Shropshire couple John and Barbara Fletcher are among the thousands of people looking for their perfect house. They started looking into alternative accommodation after Mr Fletcher left his job as maintenance manager at a conference centre last year.
And after doing research on the internet they discovered a method of building warm, durable and eco-friendly housing for a fraction of the cost of a traditional build – by using straw bales as their primary building material.
Low-Cost Living
“We’d been living in our caravan since March 2008, but with the nights getting colder you want something more substantial around you. A straw house – a super-insulated house – seemed like a good idea,” John Fletcher said.
“It’s making use of a waste product and it’s actually carbon negative because you lock up more carbon in the house than you create building it. And its heating costs are about 25% of a normal house, if that.”
And former teacher, Barbara Fletcher, 55, said the costs of building the house are also very attractive in the current economic climate. “You can put up a house for about £60,000," she said. "But it’s very difficult to find a piece of land."
A Traditional House
To help get his project started, John Fletcher, 54, attended a course at Ralegh’s Cross, in Devon, UK, during the autumn of 2008 to learn how to build his straw house. During the week-long course, he learned how to put straw bales together, choose the right size bales, and how to cut them to fit the design of the house.
“We’re aiming to build a traditional-looking house,” he said. “We don’t want people to think that it’s going to look like something from the Three Little Pigs. Once it’s rendered there won’t be any clues that it’s made of anything unusual, although it’s traditional to put in a small truth window in one of the walls so you can see the straw underneath.”
Long-lasting Designs
Another attractive feature of straw bale building is the longevity of the finished structure. Once it is up the Fletchers' house could stand for hundreds of years. The technique dates back to the early 20th century in the midwestern United States, particularly in the sand-hills of Nebraska, USA, where many straw buildings are now more than 100 years old and still standing firm.
A Healthy Option
Another attractive feature of straw bale building is its quality as a breathable material. "It's very good for people with allergies because it breathes so well," John Fletcher said. "You don't get dust or stale air because the straw allows air in."
When finished with breathable plasters and renders, the home can self-regulate its humidity levels to provide a healthy, pleasant living environment free from dampness and condensation.
