Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Straw Building Material

[Eric Hart (harte]

I am familiar with the straw building panels that were mentioned.  These 
panels require no adhesives or resins, the straw is heated and 
compressed to a certain point where the lignin in the straw melts and 
acts as a binder.  The Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis 
(where I am an Intern) recently did a report on these companies of which 
there are many and more coming all the time.  Its a short report but has 
lots of useful information in it.  I can give the ordering information to 
anyone who is interested.  
        Some of these companies are interested in only making whole house 
systems where a crew comes to your site with all the panels for a house 
and puts it up with a crane.  To be structural, these panels have to be 
faced with Oriented Strand Board (a kind of particle board).  They have 
very good acoustic properties and I would suggest them for interior 
applications, especially between units.  I believe they have a very high 
fire rating (higher than standard gypsum board).  They aren't much 
thicker than a standard wall and you just put them up, no steel or wood 
studs for drywall to attach to.  I don't know all the details of how you 
install the interior panels but I am almost positive its less labor 
intensive than drywall.  If your group is thinking about 
incorporating environmental aspects into your building design and 
construction I would recommend these panels.  I believe they are code 
approved and tested so you don't run into those problems.

Eric Hart
Minneapolis, MN