Straw Homes. Come To Town, Members of Santa Barbara Chapter of South Coast Permaculture Guild leading the way

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

http://www.latimes.com/print/realestate/20000326/t000028432.html
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/print/realestate/20000326/t000028432.html>Straw Homes. Come To Town   

SUNDAY SECTION 
  Sunday, March 26, 2000 | 

Straw Homes. Come To Town 
Once only found in the country, straw-bale houses have begun clearing building
permit hurdles in urban areas. 

By JENNIFER OLDHAM, Times Staff Writer

        The straw-bale house, once found only in the sticks, is coming to
town. 
     From Santa Barbara to San Diego, building officials are giving their
blessing to straw-bale houses that are cropping up between tract homes and
alongside beach bungalows. 
     Matt Buckmaster and his wife, Jan Vucinich, are among the first in
Southern California to obtain permits for straw-bale homes. Buckmaster is
building the two-story house himself, with occasional help from
contractors, in
the suburbs just outside Santa Barbara. 
     Tucked behind a dilapidated redwood barn at the end of a long driveway,
the 1,600-square-foot home has a commanding view of suburban houses below. 
     At a "bale raising" last fall, neighbors and friends helped the couple
stack bales in the home's post-and-beam framework. The bales were then
skewered
with reinforcing bar and covered with chicken wire and stucco. 
     Buckmaster, 38, a feed store owner, spent many long days and nights
mastering straw-bale building techniques. But he and Vucinich, 40, a preschool
director, remain good-natured trailblazers for the growing straw-bale
movement.

     "I would love to see more people get turned on to the notion," Buckmaster
said. "That was definitely part of why we did it, to illustrate what can be
done." 
     The couple's home cost $200,000, cheaper than a conventional house,
largely because Buckmaster acted as general contractor. 

     Built Without Permits in Past 
     Until recently, most straw-bale houses were built without permits in
rural
areas where the nearest neighbor was around the bend or over the next hill. 
     But California and Oregon, and some jurisdictions in Arizona, New Mexico,
Texas and Colorado, have amended their building codes to allow straw homes. 
     Armed with tests that prove straw-bale houses' ability to retard fire,
repel pests and rodents and withstand moisture and earthquakes, property
owners
are applying for--and obtaining--permits to build with straw. 
     "Five or six years ago you would have had a hard time finding building
officials that would consider a straw-bale house," said Bob Fowler, chief
building official for the city of Pasadena and a well-known proponent of
alternative building methods. 
     "But I would dare say now that if you walked in with plans that have an
engineer's stamp on them, they would probably issue permits." 

     Law Amended to Allow Structures 
     Following standards set in the Pima County/City of Tucson Uniform
Building
Code, California lawmakers amended the state's Health and Safety Code in 1996
to allow straw-bale structures. Local jurisdictions can adopt these guidelines
or use them as a reference. 
     About half of the state's 58 counties have adopted these standards and
have permitted straw-bale structures, according to the California Straw
Building Assn., a 4-year-old group of architects, builders and engineers with
about 100 active members. 
     The number of permitted straw-bale homes in the state doubled last
year to
about 200, the group said. 
     These homes are concentrated in Mendocino, San Luis Obispo and San Diego
counties and in the state's Central Valley and its gold country, said Bruce
King, a structural engineer in Sausalito and author of "Buildings of Earth and
Straw: Structural Design for Rammed Earth and Straw-Bale Architecture." 
     But building with straw is still quite difficult in the state's most
urbanized areas, including Los Angeles County, where officials have yet to
review an application for a permit for a straw-bale home. 
     Given the cost of land in Los Angeles, home builders are likely to shy
away from a technique whose 22-inch-thick walls hog precious square footage,
Fowler said. Straw builders may also have a tough time finding a structural
engineer familiar with the material to sign off on their plans--a requirement
here because of seismic issues, he added. 

     Advantages of Using Straw 
     Straw-bale proponents believe that the resistance in highly urbanized
areas will change as more people become aware of the advantages to building
with straw. 
     The first straw-bale houses in the United States were built in the
Nebraska Sand Hills in the early 1900s. About 25 of these homes survive today.
The practice then spread to the south but petered out as conventional building
materials became available in the mid-1900s. 
     The straw-bale renaissance in the United States began in the late 1980s,
primarily in Arizona and New Mexico, where the style is well suited to the
hot,
dry climate. 
     The renewed interest in straw homes was prompted largely by their
hardiness and their energy efficiency. They can last twice as long as
wood-frame homes and save up to 75% on heating and cooling costs. 
     Straw-bale construction can also reduce building costs. Depending on the
"sweat equity" of the builder and the home's design and amenities, straw homes
can run from $20 to $75 a square foot. Conventional wood-frame houses
typically
cost $45 to $75 a square foot. 
     But because the shell of a home constitutes only about 10% of its total
cost, custom straw home prices often rank near conventional home costs. 
     This was the case for Laguna Beach resident Christopher Prelitz, 43, who
spent about $150 a square foot on his three-story straw-bale home, which sits
in a small canyon surrounded by 1950s homes, remodeled bungalows and new
houses. 
     A general contractor, Prelitz said he was drawn to the hands-on
experience
provided by straw-bale construction. 
     "I really like the idea of molding your own space," he said. "There's
something to it when you've actually physically put the mud on your own walls
that makes it your own place." 
     Much of the material Prelitz used to build his eclectic home was
recycled.
Some of the framing lumber came from old movie sets, and the deck's guardrail
posts are old telephone poles. 
     Prelitz, who has a mortgage on his house, didn't have trouble selling his
lender on straw-bale construction. 
     "As long as you have a permit and as long as it is in city boundaries,
lenders don't have a problem with it," Prelitz said. 
     But in county jurisdictions, "there can be snags because they don't have
as stringent building codes as cities do, so lenders worry about their
investment." 
     Before he secured financing, Prelitz had to educate Laguna Beach
officials
on the material's merits. The city had never before processed an application
for a straw-bale home, but Prelitz provided test results proving straw's
integrity as a construction material. 
     After reviewing the results, building officials approved Prelitz's
3,000-square-foot home. 
     He designed and built the house himself over two years with the help of
his employees and subcontractors and is doing the final touches this month. 
     Buckmaster and Vucinich also used recycled materials throughout their
hillside Santa Barbara home. There's the straw in the walls, wood recycled
from
an old slaughterhouse on the window frames and an old glass entryway from the
Santa Barbara art museum as the front door. 

     Home Will Save in Energy Costs 
     The couple's neighbors were thankful that they didn't overbuild on their
1.6-acre lot, which was once part of a ranch where walnuts, lemons and
avocados
grew. 
     "One of our neighbors was at the bale raising and said he was glad we
weren't putting five houses up here," Buckmaster said. 
     Buckmaster finished his plan check in Santa Barbara County in just a few
weeks. His architect, James Bell, met with county officials ahead of time to
talk with them about straw and other "sustainable" materials Buckmaster
planned
to use in the house. 
     Because the home would save more than 15% in energy costs, the plans went
through the county's innovative building review committee, which was friendly
to the idea. 
     But even after a permit is issued, building with straw bales is a
learning
process for the property owner and officials. 
     "The county inspector first asked for a vapor barrier (between the straw
and the plaster)," Buckmaster said. "But then he went and read up on straw and
knew that it didn't need a vapor barrier, so he came back and told me to
forget
it." 
     Despite growing acceptance, getting a straw home approved by building
officials in some places is still a struggle. 
     "I have yet to meet a straw-bale homeowner who doesn't absolutely love
living in a straw-bale home," said Judy Knox, co-owner and co-founder of
Out on
Bale, a Tucson-based firm that helped jump-start the current straw-bale
movement. 
     "But I also have yet to meet someone who didn't undergo much hardship
with
building a straw home." 
     It took Berkeley residents Debbie and Roger Jackson four years to get the
final building permit for a straw-bale home proposed for a lot they own in
Modoc County. County officials were reluctant to permit the unconventional
method and took a lot of convincing. 
     The Jacksons, who filed their first set of plans in June 1995, got
incremental permits from the county for the house. A permit for the foundation
was issued in 1997 and one for the frame and the roof in 1998. 
     "You're definitely tap dancing the whole time and coming up with new
ideas," said Debbie, a 47-year-old research biochemist. "The organization
of it
takes a long time." 
     The Modoc County Board of Supervisors adopted the state's straw-bale
guidelines in 1996, but it took the building department three years to
catch up
with the guidelines. 

     Hope to Move In This Summer 
     The department issued final approval for the Jacksons' 2,700-square-foot
home last July. They hope to move in this summer. 
     After they got the permit, the Jacksons held a "bale raising."
Reminiscent
of old-fashioned barn raisings, bale raisings usually involve several dozen
participants, many of whom travel long distances--and even pay--for a weekend
of hands-on instruction in how to build a straw home. 
     At most bale raisings, participants learn to stack and secure bales into
the walls of a post-and-beam home from an architect or straw building expert.
Then they go to work, lifting and fitting the heavy bales into the home's
walls. 
     Like the Jacksons, Buckmaster and Prelitz, some owners build straw-bale
homes on their own (with the help of contractors) after a bale raising. But
this is starting to change as more homeowners and architects learn about the
technique. 
     "In the early days it was much more the owner-builder types [at our
workshops]," said Matts Myhrman, co-owner and co-founder of Out on Bale, which
holds bale raisings across the country. "We've seen more architects and
engineers come on board as codes have been adopted in urban areas." 

     The Demographic Is Widening 
     Berkeley architect Dan Smith, one of the founding members of the
California Straw Building Assn., has also seen the demographic of straw-home
builders widen. 
     "In the last couple of years I've had quite a few more upper-end
clients,"
Smith said. "It's definitely moving into a realm of substantial houses. People
are seeing it as a higher-quality house for the aesthetic and thermal
qualities." 
     So what's next for straw-bale construction now that it's made inroads
into
some urban areas? 
     "The resurgence has reached a stage where we're sort of hung between
being
a mainstream building method and a pioneering building method," said Knox of
Out on Bale. "There are still widespread areas where there's not code
acceptance or problems with insurance and financing." 
     To bring wider acceptance, straw-bale proponents must standardize
building
techniques, said David Eisenberg, co-director for the Development Center for
Appropriate Technology, a Tucson nonprofit that promotes alternative building
techniques. 
     Uniform techniques are needed to make the permit process more efficient
and because straw's increasing popularity has led to sloppy construction by
inexperienced builders, experts said. 
     Americans can't expect to see subdivisions of straw-bale homes until this
is done, Eisenberg said. 
     "For straw-bale, the challenge is finding ways to really optimize the
construction systems so builders, contractors and developers can build them
well and make money doing it." 



Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times 


 


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