Greenspree our intrepid Canadian has been busy building his own super awesome straw bale home. He has the framing done, the stucco, the bales, and now pictures!
For more wonderful pictures, check out Greenspree’s MySietch page, or his other home Greenspree.ca
The most amazing thing about this whole project is the fact that Greenspree is doing it with the help of his friends and family, and using local and sustainable materials. I wish him the best of luck, the Canadian winter is coming fast so he had better hurry! Have any of you built your own green home? If so please leave a comment or contact us, we would love to highlight your green home on The Sietch. If you are jealous of Greenspree’s MySietch page, don’t be. You can get your own free blog here.
This must be the dumbest thing I have seen in a while. Good luck putting out the fire in that thing.
Ned: I got a couple of things for you. One, most homes are made of wood, try putting a fire out in one of them, and two fires need air to burn, hale bales are packed tightly together (not much air) and often covered with stucco (which doesn’t burn) straw bale homes are actually more fire resistant than normal ones.
thanks for the thoughtful comment.
I’m dreaming of straw bale, and love the design of yours. There’s going to be lots of light inside and look forward to seeing pictures of the finished house next year. Best wishes with it.
How would a straw bale house in a humid environment such as Ireland, also are there any problems with pests, rodents, insects etc….
i recently have been planning to either buy up an old fixer-uper or to build my own house. a straw bale house would be exactly the kind of house i would want to build too, but unfortunately i know next to nothing about it. i hear that stucco and plaster will crack if you dont keep the temperature regulated, so would you still need to put heating in the house? another idea along these lines is to use old tires filled with either dirt or cement for the walls, which would be very sturdy and a very good sound barrier. i had the idea to use tires as the foundation and then bales for the walls, but i dont know it that would work or not. if anyone has the time and knowledge to answer these questions, i would appreciate it greatly. thanks!
Another question I had was how you get the roof on. I don’t really understand how it would be stable unless there were wooden beams through the straw bales or someting along those lines.
The house is looking great. I have noticed quite a few straw bale buildings being constructed in Canada – do they have more progressive building codes than in the US? I’d love to build a straw bale cabin, but the restrictions can be a difficult hurdle. I’m looking forward to more pictures and updates!
Hello
Straw is a combustible material like wood but a straw bale is tightly packed together and O2 has a hard time getting in – lighting a straw bale is something like lighting a telephone book on fire. Plus it has a plaster coat on top so O2 can’t get in. Straw bale homes have a much higher fire safety rating than a wood framed house. I find many misinformed comments on blogs like these – some are misinformed some just don’t want people building straw bale houses, anywho good luck with the project – it’s looking great so far. Please feel free to check out my latest post on my amateur blog – it’s a straw bale home design I call the Oikos Studio Cottage – I would love to get some knowledgeable feedback on this design.
http://putterordiemyblog.wordpress.com/
Craig
Beautiful home! Congratulations to you both.
I find it interesting that there is always one comment posted in response to strawbale that starts along the lines “What a dumb idea…”. It just amazes me that someone would take the time to write that down. Strawbale has a lot of challenges, but once plastered I don’t think fire is one of them.
Nice pics. We also built our own bale house and it’s gorgeous. No fire worries, but we received the same comments from a few uninformed folks as well.
We have 2888 sq. ft are on the grid but also use evacuated solar tubes for floor radiant and domestic hot water use. We oriented the house 12 degrees east of true south (live in northern NV) and utilize passive solar elements within our design as well. During winter our electric bill without the internet service added in averages about $25. per month. It goes up some in summer due to the chest freezer in the 1346 sq. ft. garage. We have propane flash hot water heaters for radiant back up in the winter should we happen to have a week or more of clouds. We filled the 250 gal tank in Oct. 2008 and will likely fill it this summer though the tank is still 39% full.
Let all these guys laugh and make fun of us in the straw bale homes – we’ll laugh all the way to the bank and then some.