Hay

From cnnmoney.com:

The thick walls of this post and beam home are insulated with stacked bales of hay, a material so effective that no heating system is needed.

6 Comments

Jim the Realtor on May 4, 2012 at 8:04 pm

There is a massive downsizing movement underway.

1. Some people will be fortunate enough to save a few bucks by just moving down the street.

2. Others won’t be as fortunate, and will have to consider more drastic changes.

3. The third group could afford more, but prefer a more organic existence.

Let’s consider all the options – a house made of hay sounds like an interesting idea, and those in groups 2 & 3 could benefit greatly.

enplaned on May 4, 2012 at 9:24 pm

Insert joke here about the three little pigs and the wolf who blew down the house made of straw…

GettinReady on May 5, 2012 at 3:44 pm

Should be lots of fun when the next wildfire comes.

Waters End Renter on May 5, 2012 at 4:00 pm

Straw Bale homes are great (I have friends who build them for a living) and materials like this are cool but you can still achieve similar levels of performance with traditional framing. You might need to do 2×6 walls and spray foam insulation or an insulation wrap but using traditional construction techniques will probably yield a tighter house (especially if you use spray foam insulation) and you can get a regular crew to frame it for you. A super tight, well insulated house is the best way to be energy efficient – by tight I mean sealing up the envelope so that it doesn’t leak when your HVAC is on. Not a huge problem with coastal climate because HVAC doesn’t really run that often but you can’t beat a super insulated home.
thanks for posting