I've helped make a few clay/straw structures and it's wonderful stuff to work with and yields excellent results. Some folks tend to get caught up with straw bales. Make sure you look around. There's a whole continuum of techniques using the basic components of straw, clay, sand and water: cob, straw/clay infill, etc. Straw bale is overkill in most climates, but one of the other techniques might well work for your area. Don't forget the boots and hat!

The original question was asked by someone in Hollywood, FL.  I've always assumed that most of Florida is too humid for straw bale construction.  Am I mistaken?

what about fire safety? any codes out there on that?

I've seen video of someone taking a blowtorch to a rice straw bale. And it's pretty much impossible to get cob ignited. But I have no idea if this is reflected in the fire codes. Fire professionals, who have the most say in fire codes, are highly conservative about these matters. It's kind of amazing stick frame construction is still code legal, given their weight. Hmmm...

I got to talk to a couple who built a very unusual house in the South Puget Sound area.  It wasn't straw bale, but it was built using traditional japanese temple building techniques.  The whole thing was built of wood.

Anyway, in order to get their house approved by the building code folks they had to jump through all kinds of hoops.  At first they wouldn't let them build it.  But they were persistent and eventually they got to talk with the director and he approved it.

The point being, building codes are only a problem if you let them be.  If you're polite and persistent, and share your excitement over your unusual house, you may just change the building codes.

The straw bale house designs I've looked at confirm that the walls are fire resistant and are classed with interior stairways in industrial buildings. Not to shabby for an organic substance.

My husband and I just built a pumice-crete home.  He was our builder and was adamantly opposed to strawbale.  We live in NM and this is a pretty common choice for these parts.  There are LOTS of reasons to use straw bale.  The ONE reason we did not is because of plumbing in the walls.  You probably cannot guarantee that a pipe or PEX tubing will never break or leak, and keeping water out of the inside of your walls is essential for a straw bale home.  A water leak will require some major repair.  This is just one consideration to make when choosing a building material.  Pumice-crete has its drawbacks too, but we do have a beautiful, energy efficient home.

Hi Umbra,

Though I am also a big fan of straw bale construction [and a conflict of interest alert: I work for Chelsea Green Publishing, publishers of books on straw bale construction (among other topics)], I'd hesitate to refer to straw merely as a "waste" product. Failure to return at least some decent quantity of straw to the soil from whence it grew would result in reduced organic matter and poorer soils--and so force growers to rely more heavily on artificial fertilizers and irrigation. At the current rate of straw bale construction I'm sure it's not an issue, but if there were a large increase in the number of straw bale buildings, we could face a serious trade-off issue between "eco" buildings and healthy soils.