Straw bale building in East Mountains (Santa Fe, House: loft, houses, purchase)
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I was wondering if others have some experiences to share about straw bale building in one of the 3 counties out in the East Mtns - Santa Fe, Torrance or Bernallilo. We are not looking for a builder, but would prefer to take on this project ourselves and gather for the most part, that New Mexico is pro straw bale as there certainly seem to be a good few existing homes in the state.
For those that might of walked this road, doing it themselves, was it as cost effective as you thought before starting out?
I visited an associate who had a straw bale house made for herself, east of abq by about 40 minutes. This is second hand knowledge but she did say that it was more complex than she expected and she switched from one builder/architect to another. I'm sure that isn't too helpful but it's what I have
There have been several LARGE homes built in Lincoln County, but the straw bales came from somewhere like Nebraska or Kansas - not sure. Definitely not local straw. Which means added shipping costs since it has to be trucked from the purchase source.
As far as other costs, can't answer - don't know. I do know that the cost is going to be affected by whether or not there is code enforcement during the construction phase - meaning that houses built in counties where there is little enforcement are going to be easier to get built.
I can't help you regarding Santa Fe, Torrance or Bernallilo countries, since we built our strawbale in northern NM.
We built it all ourselves off the grid without power tools, hand tools only & a solar well. So our situation does not really translate to yours. Also, ours is a small, 2-story cottage. We used post & beam construction with strawbale infill, no weight-bearing walls.
I can say that the hardest part of the whole process, IMHO, was the external plaster!
There are lots of great strawbale construction books out there on the market & some great websites. We used The Strawbale House by the Steens but also recommend the 2 books Straw Bale Building & Serious Straw Bale.
The only experience I have with straw bale as an insulation was in upstate New York one winter. We were visiting some friends that ran a dairy operation. They stored tons of hay in the loft above the room where the cows were kept. They also lined the outside walls of this space with a layer of bales all the way from the floor to the loft floor. The results were startling. The outside air temperature one morning was 35 deg below zero with a 15 mph Northwest wind. It was really cold. The inside of the barn was around 50 deg above and very humid. The only source of heat was the 60 cows sleeping there.
You could probably heat a straw bale house in a reasonable climate with a dog, couple of people and two kerosene lamps. Amazing structures.
We have poured adobe floor in ours- warm as toast in the winter, sometimes from just the solar windows after the woodstove is out. In the summer it is so cool inside that I sometimes put on a light sweater.
A standard 23 in. 3-string bale laid flat of wheat straw has been tested to a R-54.7 according to research from University of Arizona.
A final note is a reiteration of a point made earlier: it matters little whether the final truth about the R-value of straw bales walls is R-33 or R-43 or even R-53. Above R-30, the differences are minor and will usually be overshadowed by windows, floors, doors and ceiling/roof details.
We built it all ourselves off the grid without power tools, hand tools only & a solar well. So our situation does not really translate to yours. Also, ours is a small, 2-story cottage. We used post & beam construction with strawbale infill, no weight-bearing walls.
I can say that the hardest part of the whole process, IMHO, was the external plaster!
I'd be interested in any details you can provide on your experience... time spent, issues, price... and the good stuff. Infill is probably the safest and easiest to approve.
I like the idea of straw bale, but when it's all done they tend to be pretty expensive, and if you use natural plasters and flooring, they also need maintenance.
The only source of heat was the 60 cows sleeping there.
You could probably heat a straw bale house in a reasonable climate with a dog, couple of people and two kerosene lamps. Amazing structures.
60 cows resting is ~800W x 60 or 48KW or 1,152 KW-hr/day. If you had an electric furnace in your home and the cost was 8c/ KW-hr, you'd be paying > $2,700/mo to provide this amount of heat. Not a small amount at all.
In a fairly well insulated house the energy cost of air infiltration dominates... so you then need to seal the place very well and provide a heat exchanger for fresh air in order realize additional energy reduction.
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