Grow Your Own Home or Maybe a Guest House?

Do you think it is a good idea or a bad idea?

Instead of a straw roof, what about a house made entirely out of straw?

I am not so sure it would be a good idea in a fire prone area, but it might be fun somewhere fires are rare.

See comments for another article on strawbale houses. When I lived in Northern California there were several strawbale houses nearby. There can be problems with them. One was built out of bales that included at least one that had a mouse nest in it, which wasn’t detected until after the house was completed, and the walls of the house became a mouse factory.

One was built when the humidity level was wrong, and had a mold problem.

And one caught fire, and that fire could not be out. It smoldered for months, and the fire department had to come out repeatedly and tamp down the flair ups. As the straw was all covered in thick cob (clay) and then plaster, there was a hypothesis that the straw was too moist, started to compost, and created enough heat to ignite the building. Who knows.

On the other hand, strawbale houses, when constructed in a drier environment, are very cool, literally. They are super insulated, which not only makes then cool in the summer, they hold in the heat in the winter. They can also block a lot of outside noise.