Straw Bale Homes

I thought that I would take some time and talk about straw bale construction. There are some people out there that think that building with straw bales is cheaper that regular stick construction. While that is true about the cost of the materials for the wall systems, it is more labour intensive and can therefore be just as costly.
We love our straw bale home. We feel comfortable with the contours of the walls, the thickness of them and the comfort of heating with wood (although it is quite messy!)We didn't want to have a basement, as is the norm I find, so we chose a slab on grade. The only thing that I regret is that we didn't put in radiant heat. In hindsight, we should have at least put in the tubes so that if we wanted to, we could hook them up at a later date.
Straw bale homes have a R rating of 35 to 50, are 4 times more fire resistant than stick construction, hurricane resistant and now with testing done in Nevada, (I think that is where it was done) the only wall system that has not failed in the earthquake testing! Now isn't that something!I don't know why everyone doesn't build a straw bale home. The benefits are so great!Easy to heat, easy to cool, and comfy to live in!
There is a great deal of thought that should go into the design of the bale home as it is not always easy to change things once the cement or earthen plaster is put on to cover the bales. Many people don't realize this when they decide to build and go headlong into the process without proper planning.
When we built our home in 2000, we were virgins in the straw bale area of expertise but we did persevere and managed to move into the shell after 27 days. We opened our retreat one year almost to the day after we stacked the first bale. It was a long process, but a very satisfying one!
We joined forces with Chris Magwood, Julie Bowen, Hank and Anita Carr, John Weiss, Tina Therrien and a few others to form the fledgling Ontario Straw Bale Building Coalition in 2001. The organization has grown immensely over time and is one of the leaders of information for anyone wanting to build a straw bale home. You can access the OSBBC by going to www.osbbc.ca
I was encouraged to develop and teach a workshop on being your own General Contractor as our build went so quickly and problems were overcome with either no or little loss of time.
I now teach this workshop twice a year, once in the spring (or close to it) the other in the fall, for anyone wanting to be their own general contractor, or to see if they have what it takes to be a GC as the job is very demanding and can become stressful.
If you would like to take this course, check www.robinsnestretreat.com/s_22.asp for more information or call me, Gail at 705-639-2284. Registration must be pre-paid to ensure your spot and spaces are limited.