straw bale insulation

[rodeosweetheart]

Not sure where to put this--if it should be housing, please move, thanks. This year we are trying something new, using straw bales to insulate the house. I first saw it in Wisconsin and guess it is traditional there for insulating farmhouses (Scandinavians do it.) So we went and bought some straw bales from Brad, although not enough to do whole house, unfortunately, and did one course and did notice a difference. Was wishing we had built up a second or even third course. Also mad we didn't insulate the side with pipes in kitchen (duh) as its 10 below this am and hot water is frozen.

Anyway, one awesome thing about this is in the spring, when we get the garden going, we will have plenty of pre-composting straw for the garden.
I read an amazing article in Mother Earth News where I guy retrofitted his house using straw bale, starting with insulating it. So this is giving me ideas on how to reside this place, if we keep it. We toured a guy's place last April who had converted his one story, 700 foot summer camp into a two story straw bale house, doing a retrofit and build it. It was the coolest space ever--well, in winter, the warmest. Here is article:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/straw-bale-retrofit-part1-zbcz1404.aspx#axzz

[lessisbest]

Growing up in a 100+ year old farm house back in the 50's and 60's, my dad would stack straw bails on the north and west side of the house. I remember having frozen pipes occasionally even with the bails.

My mother-in-law had problems with water freezing in a porch that was converted to a laundry room (no insulation). We gave her a small electric quartz heater for the laundry area and it radiated enough heat to prevent pipes from freezing. The small house was heated with one floor furnace, so very little heat got to that area of the home.

Along with bails, be sure to add bubble wrap to your windows: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/bubblewrap.htm I think you will be impressed by the difference it makes.

[rodeosweetheart]

Yup, we did the bubblewrap before the cold hit, thank goodness, and we are noticing a difference! I was surprised by how far our bubble roll went--one large roll did all the windows.

[catherine]

Cool idea, rodeosweetheart! I don't have any personal experience with straw bales as insulation, but my permaculture teacher has built a couple of straw bale houses--he made one big one in West Virginia completely by himself.

I'm wondering if the insulation factor of straw bale homes has to do with the plaster finish. My favorite publishing house, Chelsea Green, has a number of books on straw bale construction.

Sorry I can't be of more help than that, but please keep us posted!

[merince]

They are great for insulating, but they also attract rodents big time.

We used to do it while we were bailing it. Eventually, when the bales went up to around $2, we just invested in sealing up the holes and adding insulation. This summer project is to add a stucco-like layer of cement to seal up the holes in the old foundation.

[CathyA]

I think it would work well.....but like merince said, it sure can attract rodents. They love being warmed and protected by the bales too. And not only that........it encourages them to enter your house to get even more comfortable! I wonder if sheets of styrofoam that you could take down in the spring and reuse every year would work better? Or even some more eco-friendly product. Straw is as eco-friendly as you can get......but dang, it draws the rodents. Here's an option........use the straw bales, but put lots of highly scented dryer sheets under them and between them and the house. I have had great luck with dryer sheets repelling mice.

[rodeosweetheart]

Yeah, I thought about mice. We had the usual mice coming in when weather got hold, but actually have had a better year mouse-wise so far. I'd rather get more cats and save the money on propane. I guess you could put wire mesh down prior to the bales if you wanted to get fancy.

DH is off to get more straw from Brad. Since we have 2 feet of snow on ground this will be interesting. I guess if he puts it on top of snow it can melt down and settle, right, when and if it melts? He got frozen kitchen hot water pipe defrosted, so we have hot water again!

I get so anxious when it is really cold. He finds it fun, a challenge. To each his own.

[goldensmom]

Bales of straw work well for insulation wherever it is used. I’ve seen several old houses in the neighborhood use it but when spring comes it is wet, unsightly, usually moldy, hard to remove and dispose of. It takes a long time to decompose in a compost pile and a what looks like a small bale makes a huge pile of straw when the twine comes off. We used it to insulate around the chicken house a few winters but quit using it due to the clean up in the spring.

[CathyA]

I don't know if wire mesh under/beside the bales would work to deter. It just attracts them close to the house (even the top and middle and sides of the bales) and if there's a tiny slit opened anywhere...they'll get in.
Our cat was never a very good mouser.
We had a ridiculous amount of mice in our basement, until we found out they were getting into the outside cracks in our exterior chimney, and also they chewed through the mesh on the foundation vents. Even red squirrels were getting in. I just HATE killing things, but traps were the only way to deal with them. Be sure to fill in all the spaces where any pipe of any kind comes into the foundation/crawl space. Steel wool works stuffed into those areas too.
Oops......I forget you're trying to warm up your house and not deal with mice. sorry! :) I could go on forever with mice problem stories......

[ToomuchStuff]

I have seen straw bales used in construction, but not after the fact. I would think you would want blown in for that, because the straw bale thing I saw, had them sealed on both sides (some form of plaster and/or stucco). I would worry about putting it in after the fact (mold/moisture/rot and getting into contact with old wiring).
I did see elsewhere, where someone made effectively the old wooden storm windows, and have seen examples of them on both the inside and out. (don't know where one would find the hardware though for outside, was custom inside)
That made me think about the window ledge and how that would be perfect and one could hold it shut via a curtain rod addaption.