A Straw Bale House ?
- Filed under: Solar Power and Off-Grid Living, Uncategorized
- Date: Nov 25,2007
In my quest to get myself land and a home for the least amount of money possible, I have discovered Straw Bale Houses. Essentially, they are houses made of straw that are better than traditional houses in many ways. They are better insulated, better fire rating (Yeah that one surprised me too, but it’s really condensed straw, have you ever tried to burn a phonebook?), and better sound proofing. Obviously though, the walls are about 3 -4 times thicker than regular walls, so you lose some space. In my case I plan on having plenty of space to build on so it won’t matter.There are 2 main ways to put up a straw bale house :
1 - the Post and Beam set-up. This involves putting up a wooden post and beam structure for the 4 corners that will hold up the roof. So basically you make the Frame for a house like you would any other house, and then fill it in with Straw Bales. (More on this later) This method is best because it’s a lot easier to get the building permits and insurance after.
2 -Load Bearing straw bale design, essentially it’s when you literally put the roof directly on top of the straw bale walls. This involves needing to compress the straw bale walls before putting the roof in order to compensate for the settling of the walls later.
The straw bales are obviously not left exposed. They are covered with a mix of Plaster like materiels (Lime or cement, plaster, etc etc) with multiple coats until they make a solid wall. These walls look perfectly normal. The finished houses look gorgeous. They can be big or small. Since the outside walls start out of straw, they can be cut and shaped very easily to make for very interesting house shapes and corners.
The costs involved in building a straw bale house vary a lot. It’s not “cheap” to build, the materiels still cost a lot of money. You need concrete for the foundation, you need LOTS of straw Bales, you need WOOD for the frame of the house, you need the roof structure itself (Lots of choices for kinds of roof though), you need plumbing installed (Which is beyond what I know how to do anyways) and most of all, you need MANY MANY MANY hours of labour. That last part is where you can save the most money if you do a lot of it yourself, except if it means you’re not at work because you’re building the house, it’s still costing you the money you’re losing by not working. I’m a self-employed technician, so I can pick the quietest months of the year for me to build my home so I won’t be “losing” too much money while building. (Plus I’ll get income from the work that gets done by subcontractors for my customers while I’m gone)
A straw bale house is a definite possibility for me and I will keep looking into it. There are still lots of parts of the construction process that I’m unsure of. Although I do love the earth-friendly part of this kind of home (saving lots of tree’s kinda thing) I will only be building this kind of structure of it does mean significant savings for me in the end. A traditional structure I’m sure would sell for more if I ever needed to sell, and I won’t need to explain or convince the bankers / insurance / permit people that a straw bale house is safe and legal.
Here are some links to some sites I’ve used to study about this :
http://www.solarhaven.org
http://www.balewatch.com
Just GOOGLE “Straw Bale Houses” and read away !
Thanks for reading, checkout http://www.techienation.com for more interesting subjects.
15 Responses for "A Straw Bale House ?"
A traditional structure wouldn’t necessarily sell for more if the market you’d be selling to would be comprised of enviro-friendly, earth-conscious types. People who’d want the solar power and windmills would likely love the idea of a straw bale house (one that the big bad wolf couldn’t blow down, that is)!
Sharon
Yeah I guess you’re right about that !! Only thing is, I think there are more people out there that don’t really care that much about being green. So although it would sell at a nice price, it has to be sold to the right person. Lots of other people will be very sceptical about it I think.
I posted this Blog on otherpower.com to get feedback from real “pro’s”. I’m adding the link here since peoples comments are very interesting and helpful.
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/11/28/155725/28
I’ve been very much interested myself in buying some property and building a straw-bale house. Over the last bunch of years I’ve been doing a little reading and research and it seems to be a very doable project. There are some houses around here. jean and I talk about this whenever we think about the kind of house we’d like to have for retirement years (7 more years for me). But my sense is, the sooner you can get in one the better.
Say, I’m noticing your google ads. How’s that going, does it raise much money?
Ed
Personally, I think i’ve given up on a Straw Bale house. In the end, it doesn’t seem to mean much savings in time OR money. Originally I wanted to go the straw bale route just because it’s something I could figure out, but now i’m pretty confident I could put together a regular wooden house on my own, with some help from a contractor.
I don’t get much traffic on this site, maybe 5-10 hits a day so the Google ads don’t really do much. I keep them there just to see how well it works or doesn’t. It’s been a year and I have a total of $25 from google so far. Lets just say i’m not able to retire yet ! It has potential though ….. (however the last half of that $25 was alot quicker to make than the first, so who knows what might happen in a few years!)
I’m surprised to hear that the cost of a straw house would amount to the same as traditional construction. Around here people are talking about considerable savings in constuction and materials.
But never mind, the thing is you really have to want to do this, and if you ever wanted to sell, me sense is that the traditionally constructed house will sell easier. Any yet, as I write this, I might just be willing to buy a straw bale house that’s built and ready to go, just like Sharon wrote a few comments back
From what I’ve understood, it’s mostly the cost of shipping construction grade straw bales to your future home that makes it expensive sometimes. (depending where they’re coming from)
Also, although it may mean savings in upfront cash, it seems to involve ALOT more time to build a straw bale house on your own than it would a typical wooden home. ALSO, it doesn’t seem much easier to build a straw bale home that the typical one.
I see it like you though, if I came across land with a Straw Bale home already built on it, i’d jump for it ! However i’ve been looking at land for almost a year now, and have never come across one. (Although to be honest i’m looking more at empty lots than land with homes already on it)
Lastly, building a straw bale home involves ALOT of patience. It can take a long time between ordering the Straw Bales and actually receiving them. (Months, or Years even depending on the farmer!) The time it takes to put up the plaster on all the straw walls REALLY REALLY slows it down alot. Even with a team of helpers. (This is just what I’ve gathered from reading a lot on the subject from people who have done it, I have no experience in Straw Bale construction)
I’m glad we’re chatting about this. I had not come across discussions of how big a job bale houses are, at least, not bigger that traditional construction. I had heard of the struggles with county building inspectors and that it’s been tough getting approval and such, but that the cost and the construction were on the whole comparable to traditional methods.
Is it your intention to go off-grid completely? My wife is a potter and wants to establish her own kiln and studio. But that requires considerable amounts of power (electric kiln). There are other ways, wood burning kilns etc, but then the emphasis is on the kiln and not the product.
yeah that’s what I’ve heard also, a little tough to get inspectors to agree, you pretty much need to educate a lot of them on the subject and show proof that there are other places like this, they are up to code, they are insured and have gotten mortgages, etc etc etc … The cost IS comparable to a traditional house, but I’m not so sure about the construction time, AT ALL. Multiple coats of plaster-lime stuff needs to be manually put on until it forms a solid wall. Much longer than putting up Gyproc and only plastering the joints !
My plan is a very slow one. I’m working on my retirement home really. (I’m 27, so I have time) Essentially I want to buy a big chunk of land somewhere (New Brunswick is looking good) and build my own house, and ATTEMPT to be totally off-grid. Really what I want is to be self-sufficient so that I don’t need a half million dollars to retire ! (well you know what I mean) I can have a big garden, a chicken coop, whatever it takes !
Ideally I would be TOTALLY off-grid, but if the property I buy has easy access too grid power, i’ll probably take it and Sell Back my excess power generated during the day to the electric company to counter-act Grid Power that I use when the battery bank is low or running high current applicances.
I have no idea how much power a Kiln needs, but i’m sure it can be done with a combination of Solar Power, Wind Power, and a backup Generator. Keep in mind, running on RE is never EXACTLY the same as grid power, you always need to watch your power consumption.
My wife says that the smallest kiln she would want to have requires 220v 40amp. THe larger ones are 80 amp. She says they suck. Well, yeah, literally.
Holy Current Batman !!
Wow that really is a lot of power .. Why 220 Volts ??? How does she run it now ?? (Had to have an electrician come and set-it up or what !?)
Yeah If ever you were off-grid, you would need to use a Generator for her Kiln, I can’t imagine running it off anything else…
Jean is the “kiln-tech” at a local community college. She says all the kilns run 220 (except perhaps for the really small ones). And these monsters run for hours. Check this link http://ask.metafilter.com/18143/Solar-kiln
Wow .. I checked the link … There’s no way you’re running a kiln on Solar Power. (Unlike that guy on the link you sent me, I don’t consider burning oil or wood solar power)
I think this is one of those things Jean would have to give up if you were living off the grid, or would have to go back in time and use the fire ones. (Even though you mentioned Jean didn’t want to) Even with a Generator, you would need a REALLY strong one, and most generators won’t run for 13 hours without needing more Gas.
You don’t have a Kiln at your HOME do you ?!
We don’t have a kiln at home; Jean has the perk of using the ones at work. I guess what this all means is that we’ll still need to be connected to the grid for those huge demands, but see to it that we produce enough power by wind and sun to feed back into the grid. But it sure seems crazy that these kilns take such an enormous ammount of power. Wood burning kilns are an option but they tend to be operated by an entire, round the clock, team. I’ve seen the wood burning kilns that the ancient Chinese used — they are fabulous and huge, one walks right in them.
If your wife does setup her own kiln and studio at home, you will need Grid Power, and it will cost a LOT in hydro every month. It would essentially be impossible to be off-grid AND have a Kiln. (Just having a standard 120 volt fridge means about an extra $6000 in Solar Equipment)
Right now Ontario ROCKS with their buyback program for home made hydro. They give u more money per Kilowatt that you sell them, than how much they CHARGE you and everyone else for Power. (Per Kw) So the smartest thing in your case I would think, is to use regular Hydro for everything, sign up to the reselling program, get some panels (or turbines, whatever) and sell back ALL the electricity you generate.
Although to be honest, since you already have electricity, and it’s actually pretty cheap, and Solar panels are expensive, it would take many many years to start making a profit. (Meaning although your electrical bills may suddenly be 0$ per year, you’ll have spent $15000 upfront to do it)
Also, I don’t expect this government program to last… I think these prices are fixed for 5-10 years to motivate people to start, but then they’ll start giving you less money per Kw.
http://www.energy.gov.on.ca/english/pdf/renewable/NetMeteringBrochure.pdf
That’s the link to their brochure … if you’re interested ..
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