How to build Straw Bale Houses | Pros and Cons

In this video, we’re going to cover another alternative method of construction - building with straw bales! I was surprised to learn that they have a lot of advantages over traditional construction. Straw bales are a resilient and sustainable building product that can help us build better. So, let’s discover how straw bale homes are made, their advantages and disadvantages.

Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:44 How it's made
3:00 Advantages
6:22 Examples
7:04 Sponsorship
7:47 Disadvantages
9:45 Conclusion

There are two main ways to build a straw bale house- load bearing and non-load bearing. A load-bearing house uses straw bales as the primary structural support. The roof sits directly on compacted bales. A non-load-bearing straw bale house uses another material, like wood, for its primary support. Straw bales are used in between the studs, or as a continuous wall.

The construction of a straw bale home is fairly easy and straightforward. It starts with a concrete foundation and wood sill plates. The bales need to be raised several inches off the ground so that they don't soak up moisture from the ground. They are stacked in running bond courses to form the walls of the house. They can be anchored together with wood, bamboo, or rebar stakes so they don’t fall over during construction. Once complete, the walls can be secured with a wire mesh. A moisture barrier is then applied to the surface of the walls.

Advantages.
The first is that straw is easily available in most parts of the world. The materials for plaster like sand, clay and mortar can be found at building supply stores. Straw bale construction is also fairly cheap compared to other, more engineered building products and insulation materials. They can be good insulators with an average R value of 2 per inch, so an 18 inch thick wall has an R value of 30 to 35. They can also reduce sound transmission and they are earthquake and wind resistant.

Straw bales have three times the fire resistance of traditional walls. Since bales are tightly packed, there isn’t enough airflow to sustain a fire, so they are an excellent choice in areas prone to wildfires.

The manual labor required to build these houses was something I was concerned about, until I discovered prefabricated straw bale panels. EcoCocon makes panels with compressed straw sandwiched in a wooden frame. They are usually used with an air-tight, but vapor open membrane and a continuous wood fiber board.

Disadvantages.
The low material cost is offset by high labor costs. Manually plastering walls can make the building just as expensive as conventional construction. The high space requirement is another disadvantage. While a stick frame wall is 6 inches thick, a straw bale wall is around 18 inches thick. You will lose square-footage because of the thickness of the bales.

The permitting process can also be tricky. Many design and building codes don’t allow straw bale homes or limit their construction. Moisture is the achilles’ heel of straw bale homes. Straw will decay and weaken if it becomes damp. Moisture can come from cracks in the plaster, plumbing, windowsills or joints that have not been properly sealed. Moreover, bales must remain completely dry during construction.

In conclusion, straw bales systems are a surprisingly eco-friendly method of construction. They are more energy efficient, fire resistant, soundproof and durable. But, they require care and maintenance.
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[BelindaCarr]

What do you think about prefabricated straw bale panels? Are there any other alternative construction methods you'd like me to review?

[zonegarlicfarm]

A builder near me built several load bearing straw bale houses for clients in the 1980's-90's. When he wanted to build one for his own family the banks and insurance companies put a stop to his plans. I've talked to the people who live in one of those houses and they say rodents are the biggest negative even though the bales were treated with a rodenticide before construction. Someone else I know built a similar house using baled cardboard instead of straw. He ran the cardboard baler at a large catalog company distribution warehouse. When he learned how much the company was paying to dispose of the bales he made a deal with them to take some for free.The walls of his house are 30 inches thick.

[bobjoatmon]

FYI - because of a lack of housing around Sinclair Wyoming at the refinery there during a shutdown a group of 4 construction workers took my idea (I was always reading about alternative housing. That made 5 of us) and the week before the job we leased a 1/2 acre from a rancher and built an octagonal straw bale house that was 30 feet across flat to flat outside dimension. A 6 inch post at each corner of the octagon and a center post for supporting the roof. We built a wood deck slightly off the ground and stacked bales between the corner posts. One flat had the exterior door and the other flats had window boxes built that were 18" deep with a single cheap aluminum frame window on each side so it was "sorta double paned" (we ended up growing herbs and stuff in them). So as the bales were stacked, a window box was substituted for a bale.
Note that we used black visqeen plastic to set the bales on and when a wall segment was done we brought it up on the outside and inside to the top and stapled it to the cross beams going from corner post to corner post to encapsulate it for water proofing and air sealing. We then put 20 foot rafters going from the higher center post out to the octagon wall sections. We 1/2" plywood decked and tar papered the roof, then decided to put a layer of visqeen on top of that and some slats to hold it all down in the expected high winds we were informed of.
Privacy walls of 2x4s were built to make 5 pie shaped (truncated point... For the cheap blanket hanging doorways in the center) bedrooms with the open main living area and kitchen taking up the rest of 3 remaining 'segments'.
We got a local built 35 gallon steel barrel wood burning stove for heat and ran the vent chimney up through the roof.
We stayed there for 4 months (and it snowed and blew quite a bit) and it was quite nice and didn't take much to heat. When we left we figured the rancher would just burn it down or something because he said just leave it, he'd take care of it.
Note that the entire cost to build it was less than $500 back then, so individually it was $100. Since we were all getting per diem we made out like bandits!
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS LATER I ended back up in Wyoming and drove my wife and kids there to show where I'd built the hay bale house and was surprised to see it was still there. Electricity had been brought in and the exterior was stucco and it now had a metal roof.
Pretty good for a temporary shelter for "migrant" industrial construction workers, haha.

[SiviVolk]

As someone who is dreaming of strawbale home for a long time, this video was exactly what I needed. I am especially grateful for the "disadvantages" section which showed me some things I was not aware of. Nicely done!

[TimBryan]

Always a fan of the alternative construction techniques. Your critical review from an industry standard perspective only helps to increase their visibility and reduce the barriers to entry for more people to adopt them.

[pulporock]

I visited a few strawbale homes over the years as well as other non-conventional building material homes.
Those with strawbale homes always seem happy to build with the same material again.
Not so with other materials, mud brick, rammed earth etc.
Yes great content as always. Cheers from Oz

[teresacoffman]

I grew up in central Texas. I remember the old homes with 13” thick limestone walls and deep overhanging roofs. Those thick walls were a great choice because they insulated the home. I also love the deep overhangs. So much light and yet it helped save energy passively. Do love to have a home with these features today.

[hubertdendraak]

Thank you for a solid and honest overview of straw bale building. And yes, I would be hesitant to build one in a humid climate, too.
My spouse and I designed & built a large 4000 sq/ft straw bale home we happily lived in for 14 years (until we had to move), and it was one of the best decisions we ever made. It was about 10% more expensive to build compared to traditional homes due to the more labour-intensive process, but the incredible insulation values meant that the cost of heating & cooling the place was minimal, offsetting the extra building cost within 3-4 years.
We lived in an area with 37C/100F summers and -35C/-31F winters, and the house was never too hot or too cold. A smart passive solar design, open concept and lots of thermal pass was a big part of that, too.
One thing about prefab straw bale walls, though: the flatbed trailer transporting those bulky walls to your site very quickly increases the home's carbon footprint...

[bondpaz]

We are getting close to having ours done. We are loving it. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me is it going to get blown down by a wolf. Lol also people seem to think it’s going to burn down. Regular wood houses are much more likely to burn than a strawbale house ❤😊 Great video!

[allenwc]

Straw is not a "waste product", at least not on the farm I grew up on. Straw has TONS of on farm uses, bedding for animals, mulch for everything, ground cover, manure composting, and that's just the simplest most obvious ones. Ya, not a waste product by any means. Now that we have that out of way.

You can use earth plaster on straw bale construction, as long as you have enough overhang to prevent direct rain. This makes straw bale construction not only low cost, but also possible to made entirely from local products, and I mean stuff found immediately around the house site.

I also think that learning the skill involved in plastering earth plaster can be easily learned in a few hours of practice, which you can do while plastering your home. Bonus, even if you do a rubbish job at first, you can easily go back and repair your work as you get better at doing it.

IF you live where you have suitable earth, and readily available straw bales, I"m pretty sure that an analysis would show that straw bales are an excellent and affordable choice. And truly very sustainable.

[cherylcarlson]

Sooo glad you are a convert! Personally, when I was looking at what resale of strawbales would be, I found they sold almost soon as they came on the market and sell at high prices. I don't think bugs are a real problem as highly compressed and sealed unlike stick built homes that are very gap ridden. Hand done home can have rounded corners, window seats and be very whimsically hand plastered. There was a whole thing prepandemic where an expert comes and oversees the construction of eager to learn people doing free labor and then people who had been to a couple of these invited more people to come learn for free labor. I don't know that I love the panels that much... do they have the same wind/ fire resistance? Found the website and they are only easily had in Europe and am weighing osb with covering vs plastering or concrete spray that keys into the bales for durability. looked at the price of the one bedroom tiny house and wow. Most strawbales in the book I bought were done for about $30 sq ft.

[lagringa]

I've loved the straw bail technique for over 45 years.... even more so now when wood has become so expensive and the insulating factors are phenomenal. In Calaveras county there is a straw bail house there that's 150 yrs old.

[DoloresJNurss]

I respect that you're the kind of person who will change her mind if the facts warrant it. That's rare these days!

[TheLatinMass]

I’ve known of straw building for years, but this is the first time I heard about prefab sections! Thanks for introducing that to us.

[kevinbuckley]

Yes, more straw bale and hemp wall construction. Thanks Belinda!

[jvin]

More episodes on straw bale and prefab walls with straw bale technology would be useful. Cross-over concepts of building straw bale barndominiums and tiny houses could be interesting and useful. Rapid resolution of permitting hurdles is an important topic too.

[ryanwellvang]

Straw bail homes are a great idea, but super extra care must be take during the construction process. As a fire fighter I was present at a structure fire on a home the had a room in attic type detached garage under construction using the straw bales. The stucco had not been applied when we were there, the mobile home had a fire under the floor that was self vented out the side of the structure. Upon arrival the only thing other than the home in danger was the LP tank. We entered the home and started cooling the LP tank, within minutes of this starting the hot ash started the gable end wall on fire, in less than 5 minutes the roof was on the ground.
During the build you are creating a fantastic fire environment, vertical stacks of straw. A simple spark off the saw could result in starting over or someone's life.

[CaseinPaglia]

Noi costruiamo case in paglia in Italia e ne siamo orgogliosi come i nostri committenti. Grazie per diffondere questa tecnica costruttiva!
We build thatched houses in Italy and we are as proud of it as our clients. Thank you for spreading this construction technique!

[seanpalmer]

Those thick walls do have one advantage that makes them well-suited for building in the desert. It means that windows have built-in shading which means you get light without as much undesirable heat gain. Stick-built homes tend to omit shading on windows.

One of my favorite straw-bale homes is in the desert of southern Utah. If I'm remembering correctly, it's about two decades old at this point and it's timber frame (i.e. the straw isn't loadbearing). One of the unique features of this house is the indoor lap pool, surrounded by windows along the south side of the house. It acts as a thermal and hygric buffer for the rest of the house. (it's kind of like an earthship in that way.)

[callmeswivelhips]

I have also read that condensation points can be an additional concern in colder climates, where the insulative properties of straw bales make them more desirable. In the cold winters, something like steel can attract moisture to condense inside the straw bale and cause rot. I'm not an expert on this topic though. I'm simply an enthusiastic bystander eager to see straw and hemp become more prevalent in modern construction. I think these type of structures are so beautiful! I love the thick walls, and the natural plasters. Everything about them look so...smooth!