Reader Terri Anderson has asked my opinion of hay bale construction. I have several and most are favorable.

My first opinion is that hay is for horses. Straw is for houses. There is an important difference between hay and straw. Straw is left over after the nutritional parts of the plant are sent off to become Wheaties. Hay still has all the food value contained in it. Hay remains interesting to food seeking wild life, molds and possibly horses for some time. Straw is not so attractive as food, thereby making it a better building material and it has a slightly better R-value on average.

Hay has been used for building and if rigorous care is taken to keep it encapsulated and very dry, it will work. Straw must be kept dry too but it has the advantage of being less vulnerable to deterioration during the life of the structure.

In areas of the country where grains are grown, straw is low priced and available. Where grain growing is not a big business and animal grazing is, hay usually has a price and availability advantage.

Speaking of money, advocates of straw bale construction often mention its low cost. I have never built one but I have read extensively about them and drawn up some plans and cost estimates just for fun. When straw bale cost is compared to fiberglass insulation in R-value versus wall thickness then straw bale wins hands down. However when the costs of enclosing the straw structurally, covering the outer surface with something to weatherproof it and finishing the interior surfaces to keep the family goat out of it are taken into account, the cost advantage over regular construction starts to diminish.

The structural design (by you or a profe$$ional) must accommodate window and door casings, be strong enough to hold up the roof and take into account the settling of the bales over time. Building 18″ wide straw bale walls on conventional 8″ concrete basement walls requires special attention too. There are the challenges of how to install the plumbing, wiring, heating and cooling systems. Then you have the building code enforcer working overtime writing up all the violations you have to commit when building such a home. You also have bankers to charm and your insurance agent is not going to be happy with you. Your neighbors may shun you because your remarkably unusual home gets so much more attention than theirs. Those are some of the trials and tribulations of the technologically adventurous home builder. Believe me, I know.

But I want to give you hope. So many pioneers in straw bale construction have persevered in their quest for their idea of the perfect home that many of the obstacles have been breached, if not quite overcome. Jurisdictions do exist where builders of straw bale homes are given building permits by the powers that be. Bankers, insurance companies and real estate dealers are realizing there is money to be made here and they are taking advantage of the trend. House plans are available as well as some very good books on the subject, and there are 650,000 Google sites waiting to be studied.

My own experimental alternative design is a straw bale house that is round. This avoids many of the structural technicalities of square designs plus gives more floor area in relation to wall length. (It’s a geometry thing; you can look it up.) The roof is cone shaped, putting an equal load on all parts of the walls. Picture a Yurt shape with bale walls.

You, Terri, are lucky to have a brother who is a mason. I designed my straw bale Yurt with a masonry heat mass around a center chimney that would radiantly heat the home and hold up the roof. An extra safety (and efficiency) factor is the placement of the heat source as far from the (potentially) flammable walls and furniture as you can get in such a structure.

Keep reading here because on my list of stuff to write about is an idea for a wall that equals bales in insulation value and has considerable inherent structural qualities. The main ingredient is easy to find and FREE. Stay tuned.

Next post I will get back to the Life Choices story.