“We simply love our straw bale home that did not cost the earth, literally, we used recycled materials from the foundations up,” says John Glassford, of Huff ‘n’ Puff Constructions. “We can say that we have used 80-85% recycled materials – mainly from left-over materials from old homesteads that we pulled down for our clients, before we started building in straw bales. Windows, doors, roofing and even timber for piers,
bearers and joists.”
John, who holds the only contractor’s licence in Australia issued for the construction of straw bale walls, is the founder of AUSBALE and it’s Charter President.
He and wife Susan say they do not merely ‘talk the talk’ of promoting strawbale house as a viable alternative to conventional construction – they also ‘walk the walk’.
“We live in 6 straw bale pavilions or pods, all reasonably small but all effective in the functions that they provide us for comfortable sustainable living.” he says. They have used rubble trenches, rubber tyre footings and earthen floors in their NSW home – reducing concrete in the floors saves significant amount of energy as well as cost.
Straw bale building requires less skill and is less labour intensive than using conventional building materials. It is forgiving and behoves individual creativity. Building with straw bales relaxes the whole construction process and allows inexperienced and unskilled people the opportunity to become directly involved in creating their own homes.
John holds five-day workshops around the country, teaching people how to build their own straw bale homes. “Everyone in the family can become involved in the construction,” he says. Another major benefit of using straw bale construction is super insulation. Insulation is measured by R-value, the resistance to heat flow. Research in Arizona found both wheat and rice straw to have an R-value of 0.5 per inch across the grain, giving straw bales an R-value from R6 to R9, almost 4 times the insulation factor of a double-brick cavity wall.
So straw bale walls:
• dramatically increase the efficiency of a solar-passive construction, and can reduce the need for any heating and cooling equipment.
• because of their increased insulation, they allow installation of heating or cooling systems much smaller than those in conventional homes
• provide substantial savings in gas, electricity and wood-fuel bills
• are 30 times less energy-intensive than wood-frame walls to manufacture. Straw can be grown in less than half a year in a completely sustainable production system.
This is in contrast to timber which can take up to 25 years or more to produce a timber frame for a house.
• are bush fire resistant up to 40 BAL ability
• are termite resistant
• are sound proof
• can support the roof i.e. be load bearing
• can be built for a very low cost!
Susan and John will be in Western Australia this April to hold a 5-day workshop at the property of Suzanne Woods in Calingiri. If you are interested check out the website at www.glassford.com.au or contact them by phone on 02 6927 6027 or mob 0412 11 61 57 or by email: jacksflat@gmail.com
Their straw bale complex recently featured on Better Homes and Gardens and this video can be seen on the Huff ‘n’Puff Constructions web site.
