StrawBale Construction
History of Straw Bale Construction
People have buili homes using straw, grass, or reed throughout history. These materials were used because they were reliable and easy to obtain. European houses built of straw or reed are now over two hundred years old. In the United States, too, people turned to straw houses, particularly after the hay/straw baler entered common usage in the 1890s. Homesteaders in the northwestern Nebraska "Sandhills "area, for example, turned to baled-hay construction, in response to a shortage of trees for lumber. Bale construction was used for homes, farm buildings, churches, schools, offices, and grocery stores.
Nebraska historian Roger L. Welsch writes: "It was inevitable that some settler, desperate for a cheap, available building material, would eventually see the big, solid, hay blocks as a possibility. Soon, baled hay was indeed a significant construction material. The bales, about three to four feet long and one and one-half to two feet square, were stacked like bricks, one bale deep, with the joints staggered. About half used mortar between the bales; the others simply rested'one bale directly on the other. Four to five wooden rods (in a few cases _
iron rods) were driven down through the bales to hold them firmly together. The roof plate and roof were also fastened to the top bales of the wall with rods or stakes. The most common roof configuration was some sort of hipped roof. . . .Window and door frames were set as the walls rose around them. . . .Walls were left to settle a few rrionths before they were plastered and the windows installed."
Matts Myhrman and Judy Knox, straw-bale construction consultants, have visited many of these "Nebraska-type" bale structures, built between 1900 and 1940. Myhrman rediscovered the area's oldest existing bale building, the Burke homestead, constructed in 1903 outside Alliance, Nebraska. Although abandoned in 1956, the Burke homestead continues to successfully withstand Nebraska's wide temperature swings and blizzard force winds. Long-time Nebras-kan Lucille Cross recalls the hay-bale house of her childhood was so quiet that her family, not hearing a tornado outside, just sat there playing cards, while the "tornado wrought havoc all around them.
In Wyoming, straw-bale structures have consistently withstood severe weather and earthquakes. "The earthquake was in the 1970s and it was either 5.3 or 5.8," Chuck Bruner, a resident of one of the houses told The Mother Earth News. "There wasn't a single crack in the house. You can live in this house comfortably during the summer. It stays nice and cool. We have never needed any air conditioning, and in summer we get days up in the 90s. Also,.last winter, I only turned our small bedroom heater on twice. If 1 had to guess how our utility bills compare to those of our neighbors, I'd have to say our bill is about half."
- Straw-bale house in Arthur, Nebraska, built 1925.
The straw-bale building revival at a Glance (from The Last Straw. Fall. 1994).
Straw: A Renewable Resource
Straw, the stalks remaining after the harvest of grain, is a renewable resource, grown annually. Each year, 200 million tons of straw are under utilized or just wasted in this country alone. Wheal, oats, barley, rice, rye, and flax are all desirable straws for bale walls. Even though the early bale homes used hay for the bales, hay is not recommended because it is leafy and easily eaten by creatures great and small. Straw, tough and fibrous, lasts far longer. Straw-bale expert Matts Myhrman estimates that straw from the harvest of the United States' major grains could be used to construct five million, 2,000 square-foot houses every year! More conservative figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicate that America's farmers annually harvest enough straw to build a|aout four million, 2,000 square-foot homes each year, nearly four times the houses currently constructed.
Building a straw-bale house is relatively simple. A basic 2,000 square-foot house requires about 300 standard three-wire bales of straw (costing approximately $ l ,000). Placed on a foundation, the bales are skewered on rebar pins like giant shiskabobs. After wiring and plumbing, the walls are sealed and finished. Because grains are grown in almost every region of the country, straw bales are readily available, with minimal transportation costs. Lumber from trees, in addition to becoming more scarce and expensive, must be transported over longer distances.
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