Dear Scott Mavers,

It is a house building technology known for thousands of years. Currently, there is a renewed interest in this technology of building houses as one of the alternatives for the construction of zero-energy houses, fully energy-autonomous and based on organic and renewable resources. Therefore, it is one of the alternatives to sustainable, pro-ecological construction, which can be an important element in implementing the principles of sustainable development, social environmental (ecological) responsibility, and pro-ecological reforms in implementing eco-innovations in the construction sector.

Best regards,

Happy New Year 2021

Dariusz Prokopowicz

none, unless someone wants to live in such a building for a short time

Dear Scott,

 Straw bale walls are very well insulated, when built correctly can have an R-value between 40 and 60, depending on the thickness of the wall

Straw bale homes are more fire retardant than traditional stick-framed homes.

Stacking bales can be incredibly fast and easy.

Straw houses will save you money, year after year.

Straw bale walls are gorgeous.

Straw bales are an agricultural by-product (wheat, oats, rye, barley, and rice),

Working with Straw is fun, but often becomes a skin irritant.

The NBS is an excellent research source, like the BRE (Building Research Establishment), and have much information on straw bale construction, which is a traditional, and modernised, form of sustainable construction. This is one website. Do click on all the links within:

https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/guide-to-straw-bale-construction.

Another source is from someone called Emma as a sort of architectural student guide, which is quite clear, with some standard advantages and disadvantages. She does not specifically mention nominally vermin, rats and mice and so on (nominally, because in my opinion creatures are awaiting non stigmatisation: just my own personal view), but with good design and construction methods the problems can be obviated:

https://www.firstinarchitecture.co.uk/straw-bale-construction.

An ecological view touching on recycling, carbon issues, fire and damp and associated sustainable wall finishes of clay and lime plaster can be found here:

https://theecologist.org/2012/apr/20/are-straw-bales-future-sustainable-building.

Future Build in Excel, London, though at the moment converted to a Nightingale hospital and currently postponed until 2022, could be a potential source and worth a visit when it next opens, also past exhibitors in its previous incarnation as EcoBuild could be worth a trawl online.

Best of luck and Happy new Year

Dear Scott Mavers, I fully agree with Grant Gover's comprehensive answer. However, I would emphasize that the house built with straw bale are also intrinsically anti-seismic and, on the other hand, not very suitable for areas subject to tornadoes, cyclones, etc..

Happy New Year 2021

• They use a fast growing and renewable agricultural byproduct that is otherwise wasted.
• They contain fewer toxins than conventional materials.
• They have a high insulation factor that lowers the cost of heating and cooling.

Using the lical building material

Goid centilstion

Easy can oe shaped

The only point you shiuld take care to make it strong and against rain and wind

In straw construction, a distinction is typically made between two different construction methods: on the one hand, the timber-frame construction method, in which straw is only used for insulation, and on the other hand, the load-bearing straw-bale construction method ("Nebraska style").

Both methods combine the advantages already mentioned above:

- renewable, sustainable raw materials

- agricultural by-product

- regionally available

- good thermal insulation properties

- good indoor climate

- good fire protection properties if sufficiently compacted (!!)

- durable if used correctly

If straw bales are sufficiently compacted, they are also capable of carrying large loads. In load-bearing straw bale construction, there is no need for additional load-bearing structures in the walls (e.g. made of timber, steel, masonry). Load-bearing mechanisms and thermal insulation are therefore provided by only one building material.