Straw Bale House
Montgomery, TX
By building this design with methods we specified, a cash-out-of-pocket straw bale home for $40/sf (1993) was built after a fire cancelled plans for a “Keeping-up-with-the-Joneses” house they were about to build. The money they saved on construction and on energy bills allowed them to build a horse barn and stables too. Complaints before the house was built about the well water being too hot in summer and too cold in winter led us to recommend the construction of a well house out of used tires packed full of dirt (later stuccoed to match the straw bale house) which keeps the water at a predictable, near constant temperature year round.
Well House
Built with old tires plus dirt from site and landscape timbers for roof structure. Cost: less than $10/sf for materials.
….More details on this home to come….