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Q: What about termites, rodents and insects?

A: A house built of baled straw is at far less risk form termites than a wood frame building. Good maintenance of your wall system (no holes) will deny unwanted critters access to your home.

Q: What about humidity and/or high rainfall?

A: Humidity appears not to be any more a problem than with other building methods. Care must always be taken to protect the straw, just as care must be taken to protect wood and insulation in conventional buildings. There are straw bale homes functioning well in Nova Scotia, snow country in Colorado, and in the wet climates of Europe and Mongolia. Many techniques have been learned regarding how to deal with consistently high humidity. There is a large two-story post and beam straw-bale house now on the historical register at the Burritt Museam, Huntsville, Alabama, built in 1936.

Q: What about fire? What about building codes?

A: Check with you local building code officials. Testing has been completed at the University of Arizona and by the New Mexico Construction Industries Division. This testing proved outstanding results for compression, racking shear, and fire ratings. (see Order Form under engineering test report summary.)

Q. What about durability/longevity?

A. The evidence provided by hay and straw-bale structures built by Great Plains homesteaders starting in the late 1800's indicate that bale houses, if properly build and maintained, have a useful life span in excess of 100 years, even in areas where high winds and snow are common.

Q. What about obtaining a building loan convertible to a homeowner's mortgage and the availability of homeowners insurance?

A. The early straw-bale houses were pay-as-you-build, uninsured structures. With the positive test results and more and more communities adopting Prescriptive Building Codes, lending institutions and insurers are beginning to welcome this new market.

Q. Will a straw-bale house cost less to heat and cool than a typical frame or block house?

A. Since typical construction seldom provides wall-system R-values greater than R-19, a well-built straw-bale house with walls providing R-values of from R-40 to R-50 (depending on surface coverings, density of bales, thickness of walls) will cost less to heat and cool than a typically built home of comparable size. These energy savings will accrue to the owner month after month for the life span of the building.

Q. What about bale size, composition and availability?

A. The smaller rectangular bales (usually wheat, rice, rye and oats) normally used for building come in the two-tie (plastic, string or wire) version (about 18" wide, 14" high and 36-42"long); and the three-tie version (23" wide, 16" high and 42-48" long). A firm, dry, two-tie bale appropriate for building will weigh about 55 pounds; a three-tie bale, about 80 pounds. Dry hay can be used, but straw (the dry stems of grains) is cheaper and more resistant to bacterial decomposition. Ordinary bales available at feed stores for bedding straw are usually dense enough, but be sure to check when bales are most plentiful (usually early summer) and secure your bales in advance of your wall-raising.

Q. Since straw bales are a relatively low-mass material, will they work in a passive solar design?

A. The major physical components of an ideal passive solar design would include adequate thermal mass (to store and release heat of a 24-hour cycle) and an insulating exterior wrap to reduce heat loss to the outside. In straw bale construction, proper placement of high mass materials like stucco, mud plaster, brick, concrete, tile, adobe or rammed earth in the interior of the structure would provide the thermal mass, while the thick, highly insulative walls would greatly reduce heat loss by conduction. Straw bales on the outside, earth on the inside- WE WIN, THE PLANET WINS.