Beginnings
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​Straw Bales were first used as a construction material in the Sandhills of Western Nebraska at the turn of the 20th Century.  The ecosystem of this landscape is one largely devoid of trees, making lumber a valuable and rare building commodity.  Those settlers colonizing the area made use of the resources around them to build shelter and began to stack straw and hay bales into walls.  Hay has since largely been rejected by bale builders of the modern era, with its abundant seed content and woody dense stems, but a few of the first homes were built this way.  Cereal grains of Rice, Wheat, Flax, Oats and other hollow stalked insulating plant stems are not only preferred by natural builders today but are code approved materials in the IRC.
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​As the saying goes, "Hay is for horses, Straw is for houses!"

Pilgrims Holiness Church in Arthur Nebraska. Constructed in 1928

Steve Kemble of MudStrawLove adjusts a bale wall with a 'persuader'

Functionality
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Strawbale walls invoke a beautiful thermal performance.  The straw fibers create a naturally insulative material that, when compressed into a bale, makes an ideal building medium .  Bale walls are quick to stack and are capable of reflecting both heat and cold.  Coupled with thermal mass on the interior, such as a dense 3-4" thick earthen plaster, a bale home can maintain healthy indoor temperatures with ease.  The insulation on the exterior of such walls buffers from extremes in outdoor weather, while the dense plaster indoors creates a thermal battery that resists temperature fluctuations.  Straw walls need to be able to breathe, this prevents moisture in the form of vapor from building up and potentially causing rot.  This is done by plastering with an approved system, sometimes local clay soil amended with aggregates and fibers.  Other times a lime, gypsum or even a concrete stucco is used.  If the system uses portland cement, the ratio is diluted by cutting with lime to increase vapor permeability.  The gas exchange that the walls provide also helps cleanse the air and leads to a healthy year-round humidity level for the building.

Environmental Considerations
Choosing to build your structure with bales not only offers benefits to the environmental health of the planet but also to the health of the occupants.   Chris Magwood of the Endeavour Center has empirical data that shows under the correct circumstances, a strawbale home can sequester more carbon than is expelled during its construction.  The construction of a building is, of course, just the beginning of its environmental footprint.  The utility usage of a structure is a key component in energy usage and straw bale buildings use substantially less than their counter parts, often decreasing the need for fossil fuel inputs.  Passive heating and cooling strategies can be made by aligning windows and roof overhangs with the sun and by substituting thermal mass and insulation in the most appropriate settings.  In addition to the environmental gains, the health of the occupant is largely increased by the controlled humidity and temperature levels which inhibit mold and dust.  Bale walls are also demonstrating resilience in wildfire scenarios and wiggle through earthquake simulations better than most engineered systems.  The consensus on these facts has led to the adoption of an International Building Code by the IBC code council.  In 2015, the IRC code made it easier than ever for those interested in bale building to secure a loan and turn their dream into a reality.

A well detailed exterior strawbale wall, prior to lime plaster application

Happy clients looking out over a fresh base coat of earthen plaster on their new strawbale residence. Once the bales are covered, its easy to dream of artistic and sculptural details yet to come on the finishes. Decorah, Iowa 2022