COCHRANE, Alta. – The walls of Keith and Kim Rowe’s straw house are slowly going up.
When the Edmonton couple decided to build an energy efficient house using straw for insulation, they were introduced to a whole new technology that was far more complicated than the tale of the industrious pigs.
They originally talked about having a log house on an acreage, but when they learned about straw homes they decided to pursue that instead.
The research into how to build such a house, what kind of straw to use, how to design an energy efficient home and anticipated costs has been ongoing for close to eight years.
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“We’ve probably been working on this seriously for a year,” said Kim.
The home located north of Cochrane will ultimately be a 2,800-sq.-foot guest home called The Three Little Pigs Bed and Breakfast.
While the costs keep mounting, Kim calculates the final price tag at about $150,000. They want to move into the house by Thanksgiving and plan to welcome guests in 1999.
A straw house uses wheat, barley, rice or flax straw for insulation. The walls are 45 centimetres thick. The outside and inside walls are textured stucco, which encases the straw and makes it fireproof.
Wiring and plumbing on exterior walls can be run through the bales, which are stacked like bricks and secured with bamboo poles.
They have two small basements, which will hold tanks for composting toilets.
The design of the house required 1,100 condensed square flax bales at a cost of $1 each. They chose flax because it is the most durable straw available. However, the bales must be aged because flax dries out and shrinks. Hay isn’t used because there could be problems with spontaneous combustion and it attracts mice.
Vermin and insects enclosed in the walls suffocate because the bales are tightly compressed.
The estimated insulation value of straw is about R-30. The windows will be triple glazed.
Additional heating will come from in-floor heating and from a masonry fireplace set in the middle of the living room and dining room. There are also tall windows on the south side of the house to capture passive solar heat in winter.
In addition to using straw bales, they obtained Douglas fir beams from a demolished grain elevator. Used on the inside of the house, the timbers support the first storey of the home.
Coverage for these homes is new for the insurance industry and builders have to shop around for the best deals. Some are insured as log homes, which adds an additional 25 percent to the premium.
“That isn’t really fair because a log home has many problems like fire that this wouldn’t have. This house is more fire resistant than a traditional home,” said Kim.
Brian Wickhorst, who is helping the Rowes build their home, has a straw house south of High River, Alta. He owns a company called Harvest Homes that builds environmentally friendly houses.
“I’ve always had a passion for straw bales. I thought 20 years ago it would be a neat thing to make a house out of,” said Wickhorst.
His house is built using square bales of wheat straw. He moved into the 2,600-sq.-foot ranch style home last November. It uses solar heating and generates its own power.
There are about six straw houses in Alberta and more in British Columbia. Wickhorst said builders make changes on every house that is built because they have learned more about which technologies work better.
Last year, 500 permits were issued in Canada for straw bale houses and 2,000 in the United States.
