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Huff ‘n’ Puff Constructions has built many strawbale buildings of various shapes, sizes and functions: From chook sheds to homes, halls and wineries. These beautiful buildings - some modest, some unique, some magnificent – are very environmentally sound. We have also conducted over 110 strawbale workshops all over Australia and New Zealand. You can take a look at a few of our projects on our website and, if you would like to get some hands-on experience of strawbale building, then take a look at our Workshops page. We also offer consulting, design, drafting, engineering and building services.  We can also work on contract to straw bale builders.  More and more the demand is for custom workshops on your straw bale build.

Benefits of Straw Bale Building

Straw bale building requires less skill and is less labour intensive than using conventional building materials. It is flexible and supports individual creativity. Building with straw bales relaxes the whole construction process and allows inexperienced and unskilled people the opportunity to become directly involved in creating their own houses. Basic methods of straw bale construction can be learned in a five-day workshop. Everyone in the family can become involved in the construction.

Using straw bales for building could assist in the effort to control global warming and atmospheric deterioration. Removal of straw from the rice fields, for example, would substantially reduce methane emission from microbial decomposition. Building with straw could significantly reduce the demand for native timber in houses so prevalent in the timber-consuming construction methods of today. Straw bale building eradicates the need to use paints and solvents that adversely affect the atmosphere and human health. Research (World Watch Magazine, Vol.7, #6) has shown that approximately 45 per cent of all the energy consumed in the world is consumed by the manufacture and transportation of building and construction materials, which is almost half of all other uses combined, a figure which is clearly unsustainable. Straw bale building can help to redress this energy imbalance in the building and construction industry. For example, it costs the environment:

• 6000 MegaJoules to manufacture 1 tonne of concrete; or
• 115 MegaJoules to produce 1 tonne of straw - and 1 tonne of straw goes further than 1 tonne of concrete. (Calculations by Richard Hoffmeister from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture in Scotsdale, Arizona)

Research done in Arizona found both wheat and rice straw to have an insulation value that is almost 5 times the insulation factor of a double-brick cavity wall. Straw bale walls therefore allow a house to be highly efficient in heating and cooling, reducing the need for heating and cooling costs. They are 30 times less energy-intensive than wood-frame walls to manufacture.