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Unofficial Porcfest event - strawbale houses/alternative building

Started by turbo, June 10, 2009, 06:10 PM NHFT

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turbo

Unofficial Porcfest event - Saturday @ 4:00pm, AltExpo tent

QuoteRick plans to give a presentation on constructing straw bale houses as well as ideas about lowering the cost of construction, insurance, permits, design, energy efficiency, and more. A good title for this presentation would be "Alternative Housing Options" or even "Building your Own Alternative Housing"

I'm a Physics teacher in NH who is building a straw bale home in Maine. Always ready to answer your questions! If you are thinking about building your own alternative home I may have some ideas and/or guidance for you. I'm thinking...no mortgage, low maintenance, and low operating costs!

Hope to see you there!

Kat Kanning


liftsboxes

Interesting, I was just listening to an earthship discussion at www.thesurvivalpodcast.com .  There are some interesting possibilities there.

Lloyd Danforth

I have a Andrew Morrison DVD on building a self  supporting Straw Bale building.  I will bring it.

KBCraig

Are there source of straw near NH? Maybe NY or PA?

For those not aware, hay is not straw, and hay bales aren't the same as straw bales when it comes to building.

turbo

Yes, apparently there is plenty of straw around these parts. Rick got his from a local farmer in Maine

Glad you are all interested... this should be fun.  ;D

Lloyd Danforth

Availability is a problem.  I watched the video and became enamored of the system.  I knew that hay was not straw, but, corn stalks which look a lot like straw won't work either.  So, I learned that straw is not common in NH. There is some salt grass stuff on the coast.  I think it can be had in Canada and perhaps in NY.
Right after I learned that it is uncommon in NH, I found out that just like changes in bailing hay, straw is, now, often bailed in 4 X 4 X 8 foot bales.
I still think it is an interesting system.

turbo

Lloyd... good point... I think Rick told me about all of what you have to look for (right type, no seeds, etc), but I forget. Maybe he will have some answers... or maybe you will have some answers for him   ;)

I should also mention, a lot of the things in his house (DIY radiant floor heating, DIY acid stained concrete floors, DIY polished concrete countertops, to name a few) are not straw-bale-house specific, could be used in conjunction with almost any building technique that interests you.

Lumpy

Thanks for tuning me back into this thread Turbo!
This is what Aubern and I want to do as soon as we find our lot of land and have the means to pay the previous owner (we are not into using banks) for the lot.
As you know, we've been back and forth with straw bale or earth sheltered, etc.  I keep leaning to straw bale but not necessarily for the best reasons.  Earth sheltered is really cool and all but what I like about straw bale is that I can expand more easily and with timber frame construction adding on is easy as well as super strong...  it just looks more appealing to me for perhaps less than fantastic reasons, like looks, etc. not that I'm not entirely sold on straw bale, just that I want something that I one no man any thing for and doing that will require the lowest possible costs, maintenance, etc...  am I making sense?  I woke up late today and have been off kilter since.

turbo

Lumpster... sounds like a plan  ;D  I think earth shelters is cool (no pun intended) but don't really know much about it. I like concrete houses too. In fact I like almost anything besides vinyl sided mcmansions  ;)

Looking forward to seeing you two @ porcfest

jaqeboy

Hey, working on posting the announcement about the upcoming AltExpo#4 at PorcFest09. Rick's talk and all the others we've got planned will be in our tent at site #36.

You can learn a lot about earth sheltered homes (probably) at SolarFest in Vermont, coming up 2 weeks after PorcFest. I'll start a thread for SolarFest, too, but it is a definitely DO NOT MISS event if you're interested in alternative energy/construction, etc.

Fluff and Stuff

Quote from: jaqeboy on June 14, 2009, 09:58 PM NHFT
Hey, working on posting the announcement about the upcoming AltExpo#4 at PorcFest09. Rick's talk and all the others we've got planned will be in our tent at site #36.

You can learn a lot about earth sheltered homes (probably) at SolarFest in Vermont, coming up 2 weeks after PorcFest. I'll start a thread for SolarFest, too, but it is a definitely DO NOT MISS event if you're interested in alternative energy/construction, etc.

i posted all of the Alt Expo details I know (including this) to the unofficial Porcfest schedule, http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?topic=17446.0

John Edward Mercier

Quote from: Lloyd Danforth on June 10, 2009, 07:40 PM NHFT
Availability is a problem.  I watched the video and became enamored of the system.  I knew that hay was not straw, but, corn stalks which look a lot like straw won't work either.  So, I learned that straw is not common in NH. There is some salt grass stuff on the coast.  I think it can be had in Canada and perhaps in NY.
Right after I learned that it is uncommon in NH, I found out that just like changes in bailing hay, straw is, now, often bailed in 4 X 4 X 8 foot bales.
I still think it is an interesting system.
Cordwood is available (log home building in a more manual labor format).

jaqeboy

OK, I posted a remark over there (I didn't know about the unofficial calendar). I'll put in a few events now, with the caveat that it'll all change over the next week.

Quote from: Radical and Stuff on June 15, 2009, 12:18 AM NHFT
Quote from: jaqeboy on June 14, 2009, 09:58 PM NHFT
Hey, working on posting the announcement about the upcoming AltExpo#4 at PorcFest09. Rick's talk and all the others we've got planned will be in our tent at site #36.

You can learn a lot about earth sheltered homes (probably) at SolarFest in Vermont, coming up 2 weeks after PorcFest. I'll start a thread for SolarFest, too, but it is a definitely DO NOT MISS event if you're interested in alternative energy/construction, etc.

i posted all of the Alt Expo details I know (including this) to the unofficial Porcfest schedule, http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?topic=17446.0

rhoner

I'm glad to see there is some interest in this topic.  I'll do my best to both inform and entertain. Although our home is strawbale, that is only part of the idea.  Our structure is "green" to some extent, somewhat contrarian, and mostly libertarian.  Designing and constructing your own home is certainly a liberating idea.  If you have any questions on alternative housing I'll give them a whirl.

Rick Honer