Houses Made of Straw

[di marco]

Council tenants are being offered houses built of straw in a British first.
Four straw-bale semi-detached homes are due to be built by North Kesteven District Council, in Lincolnshire, as part of its drive to provide affordable and eco-friendly housing.
The homes are made of tightly-packed straw and this will be the first time they have been used in Britain for council houses, the company that designed them said.

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would anyone here wanna live in a house made of straw?

[Perdita]

And then the big, bad wolf will come along and he will go 'huff and a huff and a puff' :lol:

[Hollie-x]

And then the big, bad wolf will come along and he will go 'huff and a huff and a puff' :lol:

:lol: :lol:


I'm sorry but this seems theh teensiest bit crazy.
okay well a lot actually.

[Abbie]

:eek: its sounds a little mad, what do they look like?

[di marco]

:eek: its sounds a little mad, what do they look like?

erm no idea, there wasnt a picture! :( id like to know though!

[Abbie]

Cos Im seeing in my head what perdita described, a straw house and a wolf :lol:

[di marco]

i think itd be quite tightly packed together so that hopefully it wouldnt be blown over lol!

[Perdita]

They don't look that much different from stone houses

Straw-bale construction techniques fall into two main categories: Load-bearing and nonload-bearing.

In load-bearing straw-bale, or "Nebraska-style" construction, the walls support the weight of the roof without wood structural supports. This technique requires careful planning to ensure the walls can support the weight of the roof. In most cases, this means using a hip roof that distributes weight evenly along the walls.

Typically, bales are stacked on a poured concrete stem wall. Either three-wire (23 inches by 16 inches by 42 inches) or two-wire (18 inches by 14 inches by 36 inches) bales may be used. They are joined and reinforced by steel, wood, or bamboo pins and frequently covered with chicken wire, which helps hold the finish.

Upon completion, the exterior is usually covered with adobe and the interior walls are usually plastered, creating flat, attractive surfaces. Nebraska-style construction can be used on fairly small, one-story structures, but is not useful for homes with more intricate designs and large square footage.

That's why many designers have turned to nonload-bearing construction, which uses a wood or other frame to support the roof. The bales fill the space between the framing. This technique allows the building to use smaller framing components, because the bales provide additional support. It also offers more flexibility of design, multistory construction, and more complex floor plans.

[di marco]

oh i thought the whole house was going to be made of straw lol!