Peace and Environment News* April 1996
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Peace and Environment News * April 1996 |
 Strawbale house under construction near Perth. Owners Diedre Herlihy and Rick Burroughs have applied the first layer of stucco, which is roughed in preparation for the second layer. Photo: Carla Brown. |
by Carla Brown
Whoever wrote the story of the three little pigs didn't realize how straw can function as an important building material.
Last year, Linda Chapman, an Ottawa-area architect and permaculture designer, wrote a background article for the PEN which outlined how strawbale houses are built. Since then, at least three local families have built them.
Traditionally, these houses are built by making walls of rectangular strawbales, wiring them together and then plastering concrete stucco on both the inside and outside of the walls. Once finished, no straw is visible. The roof can be supported either by the straw or by posts in the corners. But there are many variations to this model, as shown by the two homes described here.
A temple in the woods
Joan Hughes and Wayne Scarrett built their home on a lake about fifteen minutes from Perth. The house looks unique. It is made of two large octagonal-shaped sections joined in the middle by a square section. The south side is all windows, and the north side is strawbales.
Joan and Wayne started building their home last April, but the planning took many years. They were very careful about choosing a site for their home. They specifically wanted a piece of land that would face a lake, and they wanted the lake to be south of where the house would sit. The lake was important because, as Wayne says, large bodies of water absorb mental stress. The southern view was important because they wanted to take advantage of passive solar energy.
While active solar energy involves putting up solar panels, passive solar involves placing your windows in an appropriate direction to absorb as much heat and light as possible. This usually means facing them southwards.
"If you point your house in a certain direction, the people inside the house can take on certain qualities of that direction," Wayne says.
"If you take into consideration that the sunlight is different in the morning, at noon and at night, you might be able to arrange the rooms in such a way that the activity that takes place in those rooms is in alignment with the quality that's engendered by the sun at that particular time of day."
He explains that most houses are built without this in mind, and this can result in "people eating in the living room or having trouble concentrating in the afternoon...because the activity isn't so much supported by the environment at that time of day."
For Joan, light is also important because she's an artist. Her studio is in the centre of the house, in the square that joins the two octagons. It is the only part of the northern wall that has windows. For artists, the northern light is the steadiest light. This allows Joan to work on a painting in a constant light.
Joan and Wayne chose to build a strawbale house instead of a stick frame because strawbales are better for the environment. They use only a fraction of the wood necessary in other houses. Also, the thick walls have excellent insulation.
"What I liked was the thick walls because they remind me of Europe," says Joan. "The walls are all rough and uneven, and I love the deep windowsills."
Building with strawbales gave Joan and Wayne a freedom that isn't found in most house construction. Straw costs less than wood, so they could build with a smaller budget. Also, straw building requires less skill than wood, so they could be their own designers and builders. Their designs had to pass the same tests as other house designs, but once that was done, they could freely build with their own ideas.
One of their original ideas was to "sew" the bales together using a large needle, which they designed. One person would stand on each side of the wall, and they would thread the large needle through the bales. They sewed on a layer of chicken wire, which serves as the firm base for the stucco plaster.
The classic strawbale houses that originated in Nebraska use straw to support the roof. Wayne and Joan did not do this because their house was such an unusual shape. They had tall posts built around the octagon to support the roof. Strawbales filled the spaces in between. The octagon shape meant no sharp corners, and even the edges around the window sills were rounded.
"When the posts went up, our friends said it felt like a Tibetan temple," Joan says.
"As soon as the shape was defined, it had a feeling you don't have when you step on a square floor...I felt so powerful in that centre."
A house with a truth door
Diedre Herlihy and Rick Burroughs built their house not far from Wayne and Joan. They started last fall, and their house is not as far along. It is one and a half stories tall.
Starting any construction in the fall is not ideal, because poor winter weather is coming soon. But they decided to build then because Diedre found out in August she was pregnant.
"What little help I could be with a two-year-old this fall was going to be gone by May. I was going to have another kid by then," she says.
Buying the straw was tricky in the fall. Straw for building is supposed to be a year old to ensure it is dry enough. But luckily the dry summer meant they could use straw that hadn't been aged. They measured it with a straw meter, which is a device to measure moisture in bales.
It took 700 bales to build their house, and Diedre helped throw them down from the farmer's barn onto a wagon. It took three loads. Each bale cost only two dollars. Building with straw means keeping money with local farmers instead of big business.
A bale is light enough for one person to lift it. Straw is much lighter than hay because it is only the outer stalk of wheat, while hay includes much of the grain. Animals eat hay, but straw is usually a waste product for farmers.
Like Wayne and Joan, Diedre and Rick decided not to build a traditional strawbale. Instead, they build a structure out of wood that supported a tin roof. They used the wood from their land, which they had milled locally. They insulated the tin roof so it wouldn't make too much noise. But there is one exciting noise it can make.
"The most amazing noise we have encountered with tin roofs is when the snow builds up in winter," Diedre says.
"On a really warm day, the sun hits it just right and it comes sliding off. You feel like you are in an avalanche."
Diedre notes that the main attraction of strawbale is that it's usually less expensive. However, their house did not result in much financial savings, because they were in a rush to build before winter. That meant hiring people to come out. They also needed a large crane to hoist the roof trusses up.
Diedre has noticed an increasing trend towards strawbale building. Most of the literature comes from the United States.
"A lot of it is being built by women," she says. "Physically it's work that women can do, and it's appealing for a woman or a group of women who want to build their own building."
But it doesn't seem to be much of a trend in the city. Diedre thinks that is because city people have a less hands-on approach to life than those who choose to live in the country.
The main problem Diedre and Rick faced was getting insurance. Most companies would not insure a strawbale home heated by a wood stove. This points to a fallacy about strawbale that it is extra flammable. In fact, studies show that strawbale takes four times as long as wood to burn because the concrete stucco is so thick and there is so little oxygen caught in the walls.
There is one more secret to building with straw. In the mud room, Diedre has a "truth door." This is a small window through the layer of stucco, showing the straw and chicken wire underneath. Diedre uses it to explain how the house was built.
Life-giving design
In Wayne and Joan's vision of housing, a house is more than a box. Every aspect is important—the shape of the house, the direction it faces, and the use of the space. Joan finds the normal pattern of streets and houses quite stifling.
"There's no real living sense, no life-giving reason for streets to be put down the way they've been put down," she says.
"We do not get any life energy from it. At a deep level we know it. We know we are constantly tired, constantly pushing ourselves through this environment. When you stand in an organic environment like this, that is so lively, life is not a struggle. You get energy from it."
Joan is offering a workshop on these ideas called "From Vision to Completion: Life Without Struggle" at her strawbale house in Perth. Call (613) 267-5000 for details.
Carla Brown is a Master's student in journalism.
Converted April 11, 2000 - Lg
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