Tag Archives: Building Green With Straw

Lending and Finance for Green Home Building

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Lending and Finance for Green Home Building

Green Home Building, Building Green With Straw

Straw Bale, Sun and BBQ - A spring To Cherish

When considering the option of green home building or even building green with straw or other alternative building materials, it may also be prudent to contact your bank or lending institution to find out whether or not they lend to people building green homes.  Some institutions put extra clauses in their agreements or set additional lending criteria or limits on loans that are to be used for building green with straw.

Many people in rural areas (larger properties, out of town etc) can have difficulty getting finance for homes, especially green home building projects.  On the upside, many lending institutions now have ‘green’ loans that specifically target green home building projects.

As more people approach lending institutions and successfully negotiate finance the way will be made easier for others to follow.   As increasing numbers of  people embark in green home building and especially alternatives such as building green with straw this will become a more mainstream way of doing things.

Building Green with Straw – Which Construction Methods?

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building green with straw

Framework ready for infill construction (image - Photobucket)

Building Green with Straw – Which Construction Methods?

Building Green with Straw lends itself to different construction methods and when planning to construct a home using alternative building materials it pays to do a little research about what construction method is most commonly used in your area.  This may make it easier to get approval through your local authority and find tradespeople with experience in your chosen method.

Primarily there are two main construction types when building green with straw.  The first and often most common is to construct is “Infill or Post and Beam Construction” and use bales as infill between the posts.  The second is “Load Bearing Construction” techniques where the bale walls themselves take the load of the roof.

Whichever method you choose when building green with straw, it pays to do your research and find out all you can prior to starting.

Green Home Building: Advice Is Everywhere

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Green Home Building: Advice Is Everywhere

green home building advice You can find excellent information and advice on green home building, sustainable materials and owner building everywhere these days.

Look at your local council or building authority website as a place to start.  Many government departments at state and national levels also have  good information available on alternatives, sustainable materials and good design principles on website.  Much of this information is for free.

You only have to enter the phrase ‘green home building’ into your web browser to see the amount of interest and information that is out there on  the web to get an understanding of how many people are thinking, talk and actually doing green home building.  Talk to people you know, speak  with your local building or council authority, check the web, read magazines, borrow or buy books that inspire you and start looking at new ways  to use natural building materials for your eco home.

As you can see there is a lot to consider when you decide that green home building is something you want to do.  With a little thought, good planning, careful sourcing of information and materials and keeping an open mind to where the help you need might come from, you will find your green home building adventure to be one of the best things you ever did.

Green Home Building: Buy, Trade and Barter

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Green Home Building: Buy, Trade and Barter

green home building

Ahhh - just what we are looking for!

Building a green home, like any building or remodelling project, is a huge task.  However, most people are up to the job if they plan it properly and have the right advice.  One interesting outcome for a lot of people is the opportunity to share materials, trade labour and barter (exchange) goods and services with other people who have also embarked on their own green home building adventure.

It is quite a common thing for people building green with straw to get a gang of their friends and neighbours together to help with the rendering.  What is also common is for people who may not have known each other prior to commencing green home building helping each other with labour, the lending of tools, the sharing of materials (buying in bulk means you may get a better price) and generally celebrating their shared green home building journey.

You may come across materials left over from green home building projects of other self or owner builders which will be perfect for you project.  No matter what happens, meeting with and working with other people who are also immersed in green home building can only enhance your own experience.

Green Home Building: Talk To Others

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Green Home Building: Talk to Others

As you begin to consider the options available to you it is well worth remembering that there is probably already a community of people in your local area who are also considering green home building as an option.  There will also be people who have successfully completed their eco homes and it is worth making contact with them to help you as you begin planning your project.

Green Home BuildingTalking to other people will open your eyes to different approaches, help you solve problems, result in referral to others who may inspire or assist you.  We made contact with all the local trades people we used on our building green with straw project and we were able to take a look at some of their work which made it much more reassuring when we did speak with them about our ideas and our vision for our home.  Talking to others can lead to the development of local support networks which can be really helpful when things get a little tough on your green home building work site.

Green Home Building: Ethics and Values

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Green Home Building: Ethics and Values

Green Home BuildingThis is a more difficult area of green home building to navigate and in the end is fraught with compromise.  The decision to use locally sourced, environmentally friendly and low toxicity materials are all ethical considerations, they reflect your values.  While undertaking the planning process for your green home building project, take a look at your ethical wishes and list them in order of importance to you, this will make all those future compromises easier to make as you will have a ready made priority list to hand.

For example you may need to employ some trades people for those jobs that you just can’t physically do yourself or that regulations stipulate you much get qualified people to perform.  You could base your decision on price, on availability, on location, on experience or on their commitment to green home building principles.  List these in order of importance for you – this really will make your compromises easier.
As you can see, once you start green home building (with awareness) – things can get complicated.

Your Green Home Building Project – DIY?

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Green Home Building

Time to Get in the Professionals

Your Green Home Building Project – DIY?

When green home building, many people opt to employ a contractor to build their eco home for them as they think it would be too difficult to consider doing it themselves.

This is a valid point of view.  Take some time to look carefully at the plan you have drawn, the materials you have selected, the finishes you wish to employ in creating your eco home and see if they are conducive to owner building or DIY.  Perhaps a combination of approaches will suit you best.  Having these thoughts in place will assist you when you approach the formal design and application process.  Green home building is essentially the same as building anything else and sometimes the materials selected with be easier to use and sometimes they will take more time to use.

It’s important to be realistic when you are making decision about what you are capable of.  It is equally important to be brave – there is do doubt that you will surprise yourself at what you are actually able to do yourself.  Break each task into small tasks, use technology (machinery for example) to make it easier, get good advice for things you don’t understand and then, take your time.  Many people discover skills and talents they never knew they possessed.

I once read a story of a couple who had recently retired.  They decided that building green with straw was something they wanted to do and so they set about the task of designing their home.  When it came time to commence the task making their money go a long way was a top priority and they decided that they would do a lot of the work themselves.  Unfortunately they hadn’t built anything prior to this and didn’t know what skills they had.  So they looked at the first part of their green home building project – the foundations and broke it down into many different tasks.

  • Site prep – get in a contractor,
  • dig footings – ‘I can do that’,
  • order and purchase materials – ‘I can do that’,
  • make concrete –  ’I can do that’,
  • pour the footings – “I can do that…. with help from friends’.

This is an example of how you can approach your green home building project in a way that determines what may be possible to do yourself, with friends or assisting professionals.  Approach green home building with an “I can do”  that attitude and some common sense and you will have a very successful outcome.

Green Home Building: Select Your Materials.

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Green Home Building – Select Your Materials

What green building materials are you going to consider using for your green home building project?  Building green with straw is just one potential aspect.  You could incorporate recycled materials, natural timbers, bamboo, locally sourced hardwoods and even mud brick, cob or rammed earth.  You have almost endless options for wall, window, roof, floor and other finishes.

Green Home Building
Peter Olorenshaw Mudbrick interior – Photobucket


There are many things to consider but looking at pictures and books and visiting other eco homes, will give you lots of inspiration.  Often it is the someone embarking on a green home building project that will consider local materials as their best option as they reduce transport costs and associated energy use.

Materials close to their natural state have required much less energy to manufacture and therefore have a reduced environmental impact.  Recycled, re-used or re-purposed materials can often have the smallest impact of all.

Get creative and take a look around your community for what may suit your green home the best.  Green home building can be a real opportunity to select materials not usually used in home building such as straw bale and is especially suited to using recycled materials.

Green Home Building: Design Principles

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Green Home Building: Design Principles

When making your first attempts at a floor plan or design for your green home building project, there are some very basic but essential design principles to consider.

Don’t be daunted, you CAN do this at home!

You have some of your elements selected such as bedrooms, living areas and outdoor spaces, now all you have to do is put them together.  Solar orientation, window placement, cross ventilation, and your lifestyle will all impact on your design.  Don’t worry, just start drawing – this is something can can evolve over time as you learn more, create more ideas and gain more clarity about what it is you actually want.

Green Home Building

Image via Photobucket

One of the most important things to consider at this point of the process is solar orientation.  The long side of your home should face the sun, the window and door overhang should let the sun inside during the cooler months and keep it out during the warmer months.  This is a minimum requirement.

A good architect, draftsperson or builder can help you with other important details but this should be enough to help you get your ideas down on paper.  Get creative and don’t think your ideas are no good or too unusual.  If this is what you want then this is what will make your green home building experience rich and rewarding.

Green Home Building: What Do You REALLY Need?

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Green Home Building: What Do You REALLY Need?

Green Home Building

Green Trends in action

The trend these days, even for people who are being environmentally conscious is to build bigger and bigger homes.  Taking the opportunity to look at green home building is a good chance to look at what you really need in a home.  While all those rooms may be nice to have, do they really help you create the life you are looking for?  I mean, if you are considering building green with straw or any other kind of green home building why would you waste, time, money, resources and future energy bills on building something more than what you really need?

Getting clear on what you really need, what would be nice, what is an indulgence and what is just plain crazy will help you as you begin to create the plans and schemes that may one day be your dream eco home.  Many people living in large modern homes have rooms they rarely use and this makes their home cost more, use more resources in its construction and more energy to heat and cool it.  Careful thinking at this stage will give you a home that meets all your needs without creating a wasteful space and unnecessary energy use long into the future.  The choices you make now will impact on the real success of your home, the quality of your life for years to come and will send a positive message to others who are also considering green home building.