A straw house is an environmentally friendly house that is good for health. Pros and cons of country houses made of straw Mice in a straw house

The first and most important thing is environmental friendliness. We use the most environmentally friendly materials, with minimal industrial processing. Expression: the level of included energy. In Russia, the term is not used; in Europe, this term is used much more often. What does it mean? The amount of energy that was expended in all stages of the production of building materials and the construction of a house. Starting from the stage of resource extraction, material processing, delivery and construction. If we compare a house built of bricks and a straw house (assuming straw grows within a radius of 50 km), then the level of included energy in a straw house will be 1000 times less. A thousand times less energy needs to be invested in building a house from straw. This figure is surprising.

Second. The highest degree of energy efficiency. If we compare the walls in terms of energy efficiency, then in order to achieve a result from a straw wall 45 cm thick, a brick house must be 6 meters thick. If we talk about mineral wool and polystyrene, then 45 cm of straw can be equated to 30 cm of mineral wool and polystyrene. If compared with wood (solid wood, glued beams), then the thickness will be 90 cm. On the market 22, 24 cm and everyone says that it is very warm. There is no more than 28 cm on the market. The heat resistance of a straw wall is maximum and equal to R=9.

Third. Microclimate. The wall of a straw house is vapor permeable. There are no cracks in the wall like in a wooden house, and the air is always fresh. Straw is a fairly warm material, and besides, it is quite well blown. But, this does not mean that the straw gives a draft. Straw houses are well protected both indoors and out. No one will ever know what a smart straw house is made of. The exterior of the house is finished in the same way as houses made of other building materials. In the process of finishing houses, highly vapor-permeable plasters and materials are used. Straw house ventilation is diffusion (diffusion is the movement of gases), air penetration at the molecular level. The average annual humidity level is 50%. In a stone house, when it is well heated, the air is always dry, and special steam generators are bought for humidification. The wall of a thatched house is a recuperator, i.e. part of the warm air is returned back to the house with fresh air. There is no ventilation device, the ventilation function is performed. Those. the air quality in the house is in perfect condition.

Fourth: Biopositivity. It is interesting to note that the quantity and quality of sleep is much better than in city apartments.

Fifth: The soundproofing of the straw wall. The material is an excellent thermal insulator. If you have enough high-quality windows in your house, and your children go outside the window and you want to tell them something, they will not hear you. Very high degree of sound insulation.

We all remember the famous tale of the three little pigs, which ridicules the poor Nif-nif and Nuf-nuf, who preferred flimsy structures made of straw and branches to a solid brick structure. Meanwhile, in the homeland of these same three piglets, in good old England, as well as in Germany, the USA and dozens of other countries, straw houses are being actively built. Today - one of the most economical, environmentally friendly and reliable building materials. So what was the matter, why are we still building from concrete, brick and timber? Let's try to debunk some of the most common myths and fears regarding the construction of straw blocks...

Myth #1: Lack of strength

The best proof of reliability is the durability of existing straw block buildings. The oldest of these, in Nebraska, are about a hundred years old and still in excellent condition. But in order to dispel the doubts of the incredulous, one should probably turn to the results of experiments. The Canadian Finance and Construction Corporation specifically conducted a series of tests to find out the reliability of thatched houses. For the demonstration experiment, a wall of straw blocks 2.44 m high and 3.66 m long, covered with plaster, was built. This wall withstood, without visible signs of destruction, a vertical pressure of 8 thousand kg and a lateral pressure of 325 kg, which fully meets all construction requirements.

The experts assessed that these figures correspond to the following loads:
Payload - 220 kg/m2. Snow loads - 293 kg/m2. Wind loads - 78 kg/m2. Permanent loads - 234 kg/m2. The results of the experiments show that this construction technique is fully trustworthy. Thatched houses could do a good job in seismically active regions. An example of this is a house in Wyoming, which was completely unaffected by the aftershocks, while neighboring buildings were damaged.

Myth #2: What if there's a fire?

The question of the safety of structures made of straw blocks in relation to fire usually always arises among those who first hear about such a construction technique. And this is a completely natural question, because everyone knows perfectly well how straw burns. Paper also burns wonderfully, but try setting fire to a thick book. This is a rather laborious task. A straw block, provided the straw is sufficiently compacted, resembles such a book in many respects. Moreover, we should not forget that thatched buildings are always covered with a thick layer of plaster, which greatly reduces the risk of fire. If we rely on comparative characteristics, then thatched houses are much superior in terms of fire protection to wooden structures (log houses, frame houses, etc.).

High fire safety is confirmed by official tests. The stucco thatched wall design has been officially tested in the US and Germany and rated F119 fire rated. A metal truss, for example, belongs to the fire resistance class F15, i.e. it loses its bearing capacity after 15 minutes under the influence of fire. The Canadian National Research Council has carried out special tests on stucco straw blocks. The results of the experiments showed that they, in their fire-fighting characteristics, are superior to other conventional building materials. A plastered straw block was heated for 4 hours. During all this time, its temperature has only risen to 43 ° C twice, which fully meets all the requirements. The plastered surface withstood heating up to 100 °C for 2 hours without any trace of cracks.

Here is an excerpt from a report on the results of these experiments: “The wall, made of plastered straw blocks, is unusually resistant to fire. Straw blocks contain enough air inside to provide good thermal insulation, but at the same time, due to the pressing, they do not contain enough air to ignite. ” However, thatched houses can burn like any other, and special attention, first of all, must be paid to the electrical wiring. The best strategy is to lay down enough thick wiring, and use metal or plastic tubular insulators. Fire usually spreads from top to bottom from the roof or attic, so a fire barrier must be included in the design of the house, laid on the top plane of the wall. Such a barrier can be a layer of clay plaster.

Myth #3: Straw will rot, spider bugs, rat mice will start...

People who had to dismantle old buildings, where ordinary rye straw served as a heater, were surprised at its excellent preservation for 100-150 years. Very often, people worry that straw houses can become a haven for all sorts of pests. Stacks swarming with mice and other chilling examples are given as an example. Experience shows that such fears are unfounded. Straw in blocks is subjected to pressing, which does not leave rodents much chance for housewarming. In addition, a thick layer of plaster is a fairly good protection against all types of pests, including the smallest - insects. If we compare thatched houses with other generally accepted buildings, then sheathed frame houses are of greater interest to unwanted guests, due to the space between the walls. A clear confirmation of the above can serve as a thatched house in Massachusetts, which stood without plaster for several years, showing no signs that rodents were wound up there. However, in order to be completely calm, one must bear in mind the following. The straw must be sufficiently compacted, which can be verified by the ratio of block size to weight.

Myth #4: Heat will dissipate

Straw has a thermal conductivity 7 times lower than brick and 4 times lower than wood. Accordingly, the amount of fuel required to heat the room is reduced by the same amount. The straw house is energy-passive; building envelopes have a heat transfer resistance coefficient of at least 8 (modern SNiPs require 2.5).

Energy performance: energy consumption during construction is reduced by at least 300 times compared to brick and gas silicate building envelopes with modern insulation per 1 m2 of the total area.

Thermal conductivity coefficients of enclosing structures: the thermal conductivity index of a straw wall is 0.12 W/m2K, which is comparable to such indicators as: wood 0.5 W/m2K, brick 0.5–1.5 W/m2K. The energy requirement for heating is less than 40 kWh/m2 per year.

Straw blocks are an excellent heat insulator. Even the first settlers in Nebraska, who first applied this construction technique, noted that in winter it was unusually warm in such a house. They specially measured the temperature inside the house when it hit 20-degree frosts. The thermometer showed 18 degrees Celsius, and the stove was not working at that time. In addition, in the summer it is always cooler inside a straw house than outside, regardless of the heat. All these qualities make them unusually pleasant for the inhabitants. At the same time, the direct benefit must also be taken into account. Many of those who live in thatched houses note that their heating costs are always half that of their neighbors who live in ordinary houses.

Consumption ecology. Manor: Straw roofing has a number of advantages. It, thanks to a special laying technology, will keep warm in the winter cold, and cool in the summer heat.

Despite the fact that in the past only poor owners covered their own with thatch, today, this type of roofing has begun to occupy one of the leading positions among the elite types of coatings. At the moment, there are a fairly large number of architectural types of straw roofs, but the most common are American, English, Dutch and Danish types of roofs.

Their main advantage, first of all, lies in a rather original appearance and excellent technical performance. A thatched roof can become a wonderful decoration for almost any home, giving it its own unique and special flavor. Its distinctive feature is its naturalness and attractiveness. This type of roof can be used not only for the arrangement of small cottages, but also for covering roofs of more spacious structures. A straw roof can give a special originality even to very expensive and elite houses.

Although this type of roof is called straw, in their arrangement, in addition to long-stalk straw, reeds, heather and reeds are also used. The material for covering houses is most often reed, since it is he who is the most durable. In addition, the increased flexibility of reeds allows you to create roofing coverings of various shapes and designs.

Straw and reeds, at present, belong to the category of elite materials used for the manufacture of roofing. In reality, the exclusivity of such a roof lies in the quality of the material used, the complexity of manufacturing and, of course, its originality. When laying a thatched roof, only environmentally friendly materials are used, which are distinguished by unique performance indicators.

Thatch roofing has a number of advantages. It, thanks to a special laying technology, will keep warm in the winter cold, and cool in the summer heat. Materials of natural origin allow the house to breathe and create a favorable microclimate in the room.

Such roofs are quite reliable and are characterized by increased resistance even to the most extreme weather conditions. Due to the use of special impregnation, they do not absorb water, do not swell, and do not change their shape due to moisture.

Despite the fact that straw itself is considered a fire hazard, the possibility of its ignition, due to the very dense laying and the use of fire retardants, is reduced to a minimum.

This type of coating, unlike other types of roofs, does not require additional ventilation systems. The thatched roof fully complies with all norms of heat and sound insulation. Its thermal conductivity is no worse than even modern types of insulation.

Among the disadvantages of a thatched roof, one should highlight the impossibility of installing gutters and pipes, which is caused by the significant thickness of the coating itself. The solution to this problem in each case is carried out individually.

Another disadvantage of straw covering is its high cost. The use of straw as a roofing material will cost much more than the use of tiles or other materials. True, in this case there is a certain plus. When installing a thatched roof, you will not have to spend extra money on arranging steam and waterproofing, which means that the difference in the total cost will not be so noticeable. published

Building a home using straw bales may seem at first glance. crazy idea. And, by the way, for some, this alone is a serious limitation - the risk of being branded as a "black sheep" is not too tough for many :) But still, this is not the only and not the main drawback and risk in the construction of a thatched house.

Straw and pressed straw blocks have three real "enemies" - this is increased humidity, fire and rodents. Let's call them "obvious" shortcomings.

Disadvantages are obvious

1 Risk of rotting in high humidity

Straw with a moisture content of more than 20% begins to mold, rot and collapse the stems, so it is so important to keep the straw blocks dry before construction begins, lay them dry and quickly close up with plaster.

It also follows from this that thatched walls cannot be left open. At the same time, the choice of coatings is also limited:

• cement-sand plaster
• clay-sand plaster
• gypsum plaster
• gypsum sheets
• wooden panels

There is a risk of mold on both unplastered and poorly made walls.
In areas with a constant humid climate, you will need high-quality vapor barrier on the inner surfaces of the outer walls.
Wide roof overhangs protect the house from heavy rain.

2 fire

Plastered pressed straw blocks have high fire resistance, they are officially awarded very. A properly protected thatched wall is superior in fire safety to a wooden one. And here straw scattered on the construction site can easily cause a fire. You need to be especially careful with straw in attics, attics, near fireplaces.

In confirmation - the story of a woman whose house burned down during the construction phase.

“A house was being built for permanent residence (autumn 2005). The plot was bought with a finished basement. The frame was attached to the foundation with anchors 14x220. The blocks were tied with two simple strings, they were not compressed in good conscience, because during laying, a lot was gutted ... The outer wall was covered with DSP, and the inner ones were sewn up with a board with a gap.

In the photo you can see to what stage the house was built until it burned down (on the second floor, they managed to make a draft floor and interior partitions). At this stage, the builders began to lay glass insulation on the foundation on the 1st floor, heating it with a blowtorch (April 2006). According to them, windows were open on the second floor. After a while, it began to smoke under the skin and floor. They began to blow up, flood, but could not, the fire spread very quickly and burned the whole house. There are many versions, but I think there was a draft of hot air and, most importantly, a violation of fire safety…”

Prevention measures:

• no smoking on the construction site
• quickly clean up scattered straw
• always have a fire extinguisher handy
• do not use open flames until the walls are plastered
• use tightly packed straw blocks
• after laying the blocks, plaster them outside, and then inside the house, before proceeding with the interior decoration.

3 Rodents

“So the mice will eat it” is a very common statement about thatched houses. Why is it so widespread? Because mice can really settle in the straw in search of food and warmth. True, not in any straw, and not quite in straw :) It is inconvenient for mice to settle directly in straw blocks - they are prickly, but in the voids between the block and, for example, a drywall slab, they may well.

By the way, rodents are not the only small pests that can help you tear your house apart :) There are also birds and insects that can also choose straw as their habitat.

Prevention measures: use rye or rice straw for insulation (mice do not eat it and do not settle in it), isolate all possible ways of access to the straw.

Disadvantages little mentioned, but real

4 Design limitations

When using a load-bearing frame, design restrictions are small, but they exist, and they primarily concern the number, location, width and height of openings.

5 Thick walls

Makes walls quite thick. One of the difficulties with walls of this thickness is the need to expand the foundation and increase the roof area. In homes with thinner walls, creating exactly the same usable interior space requires fewer resources.

6 Few typical projects

Unlike houses built using other technologies, there is a clear lack of typical straw block construction schemes. This means that the development of a project for the construction of a thatched house will most likely have to be ordered individually, and understanding architects, designers, builders will have to be looked for.

In some countries, there are still no building codes (in Belarus it is regulated by SNIP, in the Russian Federation and Ukraine there also seems to be).

7 Timing and money

You need to immediately have a certain amount on hand in order to quickly solve the “must-have problems”. I will give one dialogue from the forum, which illustrates this point well.

- ... one BUT: if I put up a log house and I run out of money, I can live in it unfinished, but the straw house requires both external and internal decoration, and immediately.
- The cost of a minimum finish for living in a house is so insignificant that it does not deserve a separate discussion. If there was money for the frame, roof and windows, then there would be crumbs for plastering.
- Something tells me that it will cost at least $5 per square, and there are a lot of squares in the house!
- Necessarily! At least 5! If you don’t put your hands on yourself, but walk and poke your finger, it’s uneven here, grease it there ...

8 Timing and money - 2

We have suitable straw closer to August, and if there is not enough money, then you may not have time to do everything before winter. And in winter, external walls cannot be plastered. Therefore, there is a prospect under the roof of an unfinished house or outbuildings on the site, and after it - risk No. 1.

9 "Finger pointing"

Due to the fact that the technology of building from straw blocks is not yet very widespread, it will be necessary to monitor the progress of work much more and more carefully compared to building from "traditional" materials: so that the builders do not smoke, do not work with the burner, and that fertilizers are nearby did not turn out to be with straw (for example, ammonium nitrate - spontaneous combustion is possible upon contact with sawdust or straw), and so that children with matches do not appear nearby ...

P.S. Disadvantages of thatched houses with a load-bearing frame

You may have already heard that a straw house can be built framed and frameless. To be honest, I still have little idea of ​​a process with this, however, people call the disadvantages of thatched construction with a supporting frame, so we’ll just mark them “for show”. So, this is an additional expenditure of time, money, labor, materials for the creation of a supporting system, when the blocks themselves could support the weight of the roof, as well as the need to create a foundation that carries the weight of the blocks and concentrated loads from vertical racks.

Do not know global!
Do you know more about the disadvantages and risks? Please share!

Read soon:

• Myths about the straw house
• "Straw" superstitions

I remember my childhood, when there was only one salvation from the forty-degree heat, the parental house of adobe construction (basic straw, clay). We were lying on the cool floor, smeared with ordinary clay and covered with linoleum on top, drinking surprisingly tasty mama's kvass.

Living in a multi-storey building, experiencing all the “charm” of the August temperature, I return with nostalgia to the idea of ​​​​living in a house, built from straw and clay.

My aspiration has many supporters, and it coincides with modern trends in the construction industry. The desire to live in an environmentally friendly, comfortable and solid house is driven by objective circumstances. This is a constant increase in tariffs for energy carriers, as well as the deterioration of the ecological environment from the gas pollution of industrial facilities and vehicles.

But there is one of the few factors due to which there is no proper development of housing construction from natural materials such as clay and straw. And this factor is not technical or even financial - it is the lack of understanding of the capital structure of the listed materials.

Many people whose immediate plans include the construction of a private house say so - that a house made of straw and clay is a temporary structure, perhaps a summer cottage, but not a permanent structure. The owner is building a house, counting on a 50-year service life as a minimum.

Let's try together to dispel these prejudices and along the way answer a number of very important questions, what is an environmentally friendly, comfortable and energy-efficient home.

At the very beginning, it is necessary to characterize the modern technology for building such a house. The basis of the residential building is made up of straw panels. Despite the fact that the construction of straw houses has a long history, the technology of their construction from straw panels is unique.

What are straw panels

This is a dense wooden frame filled with straw. The technology of laying straw into the frame is unique and patented in most European countries and the CIS. For the production of straw panels, straw (rye, wheat) with a moisture level of up to 15% is used. When pressing straw into a wooden frame, a compression ratio of 70-150 kg / m3 is maintained, while the structure of the straw provides high thermal resistance to the entire structure.

Excess straw is cut so evenly by means of special mechanisms that when plastering panels of this type, less plaster is used than on similar surfaces.

Panels made using this technology are the supporting structure of the building. They meet all the requirements of stability, compression, combustibility and durability. Standard straw panels, which measure 3x1.2x0.45m, weigh no more than 250kg, so they can be lifted by hand or with small lifts.

The technology for building housing from straw panels provides for two assembly options: the first is a wooden or metal frame filled with panels; the second is a frameless assembly of panels, the latter being used both as load-bearing structures (walls) and in coatings and ceilings (floor, ceiling).

The housing construction technology itself is an innovative product that has been developing and improving over the past 5-7 years in Europe, the Baltic countries, Belarus and Ukraine. Recently, the construction of houses from ecological straw panels is gaining more and more momentum throughout the European continent.

Reasons in favor of straw panels

To confirm the idea that straw and clay house capital structure, we give the following parameters.

Structural strength.

Based on the tests carried out (a sample of a straw panel 0.95 × 0.95 × 0.45 m was tested) and the certificates received, the permissible load on the floor panel is 205 kg / m? (for residential premises according to SNiP - 150 kg / m?).

Permissible load on the wall panel is 61 t/m². The allowable load for a brick wall (normal brick) of the same thickness is 100 t/m².

As you can see, if you build a frameless house from straw panels, then the permissible loads for a one-story and two-story building fully satisfy the requirements. In the case of a frame structure, they exceed the standard parameters, and this will depend on the material of the frame (wood or metal).

Environmental friendliness.

The structure of straw panels includes natural environmentally friendly materials: wood, straw, clay. Panels plastered with a special clay composition (without chemical impurities) do not allow moisture to accumulate, which prevents the formation of mold, kills unpleasant odors, and is a 100% natural non-combustible product.

Inside the straw house there is no electrostatic charge, in the presence of which dust hangs in the air, which is undesirable for people with various allergic diseases, including asthma.

Straw panels plastered with clay mortar, cause their high fire safety (resistance to open fire 900-1000 ° C, for more than 1 hour), and is also an unsurpassed antiseptic and antistatic agent.

Comfort.

Due to the high thermal insulation characteristics (three times higher than that of aerated concrete, seven times higher than that of brick), a house built of straw panels is cool in summer and warm in winter.

Constant 50% humidity, which is maintained naturally, without the use of additional equipment, has a beneficial effect on the human body.

Also, thatched houses have a higher level of sound insulation (wall sound insulation limit - 54 dB), which improves the comfort of living and the impact on the health of their owners.

Energy efficiency and energy saving.

The main indicator of energy saving of any building is its minimum heat loss. We know that up to 65% of heat loss in existing residential buildings is through walls, roofs, floors and cold bridges.

Straw panels used for the construction of individual residential buildings have high thermal insulation characteristics: thermal conductivity coefficient? = 0.05 - 0.06 W / m2 K (with a straw density of 90-130 kg / m2); heat transfer resistance of the wall R = 7-9 m2 K / W (with a straw panel thickness of 0.4-0.5 m). The structure of such structures corresponds to a high energy class (“passive house”), with low heating costs.

When installing straw panels made using a unique technology, it is possible to completely avoid the formation of cold bridges, since when they are connected, the straw sides are pressed against each other. Thus, a special tightness of the structure is achieved.

Let's sum up a little. Why do I and my supporters have a desire build a house out of straw and mud?

When investing in the construction of a thatched house, we get a property of especially high quality, which is characterized by:

— a healthy microclimate for yourself and the whole family;

- durability and strength;

- constant 50% humidity, which has a beneficial effect on the human body;

- cheap heat in winter and natural air conditioning in summer;

— energy saving;

- environmental friendliness.

The advantages also include the fact that the construction of houses from straw panels takes little time. Only 2-3 workers are needed to lay down the walls of a 130 sq.m. house. for several days without the use of expensive lifting gear, which entails huge cost savings and is the exclusive advantage of this technology.

I'll add one more thing. It is better to see once than to hear seven times. So I visited several straw-panel housing projects.

In my opinion, and it coincides with the opinion of the owners of such buildings, where I personally visited, by building an eco-house from straw for yourself, you will add exclusivity, individuality inherent in the owners of expensive and high-quality real estate, who know the price of a healthy and comfortable lifestyle for their family .

Let your dream come true and the investment will turn into huge dividends for you and your loved ones.