RSS FeedJun 19 2009
Building With Awareness – A Wealth of Information on Straw Bale Building
If you are considering an eco-friendly tiny house, you should take a look at BuildingWithAwareness.com. This great site has a lot of really impressive tips and information for those who want to build green or are interested in alternative building materials. Straw bale house construction and different approaches to energy are given a lot of attention on the site. They have a nice overview of 
how to build green with straw bale. It might come as a surprise to learn that if done correctly, straw bale can be an excellent insulator. How well insulated? How about R-35, now that is a pretty high R-value.
Another big surprise concerning straw bale construction is that most straw is simply burned after use. This, of course, means that this potentially great building material is just “tossed” away. Earth plaster walls and solar panels are considered to be a vital part in the construction of a straw bale house, and the end result does seem like a very attractive and earth friendly concept.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the site is its breakdown of what it costs to build a straw bale house. This is where BuildingWithAwareness.com becomes a uniquely interesting site. They have a pretty detailed breakdown of all the cost with the end tally being about $88,000 to build your own straw bale tiny house. The largest expenditures are labor and services such as hiring a plumber, which accounts for about $22,000 of the overall budget. General construction materials come in as the second most expensive cost at $13,000 roughly. This cost includes concrete, adobe bricks, various other materials and, of course, about 500 straw bales. The third most expensive aspect of the straw bale house is the photovoltaic electrical system, which ran about $13,000.
Another good source of information on the site is its section on “Green Building Tips for Straw Bale Houses.” The number one step is one that tiny houses fans will certainly appreciate-”build small and build only what you need.” As they point out, this does a great deal in reducing heating and cooling costs. But this tip is just one of many good suggestions on the site.
BuildingWithAwareness.com does have a DVD and book they are selling, and for those who are seriously considering building a tiny home (and most especially building a straw bale home), the DVD and book may very well be a no-brainer.
If you are considering an eco-friendly tiny house, you should take a look at BuildingWithAwareness.com. This great site has a lot of really impressive tips and information for those who want to build green or are interested in alternative building materials. Straw bale house construction and different approaches to energy are given a lot of attention on the site. They have a nice overview of how to build green with straw bale. It might come as a surprise to learn that if done correctly, straw bale can be an excellent insulator. How well insulated? How about R-35, now that is a pretty high R-value.
Another big surprise concerning straw bale construction is that most straw is simply burned after use. This, of course, means that this potentially great building material is just “tossed” away. Earth plaster walls and solar panels are considered to be a vital part in the construction of a straw bale house, and the end result does seem like a very attractive and earth friendly concept.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the site is its breakdown of what it costs to build a straw bale house. This is where BuildingWithAwareness.com becomes a uniquely interesting site. They have a pretty detailed breakdown of all the cost with the end tally being about $88,000 to build your own straw bale tiny house. The largest expenditures are labor and services such as hiring a plumber, which accounts for about $22,000 of the overall budget. General construction materials come in as the second most expensive cost at $13,000 roughly. This cost includes concrete, adobe bricks, various other materials and, of course, about 500 straw bales. The third most expensive aspect of the straw bale house is the photovoltaic electrical system, which ran about $13,000.
Another good source of information on the site is its section on “Green Building Tips for Straw Bale Houses.” The number one step is one that tiny houses fans will certainly appreciate-”build small and build only what you need.” As they point out, this does a great deal in reducing heating and cooling costs. But this tip is just one of many good suggestions on the site.
BuildingWithAwareness.com does have a DVD and book they are selling, and for those who are seriously considering building a tiny home (and most especially building a straw bale home), the DVD and book may very well be a no-brainer.
I bought the book and DVD over a year ago and think it’s one of the best books on my shelf. The book is small yet with the dvd is comprehensive in the process and planning of buiding a small house. I was particularly interested in this as it’s about the size, and of similar construction of my dream house, the one I hope to build in a few years after completing, and living in, my tiny house.
As a way to break down such a large task into manageable portions it does very well, but to my mind the best thing about the book is that it doesn’t try to tell YOU how you should build a small house, it tells you how THEY built THEIR small house, why they made the decisions they did and what influenced each of them and gives you the ideas to apply that thinking to your own particular situation.
I can, and regularly do, recommend it wholeheartedly.
J.
In the same vain, I would also like to show you the Phyper’s website http://www.solarhaven.org/. They built a 10025 sq ft straw bale home in Arizona complete with a solar electic power, solar water heater, and water based radiant floor heating, all by them selves…..sorta ^_^.
In particular, here (http://www.solarhaven.org/StarterStrawBale.htm) about a third of the way down the page, they describe a basic 200 sq ft staw starter home, which they believe can be built by an amature, of completely common materials for as little at $7000 with all utilities accounted for.
It was quite a dream they had, which I think many of us share, and they were able, for a short time, to live it.