Anyone have familiarity with Straw Bales houses? I understand they are inexpensive to build and doesn't take long to build them. comments? Pros? Cons? Any familiarity with Adobe houses? Comments. Pros? Cons? Thank you.
Don't let any hungry live stock get to close to a your straw bale house. They may just eat you out of house and home. :waa: :haha:
There is a ton of information on the net, do a google search. I think you will find out that inexpensive and quick build time are not two of the pros in a straw bale house.
I, personally, am opposed to building something out of bug food. I checked out several of their sites and the structures have an expected life span of about 75 years. I know some do and will last a great deal longer. The issue for me is relevant because as an exterminator I know termites will eat straw if it gets wet. Its the same with wood. Many wooden houses never have termites. That doesn't mean termites don't eat wood. You lessen the risk of termites in a wooden or straw bale house by carefully designing the foundation and managing water. You can limit the risk, but you can't eliminate it. If you don't have structural reliance upon bug food (wood or straw), then there is no risk! I'm going to build a homestead out of cement. gobug
If you properly build and maintain your strawbale home, you won't have a problem with bugs, mold, mildew, or anything else gross. Strawbale homes are excellent insulators from noise and the elements, hold up better than post and beam homes in earthquakes AND fires, and you save some on the costs of wood. However, the cost of wood is something like 10% of a home's cost, so don't get your hopes up. You can save in other ways by using cement flooring, salvaging building materials, and rounding up the neighbors for a weekend or two of working. Have you noticed how shoddy the workmanship is on modern post and beam homes? My sister bought a new home last year, and they've had all kinds of problems. The contracter installed broken window frames, a broken bathtub, you name it. It's been about 8 months and they still have work to be fixed. This time it's the grout on the tile in their kitchen that needs to be pulled out and repaired. They even had to have the downstairs medicine cabinet pulled out and repaired. Seems somebody installed it at such an angle that would fly open when you opened it and it would whack whatever was in the way. It's a lot of little things that you notice after you've lived in a place for awhile. A post and beam home nowadays wouldn't last 75 years without a SERIOUS overhaul, so I wouldn't expect more out of a strawbale home.
________________________________ When you hire a jackleg to build a house, what you get is what you failed to check out first, the quality of the man's work. Sound like you sister did not check this mans work out before she hired him. Sounds like this might have been his first house, or was he just 9 1/2 years old and never held a hammer in his hand before. A modern post and beam home, or anyother home built right by people who know their business and care about doing the job right will stand when we are all dead. The proof is in the ones still standing today, that are older than we are ! ! !
They're track homes, built by contractors. It's more common than you think. My fiance's dad does the post sale inspections on homes, and he has to fix what the lazy arses didn't do right the first time. This is any new home, built by any average joe contracting company. It's all about GO, GO, GO and not about the workmanship. The faster they build, the more money the contracting company makes.
