Strawbale Construction The advantages of straw bale construction include: greater sustainability, environmentally sound and friendly, low embodied energy, it creates good insulation value, has more than adequate structural capabilities, wide material availability, good sound absorption, low material cost, ease of construction, it is a very forgiving building method, and any one can build one. It can also avoid serious pollution and property damage that results from burning stubble.
However, there are some difficulties with straw bale construction that include: unfamiliarity of code officials, inconsistent quality control, uneven wall surfaces, instant know-it-all experts, and the imperatives of moisture, fire and vermin protection.
Straw bales can be used in constructing light industrial buildings; within the city and also in rural settings; in warm, cold, and dry climates; frm farm structures and city garages, to homes and community centres. They are ideal for the prairie regions of North America. Straw is a good, inexpensive and is readily available from local farmers. It is a fine renewable resource grown in many countries.
This building is a 1000 square foot garage/workshop built in a post and beam fashion with recycled telephone poles. Two of the walls have 36 inches of cord wood. Two walls are bermed on the east and south walls.The bales go upwards through the floor to the roof. I started applying the concrete by hand and trowel and soon found this to be very slow. I experimented with gunite. This is a method of applying concrete to surfaces through blasting it out of a nozzle with air. This was much quicker. I persuaded the gunite company to do the building free if I could get the TV camaras there. The thickness in about one inch per side.
According the CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing) the strength of the walls in lateral load is in excess of 7 times hurricane force. We don't get many hurricanes in Alberta but you get my drift.
The combination of cordwood, strawbale and bermed walls make this building, I believe, to be the first of it's type in North America, the only other one I could find was in France. This view is of the South side, parging by hand.
I changed the window design to three windows instead of one. The pink insulation that you can see is to cover the window openings between the windows. They remind me of port culis. This is an opening that was a window in Medieval Castles from which one would fire arrows onto your good neighbours. On this wall I have already add the second coat by hand on the lower level.
This is the North side, but faces the Cordwood house, after it's first coat by hand.
This is the bermed East wall. I experimented with two types of wall here. One is a bermed wall of the Cordwood, the other is Strawbale. Both are protected by a layer of heavy roofing felt. A mention about the trusses. This is called a "live-in truss" For seventy dollars extra per truss, it gives you a second story without the second story cost.
More pictures of both the Strawbale garage and the Cordwood house
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