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Strawbale building
once a quirky one off build is now becoming a quick and
easy way of building for people interested in sustainable
eco friendly materials
How Strawbale buildings work:
First a timber frame and foundations are put in place
and then the strawbales are used in the structure, mainly
the walls where they can be shaped into a design, the
straw walls are also used to insulate the building.
This is then covered in a treatment and rendered with
plaster or an adobe mud - earth/clay/chaff with a lime
putty finish, this allows the building to breathe.
Strawbale homes can be designed according to ‘Passive
Solar’ principles, orientated with the long axis
running east-west and most of the windows on the north
side, an ideal position for solar heating and natural
cooling.
Straw facts:
A strawbale wall is made of hundreds of thousands
of stalks of straw, each one containing and trapping air.
Straw is super-insulator and wont let the heat through,
so cools the building in summer but in the winter, it
keeps the heat from any heating source or sunlight in.
The layer of adobe/plaster render on the inside of the
wall stores warmth or coolness so it evens out changes
in the air temperature.
Straw is generally a waste product and is mostly burnt
by farmers, causing carbon dioxide production and hence
an increase in greenhouse gases.
Key
elements of the building:
*low-cost, energy-efficient housing.
*Minimal use of timber.
*Straw is an annually renewable source of cellulose that
can be used as an energy-efficient substitute for stud-framed
wall construction.
*Straw bale buildings are extremely hard to burn, this
is because they are compacted tightly they don’t
hold enough air to permit combustion.
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