Making hay with houses of straw

New Mexico Business Journal, August, 1995 by Catherine Coggan

From its European wattle and daub origins, to its present grassroots resurgence, straw has proven to be a sturdy, safe, long-lived building material. Nebraska settlers used it routinely. A hundred years later, many of these buildings still stand.

Readily available, cheap and simple to use, straw bale buildings usually appealed to the rugged individualist. But housing professionals are discovering the advantages of straw bale construction, too. Astronomical housing prices in many parts of New Mexico have cut modest-income families out of the market. Builders and contractors are re-thinking cost and affordability. Rose Morin, an Albuquerque builder and remodeling contractor, says "There is such a demand for affordable housing. Straw is perceived as affordable."

Straw is plentiful and renewable. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1991, U.S. farmers harvested a total of 85.52 million acres of wheat, rice, barley, and oats. Each acre produced an annual yield of nearly 2 tons of straw. Since a 2,000 sq ft house requires about 500 bales, there is enough straw in this country to build several million homes annually At $3 a bale, the bottom line says "windfall" for farmers and low cost for builders. In spite of the potential profit-making avenues, however, without building code acceptability, straw bale will remain on the fringes.

No one has worked harder to ensure regulatory sanction for straw than Tony Perry, a Santa Fe builder. Perry is a courtly, gracious. Oxford University economist, businessman and long-time New Mexico resident. He believes in the viability of this material to create affordable, environmentally sound housing in the state. For the last three years he has cajoled, educated, and publicized straw bale construction's value to the building industry.

He lobbied the state for a year until it allowed one experimental project. Then, he got the state to agree to issue ten experimental permits, then twenty. Finally he got them to assent to a change in the terms of the permit from "experimental" to "alternative." This semantic change opened the field dramatically.

At the same time, Perry established The Straw Bale Construction Assn., a 45-member confederation of professionals in the building and design trades. The association hired SHB-AGRA, an Albuquerque engineering company, to analyze straw for fire and wind load performance. Using standards set by the American Society for Testing Materials, the company found that straw obtained a two-hour fire rating (when placed near fire, a straw bale smolders but does not burst into flames for two hours). For wind load, straw stood firmly against both 75 and 100 mph winds. Then, Sandia Laboratories tested straw for its insulation capacity and found that a straw wall without plaster has an R-48 value. Insulation capacity is a ratio measured on a scale of R-1 through R-50, R-50 insulating the best. A house built with 2x6 studs with glass fiber insulation has an insulation ratio of R-19.

Perry is chairman of the state technical advisory committee formed by the Construction Industries Div. to advise the CID. The committee gathers practical information about building with straw bale, which ensures dear information as straw makes its way into the Uniform Building Code amendments.

"When straw is included," Perry said, "HUD will open Fannie Mae, Ginny Mae and Freddie Mac funding. This will increase the number of lending agencies able to give out money."

How close is this emendation to the Uniform Building Code? Pat Vander Griff, field operations director for the Construction Industries Division of New Mexico's Regulation and Licensing Department, answers. "I don't see an impossibility that it will enter the Code. In fact, the Commission leans in favor of builders wanting to use straw bale." He points out that with only an alternative materials permit, a builder could submit a 50-house straw bale development plan. If the structures conform to present requirements, "Builders would be allowed to do it."

To Tony Perry, Code acceptance means that "there will be about 42,000 families in New Mexico who would qualify for housing if straw bale can be used." If builders exploit this impressive market, home ownership in the state could rise from its present 47 percent to a striking 62 percent.

Eldorado architect Betsy Pierce has seen a 75 percent increase in straw bale commissions since she opened her office in 1991. "The key," she says, "is to keep it small and simple. There's a lot of opportunity to be creative with straw."

Houses are now going up in several parts of the state. "There is interest among builders, contractors, and engineers," Pierce says. Permits are out in Stanley, Silver City, Placitas, Albuquerque, Edgewood and Santa Fe.

Lending for these structures is still ad hoc. But Clare Easterwood, President of Calumet Mortgage Lending (d/b/a The Mortgage Company), believes there is an openness to lending. More important, there is an awareness of the quality of these houses. "Lenders want a 'curb-side' appeal to the building plans," she points out. There are enough examples. Bankers can see some elegant straw houses already built.