David Sabine

My Troubles I suppose that building a house isn't easy. It usually requires a crew of experienced contractors to get the job done and even the most standardized construction methods can prove problematic. When building a straw house however, there is an entirely different set of problems to manage. On this page, you can read about the most difficult aspects of my process. What's the cause of all this grief? My rant begins here in Saskatchewan. For those of you who may not know where I live, let me explain that:

• Saskatchewan is a land-locked province in Western Canada.
• Saskatchewan is bordered by Manitoba and Alberta to the East and West respectively, and by North Dakota and Montana to the South. As such, I live smack-dabb in the middle of the largest grain belt in the western hemisphere.
• Straw is plentiful where I live. It's so plentiful in fact that tens of thousands of tons of straw are burned each year so that farmers can clear their crop of the material in order to ready their fields for next season's seed.
• Some straw, such as FLAX, is so coarse and strong that farmers often spend their own time and money to bale and/or burn it from their fields. (Most farmers will not want to leave FLAX straw on their field because it will damage their machinery while seeding the following year. Hence, they will bale, burn, or mulch the material -- often at their own expense.)
• Straw is used primarily for 'bedding' by cattle ranchers - (although some straw bales such as HAY is used as feed). But given the amount of straw currently rotting alongside the gravel roads, there's more than enough unwanted straw to go around. Even after all the cattle ranchers use their fill.
• Giant stacks of bales (some of the straw that actually WAS baled instead of burned) go unused and are left to slowly decompose -- any person who takes a road trip through this area will readily see substantial stockpiles of straw going to waste.

So, considering the amount of straw being produced each year, it should only make sense that Sasktchewan home-builders are the most skilled, most experienced, well-trained experts in the field of straw bale construction. But this is not true! Instead, it seems that construction methods here don't differ at all from the construction methods of Arizona, Ontario, Arkansas, Brazil, etc. Home-builders appear to suffer from what I call "Home-Depot" mentality - and by that I mean that home-builders around here purchase their products from the same manufacturers which supply all other home-builders in North America - and (mock quote) "if straw isn't sold at Home Depot, then straw shouldn't be used to build homes!?" I blame the national railway systems for this problem. Consider this:

1. Immigrants from Europe (mainly) arrived in Canada and became homesteaders in this area circa 1850 - 1920
2. Using the materials that were readily available (straw, clay mud, and a limited amount of wood and stone) they built the first homes.
3. Then came the rail roads.
4. Tradesmen would continue to immigrate to the area for another few decades...and with them they would bring rock from East, timber from West so they could build homes like they did back in the old country.
5. Hence, thousands of homes were built using imported materials and local crafts were forgotten - in favour of the more 'traditional' crafts using non-native building materials.
6. So, now in 2004, straw bale homes, which should be abundant, are nearly unheard of in this area. The industry's entire infrastructure is built upon imported materials.

Now, materials such as rock and timber are good building materials - if you live in Maine or Vancouver respectively....but if you live in Saskatchewan where our climate reaches both hot and cold extremes (not to mention the pounding winds, snow storms, and heavy rain, hail, tornadoes, etc.) then straw bales appear to be the best natural material suited to providing shelter. It would appear then that our local trades-people have unfortunately forgotten or ignored their better senses and have convinced not only themselves, but the governmental bodies, mortgage and insurance brokerages, even scientists and structural engineers that "Home Depot" and other warehouse/department stores are the preferred source for building materials. And so, the troubles are-a-plenty. And most of them revolve around a general lack of information about straw bale construction methods and techniques. How can this situation be improved? Well, with time, I suppose. In this era, while people have their pocketbooks, their healthy lifestyle, and the environment on their minds...not to mention that governmental organizations have been putting mechanisms in place which reward eco-friendly behaviour...it is within the realm of possibility that more people will grow interested in straw bale homes and buildings. And as interest in and demand for straw bale builders increases, so too will this industry's profile. However, I fear that the current conventions will prevent a "straw bale building industry" from booming anytime soon. In the best possible scenario I foresee the following chain of events:

1. Laymen and hobbyists will continue to explore straw bale building methods.
2. The number of design consultants and engineers who specialize in straw bale building will slowly increase.
3. The number of craftsmen, tradesmen, and other specialists will grow more comfortable with the idiosyncracies of straw bale construction. Rare talents required for building with straw bales will become 'less' rare!
4. As demand for straw bales increases, the agricultural sector may develop more suitable and convenient methods of producing, storing, reselling, and transporting straw bales. (This is currently a rather dismal situation as I've explained here).
5. Mortgage and insurance specialists will grow more comfortable with finances surrounding straw bale homes and buildings.
6. Governmental organizations will grow more comfortable with methods, techniques, advantages and disadvantages of straw bale construction. Hence, the building codes will gradually be improved to include information specific to this type of construction. Perhaps tax incentives will be implemented, if these construction methods are found to be efficient and sensible, to encourage people to consider a straw bale building.
7. And so on...