A couple friends of ours, Conrad and Carol, are in the process of getting district approval for the construction of their straw bale home. Bedtime stories of little pigs seem to have created skewed views of straw houses as frail little things that topple over when the wind picks up. Due to a lack of education and enough disinterest to not pick up a book and learn something, city hall here in Salmon Arm is fighting every step of the way. Luckily, Conrad and Carol are armed with an open-minded engineer and a lot of determination. Straw is an agricultural waste product, much like the soy wax in soy candles. Every year, enough straw is burned in the US to have built 5 million 2,000 square foot homes. Burning straw produces five times as much carbon monoxide as all the hydro power plants in the US. Finding new uses for renewable resources is the key to sustaining our earth. Straw bale walls, made by stacking bales and covering them with adobe, are generally 2 feet thick and can decrease heating and cooling costs by up to 75%. This also cuts down on emissions. These super-thick walls are very soundproof and very fire resistant. Burning a straw bale house can be viewed like burning a phonebook - one page or one straw burns quite easily, but a closed book, or bales stacked tightly together will not provide enough oxygen. Cover those bales with adobe and they are very resilient, passing every test with flying colours. Wood frame homes have hollow walls and go up in flames in no time. These hollow walls also provide a safe haven for bugs and mice, but straw bale is too solid and any holes are completely sealed with adobe plaster. The walls of a straw bale house actually breath. You have to paint them with a special water-based paint otherwise they will stop breathing and rot inside the plaster from moisture buildup. This air exchange is great if you have allergies - you already have a built in purifier. If you would like a home that's a little more creative than square, straw bale can be curved all over the place. If a window is no longer desired in it's current position, pack the opening full of little straw/adobe loaves called cobs and smooth over with adobe. Then you can break out the chainsaw and cut a new window. With all these benefits, it's no wonder straw bale is catching on. If only it were studied a little more closely by the powers that be... Keep an eye out, we'll be documenting Conrad and Carol's trials and triumphs with their own straw bale home. |
