Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: The Real Con - a response (long)

[Strawnet (Strawnet]

What follows is a rather long - probably too long - response to the questions
raised by Harry Pasternak about straw bale construction.  Harry's questions
are valid, and I don't suggest that no one has ever overstated the potential
advantages, or understated the potential problems of straw bale construction.
 I do find myself strongly resenting the implication of some type of a con
job.  Some of us have spent years researching, testing, building and
documenting straw bale construction in what I consider a serious and
responsible way.  We don't take lightly the responsibility of accurately and
fairly representing and developing this building system.  For those of us who
are intimately familiar with the method, its history, development and
understand the magnitude of its potential, it is as disturbing to see someone
carelessly or intentionally call this work a con as to carelessly or
intentionally make false claims about a building system.

I also want to say that some of us have tried to keep straw bale construction
from becoming a religion.  My focus is on appropriate technology.  That means
a lot more than hardware.  And it means that I habitually look for Some
people get very enthusiastic about something that works and sometimes true
believers in anything can't see the downside or any other point of view. This
is true sometimes for true disbelievers.  I have spent nearly twenty years in
construction and built with a very wide range of building systems and
materials.  From very low tech (mud adobe) to very high tech (the spaceframe
and glazing systems of Biosphere 2).  Tiny projects to a $2 million
structural concrete house.  And I've focused much of my attention for the
past three years on straw bale construction because it makes great sense and
has great potential to lower the negative impacts of building and make decent
housing accessible to more people.  I am not alone in this perception.  There
are architects, structural engineers, very good and experienced builders, and
lots of other aware and awake people who see this too.  Not that there won't
be plenty of people who do foolish things with straw bales as with everything
else.

There are also many things that we don't yet know about straw bale
construction.  There are research and testing projects being carried out to
find some of the answers and there is much more to be done.  To some degree,
that can be said of every type of building system.  Every time there is a big
hurricane or earthquake, building systems that were considered safe and
thought to be well understood fail.  The new building codes have all lowered
the structural values of lumber, because modern forestry practices result in
lower quality wood.  Building codes are best guesses.  They aren't
endorsements of products or guarantees of fail-safe construction.  And they
are driven often by the manufacturing and material supply industries which
have the most to gain from more intensive use of their materials.  

However, those of us who have spent time in lots of old and new straw bale
houses know something about these buildings.  If you could spend time in some
of the old biuldings you would probably share more of my conviction that this
is a very viable and intelligent way to build.  

I suggest that if you want a good source of reliable and up to date
information about straw bale construction, the good and the bad, technical,
social, economic, political, humorous and every other aspect covered well,
read The Last Straw, a quarterly journal published by Out On Bale in Tucson,
AZ.  

Harry wrote:
>So before people are sent off to build permanent straw bale homes and common
>buildings, I believe that they should know at least the following:

>* Tested R Value of Straw Bales:
>- Can you give me the name of the accredited laboratory (for testing
>insulation) that tested the "R" value of a fresh straw bale and an aged
straw
>bale ?

As far as testing the R-value of an aged straw bale, I am quite sure that
that has not been done.  I wonder what the point of this question is, though?
 Straw bales will not settle like blown-in cellulose insulation, or like
fiberglass insulation does in attic spaces.  So what is the significance of
old versus new bales?  I have been in the oldest known straw bale house,
built in 1903 outside of Alliance, Nebraska.  It was built from baled meadow
hay and I have a sample of the hay, pulled from the walls last summer.  This
house was abandoned in 1956 and still stands with no apparent damage to the
hay after 92 years.  It is load-bearing and though the roof is going and the
doors and windows are all broken or gone, is not in danger of falling down in
the foreseeable future.  I can assure you that in the life of this building
the temperature has been well below zero many many times.  I realize that
only 53 years of the 92 were occupied so if you want to argue that the issues
of vapor pressure, moisture from occupancy, etc. were absent for the last 39
years, I will concede the point.  (How many of the houses being built today
will last 53 years let alone 92?). And lest you think that there was no
kitchen or bathroom in this building, it has both although I can't say for
certain when the bathroom was put in.

As far as a credible lab for testing the R-value of bales (new ones) how
about Sandia National Lab in New Mexico, if you aren't satisfied with Joe
McCabe's University of Arizona masters thesis which is posted on the CREST
web page.  The test results are available from the Straw Bale Construction
Association in Santa Fe, NM or Out On Bale in Tucson, AZ.

>- It is approved by any Code authority in North America?

On Friday I will be in what will possibly be the final meeting of the
subcommittee of the joint City of Tucson/Pima County, Arizona Building Codes
Committee.  We will be finishing the draft of the prescriptive code for both
load-bearing and non-load-bearing straw bale construction.  This will
probably be adopted either in July 95, or in January 96 (based on a
city/county agreement about when code adoptions can be done).

In addition, I posted a letter on the straw bale mail list written by William
E. Schlecht, President and Chairman of the Board of the World Organization of
Building Officials, former Chief Building Official of Pasadena, CA, and
former Chairman of the Board of the ICBO (they write the Uniform Building
Code) and the Council of American Building Officials (CABO).  He endorsed
both the concept of straw bale construction and the draft code, and stated
that he has designed a straw bale house for himself and his wife, which he
hopes to have the opportunity to buld soon.    

One final note on this subject is that there is not a portland cement
industry, lumber industry, steel industry, etc. with a centralized coherent
financial incentive to invest the several hundred thousand dollars required
to go through the standard certified lab testing process for this building
system.  No one is going to make a fortune from straw bale construction.  So
the research and testing is being carried out in whatever creative ways we
can find to do it.  We are doing pretty well in this regard but there is a
lot to do and vry limited resources to do it.

>- Can you get a mortgage?

Of course you can get a mortgage for a straw bale house.  The better question
is how difficult is it? Lots of people have gotten mortgages for their straw
bale houses.  Insurance too.  Many have been able to build straw bale houses
themselves without mortgages, and I'm not talking about rich people either.
 It sometimes takes some time and effort to find a willing lender or
insurance company.  Eric Black, a wholesale mortgage broker in Flagstaff, AZ
is working on a book on the subject of financing alternative construction
homes and straw bale in particular.  He says it is getting easier to get
mortgages for them.  Lots of people in Northern New Mexico are getting
mortgages and insurance easily there.  Building permits are issued routinely
there as well.

* Cost of Strawbale Construction Versus Conventional:
- Can you give the name of one quantity surveyor (or cost engineer) that has
done a cost analysis (both labor and materials) of a dozen or so strawbale
house with that of a conventional built homes, the same style/size etc. ?
 - Can I get a copy of the report?

No.  Again I am quite sure that no one has done this.  But once again, this
continuous focus on first cost and the issue of what it is you are comparing
is more important.  Name one other affordable superinsulated wall system.  I,
and many others have spent a lot of time, with mixed success, talking about
the fact that contractor built straw bale houses are comparable in cost to
conventional construction.  BUT, you have something very different in the
energy costs over the life of the building as well as the aesthetics and
potential lower environmental impacts.

Think about this: there have not been any production straw bale houses built
to date.  Virtually every one has been a custom house and the costs are
comparable to conventional construction when contractor built.  This is also
an unoptimized building system when compared to wood or metal frame, masonry,
earthen, etc.  So, what will happen to the costs when the building systems
for straw bale are fully developed?  This is a rapid and ongoing process.

>* Finishes and Skills For The Do It Yourself:
>- Is it just as easy to plaster and stucco for a beginner as it is to learn
>how to do drywall ?

Maybe yes, maybe no.  Who says you can't use drywall in a straw bale house?
 What I have seen is people with no building experience, find the courage to
build with straw bales because it is more forgiving and less intimidating
than conventional building methods.  I have seen some beautiful and some less
than beautiful stucco jobs done by people who never imagined they could build
their own houses.  Is this totally rational?  Is is for everyone?  Absolutely
not.  Does it solve every problem?  Of course not.  Can people learn to do a
decent plaster or stucco job, as easily as a decent drywall job?  Maybe.  Can
they learn to do it? Yes.  Is a plaster finish better than a drywall one?  I
know my choice.  How about on the exterior?  Is it T-111 siding vs stucco?
 Do people love their straw bale houses.  I haven't found anyone yet who
doesn't, but surely there will be some.  And there will be some disasters as
there are with every building system.  You cannot guarantee that people will
use good sense when they make their design and construction decisions.  But
I've seen hundreds of conventional construction disasters in terms of
structural and safety and health hazards.  Does that mean no one should use
these conventional systems?

>- Is it just as easy to build post and beam for beginners as it is to do
>stick framing?

This assumes that post and beam is the only way to build a straw bale house.
 There are some very interesting alternatives to load-bearing and post and
beam - being developed.  And post and beam doesn't necessarily mean timber
frame.  Many people use Simpson-type framing connectors to basically bolt
together a post and beam structure.  This is not rocket science.  And what if
you have to hire a carpenter to help or teach you how to do it? Some added
cost but not the end of the world and you end up with the skill developed.
 No different than any other way to build.

>*Environmental Issues:
>- How many tons of pesticides and herbicides are used in the agricultural
>system that finally produces the straw?

This is a good question.  We hope to do research into this.  However, straw
comes from cereal grain crops which are rarely sprayed anywhere near the time
of harvest.  None the less, this is a valid question and one that has led
some people to seek out organic straw where available.  I've not heard of
anyone getting sick from their bales, but it could happen.  We of course all
know that there are lots of toxic chemicals in standard building materials.


>- How much production does it take to pay for the tractors at $75,000 a pop?
>- How many water diversion schemes (and at what $ cost and environmetal
>costs) does it take to get water to the farm fields?

There are many questions related to the sustainability of agriculture that
can and should be asked.  Straw exists not as a crop grown only to bale and
make houses out of, but rather as a by product or waste product of grain
production.  That casts a rather different light on issues of equipment
costs, embodied energy, harvesting costs, water use, land use, etc.  While
these are very important and significant issues, it is really unfair to
single out straw bale construction as the focal point of the sustainability
of our agricultural systems.


>- What's the cost (both $ and ecological) of the fertilizer to replace the
>lost nutrients?

Straw actually doesn't contain much usable nutrient value for soil and in
fact in most cases, if it is plowed back in, it causes soil problems such as
excess fungal growth and encourages various plant diseases.  Harvesting straw
is not usually detrimental to the soil.  Straw when added as mulch to your
garden or compost pile requires an additional source of nitrogen because it
will use nitrogen from the soil as it breaks down.  As in all cases,
sustainable farming practices should be followed.  But do we demand that when
we buy cereal at the store, or paper, or meat?  

>- What's the planetary cost of cutting our forests and turning the space
into
>agricultural uses.?

Exactly the same as cutting the forests to build stick or timber framed
houses, make paper and cardboard, oriented strand board, telephone poles or
to use to grow any other agricultural product.  Again, straw is a waste
product, not a crop.  

In reality, these things are all compromises and we need to make intelligent
and informed choices.  Many of our assumptions about housing are not based on
rational thoughts or sustainable practices.  Let's just have a level playing
field when we discuss these things.

One thing I can say with certainty:  we cannot sustain our current ways of
building houses, using land, growing crops, using natural resources.  Those
of us who are working to find lower impact alternatives have enough to do in
trying to overcome the perverse incentives to make poor decisions that exist
in building codes, mortgage practices, land ownership factors,
externalization of costs, etc.  I'd like to hope that those of us who are
informed enough to be seeking better ways to build community, and give
ourselves and our kids a better chance to live on a healthy planet, would be
careful where we toss our stones.

David Eisenberg
President
Development Center for Appropriate Technology
PO Box 41144
Tucson, AZ 85717