on the south and west walls. The entire outside of the home is covered in an earthen plaster and the inside is a lime based plaster. Here is a link to some pictures of the home:
    http://organicarts.org/gallery/album/oasis-pod-1/page/1
    I am going to the strawbale workshop in Bend, OR in April to learn more about traditional building techniques, as this home is meant to be an experimental / guest house and we are building our homes on site this year.
    Here is some interesting things so far: When temperatures were below freezing, the home did not freeze with no hear source. We used passive solar designs and lots of thermal mass. The home does have a small propane heater and the demand is minimal.
    We had some problems with the exterior finish (it is getting best up bad) and the interior finish needs some help, but the structure is strong, and really well insulated. All in all, I am very pleased so far.
    We are considering making a manual for our home and making it available for download. We would put all the details, from specific models of pumps/solar etc to formulas for mud and plaster. If you might be interested, please comment.
    Thanks, Kevin Carroll

  18. I’ve designed and /or built 7 strawbale homes over the course of the last 12 years in or around Bend, Oregon.
    The latest was last year and we actually get to live in it! Overall we’ve been quite happy with the process and subsequent experience of living in these homes. I’ve worked with many alternative and conventional building materials. If you like thick walls and lots of insulation, straw walls are wonderful. These are my caveats however; It’s not for everywhere. If you’re in a damp or highly humid environment, choose a different path. Water is the Achilles Heel of straw bales. I always encourage clients to have the structure roofed prior to putting up bales. Then time the process so you can get at least one coat of plaster on prior to winter. If your bales get soaked they won’t dry out so you are either going to replace them or live with a lot of mold spores.
    This aspect makes working with straw a little more stressful in that sense than many other materials. Knowing all that we still chose it for our last house as the site is tree shaded so doesn’t get good passive solar and needs the insulation. Also we love the look and feel of those big deep window sills. Naturally I took every precaution to avoid moisture issues but… a plumber hadn’t set a frost free hose bib with an outward slope, so water burst the short section in the wall the first winter. Come spring I used the bib on a hose with a sprayer to apply my third coat of plaster. I noticed some leaking under the wall but with all the excitement didn’t give it proper consideration for a week or so until the plaster was on. Called the plumber to have a look at it. Of course they were busy and didn’t show for a couple of weeks. I had lots of other things to worry about but that water in the wall only had one thing to do… Anyway after I cut out 2-3 square feet of my new plaster job and spent an afternoon rooting out every last damp bit of straw in the vicinity, the smell did go away. Have fun, good luck, and keep your straw dry!

  19. Building strawbale morphs in snowcountry is challenging. A few things to keep in mind. make 30″ overhangs, 12″ foundation above grade, make sure your window sill straw is packed real well, that seems to be where cold air leaks occur, keep those bales tight and straight, it saves soo much time later on with the mudd. They are great. Enjoy

  20. We are in the process of building with bales now. We have a slab foundation, post and beam, roof and now building the bale walls. This comes as no surprise that doing it ourselves is taking a long time and that there are many details at each turn in the progress. We do enjoy the process that we have chosen because we can take the time to figure out the details and not have a time crunch if others were involved, in other words, the pace is right for us. A detail we are looking at right now is how to connect the bales to the top plate and not use chicken wire. We are using bamboo for internal and external pinning which makes the bales very secure, however, I keep looking for the top/bottom connection and don’t seem satisfied yet. I know that we will find it, this is the fun of it all. We have been able to share the experience with local folks who have expressed interest. It has been easy to have people come in, work with them for a short time, get into a groove, and then a rhythm of work develops and a lot is done by the end of the day. Happy baling in central Texas.

  21. My wife and I are wrapping up our straw house right now. While we were both trained as architects and had plenty of experience detailing conventional houses, there was a learning curve and more than a few stressful moments involving straw and, usually, high winds, driving rains and flying tarps. Since we live near Andrew, we were able to consult with him on a lot of issues which would have otherwise kept me up at night worrying. Somethings, I just didn’t foresee – for example, after the interior plaster was applied the humidity in the house shot through the roof and all our untreated wood windows and doors were soaked. But a lot of it is common sense. For example, the eave overhangs – and gutters, what a difference gutters make. Don’t think you can get away with not having gutters. At least not if you aren’t in a very arid region. Working with sub contractors has been – based on other peoples documented experiences – an unusually pain free experience. The bottom line is that we would do it all over again (but maybe refining a few things here and there), we like the (nearly) finished product that much.

    Scott.

  22. hi Andrew, thanks 4 your interest in my house, building has been very slow between our wet season(its been very, very wet) home schooling & health, life’s been busy!!! anyway the lesson 4 me out of it all is not the end result but the journey! this year I’m hoping 2 be a lot more productive & put out 4 a lot more help. last year we got the d.a. approved & started excavating, digging swales, drains, footings, moving the earth around 4 gardens,render & planting moaulds! we collected about 2 hundred ton of rock (floaters) of the land over 3 months and but massive retaining walls,with many temple spaces, steps & ramps going 2 all different parts of the house(pavilion) style. the footings have been full of water 4 three months now, Ive pumped than out 4 times now & with days we get rain !!!! between 200 to 500mm every 3 weeks. it all looks a lot like Venice! anyway my kids, dog & horses all love it, they spend hours playing & wallowing in the footings & mud! Both of us(my partner), have felt overwhelmed at times,and I have been questioning whether we are building with the right material in this climate that we live
    in(subtropical), I have been worrying about ‘mold’, and wondering if I’m creating an unhealthy home 4 my loved ones? I have made sure that bath rooms, laundry & compost toilet are all made out of concrete blocks, and are really thinking about changing the yurt from straw bale 2 timber, because it would be quick 2 build & quicker 2 live in? also the veranda around the yurt has been reduced 2 one meter & I think that around straw bale it should be 2 meters minimum? what do u think? So it
    means doing the house in 2 stages, doing the bathroom, laundry & yurt in stage one & building the main house(solar passive straw bale) in stage 2!!!!! On the positive side of our journey the fruit trees & gardens have been going off, so at least we all have full tummys!

    Thanks Andrew & co. 4 all your support & interest, looking forward 2 some wise words ,have fun

    Darren, Soluna, Kundi & Tashi
    AUSTRALIA

  23. Darren,
    Rain is not that big of a problem as long as you build for it. I build houses with 24″ to 36″ overhangs, depending on how wet the climate is. As long as the walls are protected from the rain and the flashing and roofing details are solid, the house will be fine. If you have high levels of humidity in your climate, that is more of a concern because it is hard to mitigate. The best option is to install a whole house de-humidifier or a heat recovery vent with cool air operations to draw the moisture out of the house. If the climate is what you would consider “humid” most of the year, you are probably better to avoid building with bales at all and stick with conventional sources that are known to perform well in the climate and simply super insulate rather than build the standard.

  24. Hi Andrew & everyone, my family and I are in sunny Scotland and are only at the very begining of the planning proccess of our straw bale home. At the moment we are getting plans in order and taking time to get a feel for the site. The only worry we have is the high level of rain we get in the North East and the shortage of people with the experience in this type of build. We are struggling to get a suitable contractor to make the timber frame, but it is a goal for the family future. This home will be sustainable, ecofriendly and loved: once we get there! I will post a picture of the site and the potential views. Take care one and all, talk again soon.

  25. Hi Andrew,

    We are completely worn out…..life with four home schooled kids, cows, goat, chickens and musical engagements…

    So I don’t have much time.. and what we have to say isn’t always complementary….It was extremely hard for us to get this house done and many things still aren’t working right….we have doors that won’t open and close, can’t figure out how to hang pictures on the walls, hockey bags going up the stairs are picking off the clay, and the outside still doesn’t have its final coat and the one on there is washing away with the rain (summer time not now)……..

    However we are warm and it was – 40 last week!

    So I guess we shouldn’t complain. Its all rather raw still so maybe you don’t want to post this? We are on dial up also so going to websites is painfully slow. like I say…
    things aren’t all rosy!

    Maryann

  26. Maryann,
    I am sorry to hear about your struggles with the process. It sounds like you have your hands full. If there are specific questions you have about how to move forward with less stress, please ask them and hopefully I or some one else on the list can answer them for you. In terms of the doors, I wonder if the house has too much moisture in it still and thus the doors are swelling. The clay bumping off the wall is common when using earth plasters. There is not enough binder in the clay to keep it strongly attached to the wall. You might consider using a final coat of lime plaster (Natural Hydraulic Lime is my favorite) which will adhere to the clay and will give you a stronger finish that will be more durable than the clay. The same idea would hold true for the exterior as the lime provides a much more weather resistant coat.

  27. Natural plasters finish coats need a glue. Wheat paste works good. Casin is a natural glue and work well also. Lots of books on how to mix.

  28. My wife and I are building a 3000 sq. ft. two story straw bale house after years of talking and reading about it. We are using an architect who builds nothing but straw bale houses so we are getting excellent advice. As with most such houses, it will be post and beam. However, we wanted to avoid using old growth lumber which most post and beam house tend to use. Our architect suggested that we use concrete columns and gluelam beams. When we went to get bids on the concrete columns we found them to be very expensive. We ended up deciding to use a steel column and beam structure. Virtually all steel in the US is recycled so we like that fact and the fact that our house could be rebuilt and recycled many years from now. We don’t have many sub-contractors who have ever worked on a straw bale house so it tends to be a learning experience for them as well. Some don’t want to touch the idea and yet others are intrigued and eager to try something new. We have yet to break ground, as we are having to go round and round with the county building department. But I think we will be there soon and I can’t wait to start.

  29. Hi! I have been doing a lot of research on the straw bale housing and i want to build a strawbale house but currently i am struggling to get all my ducks in a row, i want to learn more about possibly a 2 story house actually i have a tri level in mind. i don’t want to do a post and beam i want to do a load bearing but getting the right engineering put together. currently the county that i live in doen’t have any building codes whatsoever so that should not be a problem. it sems though that the cost of straw has gone up quite a bit almost more so than building with wood.but as for as eco friendly straw takes it.i will try to send you a pic of the house i have in mind.thanks for your time.

  30. I have been dreaming about building a straw bale house for ten years. I now live in the Canadian Arctic (Cape Dorset on Baffin Island) and I think I can do it here. So I’m looking for connections in probably Alberta or the northen prairie states who have some experience with the temperature extremes we have here (excess rain is definitely not an issue!)

    I think it would be ideal here. We do have to plan ahead as all construction materials have to come up on sealift (late July to early October)and the usual foundation is steel piles to keep us off the permafrost and also to allow for space under the building for a sewage tank (water is trucked in (need space in a utility room for a water tank) and sewage sucked out a couple of times a week).

    Coming from Nova Scotia, I know that Kim Thompson’s house in Ship Harbour was built on a pile system so I hope to learn from her experience and find out how the structure has settled since it was built in 1993.

    I doubt I can start this year – if I get a design solidified I could get the piles driven and the platform built but it will be a lot of work to determine just how many straw bales I need and how many will fit in a seacan (container). I’m also looking for a roof package that would come up to fit the loadbearing walls so if anyone has Canadian sources for that I would appreciate it.

    And once the house is complete, I would love to have enough bales left to build an “Igloo” as a shed!

  31. Hey Andrew !
    I researched straw bale for about 2 years, including the purchase of your DVDs, and picking the brain of a local architect. I was disappointed that the structural engineer would not stamp my loadbearing design, but I was determined, so I built a 2000 sq’ infill. The house is located a stones throw from the Salton Sea, California’s largest body of water, and the nation’s largest bird migratory path. Here’s a link to the site where I have it posted: http://erichfeldman.point2agent.com
    This house is extemely efficient in the heat of the summer desert. The winters here are absolutely perfect at an average of 72 degrees, but the winds can pick up.
    Of course you can imagine all the “Big Bad Wolf” comments I’ve had to bare. Looking backward, I’m sure I have some valid things to share, But I think my real contribution may be in looking forward:
    I think there may be a way to incorporate straw bale techniques into a tilt up design.
    Here you would basically lay your walls out flat on the ground and “pour” your load bearing concrete/ rebar layer over the top, and stand up your sections with a crane.
    What do you think ?

  32. Erich,
    I have heard of people trying this method although I do not have experience with it myself. That said, my concerns would be based on the thickness of the skin. The thicker the skin, the less breathable it is. I would love to hear how it goes if you choose to move forward with that idea.

  33. Andrew,
    I’m not envisioning this as a skin, but the actual bearing exterior wall. The concrete, I imagine would be 4 to 6″ thick with #3 rebar mesh. This concrete layer could be stamped, our stained,or detailed in whatever manner the owner wants as his exterior finish.
    You’ve now solved the labor of stacking straw, the engineering loads, and the exterior finish in one shot.
    I’m also not too sure how important “breathable” is.
    On my current home I applied an acrylic stucco finish. There are absolutely no cracks, and the water just beautifully beads up and rolls off.

  34. I get it. I think it is an interesting idea and could definitely be a labor saving process if done well. I still wonder about the bales getting wet behind the concrete. That would be important, especially if the house were in a moist climate.

  35. Dear Andrew,
    Thank you for all of your mails and information.
    Finlay I’m answering you.It better late than newer.
    I’m an architect from Georgia( not USA) but eastern Europe(former USSR).
    I consider my self a “green Architect” cos I’m trying to follow that direction in all of my projects and in personal life.I was and steel I’m, very interested in straw bale houses,
    Nobody has done it hear,I want to use that technology first for my own.But for this moment
    its not possible to me.I shore i will do it soon.Sow than i will need your DVD s.
    I’m really glad to have contact with people like you.I read your letter posted some days ago.Thank you. No matter which country are we living in and how far are we.The way we think is important.Keep in touch and pardon me for being to late with reaction.
    Best regards and happy baling.

    Alexander Ramishvili

  36. Andrew, Would it not be even more important in a moist climate to insulate the bales from the elements? And would not the abilty to breathe from the interior of the house compensate? I am 30 years into construction and still a student, but I envision the real future for straw bale to be in tilt-ups.

    Erich

  37. Erich,
    I hear your point of view and it makes sense; however, I don’t think it would pan out that way. As I see it, the best option is to build as if moisture will get in, one way or another. If we believe we can hold water and/or moisture out of a wall and we build that way, it will get trapped in the wall when it does get in. Water and moisture are amazing at getting into places they are not wanted. If the water makes it into the wall and cannot escape through the exterior skin, there will be a moisture problem in the bales.

    The moisture/water will not be able to escape to the inside of the house because the pressure and heat driven forces from the interior actually drive moisture to the exterior skin. Unless that pressure can be eliminated, the moisture will not be able to dry to the inside other than the surface moisture.

    I too am a student of construction and I hear you all the way about always learning. There is always something to learn and I am totally open to your thoughts and ideas about how to make this work. I don’t want to say it won’t work at all, but from my current place of construction education, I don’t see how it could. Again, show me a way and that will be great!

  38. Andrew,

    My fiancee and I are planning on building a 5,000 sq ft straw bale home in Missouri. I know the square footage seems huge, but between us we have 10 kids between the ages of 9 & 18 currently at home (yeah, I know…the Brady Bunch on steroids). We are having difficulty explaining the cheap cost of construction versus the “true” value of the straw bale home to local loan officers, insurance agents, and city officials. My fiancee has been a builder for 20 years and we both work for an architect firm, so we see all of the benefits of a straw bale home from all sides. Do you have any information that would help us show everyone how smart it is to build a straw bale house?

    Ruth

  39. Hi Ruth. Wow! You must be busy. 🙂 I would suggest you have them check out this site or just pilfer the info you need from here to show them the values of SB. Most people understand it once they are given a good education. If you need help, I can consult with the building department for you. I have done this in the past and usually have very good results.

  40. Busy? Who? Me? Nuh-uh!! LOL Just a little, but I wouldn’t change anything. Well, okay, that’s a lie. I’d get the house built really, really fast. 🙂

    I am definately going to take you up on your offer if needed. We have 2 LEED Accredited professionals working on this project with us, and plan on our house being Gold Certified with LEED. From my research, our house will be the first of it’s kind in Missouri (straw bale LEED ceritified). If anyone knows differantly, please let us know.

    I will definitely keep asking questions as they arise. We plan on documenting the process from start to finish, so keep your eyes open and fingers crossed. 😉

  41. I’m still on this tilt up idea… so maybe the solution is to spin the load bearing conrete to the interior, and conventional stucco to the outside.

    And a word to Ruth, if I may, the actual cost for building with straw is greater than conventional frame.
    If you plan to finance through a lender you will most likely need an engineers stamp, and this proves to be a difficult thing if you want a load bearing design.
    Otherwise, using the infill method is about as cost effective as building two houses. As for using your family for labor, I highly recommend building a tool shed first and see how it goes.

  42. Erich is right about the fact that straw bale construction is more expensive than conventional construction; however, it is not twice as expensive. You can plan on it costing about 20% more than conventional construction if the work is done by contractors. If you do the work yourself, it can be less expensive, but that does not include the time you will need to take off of work (which would be a factor in either case). A big cost difference is the plaster. It is much more expensive than regular siding.

    It is also very possible to get an engineering stamp for load bearing if you decide to go that route. I can recommend an engineer if you like. Finally, I agree with Erich that building a small building first is a good idea. You can also take a workshop first to see if you like it rather than build a whole structure on your property.

  43. my strawbale project is a 36’x36’metal roof w/steel supports.The non load bearing strawbale walls will go up 6′ in or a 30’x30’The interior dim will be 28’x28’784 sq ft. All open with plumbing in the nw corner. in this nw quaderant a rock chimney with wings off either side. door east wall south w/windows nothing on the n or w. rock will be used from porch thru interior for flooring. This structure is off grid only solor /DC. Water gravity flow from elevated 1200 gal tank. I will capture roof runoff from our 9-11 inch per/year.for bathing washing.This structure is 11miles west of red bluff lake in reeves county texas.Current status is im grading site and collecting rock by hand and occasionaly using a 1943 masey to30 w 3-point 36″ scoop. built sewer and laid water line. Built rv carport and practiced here to learn. My rock laying was challanging but fared well when i spotted my 11,0000 pound trailer over its surface.Time line another 2.5 years before completed

  44. Hi Andrew, sorry this has taken so long to reply, I was involved in building a strawbale music studio. The fellow that ran the project had built his fathers strawbale home. I spent the day putting the bales in place with a group. The frame work had all been done. Then we spent a day stuffing. It was a lot of fun and the studio turned out great. I would like to hear from anybody that has
    baled an existing building. I would like to bale my house. As I live in a one story ranch style home. No basement or attic, I feel that it would be the perfect building for this application. I live in northern alberta and my house is about 50 years old. I’m just not sure where to start. If you or anyone else has any info I would love to hear from you. Thanks.

  45. The contractor has been working over the winter on a strawbale house my firm designed. As far as I know the method of construction is unique. The site is at 7,000′ overlooking the Madison River in Montana. It’s high, dry, cold and windy, but pretty. We used ICF’s for the foundation up to window sill height, about 24″ abv. fin. flr. The framing above that is post and beam, but the posts and beams are SIP panels the width of the strawbale, so there was no need to trim the bales around the posts. The SIPS are used at the corners and as window and door bucks, and the top plate is a SIP designed as a beam and sized for the longest span. It doesn’t look like I can insert photos here, but if you’re interested, I’ll be happy to forward a few along.

  46. I have been building an infill type straw bale home for about 3 years. It took me almost 14 months to get a building permit. The home is to the stage of putting in the bales. It is an oval shaped (viewed from on top of the bluff) home on 35 acres. It has a well, septic system, solar thermal panels, and p.v. panels. It is a one story on a full basement. It has taken so long for several reasons: the shape, the distance from civilization I work on it and sometimes my wife but not many other people, and usually I am quoted what I feel to be outrageous sums of money to do something. I have helped others build homes (over 20) not straw bale though. I Help at Habitat for Humanity, for over 19 years. Everyone asks me why, why I want to live in a place with grass sticking out, did you ever hear of the three little pigs, what about wind, spiders,snakes,bugs, mice, why do I want to live off-grid, without running water, without electricity, or gas, or heat. I do get a lot of people who come and look and ask questions for hours. Some who say they would like to help, most never come back. I have really no traffic other than all kinds of birds (eagles,falcons,hawks,bluebirds,hummingbirds) or moose,elk,deer,antelope, bobcat, lynx and long-tailed weasels and at night when it is clear, I can see more stars than I could count and the Milky-Way does look milky.

    Anyway, I would like to finish the house this year and move in (carrying and stacking several hundred bales does take 1 person a while). We are going to use lime for the finish and I will be getting some metal tanks to fill with water and the lime to let it hydrate as soon as I can. I figure it will take about 11 cubic yards to put on the inside and outside 1″ thick. Our land has red sand from the Morrison formation in Colorado so I will just add that to the exterior lime coat. I have never done any of this before with this material or straw. I have pictures I could send, but no website, sorry

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