Hello everyone,
The idea:
What I am wondering about:
Best regards
The idea:
- Single-family house built with solid wood construction
- Wooden floor slab
- No basement
- Insulation with straw because it is sustainable and allows for cost-effective implementation even with very high insulation thicknesses
What I am wondering about:
- What about fire safety?
- How can it be ensured that pests do not infest the straw? Even if everything is covered with wood paneling, could worms or similar pests bore through?
Best regards
K
kletterbuxe15 Dec 2021 10:40Hello everyone,
I’m planning to insulate my foundation slab with straw and came across this thread. Since it’s relatively recent, I thought I’d revive it.
You could use a wood frame construction, similar to what is used for walls. Simply timber stud framing or wooden beams. The straw bales are pressed into these frames to achieve a bulk density of about 100 kg/m³ (6.2 lb/ft³) of straw. There are no cavities left— not even enough space for a hand to fit in.
The elements then need to be covered appropriately to meet fire protection requirements.
For exterior walls, it’s typical to apply clay plaster on the inside and lime plaster on the outside. You can also clad the outside with wood panels and plaster underneath with clay.
This method is also possible for roofs, and is said to work very well for summer thermal insulation. However, I don’t have personal experience with that yet.
You can have the timber frame custom made by a carpenter according to an engineer’s specifications. However, there are also system suppliers who produce prefabricated wall elements.
For example, Lorenzsysteme (Lorenz GmbH) offers three wall thicknesses. Their thickest panel is 34 cm (13 inches) and achieves, without plaster, a U-value of 0.162 W/(m²·K).
Best regards,
Sebastian
I’m planning to insulate my foundation slab with straw and came across this thread. Since it’s relatively recent, I thought I’d revive it.
manohara schrieb:
The straw won’t just be placed "under the floor," right? It must be processed somehow, like compressed or mixed with a binder?
manohara schrieb:
If straw bales are used as they come from the field, you need a strategy to fill the gaps that remain. (As far as I know, gaps in insulation significantly reduce its effectiveness.)
... and these bales are not treated to be fire-retardant.
You could use a wood frame construction, similar to what is used for walls. Simply timber stud framing or wooden beams. The straw bales are pressed into these frames to achieve a bulk density of about 100 kg/m³ (6.2 lb/ft³) of straw. There are no cavities left— not even enough space for a hand to fit in.
The elements then need to be covered appropriately to meet fire protection requirements.
For exterior walls, it’s typical to apply clay plaster on the inside and lime plaster on the outside. You can also clad the outside with wood panels and plaster underneath with clay.
This method is also possible for roofs, and is said to work very well for summer thermal insulation. However, I don’t have personal experience with that yet.
manohara schrieb:
A "straw house" is not far from here. I saw the construction occasionally and found it quite appealing.
Straw definitely works (although the walls were at least half a meter thick).
You can have the timber frame custom made by a carpenter according to an engineer’s specifications. However, there are also system suppliers who produce prefabricated wall elements.
For example, Lorenzsysteme (Lorenz GmbH) offers three wall thicknesses. Their thickest panel is 34 cm (13 inches) and achieves, without plaster, a U-value of 0.162 W/(m²·K).
Best regards,
Sebastian
T_im_Norden schrieb:
I'll suggest seagrass as insulation.
Of course, it needs to be applied with sufficient thickness. Hello,
The post is a bit old, but do you have experience with seagrass?
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