This looks sooo good, I have to post it. It's a modified strawbaler invention that makes the strawbale much like lumber.
This could make building even more affordable and eco-friendly using the concepts in use by John, Glenn, and Oehler if it works out.
This is somewhat exciting. I really want to know what John thinks about it. On my first read, I thought "...how strong is it?...can a wheat straw building product be this thin and hold up?..." If the testing proves, the labor expense of creating this product will be much less than lumber.
http://www.dailytidings.com/2005/0428/042805n1.shtml
Pretty neat stuff. I know they do a lot with straw already, but haven't seen anything structural like this looks like it might be. Thanks for the link. Here are some other straw (and other materials) uses: http://www.humabuilt.com/Pages/Products.html
sometimes I wish that reporters learned enough to know what they were wrtiting about.
Like the difference between straw (used for animal bedding, not particularly edible by much of anything, nice and strong, etc.) and hay (animal feed, will decay more easily than straw, smaller fibers, contains seeds. and so on.)
(although the original Nebraska bale buildings were in fact hay)
We'll see what comes of it. There have been some problems with papercrete and fire--really need enough concrete in that mix, I'm told.
Both papercrete and adobe get to do some serious drying before they are used. Or is this some sort of rammed earth with straw?
What happens if there is rain in the field?
Don Stephens has worked with some compressed straw bales (seriously heavy cubes) that can be sawn in half, don't really need the strings, hold screws well, and so on. The are the same width and depth and weight as regular bales, just half the length. (they ship straw to Japan in boats, and for this, weight is less important than bulk, but the compressed bales have kind of neat properties that may be useful)