The Rural Voice, 2006-04, Page 29The walls are plastered with concrete preventing
keeping animals and insects out.
a home. What is most remarkable
about current innovations striving to
make homes more energy efficient is
the trend towards materials and
methods which have been around for
centuries. Straw -bale houses are a
particular case in point.
In the last couple of decades,
renegade builders have been playing
with alternate materials, primarily for
environmental reasons, and straw
bale has proved to be a favourite.
Variations of the construction
methods innovated over a century
ago have been standardised to meet
modern building codes: concrete is
used instead of mud; and straw is
now preferred over hay. In rural areas
where growing grain is the primary
use of land, bale construction makes
a lot of sense, but the trend has yet to
gain any real momentum.
there are two main types of
straw bale structures being
built in Canada today: post and
beam construction where bales make
up the mass of the walls; and
"Nebraska -style" walls, where bales
are compressed and pre -loaded
during construction to support the
roof without a wooden frame.
Although Nebraska structures have
found favour with some builders, it is
the former method which dominates
the field, and what Cathy and Martin
chose to build. With a framed
structure, building the roof
beforehand provides the bales and the
workers with shelter from the
elements.
Cathy and Martin caught the
any allergy problems and
straw -bale bug a few years ago when
they helped their friend and
contractor, Tony Willan, build his
"Nebraska -style" home. Tony had
been working in conventional house
construction for about five years, but
after building a straw bale home for
himself in Markdale, he created his
own company, Down to Earth
Homes, to build sustainable homes.
Cathy and Martin's home was his
first project as a general contractor.
Tony's father Jim was also on hand,
bringing his own expertise as a
builder to the project.
Construction of the house began
last spring while Martin was still
teaching, so Tony and Jim did most
of the preliminary work. Once he was
done with classes, Martin worked on
the house in one capacity or another
almost every day for the next seven
months — that is, when he wasn't
pre -occupied with caring for his two-
year-old son, Silas. As a busy
midwife in an area where homebirths
are the norm among Amish and
Mennonite households, Cathy was
only able to pitch in when she had
time off. Sp a rotating crew of
friends, family, volunteers and
professionals filled in whenever
necessary.
Martin and Cathy also made the
choice to use reclaimed, remaindered
or discontinued lines of building
materials whenever they could to
keep costs down. The main beams
supporting the second floor, for
example, are old telephone poles
purchased at a fraction of what new
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APRIL 2006 25