This is an amazing organization that I want to share with you all in hopes that you can help support what they do. You can see more about them on their website at www.paksbab.org, but to give you a general idea, they are a nonprofit organization that was created in response to the Kashmir earthquake of 2005. Much of Northern Pakistan was devastated by the earthquake and, just as we are seeing today in Haiti, Chile, and Turkey, appropriate and quality housing is the difference between life and death. To give you an idea of how important safe housing is, I recently heard that roughly 1 in 8 people in Haiti knew someone who had died as a result of the earthquake. That means that each living person in Haiti not only knows someone who died, but that someone in their family died. Counter that with the death toll in Chile where the housing is much better and more prepared for earthquakes and you’ll see that only 1 in 0.1 people know someone who died. That’s a shocking difference and it’s ALL because of the housing.

Please check out the video below to learn more about this amazing organization and how you can help stop needless deaths resulting from earthquakes.

Paksbab Video from ZWhit on Vimeo.

Of course, it’s more than just earthquakes. Weather, climate, and general housing quality has an affect on the people within the homes. This organization is helping to teach people how to build themselves amazing, beautiful, and efficient homes. This is a good thing!

This sounds like an amazing property with potential to be a horse property if one were so inclined. If you would like more information on the property, please write a comment here and I’ll forward it on to the agent. I’ll let the real estate agent tell you about it in her words.



This two story post and beam home with straw bale insulation was built in 1997. As the real estate agent who sold them the land I was invited to participate in the stucco party hosted by the owners. It is a day I will never forget. Now the owners are ready to give up their dream home to move closer to family. This home sits on 36.03 acres that is nice and level for horses, although they have not kept horses on the property.

They do have a 22 by 48 foot greenhouse with plenty of garden space that gets lots of sun. The house itself is 1752 square feet. On the main level is living room with wood burning stove, roomy kitchen and dining area. One bedroom, one full bath and mud/laundry room complete the main level. Upstairs is the master bedroom, 3rd bedroom and a two part bathroom with new shower and claw foot tub.

Outside the French doors is the patio with fireplace. The home area is surrounded by a straw bale fence. Adjacent to this property is another 35.89 acres with large barn and apartment.

Both properties are offered for $799,900, or separately at $350,000 for the barn and acreage and $499,999 for the straw bale home, greenhouse, garage and acreage. Here are some more pictures for you to check out.

Due to high demand, I’ve decided to open up the Montana workshop for a few more days of registration. The hosts said that they can handle a few more bodies on site, so we’ll accept a few more registrations in the coming days. This won’t last long as we only have room for a few more people. If you want to join us, sign up right away at www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com.

You can learn more about the workshop here.

Image from www.GreenHomeBuilding.com

I was recently asked what I thought the advantages of straw bale construction are over earthbag construction. I have not done very much earthbag construction, so my response was somewhat limited. I’d love to hear from folks who have experience with earthbag construction as to the advantages and disadvantages of the technology. All comments are welcome, as always.

I was sent an announcement today about this two suite, straw bale guest chalet rental in BC Canada. This is pretty interesting and looks like a beautiful area. I’ve been to the Okanagan Valley and it is pretty amazing; however, I don’t think Ive ever been to this location. There is tons to do in Okanagan if you like wine tasting, skiing and other outdoor activities. I like this concept because the straw bale building could potentially turn others onto this type of construction. When I first started building straw bale homes, I found that the best way to get someone who had never heard of the technique excited about it was to have them visit a bale house. There’s nothing like the feel of a straw bale building and so by letting them experience it first hand, they got an immediate sense of how amazing their own straw bale home could be. I think having people stay in one of the two chalet suites could help inspire them towards living a life surrounded by bales of their own!


So if you know anyone who might be interested in staying in the Okanagan area, on some 500 acres above Anarchist Mountain, please send them to this link so they can consider staying in a green suite rather than a typical house or hotel. It just may be the tipping point for their green living lifestyle change. Here’s the link: www.almightysummitestate.com

Just another cool detail: the property is run on solar power with back up generators (just in case) and the bathrooms have waterless composting toilets. The overall experience is that of a green lifestyle within the comforts of a beautiful home in a gorgeous part of the world. Please do support this type of business if you can. Their rates are also very reasonable in my opinion. Enjoy!

Here’s an interesting question I received today.  Actually, it’s not just the question, but the overall concept that I like.  I hope to hear more about this idea of multi-story load bearing structures in the future.  Perhaps you have some input to share…

Andrew,

Although you said that you could not have a 2 storey LB building  because of the wall thickness/height ratio – could it not be done with a box beam between the floors with a second beam beneath the roof. Surely this would then start the ratio again? From other straw bale builders I gather that the bales would support the weight and therefore with an interim box beam this has to give it sufficient strength?

Here’s what I said in response (with a little expansion):



I would see how this could work. It seems to make sense; however, the biggest issue I hear from engineers is that the overall weight of the walls is still transferred to the foundation in a direct load path and thus the wall height ratio cannot be started over. The middle box beam could ultimately become a hinge point for the wall if under large “out of plane” loads. In general it’s dangerous to have a lot of weight up high in a wall system or building because the tendency is for that wall to rack and/or tip over if under loads such as wind or earthquakes. That’s why in post and beam structures, and all conventional construction structures for that matter, there is a specific lateral bracing requirement that must be met as well as an “out of plane” resistance requirement. With so much weight in the walls there could be a risk of such a collapse.

The first workshop of the season to fill up is the Montana workshop.  It is now completely full.

Obviously it was a hot ticket as it filled up quickly, even though it doesn’t take place until May/June.  If you had wanted to join me there, you’ll need to consider signing up for a different location at this time.

Thanks for your interest and I hope to see you at a workshop this summer.  You can sign up here, and I recommend you do it soon as space is limited and slots are running out in all my workshops.

Hi everyone. I’ve just added a new feature to my www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com site that allows you to enter your email and receive advance notice updates about my workshops. Adding your name and email address into the update list also registers you for your chance to with a FREE SEVEN DAY WORKSHOP!

I’ll only send you updates directly related to straw bale workshops, so it’s a great way to stay in touch with the schedule. I’ll tell you about new workshops, added details about existing workshops, and changes to any currently scheduled workshops.

Wouldn’t it be cool to be among the first to know about the dates for the upcoming landscape wall workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico? Wouldn’t you want to know about the potential workshop on the Paiute Reservation in Bishop, California? Sign up for my workshop updates and you’ll get the new release information right as soon as it comes out! Remember, you can always sign up for my straw bale workshops by clicking here or you can learn all about them, including descriptions of the individual locations at www.StrawBaleWorkshops.com

I hope to see you at a workshop soon and remember to register today for your chance to win a FREE seven day workshop with me!

This is pretty cool: a solid core interior door made out of straw. With other straw products on the market for some time now, I’m happy to see that some of the larger, more mainstream companies are picking up the ball. I hope they run with it and run the right way. The new doors were officially announced on Masonite’s website in February.


Masonite has released two wheat straw door lines: Safe ‘N Sound and Safe ‘N Sound Emerald. The Emerald door is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and helps owners attain other certifications such as those considered under the USGBC Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards and the NAHB Green Home Building Guidelines. It is built without any added urea-formaldehyde. The standard Safe ‘N Sound door is less impressive with it’s Green attributes, but does at least have some merits in it’s use of a wheat straw base called DorCor, as well as the use of post-industrial recycled materials, and low formaldehyde emissions.

There is not any information, in terms of pictures and pricing, on the website yet about these doors. Because the announcement is still very young, I imagine the flow of these doors into retailers may be slow at first. I hope that the price is right on these doors, making them a good option for lots of people. Increased demand of such items will ultimately increase their production. How many of you remember when CD players first came out? They were expensive and pretty basic. Now look at what most CD players cost. In fact, the market is moving through and away from CD players as “something better” has come along. The point is, it was the demand for CD players that expanded the industry and ultimately created a new one. This is how I think the green movement needs to expand.

I’m hopeful that this product catches on and continues to advance the improvements of Green and healthy home construction for the masses, not just for those of us who are willing to look a little harder to find “the right stuff” to build with.

I recently wrote to someone who is trying to find an inexpensive way to build with bales. The intention is to wrap existing houses with bales in the cheapest way possible. There are no codes that need to be met on the reservation in question and a few dollars saved on each house could mean that one more home gets retrofitted each year. As it stands now, at least one person dies from the cold every year on this reservation. It’s time to stop that from happening.

Most of the work I do is on higher end homes and relates to teaching people the techniques I find applicable to most people. That said, I have outlined some ideas of how I think they could cut costs while still keeping the safety and integrity of the buildings. Please add your thoughts to mine in hopes that we can together find ways to help save lives and improve the quality of living for the people of this reservation, and hopefully beyond.


1. Use earth plasters harvested directly from the land on which the house sits if possible. Check out my blog for a description of how to check the soils for plaster ability.
2. Build rubble trench foundations. You can use free compacted rock, or free rip rap (old, waste concrete from other job sites which can often be delivered for free as it saves the people getting rid of it dump costs) in the trench and then sand bags filled with dirt and a little lime or cement for reinforcement should be placed on top of the trench and tamped/compacted to keep everything level. Place some fencing or other material under the top course of sand bags that will stretch up over the first half of the bale course. Tie this to the rest of the mesh you plan to use on the building in order to tie everything to the foundation or you can use bamboo on either side of the bales to tie things together. Tie through the bales to the bamboo on either side and then attach the fence to the bamboo with steel ties.
3. If you don’t attach the bales to the house directly in an attempt to make the changes a bit more temporary (as you mentioned in your email), don’t leave more than 1″ in between the two materials in order to maintain the insulation value. Dip the bales (back side against the gap) in clay slip to mitigate any fire risk.
4. Be sure to cover the top of the bales with a roof extension. Simply attaching another mini roof UNDER the existing roof overhang and draining it away from the bales with a 2′ or so overhang will suffice.