Customer Reviews

The Straw Bale House (A Real Goods Independent Living Book)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was directly responsible for our decision, two years ago, to build the straw house featured in the photo album. My wife, daughter (9mos.) and I are now living in the 3,600 sq ft home that cost @ $20/sq ft to build. That includes radient floor heat, high quality windows and a 1000 sq ft great room with a 15' high cathedral ceiling. Most of the labor was done by myself, friends and family. If you are considering building with straw, buy THE book and go to Arizona to take a workshop given by the authors. Both are well worth the money.

The Straw Bale House is not a "how to" although it gives enough detailed info that it could be used that way. There is an excellent balance between environmental concerns, and human habitational needs. It doesn't fall into the guilt inducing that Build It With Bales does, ie that construction of human dwellings is destruction of of nature and should always be kept to the bare minimum. The straw bale House seeks to encourage non-builders to give building their own homes a reasonable try, and takes into account many possible variables such as materials availability, costs, skill level required, code requirements. Excellent book. I loved the short section on life-cycle cost comparisons between owner-built straw homes and contractor built framed homes. The author is so right when he or she says that we want that savings for our children's children.

For someone who knew nothing about straw bale construction this book was not only informative, but also inspiring. The Straw Bale House contains a lot of good information about the specifics of straw bale construction. I found that because it covered information about straw bale construction from start to finish it couldn't go into as much detail about any one aspect as much as I would have liked. However, my feeling is that this book was designed to get you interested and then send you out to gather the more specific information for yourself. It has proven effective at inspiring me.

I first heard of straw bale construction about 6 years ago, and it captured my fancy immediately. However, my interest sparked many questions (i.e., how to finish interiors, roof styles, durability, moisture, etc.). This book reads very easily, with a good combination of history, how-to, and research, and answered virtually all my questions. I now have a clear picture of what is involved in building a straw bale home. A great resource and a great read!

This book would seem to be an indispensible starting point for anyone looking into the straw bale home concept. If the thought of a poorly-insulated, energy-guzzling, expensive, bland, mass-produced, contractor-built home doesn't quite appeal to you, this book is essential, for it shows that inexpensive doesn't have to mean low quality nor unattractive. In fact, bales and other "natural", low-cost building materials can yield attractively individual results in part because they are easy and fun to work with, enfranchising the future owner to be his or her own designer and builder. The inspiring photos included in the book help make the case for the aesthetic advantages. Of course, the most important function is to show how to build the straw bale home. In this respect, the book succeeds admirably, giving diagrams to illustrate the major techniques being used and showing how simple straw bale building is. Incidentally, this would make an attractive book for your coffee table even if you are just mildly interested in the subject. One warning though: even including the index and other back-of-the-book sections, there are only 297 pages, not 336!

The Steens have written two books on this subject, this one from 1994, is the most informative as far as actual construction information goes. I would say that if you think you might want to actually build a straw home get this book and their second book,The Beauty of Straw Bale Homes(from 2000). After reading these books you'll need more information both about straw bale work and other construction and carpentry books, Amazon has a selection of those.

I must admit being fairly sceptical about straw bale construction until I read this book...

The style is very assessible and the content is thorough, interesting and informative. Just about every angle is covered in depth without being overly technical.

Includes useful covereage of many associated areas, such as rammed earth, adobe and passive solar issues.

An inspirational read for whether you are a dreamer or seriously intent on buiding your own house!

This is an EXCELLENT starting point for those of us interested in SB construction. It offers multiple methods of construction, from the foundation to the roof, which gives me (living in climatically & seismically fickle So-Cal) many options to choose from. It also gives good strategies for approcahing permits & financing. The examples they use end at about 1995, though, so there have been many more examples built since then - you SHOULD do additional research yourself. This book is a great confidence builder, and has lots of nice examples of beautiful SB houses that i could never afford to build but are quite inspirational nonetheless.

Probably the best book on straw bale construction around. The color pictures were beautiful, but I felt that they did not represent the mainstream of sb houses. I wanted a little more of the nuts and bolts.

This is a must have. If you are totally new (as I was) then this book will give you a good solid understanding of the pros and cons of strawbale construction. It is obvious that the authors know what they are talking about.

If you are vaguely interested in SB and haven't got this one you're really missing out.

Thanks Steen Steen and Bainbridge for this wonderful contribution.