Load Bearing Straw Bale Construction

Hello out there...

I live in Pagosa Springs Colorado, and I can help build straw bale homes in the area. I have mastered a load bearing straw bale system developed by Bill and Athena Steen in Tucson AZ, along with Natural Earth Plastering and Rammed EarthThermal Mass Flooring, some would also call this poured adobe.

I work for Colorado Housing, Inc. (CHI), a non-profit organization that helps low income families build their own affordable housing in the Four Cormers area. We are funded by the USDA's Rural Development Grant program, and over the past 10 years have built over 200 homes in the area. It is based on the community barn raising concept of the late 1800's and early 1900's... way cool for single parents and others that might be struggling in today's economy and would love to own their own home they built them selves with the help of others in the same situation and CHI program.

I am very new to CHI, and joined them to advocate straw bale. We just happen to share our office in Pagosa with Habitat for Humanity, and hope to build the first straw bale home for them later this year. We are building conventional stick houses (but very Green!!!) this year through CHI, but I am pushing hard for a mix of straw bale and stick for the 2009 build-out...

If there is any interest in the Four Corners area for straw bale construction or low income housing help, please contact me.

I've learned the most by going to several workshops here;

http://www.caneloproject.com/index.html

Here is a good site with all kinds of information from all over the country;

http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/straw_bale_house.htm

Here is a site for the 2008 Colorado Straw Bale Conference in my neck of the woods;

http://www.strawbaleconference.com/

I'll have to admit total ignorance about this stuff...would you be able to post any pictures or provide a link to somewhere we can check this out?

Hi RW.  I'd be interested in more info on the straw bale housing too.  Sounds interesting.

Deej & Dana, I've added some links to my post so you can check it out...

This looks frickin awesome. At first, I was skeptical, but after looking, holy crap, I'm thinking I could live happily in one of these out in the desert.

What is the price like for one of these, a nice humble one for an old, retired cripple?

John

One of my favourite (UK) TV shows is "Grand Designs". A few years ago I saw this inspiring chap called Ben build an Eco cottage in a Sussex woodland. He used hay bales for his walls.

Here is the gallery

John, if you can do most of the labor or get help from others a load bearing straw bale home can be built for under $80.00 per square foot. That does not include the price of land or hook up to services like; power, sanitation or water. The more crative you are with recycling, sourcing materials and keeping the design simple the cheaper you can build a home.

You mentioned desert, a very fine place to build straw bale... you might have to bring the bales in from another area, and local clay might be an issue.

As you surf the web, I am sure you can make contact with a knowledge source in your area. Consider going to a work shop and get hands on experience so you can learn from other people's experience and save yourself some hassles.

Sounds good. Thank you.

John