Straw Bale House Walls! | Part 1

We are finally ready to add straw bales in our house! In the few hours that we have remaining of daylight hours after work, we started putting bales into our garage wall! It has been such a miraculous feeling that we are actually to this point and getting to SEE our dreams become reality. We spent one evening adding a few bales into our wall, then another night hauling a load of bales from a friend of ours nearby farm (organic flax field), and finishing up the wall the next evening. We are all very excited to keep on going with insulating our walls!
#Strawbalehouse #passivesolar #DIY

[@claretorola4207]

I love seeing your helpers get involved too 🥰 they’ll be so happy to tell stories for many years, how they got to help build their own straw bale house!

[@eveadame1059]

💞 I love that they included their children. What a wonderful way to example to their children, that they can accomplish anything with teamwork

[@bobjackson3307]

Wow, That was Amazing. My Wife and I are thinking of making a Straw home as well. Super Job, looked like the kids were even having a Super time working on the house. Not many kids can tell all thier friends, "I built my own home". Can't waite to see how this adventure turned out. Thanks for sharing the video with the world. Bob Jackson, Papillion Nebraska

[@normanmerrill1241]

Great job…great crew…lovely family…stay safe and sound…

[@buildingroots5873]

Thank you! You too!

[@lucianoruiz6311]

Es una maravillosa obra un encanto vivir en una casa debe quedar muy cálida Saludos desde Tierras Lejanas

[@nicodemusford2729]

Great video! Really appreciate the details of this process and details involved. Beautiful family too!

[@buildingroots5873]

Thanks so much!

[@carrythetorch33]

I just finished my strawbale house. Took 2 years to complete. We had the same issue with our wall/bale width. We ended up using angle grinders with chainsaw discs to shave down the walls.

[@rogerdavies6226]

the Canadian equivalent of America's Underwriter's Laboratory tested the fire safety of straw bale building and fount it was actually more safe than conventional buildings. Even so no sense causing problems

[@j-ch8787]

In Tirol austria they made a high building (11 floors high in Innsbrück 15 years ago) and they submitted it to all troubles a building could have (earthquake simulated... Fire... Waterfallls etc... etc) then as it was, a full success, they encouraged all the province of Tirol to built with straw bales and wooden beams. And edited a "technical norms" which are the rules... Yu HAVE to respect to build such structure. Yu know those guys are very serious one.. If they discovered ANY trouble with straw bales construction they will forbide it and certainly won t encourage it. In france as usual we are late.. On bioclimatic conception. Fuckin' so called "environmentalist ministers"... Still on "sustainable dvt" line... Lobbyists... That s what they are.! Usual bullshits...

[@bondpaz]

We’re making our home in February and it will be straw. This is awesome! ❤️

[@buildingroots5873]

best of luck to you! if you have any questions, we would be happy to help. Have you checked out "The Upside to Downsizing" KZbin channel?

[@bondpaz]

@@buildingroots5873 They’re our neighbors. 😃❤️ I’ve seen it in person. They moved here just after us. We travel a lot so we are a little behind schedule. Thanks 🙏❤️

[@buildingroots5873]

@@bondpaz haha thats awesome!

[@ericwilson8848]

Had to revisit this as I had a foundation.a crawl space but I'm having trouble with that so might just do another foundation around perimeter

[@johndon74]

thanks for this great video. my wife and I are looking to do similar in qld Australia. great inspiration and helpful info.

[@buildingroots5873]

Absolutely, glad you found it helpful! Let me know if you have any questions, or need an extra hand when it comes time for your build - I have always wanted to visit Australia! Question, Is Australia really going through such hard times like we are lead to believe in the US?

[@jennetichi9551]

oh my goodness! I guess that is one way to get it done! Not sure how it could get squash in there otherwise. Great job , you are making so much progress!!

[@buildingroots5873]

thank you!

[@richardhoner7842]

Nice work!! When we built our straw bale house I asked the farmer that supplied the bales to make then exactly 36" so that I could get the studs (3"x6") that far apart. I also ordered my windows for that distance so no need for extra studs or headers. I don't remember notching any bales to get around studs or braces. As with any house, good planning can save time and $$$.

[@suchoi61]

Super Family 🤗 greetings from switzerland daniel

[@buildingroots5873]

hello!

[@j-ch8787]

Best way of building a house. Take cautions but there s no challenge with ANY other technics and materials compared with straw bales and wooden beams. Only trouble : lack of inertie of the structure. So yu must plan to build thick partition walls inside and if possible a massive stove covered of colored ceramic tiles right in the liddle of the house... It will compensate the lack of inertie during winter as summer.

[@tommyknockerparanormalinc]

If you had turned the bails on their side, it would have been more narrow, and then they cover higher up the wall. Great job, can't wait to do this with my greenhouse. Come on spring1

[@buildingroots5873]

yes but we wanted it to be laid the way we did it.

[@tommyknockerparanormalinc]

@@buildingroots5873 Ya, its a little thicker the way you did it.

[@hinterlanderswellness]

Awesome! Thanks for showing the process. Is that a monolithic slab foundation? It looks like you're somewhere with a winter season.. Are you happy with the monolith?

[@buildingroots5873]

Yes we live in North Dakota where the winter season likes to last up to 7 months out of the year. It is not a monolithic slab, so I can't speak on that.

[@shawnbrooks1004]

I am coming late to the party, and this comment will come late for this project. I suggest to any future builders watching this to vertically stake the bales together in addition to the squash plates. This will help "lock" the tiered bales (horizontal layers) to each other, creating a stronger wall. This helps mitigate potential cracking of the plastered coats by minimizing lateral movement and potential shifting of the bales in high winds, especially in areas prone to severe winds and to structures this large. Just my opinion.

[@buildingroots5873]

Thanks for watching! how would you recommend to stake them vertically?

[@shawnbrooks1004]

@buildingroots5873 Full transparency, I have not built a straw bale, although it's on my to-do list, but I've been studying them for many years. The vertical staking that makes the most sense to me is bamboo. Cut on the diagonal and drive it through the bales. I've also seen it done with rebar, but I don't like the idea of using metal due to moisture. Bale walls breathe, so even a small amount of moisture over many, many years will eventually corrode and/or rust, and that would defeat the purpose of the stakes. Bamboo is naturally rot resistant and will breathe also, so it will "shed" moisture. I reiterate, this is my opinion.

[@buildingroots5873]

that sounds like a great idea! All i knew of at the time was using rebar and i didn't like that idea either. I'm unsure how well the metal wire mesh we used will do as far as corroding, but I didn't know of any other option at the time. Another commenter mentioned using composite mesh.

[@markuspoe7499]

always wonder why or for what reason anyone would thumb down something like this , family workin together ,,, must be jealousy .

[@valeriebarbeau2468]

Just turn you bales over to the narrower side. Should have used rebarb in the cement

[@buildingroots5873]

we did not want the strings facing the inside and out for weed wacking reasons. We did not go with the rebar being we went the infill route. Heres an article that we followed: www.strawbale.com/rebar_cons/

[@joseelmarijuano8794]

interesting

[@fergus..]

Great video, new subscriber here. What is the name of that tool used to push the rope through the bale?

[@buildingroots5873]

baling needle!

[@The.Ghost.of.Tom.Joad.]

Great video. I'm thinking about building my own house using straw bales. This makes it look cool: a lot of work, but fun. But a question from a Monday morning quarterback: Wouldn't it have been easier to run the bales outside the post and beam frame? Fewer notches to cut out and less work.

[@buildingroots5873]

thank.you.. I am not sure how that would work. maybe load bearing straw bale walls is something to look into for an alternative to nothing around posts, for us that was easy compared to all the detailing around windows/door.

[@richardhoner7842]

Or put the bales between the studs and fill in any gaps.

[@botanicalventures]

On your bottom plate above the concrete I don’t see any kind of moisture barrier do you know if it the bottom plate will get moist in contact with the concrete or wick moisture into the bale ?

[@buildingroots5873]

great question. i regret not adding one, we had meant to but spaced it out when we were working. i would highly recommend one!

[@vernonvest9927]

Can you share the cost per bail.Also how many plans did you look at before building.

[@buildingroots5873]

we didn't pay for the bales, we were doing a favor by taking the flax straw off the land because they would have had to do it either way. but generally a straw bale around here is $3/bale, sometimes $4. We didn't look at any plans, this is a plan I drew up on my own. thanks for watching!

[@cristianbollert902]

Hi, I love what you guys do. Could you send me the first video of all? either that is, when they make the foundations .. greetings from Argentina

[@buildingroots5873]

thank you. There are a few different videos on the foundation. Click on 'Building Roots' and scroll through either the videos section or the playlist to look towards the beginning of the videos.

[@bob_frazier]

I've seen some ultra compressed straw bales at our feed store. Wonder if the would be better, or maybe worse, don't know. Yours look pretty standard. Could you have set the baler way tight? Three wire straw bales???

[@outinthesticks1035]

I do not think the r-value would be any different , a neighbor used to make the compressed bale's for shipment to japan . You make ordinary bale's , then compress each one and retie it so they would be a extra step and one more machine

[@buildingroots5873]

Im not sure on that one either. Strings are the way to go vs wire as far as building a house with. Yes, Our bales are standard and the strings are tight.

[@damienkendrick1457]

Great idea how many years will it last?

[@buildingroots5873]

should last 100+ years!

[@johnfitbyfaithnet]

I don't understand the benefit of the straw if you still need all the wood?

[@buildingroots5873]

Some do a load bearing style strawbale house where there is little wood needed. Bit this style still uses much less than a traditional framed home. Thicker walls, ascetic, higher r-value, etc are all perks of straw bale homes.

[@mute7116]

What's your winter's like?

[@buildingroots5873]

6-8months of winter. usually we have a spell of 2-3 weeks where cold weather with wind chills are -35 to -60 in January/feb. overall average temps are below freezing theoughout the whole winter.

[@mute7116]

@@buildingroots5873 oh wow...thnx was just wondering cuz I've been toying with what you're doing. We have winter here in the mtns of NE Oregon...haven't found any winter proven hay cobb home videos yet...thnx for your time. I'll be watching.

[@gary24752]

What kind of straw is that? Looks more like hay.

[@buildingroots5873]

flax straw, it was still green unfortunately

[@RVBadlands2015]

Did you have to get permits and engineering.

[@buildingroots5873]

no but we had an engineer friend check out our plans and he gave us recommendations.

[@j-ch8787]

@@buildingroots5873 In fact... The only pb is the wooden structure.. Straw bales are just "filling" and "insolating" " system. The main pb often people forget to pay attention is the lack of inertie of such a construction system. If yu have enough partition and distributive massive walls.. A big massive stove covered of colored ceramic tiles (such as Tirolian stove) ... Right in the middle of the building... It s perfect. It will compensate the lack of inertie.

[@buttvader]

Great housing for rodents and bugs. Well thought out plan.