Articles | Sustainable Building: Straw Bale Building
Written by Dudley | Posted on 21/11/2007 | Category: Green Homes
Most people I talk to about straw structures recall a nursery rhyme involving unfortunate piglets and a wolf (or was it a troll?). Anyway, someone huffed and puffed and the piglets met their dastardly fate. Perhaps my mind is more warped, or my nursery rhymes were more pc, because the first thing that comes to my mind is lego. I have had, mainly thanks to an indulgent grandfather, a detailed training in ‘lego build’. I have built bridges, planes, farms which all kind of worked, so when a volunteer was required to review the Dorset Rural Skills Centre, and in particular their two day straw bale building course, my hand shot up the highest.
On my arrival, the reception at Dorset Rural Skills Centre (DCRS) straight away provided proof to the cynical nursery-rhyme believer just what a straw bale building can be. A beautiful timber A-frame roof sits on substantial straw walls and demonstrates that they practice what they preach here. The building acts as a wellinsulated and great-looking resource centre with excellent natural lighting and a shady veranda for slurping re-hydrating tea after building exertions
Rob Buckley was our course leader and I don’t think there’s much he doesn’t know about straw bales and their uses. The size of the class – a dozen of us – meant that Salt, his right hand man, was always there to ensure an instructor on hand. I wasn’t surprised the course was so well attended given concerns about global warming, and the fact that one ton of standard building material produces one ton of carbon, and that we have tons (probably millions!) of straw as an agricultural by-product.
As well as slides and talks, the main focus of our energies was a building we constructed in the cavernous workshop. If the Summer hadn’t been what it was (ie. wet) we would have used an outside space…. although to my surprise wet is less of a problem for a straw bale building (if you’re careful) than for the humans building it. We used sixty bales that gave a three by two metre structure with plenty of head room. Given that bales can be bought at around £2.50, a large building should not have big material costs (or much of a carbon footprint!). Everything else you need is time and a selection of basic tools, most of which you will already have. And as straw is two thirds lighter than brick a variety of foundations can be used – we used tyres, another waste product in abundance!
We filled tyres with limestone chippings. These tyres were placed on top of the trench we’d dug and filled with shingle to form the foundations. We then made a ‘ring beam’ - sections of timber and ply to provide a continuous rigid perimeter for the joists - and placed this on the tyres … using a spirit level constantly as mistakes at the bottom are magnified exponentially by the time you get to the top! The bales were then built up in lego fashion and fixed in place with hazel spikes. At the end we strapped them top to bottom with cargo straps from a lorry to another ring beam at the top. You remove the straps when the straw has compressed. We planned the doors and windows in at the outset and fixed them in carefully to ensure there was no opportunity for water ingress.
Rob talked about the range of roofs you can put on (basically anything) and we spent Sunday afternoon digesting lunch and using lime render to finish and waterproof the building. I mentioned the wet earlier….obviously straw will rot so you need to ensure that water does not gather. Provided you do not drill holes in it for pipes (they come up through the floor) and are particularly careful when fitting the windows and doors there’s no reason your building should not outlast any other. Some in the US were erected in the 1800’s and are still there.
There is more to it….slightly more than my editor will allow, but not a lot! A web search can yield detailed instructions but I would recommend DCRS as the ideal place to learn. After the two days even I, who considers building skills as having a well-thumbed yellow pages, would feel confident building a structure. And if I got out of my depth (… or forgot) I got the impression that using their phone number would lead to great advice. (DCRS also run a building company that specialises in straw!)
Amongst the other benefits of this building technique is that of the insulation which is three times better than modern building. And for those with ‘sick building syndrome’ concerns, the humidity levels and emissions of toxics of these natural buildings are much better too. Perhaps best of all, when a group of willing hands could be useful, a straw bale build is a great excuse to gather old friends and put them to task.
Dudley was a man of straw at the Dorset Rural Skills Centre near Blandford, Dorset.
www.dorsetruralskills.co.uk; 01747 811 099
DCRS also run courses on traditional skills such as blacksmithing, dry stone walling and hedge-laying. Straw-bale building courses at DCRS: 20th-21st September
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