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Strawbale Construction Back when we started our alternative building journey, there were half the amount of houses in our neighborhood as there are now. At the time, we never envisioned our neighbors being of like-mind to build using alternative methods. To our delight, Guy and Sue also had a dream of sustainable building and living. People seem to be more familiar with houses built with straw bale compared to cordwood/masonry. We wanted to include some photos of their beautiful home as it becomes near complete in 2010. The beauty of the rounded edges and natural wall covering material hold a special energy we can relate with in our cordwood/masonry home.
Pictured above are some of the techniques in resizing the bales to fit around windows and doors. The bales are trimmed with a small chainsaw and /or restrung to the appropriate size and shape. A view of the stacked walls from inside and out.
Guy and Susan along with some views of gorgeous hand and trowel formed walls. One of the many advantages of building with alternative materials is the customization and special features. The common use of bottles is unique to cordwood builders. Covering the strawbale with a clay mixture offers the opportunity to form unique creations on the walls.
When Bryan and I were building our house we felt like we were going to art class every weekend. You can see this same effect with Sue mixing cob with her feet! This is the clay mixture applied to the walls. Conventional home building just does not offer this kind of joy!
Guy and Sue are using a similar solar hot water heating system to heat their floors. An R-factor of almost 35 is achieved with the strawbale walls. Along with the passive solar coming in through their windows Guy and Susan will have little need for conventional fossil fuel use.
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