Entry detail
Oval Strawbale House - GF Plan
Oval Strawbale House - Elevation
Oval Strawbale House - Detail at 2nd Floor window
Strawbale walls have a unique vapour permeability that allows minute water vapours to pass through the unique porous crystalline structure of the plaster skin and can have anywhere from .10 to .50 ACH (air exchanges per hour) (with no mechanical assistance/technology). Strawbale walls don’t actually ‘breathe’ which is a common myth, rather they “respire” which favourably impacts on the indoor humidity and which in turn provides comfort by adding/removing moisture in the winter/summer as needed.
This creates an extremely healthy living space and air environment that surpasses, in my opinion, any standard, stick frame home. Also, a typical brick/wood stud 2×4 wall usually has less than an R20 insulation whereas strawbale walls have a continuous monolithic insulation of a R30 to R40 value. And, the thick plaster on the inside of straw bale walls acts as a thermal mass and has been shown to play a significant role in stabilizing indoor temperatures. A strawbale house is simply a smarter house!
Oval Strawbale House - Foundation Prep
Plotting the geopathic earth energy lines
Geopathic earth energy lines dowsed and located – Hartman (yellow) and Curry (Red) lines
Foundation formwork starting
Poured Concrete Foundation with Insulation
Wood sill plate base for strawbales
16' long Larsen Trusses delivered to site
Framing started (larsen trusses upright on the left)
Round log posts & timber beam for interior only
Framing at 2nd floor
2nd Floor Window Framing
Larsent posts base at corner
Ballon Wood Framing
All finishes will be natural with ‘0′ VOC’s (volatile organic compounds). We are looking at reclaimed timber flooring, papercrete countertops, milk paint stains as well as milling wood from directly from the site.
As the site has a great supply of wood and our client would like to use some of the maple, cherry, ash and ceder wood in his house. We visited the site together before any clear cutting was done for the building site and talked with the trees to let them know they will be needed in the house. This was a tremendous experience for both of us that I wrote a lot about in my blog here….
The house will also have radiant heating in the floors, a tankless water heater, and a masonry heater fireplace as the main heat source with propane back-up as needed.
Oval Strawbale House – Exterior plaster started
Exterior plaster
Long view of house from driveway
Front of Oval Strawbale House
Sustainable builder, Ben Polley of Harvest Homes is a leader in the field of natural strawbale construction. His depth and breadth of experience is absolutely wonderful to work with. We highly recommend him for any projects. He works in the Guelph/Kitchener-Waterloo, Grey-Bruce, and Orillia-Muskoka area. From these three locations, they service projects north to Lions Head and Huntsville, east to Highway 400 and most areas south-west within a one to two hour distance from Guelph. In my opinion, there are very few Natual Builders as highly qualified as Ben is. Please contact me if you want names of green, strawbale contractors in other areas of Ontario as well or visit my website for more detailed info here….
This is what Ben has to say about working together on this project;
Tags: Healthy Building, Healthy House, Natural Building, Sustainable, Sustainable Building