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Desperate for housing and lacking lumber, 19th-century Nebraska pioneers resorted to cutting and baling the sweet prairie grass growing all around them, then using the bales as giant bricks to build homes. Their new dwellings proved to be cozy and pleasant. In 1998, Jill Mulder and Julie Birdwell took New Prairie Construction’s small crew to Hiawatha, Iowa, to help build two straw bale hermitages at the Prairiewoods Retreat Center. The International Straw Bale Building Conference, which they attended in Nebraska in 2000, further stoked the fires of their enthusiasm for this sustainable, energy-efficient construction technique. That enthusiasm, plus hours of additional research, resulted in the first straw bale home in the Champaign-Urbana area, completed by New Prairie in 2005. This lovely stuccoed and plastered house, on East Main Street in Historic East Urbana, boasts many unique features in addition to its straw bale building blocks—deep wild-cherry window sills, century-old maple flooring salvaged from the Sidell Grade School, gorgeous panel doors from the University of Illinois Harker Hall, and handcrafted window and door trim. Straw bale construction has proven to create a quiet, comfortable, and very energy efficient space to inhabit. It can be comfortably heated throughout the Illinois winter for about 20% of the energy expenditure of a comparable house of typical construction. In addition to superior insulating value, straw bale construction offers greater fire resistance than a “stick-built” house, excellent protection against insects and pests, and better performance during earthquakes or tremors. Straw bales are being successfully used to build houses all over the world. Here in central Illinois, straw bale construction makes use of an agricultural byproduct that doesn’t have to be trucked hundreds or thousands of miles, supporting local farmers and reducing fossil fuel consumption. If you are intrigued by the idea of living in a straw bale home, please contact us to talk more about the possibilities. Why straw bale construction? These are some of the advantages: The natural insulating properties of straw offer a minimum R-35 value in the walls, and once stucco and plaster are applied to each side, the value is estimated to be as high as R-50. Because there are no “hollow” walls in straw bale buildings, they are very resistant to fire. While properly finished walls still allow vapor transference, the 2-inch “skin” of stucco and plaster on each side prevents access by insects and other pests. The shock-absorbing quality of straw, combined with the width-to-height ratio of the walls, allows straw bale structures to perform better than frame construction during earthquakes or tremors. When a bale wall is plastered and stuccoed, it has extremely high lateral and compressive load capabilities. These walls have tested at 100 pounds per lineal foot for lateral strength and 4,000 pounds per square foot for compressive strength. Current code requirements in our area specify only 20 pounds per lineal foot for lateral strength. For all of its energy and safety advantages, straw bale construction typically costs only about 10% more than standard methods.
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