Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Straw-bale construction has history of success

BUILDING with straw isn't a new idea.

Grasses and straw as housing materials have a history as long as human existence. For centuries throughout Europe and Asia, walls made of tied straw bundles and compacted loose straw and mud were used.

In the United States, the development of mechanical balers in the late 1800s took building with straw to new heights.

The first straw-bale buildings were raised by Nebraska homesteaders around the turn of the century -- square structures with the classic "Nebraska style" hipped roof seen on sod houses.

The oldest recorded building is a one-room Nebraska schoolhouse built around 1886, and some of the straw-bale homes built in the early 1900s are still in use.

By the early 1980s, the trend started taking off -- straw-bale homes of various sizes and styles were popping up throughout the country and by the early 1990s, the concept was being refined by builders and code officials.

The first permitted, insured, bank-financed straw-bale house was built in 1991 in Tesque, N.M. Since then, straw bale has been moving into the mainstream as a viable method of home construction.

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