straw homes
Topic 2 · 11 responses · archived october 2000
~terry
Sun, Jan 5, 1997 (19:24)
seed
Building a straw bale house (from Roger Karraker):
-------
If you'd prefer a digest version of the Straw Bale Mailing
List rather than receiving each message individually (or
vice-versa), send an e-mail message to
mailto://Majordomo@crest.org
with this format of commands in the body of the message:
unsubscribe strawbale
subscribe strawbale-digest
(Or the other way 'round, if that's what you're after.)
I use digest, it runs abour 30K-60K a day in a single file. Otherwise you
get 10-20 messages a day
Here are a few of the best Web sites. The first one links to dozens of
others. There are at least a few people posting to the list from the
Austin area. In fact, I think there was a recent strawbale conference there.
http://www.strawhomes.com/resources/internet.html
http://www.whidbey.com/lighthook/sb.htm
http://www.snowcrest.net/smb/
~terry
Wed, Feb 17, 1999 (11:54)
#1
What's the difference between a straw bale house and a cob house?
Straw-bale is perfect for keeping uniform temperatures. Essentially it's
pretty simple a funciton of very thick walls (resistance to heat
transfer) and substantial internal thermal mass to store warmth or
"coolth". The thermal mass creates what's known as "the flywheel effect,"
i.e., slow changes in temperature.
Terry, I don't know specifics on cob walls, but I suppose they're made
from corncobs packed together in some form or other. Our place is made of
bales made from rice-straw. The bales are 4 feet by 2 feet, 15 inches
high. - Roger Karraker
No, cob is as Becky Bee author of The Cob Builders Handbook says, "a
house made out of mud...Cob is sand in effect 'mortared' toegther with clay and
strengthened with straw..." and you sculpt with it. She uses different
size pieces of loose straw. There are several articles in The New
Settler Interview on building with cob. - lmonte
There's a nice cob house in Occidental at the Occidental Arts and Ecology
Center. - Marge Wright
And finally, there's Laura De La Garza's cob house, and I've invited her
to comment.
~stacey
Mon, Mar 1, 1999 (14:29)
#2
There is a man who works here (where I work) who is in the finishing stages of building his straw house. He and his wife are going to retire there.
Amazing structure from pictures and stories... he has wanted to do this for over 15 years!
~terry
Mon, Mar 1, 1999 (14:47)
#3
It's a great idea. Do you know the difference between a cob house and a
straw house?
~stacey
Mon, Mar 1, 1999 (14:51)
#4
nothing more than I've read from inside this topic...
~terry
Tue, Mar 2, 1999 (01:59)
#5
I'm still trying to figure it out also, I'd like to visit Laura de La
Garza's place out on the Blanco River and check out a cob house first
hand. Maybe later in the season, when swimmin' season starts.
~autumn
Tue, Mar 2, 1999 (16:47)
#6
Yeah, you definitely need another house to manage, Terry.
~stacey
Tue, Mar 2, 1999 (16:49)
#7
cob houses are like adobe...
that was the extent of my knowledge gleened from talking with Bill (owner/builder of the straw bale home) today.
~terry
Tue, Mar 2, 1999 (21:15)
#8
I wonder if there are multistory straw houses?
~stacey
Wed, Mar 3, 1999 (11:08)
#9
yikes...
dunno
~wolf
Mon, May 31, 1999 (11:35)
#10
how do they keep them (straw) from burning up? and can you keep varmin out?
~stacey
Wed, Jun 2, 1999 (18:29)
#11
it's all stuccoed