Constructing a New Straw Bale House
at Solar Haven

DESIGN - PLANS - CONSTRUCTION PICTURES
- BUDGET - ADVANTAGES - HOMES OPEN FOR VISITING - REFERENCE MATERIALS


 FEATURES:

 - Two bedrooms
- One and a half bathrooms
- Living room and dining area
- Enclosed kitchen
- Wheelchair accessible - doors 3' wide
- All natural, nontoxic materials used (mostly recycled)
- Square footage: interior (1025), exterior (1188) - not including 36" roof overhangs



 

 


PICTURES OF ALL PHASES OF CONSTRUCTION

OF OUR STRAW BALE HOUSE

 


Suggested Plans and Budget for
Building a Simple 480 sq. ft. "Starter" Straw Bale
Home or Guest House

-15 per square foot to build
-ultra energy efficient
-self-sufficient with no utility costs




"Straw Bale Houses-An Evaluation"
by
The Big Bad Wolf

Well... no way could I blow down that hay house.
No matter how hard I huffed - and puffed -and huffed.


And by
Jim and Mindy

THE BIG PLUSES:

- STRONG - like a fortress particularly after the bales are plastered, but even before (we would never have known from inside our straw bale that the winds we got this summer sometimes reached 85 mph)

-SUPER INSULATED and therefore highly energy efficient - warm in Winter, cool in Summer

- QUIET - a stillness and peacefulness like no other house

- INEXPENSIVE TO BUILD -a truly affordable house if you have the patience and time to do a good deal of the work yourself and/or with the help of friends

- DEEP WINDOW-WELLS - some of the best on the planet for potted plants and cats and curling up to take a nap in

- EARTH-FRIENDLY - since we live in a world with increasingly scarce resources, doesn't it seem the sensible and responsible thing to do to build a house with a waste material which is typically burned in the fields after harvest rather than cutting down more forests to build a wood-framed house (which is in fact less energy efficient, less comfortable, and more expensive as well!)


A FEW POSSIBLE MINUES:

- BANKS ARE LESS LIKELY TO LEND MONEY on a straw bale house, however this is rapidly changing, see sbregistry.greenbuilder.com/mortgage.straw for a list of financial institutions which have now loaned on straw bales

- A FEW CRANKY NEIGHBORS may view your house as "unconventional" if not downright disreputable (see PROBLEMS-PROBLEMS for our troubles with this and also the unfortunate results of not thoroughly understanding local zoning and building code regulations)

- SOME LOCAL BUILDING CODES may not actually permit the building of a straw bale house or may impose expensive, time-consuming requirements such as 24" wide solid concrete foundations for the walls

-

LIST OF STRAW BALE HOMES
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC TO VISIT
(over 600 in the United States - a total of over 1400 in the world)

- click here to search the list -




LISTEN TO:
"Straw and Clay" by Frank Meyer
(mp3 audio file - 3.5 MB)

This wonderful song was composed by straw bale builder and folk singer, Frank Meyer, in 1995. It been sung at many a straw bale wall raising since and says better than we can what buiding with earth and straw is all about.

(Used by permission of Frank Meyer, Thangmaker@aol.com -- buy the CD!)


BOOKS ON STRAW BALE HOUSES


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 © 2002-2009 by Jim Phypers