Question: Does the straw house costs more than a normal house

Natasha Watson answered on 14 Mar 2013:

I’ll take this one as I think it’s meant for me….

The short answer is that it depends; where is the house? How big is it? Who’s designing it?
Do you mean initial cost or overall cost?

The longer answer is that, more often than not, building a house out of bricks and blocks will be cheaper than building a house out of straw. This is because the materials are easier to get a hold of, builders who are trained in bricklaying are easy to come by, and most designers are used to building out of bricks and blocks.

However, there are some instances where building out of straw could be cheaper. Setting up a timber frame and stacking the straw walls inside takes very little time in comparison to laying bricks, and if pre-made straw panels are used (which are a building product that can be bought) then it will take even less time. If the most expensive thing when building a house is the cost of the builders, then a straw house may well be cheaper. Also there are many people who volunteer to build houses out of straw, so reducing the cost of labour that way.

Straw bales are also good insulators and so straw bale houses, when compared to typical brick houses, are warmer and so can save the family who lives inside money on their heating bill. So where the initial cost of building the house might be greater than with a brick house, the overall cost of building and running the house may well be lesser than a brick house.

Hope this answered your question!

Tish