I am surrounded by fields which will be laden with straw bales in a few months time, also I have access to loads of milled timber - is building a straw and timber house the ideal way to bypass the mortgage trap?
Straw bale house?
I am surrounded by fields which will be laden with straw bales in a few months time, also I have access to loads of milled timber - is building a straw and timber house the ideal way to bypass the mortgage trap?
this is a very real thing that people do.
there is a lot of documentation and even regulations out there on how to do it properly
Even with the best efforts, straw bale houses dont really last all that long, maybe 10-15 years.
there is also the flaw of it just randomly combusting. Something to do with static electricity in the air i guess, they will literally self ignite randomly, but its quite rare
reading of some houses lasting 50 years
if the bales are dense enough then the combustion risk is lower than normal stick-frame
There is a reason why hay barns are always separate from regular barns. Rotting organic matter gives off a LOT of heat (stick your hand in a pile of grass clippings after a day). You’re lying to yourself in a dangerous way if you refuse to see the inherent risk.
How are you gonna keep the walls of your house bone dry?
Clueless absurdly clueless. Just shut up already
Enjoy your funeral pyre then
>if the bales are dense enough then the combustion risk is lower than normal stick-frame
according to what...a study from strawbale university?
Straw bale buildings have excellent fire resistance. The Australian government thinks so. Your fire insurance is equal at worst and usually lower cost, and the insurance j*w doesn't frick around. You are a semi to fully moronic frick wit who spews off about things that you have no knowledge or understanding about. Please frick off to r*ddit or something, you are a dick. What a gay.
and where the frick does it say lower risk than a stick frame c**t
and if the insurance cost is lower thats because the house is fricking worthless because its made of straw lmao
straw man fallacy. the insurence fee is low because they never have to pay for straw house fire
>straw man fallacy.
Hardly. You, however, are guilty of argument from ignorance.
nah, more like a red herring
Straw bale houses are generally assumed to last 100 years. They are extremely fire proof, even before you put on the earth or cement render, the bails are compressed enough that if you light up the bales with a blowtorch they stop burning when the torch is removed. You know absolutely nothing about this subject.
>Even with the best efforts, straw bale houses dont really last all that long, maybe 10-15 years.
absolute horseshit. Get fricked and have a nice day, moron
Return to the sod house. Also read "Growth of the Soil"
>being so poor I cant even afford stone or wood
no
you can be king of the rats and mice when every one in a three county area moves in. getting a power service connection might be a struggle as well
>not using the Russian method to both energize your home and kill vermin
NGMI
Nails go in real easy
Caulking is tricky
Basement walls are leaky
the fricking piles of miles this must attract. How do they attach windows? It seems like this can only be done if you plan to live borderline homeless doomer style
*mice. I need to go to bed.
Mold, hay fever, and oxygen consumption
And the fricking stench of rotting hay.
This is not a thing folks.
>thinking hay and straw are the same
just fall into an acid bath already
Kept dry bales can last for decades without deterioration. Helped an old neighbor clear out a barn once and there were bales down the back from the 80's still in good condition
I love weird shit, but after helping erect a metal barn that was then sprayfoamed, I just can't take much else seriously.
Isn't the land generally the expensive part?
Straw Bale construction has been around for a time.
The basics are stacks of bales. The outside and inside is covered in cob, with a roof overhang far enough to keep rain off the outer walls.
I'm sure if OP goes on a libgen mirror and types in 'straw bale house' or 'straw bale construction' they'll find some illustrated books.
It was designed to use local materials. Cob is construction sand, clay and straw. The idea was to minimize the enormous amounts of petroleum fuels that are needed to bring legacy construction materials in. It's kind of a hippy thing, but I've been in them and they are cool in the summer, easy to heat in the winter, and the walls 'breathe' providing regulated humidity.
Mice and such are not a problem (unless i guess you are a pig). Electrical could be run with regular conduit in the walls before plastering them. Same as plumbing.
I fully believe that oil and gas is created naturally in the earth. And it's a renewable resource driven by cosmic energy and the planet's interaction with it (heat at the core being continuously generated). It's the feeling of freedom from having to pay outrageous rates for centrally controlled energy to harvest, process, and move the goods, which essentially start out as free: wood, metal, and whose price is driven up by monopolization of energy through the money supply and it's control. (killing every inventor that figures out the con).
Straw bale cob gives those benefits above, plus the satisfaction of building an organic structure with rounded features that blends into the landscape better.
We have an assload of clay here, excellent for brick making. A natural gas well which means unlimited gas to fire the bricks. Much discussion on getting a production line set-up to make bricks, then building with them. Along the same idea.
>It's the feeling of freedom from having to pay outrageous rates for centrally controlled energy to harvest, process, and move the goods, which essentially start out as free: wood, metal, and whose price is driven up by monopolization of energy through the money supply and it's control. (killing every inventor that figures out the con).
People don't think it be like it.
but the patent office is set up to prevent free technology distribution and innovation
What do you think of rammed earth(subsoil)?
Yes, that's a great idea, OP. Houses built out of sticks and straw have shown time and time again to hold their structural integrity. Don't listen to anyone telling you otherwise.
I'm a general contractor.
I have pictures from a few years ago I can't find. I will continue to look for them.
I was contracted to do some work on one of these constructions.
I liked the idea but after seeing everything that had to be done, it looked liked a scam and it makes more sense to just timber frame and insulate a house normally.
one question I couldn't get anyone to answer, was what happens if a crack forms in the stucco and you get mice inside the walls. no one was ever able to answer this.
we poured a foundation, they used foam blocks and poured concrete inside that. we cut lines inside the foam for wiring and pipes. we timber framed the rest with straw in-between the outside walls. the wiring inside the hay walls is permenant and there was no way to access it after the fact the way you would cut drywall.
when they did the hay and stucco there was some guy who had a convoy of unpaid hippies who were "learning" how to eco live or whatever(they were larping).
ultimately the environmental impact seemed higher with the hay bales, it was more expensive, smaller, more complicated, and won't last.
it was pretty dumb.
pic attached is work km doing at a hotel where the ice machine leaked for 15 years. the floor was sunk almost 4 inches in the center.
still looking for hay bale house pics.
this fricked with me real bad.
I just imagined a mouse getting into the wall and chewing the wire.
inside. you can see the straw sticking through the stucco on the corners.
Why not just build a house made of rammed earth?
It'll be a lot more stable and if you build it right it will endure for millenia
Completely different thermodynamics, strawbales are unique as a building material for having the trinity of cheap, extremely easy to build, and highly insulative. While there are lots of materials that fulfill the first two points they all are typically the opposite, high thermal mass or at most poorly insulated. The strawbale on the other hand is probably more insulated than your average house fitted loaded with typical insulation (unless you're using mineral wool I guess). However it's requirement for a bone dry environment to avoid rot onset betrays it, most places that have cold winters also have heightened humidity and inversely places that are dry tend to be hot (and so are befittting for thermal mass instead of insulation), there are few areas on the planet that fill both requirements where one would typically live, and as a result, remain a niche; coincidentally the reason it was established in nebraska is cause it's more suitable there for these reasons, nebraska is dry enough and cold enough for it to be appealing in the absence of forest wood. There's more suitable places if you go more around the wyoming/montana area though and thereoetically the most perfect climate on earth for one is arid patagonia because strawbales are also supposedly good against earthquakes, which are prevalent in the area, but that's conjecture on my part due to having no practical trial.
you can use salt to deal with rodents. farmers have used it for millenia apparently. unless you do it absolutely perfectly though youre going to get rotting processes id assume. perhaps salt offgassing is enough to stop moisture i really dont know.
Build classic cabin with the timber and it will appreciate in value. Skip the straw since autism doesn't sell easily.
>Skip the straw since autism doesn't sell easily.
>Everything must revolve around money!!!
frick off. Straw houses were traditionally used as a shelter for a few years before a proper house is made, because they are often the cheapest style of house you can build that's not a lean-to or other survival shelter.
I'm actually looking into building a cob house, clay/sand/straw and water are it's components. you might want to go that route if you want the house to outlive you. dropbox https://www.db.com/scl/fi/ke4re5no4tug1mo94gi3e/Build-a-Cob-House-A-Step-by-Step-Guide-ver-2.1-2.pdf?rlkey=vklc39gf3w3nc9rezomgkqxdz&dl=0.
Dumbfricks itt offering opinions who don't even have a clue that straw and hay aren't the same thing.
LMAO
Well of course they're diferent, hay has a much higher nutritional value than wheat straw does I ain't building anything with hay, heavy stuff too. rape straw is also pretty crap so you coulod probably use that but it's pretty glossy. wheat is still probably the better choice but you'll still want to be picky seeing as rotary combines and short straw lengths will make it less stable.
Anyway what sort of straw bales are we buildding with, you can buy them in dinky little things or monsters over a tonne each.
I know some farmers build temporary sheds for livestock like lambing sheds using bale walls, timber, and tin sheets.
I've done stuff in the past using some moldy hestons as a sort of rain and wind break.
Frick moldy straw is nasty stuff, used to have to bed the cattle with it by hand, carried a sledge hammer for some of them.
Dip the straw bales into cement milk and use them as bricks
thats a fire hazard Id recommend hemp its a great insulator and fire moronant if you plant your seeds now youll have all the hemp you need by this time next year
This is a winery in Valhalla, Victoria, Australia. It was built with straw bales 2.4 metres long X 900mm X 600mm. With the render the walls are 1 metre thick. It was specifically built to maintain a constant temperature and be as fireproof as can be built.
Damp and rats would be my concern.
As long as you aren't using them as structural material and have breathable moveable materials like lime morter to protect them, have a good drainage system, and keep them sheltered they should work, but they're basically just grass stalks
Jeez, Anon, I hope there aren't any big bad wolves around.
Another issue with hay is that it is a complete plant including the seed head, while straw is just the stalks so assuming the combine did a good enough job most rodents won't have a lot of interest in wheat straw.
just get a trailer