Our future is eco-housing. A straw house is an environmentally friendly house that is healthy Why build a house from straw

Many people, having heard about it, will surely immediately remember the fairy tale about the three little pigs, in which the most stupid, lazy and not far-sighted piglet decided to use straw as a building material. But when used and materials used, straw can be one of the best options for building. Why? This issue is worth looking into in more detail.

Of course, building a house using only straw is simply impossible. Therefore, straw frame houses are usually called so. In this case, a wood-metal frame is used as the main structure, and the main purpose of the straw is to provide the desired level of heat and sound insulation. And I must admit, straw copes with this task just fine.

Most of the work is done in the company's workshops. Thanks to this, ready-made parts are brought to the construction site. Their collection takes a minimum of time - it usually takes no more than one week to build an average house. This indicator can be called one of the best to date. Neither can boast such a short construction time.

What are the benefits of straw houses?

Many readers will probably have a question - why today more and more people who decide to acquire their own home are choosing a house made of straw and clay, and not classic wooden, brick or frame? This question should be answered in as much detail as possible.

1. Light weight. Any person understands that pressed straw weighs several times less than an ordinary tree, not to mention a brick. Thanks to this, work takes less time. It also allows you to get rid of the need, the filling of which is very expensive and takes a lot of time.
2. Raw materials are as accessible as possible and easily renewed. A tree, in order to grow to a size suitable for construction, must grow for decades. The manufacture of bricks in general is a complex technological chain. But the straw grows in a matter of months. And the cereal plants necessary for obtaining straw grow in almost all regions of our country. This makes building straw houses a very easy and affordable option.
3. The thermal conductivity of straw bales is very low - about 0.05-0.065 W/m*K.
   To make it more intelligible, it is worth giving similar indicators for brick and wood. Different types of building bricks have thermal conductivity from 0.56 to 0.7 W / m * K. For wood, this figure is 0.18 to 0.23 W / m * K - depending on the species. This means that even on the most frosty winter days, you can comfortably live in your straw house, spending a minimum of money to maintain a high temperature. In the summer heat, it will be quite cool in such a house - the outer walls will heat up in the sun, but will not transfer heat into the premises, which allows you to refuse.
4. Straw easily maintains an optimal indoor climate. Therefore, being in one of these is very easy and comfortable.
5. Low cost. As mentioned above, the price of this material is many times lower than the cost of other building materials, due to its availability. Replacing an expensive foundation with a simpler and cheaper one (pile, sometimes tape) allows you to further save money.
6. Compared to, straw houses do not need frequent replacement of artificial insulation (its service life is usually from 12 to 25 years), without which it is simply impossible to be in a frame house during the winter months.

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And this is not a complete list of reasons why people are increasingly choosing straw bale houses.

Is a fire terrible for such a house

Someone may be horrified by the very possibility of building houses from such a fire hazardous material. After all, one spark is enough to ignite the straw, and then a whole haystack can burn out in a matter of minutes.

But if we talk about a house made of pressed straw, you can forget about such dangers forever.

To begin with, straw bales are necessarily covered with a thick layer of clay, which does not allow fire to reach the straw. Clay is able to withstand the effects of fire for a long time without the slightest harm to itself.

In the voids of the walls filled with straw, there is practically no air left, which is needed to maintain combustion. Therefore, even when the clay is damaged and collapses, the straw only smolders slightly, not supporting combustion.

Laboratory tests show that such walls are able to withstand open fire for up to 2 hours. So, thatched houses can be called much less fire hazardous than classic wooden ones.

What a thatched house might look like

The light weight of the material and ease of installation allows you to build. This gives a huge scope for the imagination of designers, as well as people who decide to get their own home. All that remains for them to do is to tell the experts about their vision of the ideal home. In a matter of days they will be ready, and they will be able to choose the option that seems most suitable to them.

Building houses using straw does not impose the slightest restrictions on builders. Neither the thickness of the walls nor the set length of the source material limit the plans of the designers. Therefore, the house can really be anything.

Learn about the benefits of a straw house by watching the video

Do you want a hexagonal house? Specialists will be able to make your dream a reality. Or maybe you like unusual ones? Well, conclude an agreement with a construction company, and a round straw house will be erected on your site in the shortest possible time.

Building straw houses is called green building. Probably, all people dream of living in a clean, eco-healthy area, without exhaust gases, garbage and everything else. Building a house out of straw, also in an environmentally safe area, seems like some kind of fictional story, especially in our times.

Straw is considered a heat-insulating material. It is good to use in construction. Wheat and rye straw has significant thermal qualities. Housing created from such material has acquired the name "eco-house" (ecological housing). This raw material is allowed to be used in construction.

One of the most demanded questions on the construction of such houses is how quickly and efficiently they can build such a house, as well as at what price. In our country, most houses are built of brick, and for those who decide to experiment and make themselves a straw house, it will be useful to find out the details.

Most importantly, it is a renewable raw material that is inexpensive and easy to convert into a building material, and can be easily recycled after long-term use. Namely:

• leave to rot in the open air;
• burn;
• save.

The experience of constructing buildings from such material has been known for a long time. Straw was used in Canada, Holland, the United States of America and other countries. It became popular in the United States to build straw houses in the 19th century. The construction of thatched houses today is being restored and is being intensively expanded.. In Western Europe, there is municipal assistance and the attention of the authorities to the construction of eco-houses. This project reduces the overall energy consumption in the production of building materials and the operation of a low-rise dwelling.

It is allowed to use straw blocks in the construction of country houses, saunas, car garages. Such blocks can be used as the basis of the floor in living rooms. Housing made of such material in the final version is not much different from buildings made from classic building materials.

As a rule, constructions of certain sizes (L * W * H) are made from straw: 490x490x355 mm; 902x475x355 mm (M = 20 kg, humidity 15%); 505-1205x505x404 mm.

Important! Blocks must be rectangular, length - not less than 2 heights. For the purpose of strong bandaging of the blocks, this requirement should be followed. The density of the blocks is on average 120 kg/m3, however, it can be in the range of 100–400 kg/m3. The walls of an apartment building made of straw are 85% lighter than brick walls. From 1 ton, approximately 77 blocks of straw will be obtained.

For the construction of a building with an area of ​​70 sq. m. you need the amount of straw collected from a plot of 2-4 hectares. A medium-sized building takes up to 700 units of straw blocks. According to thermal engineering data, the material occupies a well-deserved place among thermal protection materials: perlite, polystyrene, straw.

Advantages and disadvantages

Straw structures have their own advantages and disadvantages. Benefits include:

There are also some disadvantages of straw houses. Cons of houses made of straw blocks:

• It is forbidden to implement a protected cladding of the building: this will lead to the accumulation of moisture. As a rule, such houses are plastered. The principle of fire safety must be observed to the highest degree during the construction of the house.
• During the construction period, it is necessary to plan the placement of hanging furniture for the installation of additional bars. Clay walls without additional reinforcement cannot withstand hanging furniture.

Insects and mice can start up in the walls, and at a moisture content of 18–20% or more, the straw begins to rot.

Let us briefly analyze the legends of people who come across when they want to build a house out of straw, and which have been told to us for many times.

And surprisingly, people believe in them:

Varieties of building technologies

The technology of building a house from straw is divided into types: a frame house (the main component is a wood base); frameless house (the main component of such a building is considered not a wood base, but walls made of straw blocks).

The main stages of building a frame house:

The main stages of a frameless structure approximately the same as in the construction of a frame building, with the exception of the structure of the skeleton. This kind of housing is created only from straw blocks, according to the analogy with a brick wall. To support the truss structures, a belt of thick boards is made along the top of the walls from straw systems.

The roof in this building should be extremely simple and elementary. For the purpose of construction, 2 types of straw structures are used: dried straw, compressed into blocks of different sizes and compressed straw blocks treated with clay. The construction of a frame building is much stronger than a frameless one, but the price is more expensive due to the use of the largest amount of wood.

Frame thatched buildings can be designed and built with a complex system and different types of roofs, which cannot be done using frameless technology.

Terminology
The most valuable thing in a person's life is his health. Everyone understands that it is impossible without a healthy lifestyle. Human health is influenced by many environmental factors. What we eat, what we ride, where we live - all this is of decisive importance.
A healthy lifestyle is not possible in an environment filled with harmful substances. Consequently, in the pursuit of health, we come to the need to use environmentally friendly building materials. Unfortunately, many of those who prioritize a healthy lifestyle do not see the difference between environmentally friendly and sustainable materials.
Environmentally friendly materials are materials that do not have a detrimental effect on the environment. But only those materials that do not cause any harm to the environment can be called absolutely environmentally friendly.

About the need to use straw
The use of environmentally friendly materials is not enough to save the environment. The fact is that when creating such materials, technologies that harm nature are often used. For example, when using different devices and units, the need for electricity increases, the production of which may be associated with "dirty" processes. In addition, the amount of resources needed to maintain production is increasing. This includes the creation and use of lubricants, spare parts, as well as waste from related production processes.
Brick, mineral wool, natural stone and other environmentally friendly building materials require a lot of energy and resources to manufacture. The use of wood, as one of the most environmentally friendly materials, leads to a rapid reduction in forests on the planet. Therefore, the use of wood cannot be called an environmentally friendly approach to construction.

Combination of convenience and environmental friendliness
The logical conclusion is to reduce the amount of wood in the construction of buildings to the minimum possible. This issue has already been partially resolved - "frame" construction is gaining more and more popularity. The share of wood used in this technology is only about 15% of the total wall material.
(Compare with a house made of timber, in which wood occupies 100% of the material. To build one house with an area of ​​​​150 square meters, you need to cut down a quarter of a hectare of forest. For reference: it takes 30-50 years to grow a tree suitable for sawing six-meter-long boards).
The walls of buildings with frame technology consist of wooden "ribs", the space between which is filled with some kind of insulation. Most often it is mineral wool or expanded polystyrene, better known as polystyrene. And he and the other insulation can not be called environmentally friendly. During operation, they can emit harmful substances into the atmosphere. In addition, the installation of mineral wool insulation is associated with the risk of damage to the skin and mucous membranes of a person.
Perhaps the only insulating material that has the right to be called environmentally friendly can be called ordinary straw. It is an annually renewable resource. Moreover, it appears as a by-product in the cultivation of cereals.
Therefore, there is no need to create a separate production for straw. After all, straw remains on the field after harvesting - wheat, rye and the like. It just needs to be assembled.
In the production of wall panels, it is best to use rye straw. It is not suitable for the household - due to its rigidity, it is not even suitable for laying the floor in animal rooms. Often it is simply left to rot in the fields. In addition to this, straw has excellent sound and heat insulation qualities. It is three times more effective than pine wood and 10 times more effective than brick.
Therefore, rye straw, as a raw material for construction, has three key advantages: annual renewability (remains in the fields), no energy-intensive production (costs only for straw collection) and fiber structure (thermal insulation). Thanks to these advantages, straw insulation is out of competition in terms of environmental friendliness compared to other materials.

History reference
People have been using straw to build houses for thousands of years. The first mention of thatched houses (in surviving sources) came to us from ancient Egypt (about 5000 BC). Since then, straw building technology has come a long way from adobe houses to multi-storey buildings with straw insulation.
Initially, these were walls made of straw, covered with clay for strength and weather resistance. Then came houses made of bricks made from a mixture of straw, clay, sand, earth and water. Later, straw pressing was invented, which made it possible to erect the walls of one-story buildings from straw briquettes, and then cover them with plaster. To date, the development of technology has reached the creation of wall panels with straw inside, ready to be installed and formed walls.
Today, straw technology is used in many areas of Eurasia (from the Kuban to Great Britain), North America (USA, Canada) and others.

Not afraid of water or teeth
Straw, which is used as insulation, is not subject to decay. First, the rye that has not yet been harvested is washed by rain and then dried by the wind. Secondly, it is collected only in dry sunny weather. Thirdly, after pressing into the wall panel, the straw is plastered on both sides with a layer of moisture-proof material: clay or gypsum. This plaster protects from moisture, but at the same time perfectly passes steam. Thanks to this, straw insulation is very durable.
In addition, rodents do not start in rye straw. There are also several reasons for this. The first is that the straw goes to the production of panels after harvesting. These are simply dry stems remaining after threshing, they are freed from leaves, inflorescences and seeds. There is nothing for rodents to eat in this straw. The second is that straw contains a substance called lignin, which rodents really do not like. Third, rye straw is so hard and prickly that it cuts the skin. Therefore, straw is not suitable for housing either - it is uncomfortable to sleep on it.
In addition to this, straw contains 2-3 times more silica than wood. This makes it more durable and resistant to fungal attack.

Brief description of technology
Straw is collected from the field using an automatic baler. He leaves behind bales, which workers manually reload into the back of a tractor. After that, the straw is delivered to the edge of the field, where it is transferred to a truck that carries the straw to the production of panels.
In the workshop at this time, the frame for the panels is being assembled. Using pre-prepared boards (dried and sanded), frames of future panels are formed. Then the straw is pressed into the assembled frames to a density of 140 kg/m3. With this degree of pressing, the straw becomes an absolutely non-combustible material.

When creating one standard wall panel with a width of 1.25 m, a height of 2.5 m and a thickness of 0.42 m, 15 rectangular bales measuring 30 * 50 * 80 cm are required. Taking into account the weight of the dried wood, the finished panel weighs 230 kg. The plastered panel weighs almost 600 kg.

The last step in creating a wall panel is to cover the front sides of the panel with plaster mortar. At the same stage, cable and ventilation ducts are laid in the plane of the wall. As a result, a finished panel comes out of the production line, suitable for mounting walls or ceilings at the construction site.
Such panels allow you to build houses up to 3 floors high. If, when assembling the panel, metal is added to the tree, the number of storeys of the building with straw insulation can be increased up to 5 floors. Such houses can often be found, for example, in Germany.
A building assembled from such wall panels can withstand an earthquake of magnitude 10.

Assembly of the finished house
Wall panels, assembled using the latest achievements in the field of straw construction, have such important qualities as durability and reliability. They are self-supporting. In addition, the technology allows you to set up production for the production of panels of various formats.
Thanks to the proven technology, the finished panels are easy to install, and also have a primary finish. To the side of the panel facing the inside of the house, you can immediately attach decorative elements and light furniture.
The technology allows you to assemble the house at any time of the year, observing the only condition - dry weather.

Not afraid of water and fire
The plaster that covers the straw consists only of natural materials. Its main components: gypsum or clay, which have the same properties. Other components of the plaster serve to stiffen it - salt, lime, or are added as heat-insulating fillers: chopped straw, sawdust, sand, vermiculite, expanded clay.
In addition, clay additionally preserves the entire structure. They say that thanks to this very property, a few decades after the construction, when dismantling such a house, a tree completely unspoiled by time is found in the thickness of the wall.
But clay has another unique property: it maintains ideal humidity in the room, absorbing excess moisture or giving it back if necessary.
The fire safety class of the wall panel is K0(30). This means that the plastered panel will withstand exposure to open fire for 30 minutes. Only after that, the straw insulation inside the panel will heat up and begin to smolder. Without further heating, the smoldering of the straw will stop.
Humidity inside a panel house with straw insulation is maintained in the range from 40 to 60%. This indicator is comfortable for a person in the warm season. Therefore, the humidity inside such a house will be comfortable all year round.

Today is easier
For a long time, building with straw was very labor intensive. Collecting straw, laying in walls, covering with clay - all this required a lot of time and effort from the builder. The formation of straw briquettes with a baler directly on the field did not save the builder from manually stacking briquettes to form walls, as well as from plastering. Now, using presses in the workshop, the process of assembling panels has been greatly simplified and accelerated.

Straw house building is the most environmentally friendly.
A house built using straw has many positive aspects. Straw insulation does not require large energy costs to create. Straw does not create inconvenience during installation, like mineral wool insulation. It does not emit harmful substances and does not serve as a pollutant remaining after construction.
In addition, straw has excellent sound and heat insulation. It is the best basis for creating a passive, self-contained home. It allows you to significantly, up to 50%, reduce energy consumption to maintain the temperature. According to statistics, 27% of the energy generated in the world is spent on space heating during the cold season and cooling during the warm season.
Considering all the listed features of straw insulation, we can conclude that this is an absolutely biopositive material. Its extraction, production, use and disposal do not cause any harm to the environment.

To keep up with the times
A house in which rye straw is used for insulation is not only environmentally friendly. Such a house will be the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly of all possible. By building such houses, we protect nature from pollution. Thanks to the development of technology, today's straw-insulated house has nothing to do with the hut that crumbled from the breath of a wolf in a well-known fairy tale.
Life goes on, technology develops, straw grows, houses with straw insulation stand and delight their owners. Understanding the value of the environment, you need to arm yourself with the fruits of technology development and keep up with the times.

We all remember the famous tale of the three little pigs, which ridicules the poor Nif-nif and Nuf-nuf, who preferred flimsy structures made of straw and branches to a solid brick structure. Meanwhile, in the homeland of these same three piglets, in good old England, as well as in Germany, the USA and dozens of other countries, straw houses are being actively built. Today - one of the most economical, environmentally friendly and reliable building materials. So what was the matter, why are we still building from concrete, brick and timber? Let's try to debunk some of the most common myths and fears regarding the construction of straw blocks...

Myth #1: Lack of strength

The best proof of reliability is the durability of existing straw block buildings. The oldest of these, in Nebraska, are about a hundred years old and still in excellent condition. But in order to dispel the doubts of the incredulous, one should probably turn to the results of experiments. The Canadian Finance and Construction Corporation specifically conducted a series of tests to find out the reliability of thatched houses. For the demonstration experiment, a wall of straw blocks 2.44 m high and 3.66 m long, covered with plaster, was built. This wall withstood, without visible signs of destruction, a vertical pressure of 8 thousand kg and a lateral pressure of 325 kg, which fully meets all construction requirements.

The experts assessed that these figures correspond to the following loads:
Payload - 220 kg/m2. Snow loads - 293 kg/m2. Wind loads - 78 kg/m2. Permanent loads - 234 kg/m2. The results of the experiments show that this construction technique is fully trustworthy. Thatched houses could do a good job in seismically active regions. An example of this is a house in Wyoming, which was completely unaffected by the aftershocks, while neighboring buildings were damaged.

Myth #2: What if there's a fire?

The question of the safety of structures made of straw blocks in relation to fire usually always arises among those who first hear about such a construction technique. And this is a completely natural question, because everyone knows perfectly well how straw burns. Paper also burns wonderfully, but try setting fire to a thick book. This is a rather laborious task. A straw block, provided the straw is sufficiently compacted, resembles such a book in many respects. Moreover, we should not forget that thatched buildings are always covered with a thick layer of plaster, which greatly reduces the risk of fire. If we rely on comparative characteristics, then thatched houses are much superior in terms of fire protection to wooden structures (log houses, frame houses, etc.).

High fire safety is confirmed by official tests. The stucco thatched wall design has been officially tested in the US and Germany and rated F119 fire rated. A metal truss, for example, belongs to the fire resistance class F15, i.e. it loses its bearing capacity after 15 minutes under the influence of fire. The Canadian National Research Council has carried out special tests on stucco straw blocks. The results of the experiments showed that they, in their fire-fighting characteristics, are superior to other conventional building materials. A plastered straw block was heated for 4 hours. During all this time, its temperature has only risen to 43 ° C twice, which fully meets all the requirements. The plastered surface withstood heating up to 100 °C for 2 hours without any trace of cracks.

Here is an excerpt from a report on the results of these experiments: “The wall, made of plastered straw blocks, is unusually resistant to fire. Straw blocks contain enough air inside to provide good thermal insulation, but at the same time, due to the pressing, they do not contain enough air to ignite. ” However, thatched houses can burn like any other, and special attention, first of all, must be paid to the electrical wiring. The best strategy is to lay down enough thick wiring, and use metal or plastic tubular insulators. Fire usually spreads from top to bottom from the roof or attic, so a fire barrier must be included in the design of the house, laid on the top plane of the wall. Such a barrier can be a layer of clay plaster.

Myth #3: Straw will rot, spider bugs, rat mice will start...

People who had to dismantle old buildings, where ordinary rye straw served as a heater, were surprised at its excellent preservation for 100-150 years. Very often, people worry that straw houses can become a haven for all sorts of pests. Stacks swarming with mice and other chilling examples are given as an example. Experience shows that such fears are unfounded. Straw in blocks is subjected to pressing, which does not leave rodents much chance for housewarming. In addition, a thick layer of plaster is a fairly good protection against all types of pests, including the smallest - insects. If we compare thatched houses with other conventional buildings, then sheathed frame houses are of greater interest to unwanted guests, due to the space between the walls. A clear confirmation of the above can serve as a thatched house in Massachusetts, which stood without plaster for several years, showing no signs that rodents were wound up there. However, in order to be completely calm, one must bear in mind the following. The straw must be sufficiently compacted, which can be verified by the ratio of block size to weight.

Myth #4: Heat will dissipate

Straw has a thermal conductivity 7 times lower than brick and 4 times lower than wood. Accordingly, the amount of fuel required to heat the room is reduced by the same amount. The straw house is energy-passive; building envelopes have a heat transfer resistance coefficient of at least 8 (modern SNiPs require 2.5).

Energy performance: energy consumption during construction is reduced by at least 300 times compared to brick and gas silicate building envelopes with modern insulation per 1 m2 of the total area.

Thermal conductivity coefficients of enclosing structures: the thermal conductivity index of a straw wall is 0.12 W/m2K, which is comparable to such indicators as: wood 0.5 W/m2K, brick 0.5–1.5 W/m2K. The energy requirement for heating is less than 40 kWh/m2 per year.

Straw blocks are an excellent heat insulator. Even the first settlers in Nebraska, who first applied this construction technique, noted that in winter it was unusually warm in such a house. They specially measured the temperature inside the house when it hit 20-degree frosts. The thermometer showed 18 degrees Celsius, and the stove was not working at that time. In addition, in the summer it is always cooler inside a straw house than outside, regardless of the heat. All these qualities make them unusually pleasant for the inhabitants. At the same time, the direct benefit must also be taken into account. Many of those who live in thatched houses note that their heating costs are always half that of their neighbors who live in ordinary houses.

Consumption ecology. Manor: Straw roofing has a number of advantages. It, thanks to a special laying technology, will keep warm in the winter cold, and cool in the summer heat.

Despite the fact that in the past only poor owners covered their own with straw, today, this type of roofing has begun to occupy one of the leading positions among the elite types of coatings. At the moment, there are a fairly large number of architectural types of straw roofs, but the most common are American, English, Dutch and Danish types of roofs.

Their main advantage, first of all, lies in a rather original appearance and excellent technical performance. A thatched roof can become a wonderful decoration for almost any home, giving it its own unique and special flavor. Its distinctive feature is its naturalness and attractiveness. This type of roof can be used not only for the arrangement of small cottages, but also for covering roofs of more spacious structures. A straw roof can give a special originality even to very expensive and elite houses.

Although this type of roof is called straw, in their arrangement, in addition to long-stalk straw, reeds, heather and reeds are also used. The material for covering houses is most often reed, since it is he who is the most durable. In addition, the increased flexibility of reeds allows you to create roofing coverings of various shapes and designs.

Straw and reeds, at present, belong to the category of elite materials used for the manufacture of roofing. In reality, the exclusivity of such a roof lies in the quality of the material used, the complexity of manufacturing and, of course, its originality. When laying a thatched roof, only environmentally friendly materials are used, which are distinguished by unique performance indicators.

Thatch roofing has a number of advantages. It, thanks to a special laying technology, will keep warm in the winter cold, and cool in the summer heat. Materials of natural origin allow the house to breathe and create a favorable microclimate in the room.

Such roofs are quite reliable and are characterized by increased resistance even to the most extreme weather conditions. Due to the use of special impregnation, they do not absorb water, do not swell, and do not change their shape due to moisture.

Despite the fact that straw itself is considered a fire hazard, the possibility of its ignition, due to the very dense laying and the use of fire retardants, is reduced to a minimum.

This type of coating, unlike other types of roofs, does not require additional ventilation systems. The thatched roof fully complies with all norms of heat and sound insulation. Its thermal conductivity is no worse than even modern types of insulation.

Among the disadvantages of a thatched roof, one should highlight the impossibility of installing gutters and pipes, which is caused by the significant thickness of the coating itself. The solution to this problem in each case is carried out individually.

Another disadvantage of straw covering is its high cost. The use of straw as a roofing material will cost much more than the use of tiles or other materials. True, in this case there is a certain plus. When installing a thatched roof, you will not have to spend extra money on arranging steam and waterproofing, which means that the difference in the total cost will not be so noticeable. published