Straw-bale construction
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Straw bale construction project by john cross. Willits, CA. USA

Exterior view of straw bale library in Mattawa, Washington taken in 2008 (constructed circa 2000).

Interior view of straw bale library in Mattawa, Washington.

“Straw bale construction is at once an American invention and a sustainable answer to housing needs on and off the reservation.”

— Rick West, Director, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian

Straw-bale construction is a building method that uses straw bales as structural elements, insulation, or both. It is commonly used in natural building. It has advantages over some conventional building systems because of its cost^{citation needed} and easy availability^{citation needed}, and its high insulation value^{citation needed}.

Although grasses and straw have been in use in a range of ways in building since pre-history around the world^{citation needed}, their incorporation in machine-manufactured modular bales seems to date back to the early 20th century in the midwestern United States, particularly the sand-hills of Nebraska^{citation needed}, where grass was plentiful and other building materials (even quality sods) were not.

Methodology

Straw bale building typically consists of stacking rows of bales (often in running-bond) on a raised footing or foundation, with a moisture barrier between the bales and their supporting platform. Bale walls can be tied together with pins of bamboo, rebar, or wood (internal to the bales or on their faces), or with surface wire meshes, and then stuccoed or plastered, either with a cement-based mix^{citation needed}, lime-based formulation^{citation needed}, or earth/clay render^{citation needed}. Bale buildings can have a structural frame of other materials, with bales simply serving as insulation and stucco substrate, ("infill" technique), which is most often required in northern regions where the potential snow-loading can exceed the strength of the bales^{citation needed}. Alternatively, the bales may actually provide the structural support for the building ("load-bearing" or "Nebraska-style" technique). A combination of framing and load-bearing techniques may also be employed, referred to as "hybrid" straw bale construction^{citation needed}.

Typically "field-bales", bales created on farms with baling machines have been used, but recently higher-density "precompressed" bales (or "straw-blocks") are increasing the loads that may be supported; where field bales might support around 600 pounds per linear foot of wall^{citation needed}, the high density bales bear up to 4,000 lb./lin.ft.^{citation needed} and more^{citation needed}. The basic bale-building method is now increasingly being extended to bound modules of other often-recycled materials, including tire-bales^{citation needed}, cardboard^{citation needed}, paper^{citation needed}, plastics^{citation needed}, used carpeting^{citation needed}. The technique has also been extended to bags containing "bales" of wood chips^{citation needed} or rice hulls^{citation needed}.

See also

Sustainable development portal

Notes

Further reading

• Design of Straw Bale Buildings. Bruce King. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007.
• More Straw Bale Building: A Complete Guide to Designing and Building with Straw. Chris Magwood. New Society Publishers, 2005.
• Straw Bale House, The. Steen, Steen, Bainbridge & Eisenberg. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green, 1994.
• Building a Straw Bale House. Nathaniel Corum. Princeton Architectural Press, 2005.

External links

This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2008)

Wikibooks' Straw Bale Construction has more about this subject:

Introduction