Straw Bale House Roof

A breathable strawbale vault is a difficult proposition.

Straw bale house roof.

For straw bale this can pose a problem in keeping the walls free from direct moisture. When attaching a straw bale addition to an existing house the biggest concern is to make sure that the two structures are tied together well. The weight of bales within a roof has to be a very serious consideration. The strawtron roof is lookin good and green these days when we built our two story timber frame straw bale house in 2012 13 we incorporated a green roof into the design.

If you were building in a fairly arid environment you might experiment with a papercrete plaster as i have done with my earthbag home. There are two general styles of straw bale construction. A good time to use this roof is obviously when the budget is tight or if you want a larger exposed side of the structure as in a greenhouse or in cooler climates. It just has to be kept dry.

While cement stucco is convenient and low maintenance it can cause moisture problems once it cracks and may actually keep the bale wall from drying properly. As i look at this i think a roof would almost be better with loose fill chopped straw inside of a 2 6 roof framework. It was a hell of a task to pull it off especially since we loaded all the soil onto the surface of the roof one bucket at a time. It is built with straw bale walls and limestone plaster log roof rafters an.

Post and beam construction is where a structural frame is built and the bales are then placed into that frame as insulation. All straw bale houses need a layer of plaster on the outside to keep water out. The easiest way to do this is with expanded metal lath at each course. Most straw bale builders use clay based earthen plasters or lime plaster which require regular reapplication.

The bales have no structural value for the loads of the building which are all carried by the structural frame. Today insulated homes usually have r 20 in the walls and many old homes have r 14 for insulation or considerably less. Post and beam or in fill and load bearing. Zhang s next project is to construct an entire habitable building in dubbo in collaboration with john dash and the landowner.

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