Sustainable and Energy Efficient Home Design With Straw Bale Building Techniques
Straw bale home construction providing homeowners with an opportunity to create beautiful and environmentally friendly homes from sustainable materials with maximum energy efficiency. Straw bale home design has become the latest trend in green home design, utilizing organic waste materials to craft strong, safe, and incredibly well insulated living spaces.
Straw bales for home design are fashioned from the straw that is left over after grains are removed from grain plants such as wheat and rye. These by-products are bundled together to form bales. When they are stacked together to form walls, the result is a structure that is extremely well insulated from sound and temperature extremes, with a continuous insulation rating ranging between R30 and R40. This results in a significant savings when it comes to heating and cooling the home.
The exterior of a finished straw bale home is covered in stucco, and the interior walls are plaster. Straw bale walls end up being up to two feet thick, and they are extraordinarily strong. They are actually more fire safe than traditional wood frame construction. If you’re interested in learning more about building your own straw bale home, contact Thorne Design & Build for more information.
