Wednesday, April 3, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
LITTLE pigs and big bad wolves asides, straw houses are no joke.
Houses made with straw bales are stacking up as one of the most cost- and energy-efficient building methods of the 21st century. It's not some lingering off-beat hippie idea either.
A U.S. Department of Energy publication touts straw-bale building as "a practical and perhaps underutilized construction method ... walls of straw, easily constructed and structurally sound, promise to take some of the pressure off of limited forest reserves."
A recent demonstration program showed local residents how to build a straw home as well as explain their practicality.
A house is built by stacking bale walls on a prepared foundation. The bales are held in place with rebar or stakes that have been cast in the foundation.
Door and window frames are set in place as the walls go up. A plate is attached to the top of the bales to support a roof.
Electrical and plumbing layouts aren't any different in a straw-bale house than a traditional house, and interior and exterior walls can be finished conventionally.
But everyone always asks, what about fire, rot, allergies and bugs? What about building codes? How much does a straw-bale house cost?
The how-tos of building a straw-bale house were addressed during a weekend "Building With Straw Bales" workshop sponsored by the state's Department of Business and Industry Energy Office, Nevada Power Co. and UNLV.
Workshop leader David Eisenberg explained that fire tests in New Mexico and the National Research Council of Canada found that straw-bale walls actually performed better than conventional building materials.
But why?
"Because straw bales hold enough air to provide good insulation values, but because they're so firmly compacted, they don't hold enough air to permit combustion," Eisenberg said.
Eisenberg is co-founder of the Tucson-based Development Center for Appropriate Technology and co-author of the the definitive book on straw-bale building, "The Straw Bale House." He's been helping people build straw-bale houses and running workshops for more than five years.
He said that the secret to straw-bale success is buying dry bales and keeping them that way.
That's accomplished by elevating the bales 6 to 8 inches above the ground, putting the roof on as soon as possible and using permeable paint for interior and exterior wall surfaces so the walls can "breathe."
"There are homes that have been left unplastered for some long periods of time that haven't shown any deterioration even when subjected to rain and snow," Eisenberg said. "The bales just dried out when the weather changed."
Dry bales also solve the problems of rot, bugs and allergies. The Department of Energy reports that "straw bales provide fewer havens for pests such as insects and vermin than conventional wood framing."
Straw-bale houses are estimated to cost about one-fourth less than a comparable, conventional house.
"But, like any house, a straw bale house can be as simple or complicated as you want. It all depends on what you can afford, what you want and if you're going to do the work yourself or hire someone to do it for you," Eisenberg said.
Out in the Nevada Power Co. parking lot, action spoke louder than words.
Workshop participants and volunteers built a 16-by-16-foot structure under the guidance of Eisenberg and Christy Tews, a straw-bale expert and construction educator from Reno.
Throughout the weekend as Eisenberg, Tews and the workshop participants discussed the technicalities of foundations, roofs, siding, plumbing and wiring, another important point kept emerging.
"Straw-bale houses definitely lend themselves to the old-fashioned concept of cooperation. Look what people working together can accomplish," Tews said.
But there's the pesky detail of meeting code requirements. Some areas of the country already have developed straw-bale codes and others, like Nevada, are working on them.
Legislation passed in 1995 and sponsored by Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani and Assemblyman Mike Schneider encourages local building officials to issue permits for straw-bale construction and solar energy projects in accordance with the state's Uniform Building Code and Model Energy Code.
During the workshop, city and county code officials attended a session just for them.
Clark County plan checker Jack Meiner already has straw-bale experience.
About two years ago, Meiner was working in Arizona and took a close look at some straw-bale homes. He said he has "mixed feelings" about straw-bale construction.
"It's an excellent, energy-efficient house and the New Mexico tests addressed the fire issues. There's no problem with bugs and I've talked to people who live in them and they don't have problem with allergies. But I've got some concerns about the structural issue," he said.
Meiner said the data he's seen doesn't answer his questions about how strong different types of straw bales are and how much weight they can safely bear.
"They've only tested wheat straw. I don't know if the quality or type of straw makes a difference. We've got to find some way to test the density of different types of straw bales," he said, adding that even though straw-bale houses have been around for more than 100 years, the concept is new to code departments.
But straw-bale supporters have already approached the County Building Department. At this point, they'll have to hire an engineer for a structural analysis of any straw-bale project.
If the building is deemed structurally sound, Meiner will then review the plans as he would for a conventional house.
"We'll look at them on a case-by-case basis and we'll try to look at them with an open mind. We're certainly not ready to adopt a code yet," he said.
Meanwhile, a straw-bale fever has hit Nevada.
Seventy people signed up for the first workshop in the state, said event coordinator Jan McAdams, and there are 200 more on a waiting list for future workshops.
Schneider is making plans to build a 3,600-square-foot, $300,000 straw-bale demonstration home in Las Vegas.
He's paying for the house, and Nevada Power is designing the heating, cooling and lighting systems and will install equipment in order to monitor the house's energy efficiency for 10 years.
Others are ready to build. Real estate agent Andy Maline is looking for land for a group interested in building a straw-bale subdivision, and Nevada's first straw-bale house is under way in Douglas County.
There's even "Straw-Bale Saturdays" twice a month for anybody interested in exchanging information.
"There's so much interest," said McAdams. "People are really excited about this. Las Vegas hopes to lead the nation in straw-bale education. We've got the pulse of the straw-bale revolution in Las Vegas."
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