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Why build with straw bales?

Straw bales are an inexpensive, infinitely renewable agricultural waste product. Straw bale walls are strong, fire resistant, pest resistant, sound proof, and super-insulated. Straw bale buildings are beautiful, quite, energy efficient, and resist accidental and intentional damage.

Why use straw bales to build affordable housing?

All of the reasons to build with straw bales apply to building affordable housing using straw bales.

Bale walls:

• are strong and damage resistant,
• when painted with silicon dispersion paint do not require re-painting,
• meet all of the provincial requirements for fire resistance and life safety,
• rarely suffer from the rodent infestations common in stick framed buildings,
• provide additional privacy as a result of their excellent sound attenuation properties, and
• often exceed the CMHC reported average energy savings for older straw bale buildings of 21%.

All of these factors can greatly effect the balance of profitability of affordable housing developments. Reduced repair and ongoing maintenance costs and greatly reduced heating and cooling costs make straw bale construction an excellent chose for your affordable housing project.

Why should I hire Organic Environments?

We believe in a straight forward, practical approach to straw bale construction. We understand that there is a need to balance the environmental savings of the building with the realities of modern production construction techniques. We have experience both designing and building straw bale buildings, managing teams and projects, working on large commercial construction sites, and in C&DW diversion. Our experienced trainers can teach your personnel how to build strong, weather resistant, energy efficient buildings while effectively integrating the straw bale construction process into your normal conventional building trades and practices.

Why use straw bales to build First Nations housing?

Straw bales are a highly flexible building material. Sweeping curved walls and organic forms are easy to create using straw bales. Straw bale buildings are more organic that conventional buildings. Municipal, provincial, and federal governments offer incentives for First Nations housing and for energy efficient construction. We can teach the members of your First Nation how to build beautiful, energy efficient, high quality housing.

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