How to Use Straw to Insulate Your Barn
Straw stalks from harvested grain plants have traditionally been used on both farms and ranches primarily for animal bedding. Straw consists only of dry fibers and contains no nutritional value for animals or humans. Due to this lack of nutritional value, rodents and insects don't attack straw because they don't find any value in it either. Though straw is mostly considered useless for anything else, early American settlers appreciated baled straw for its excellent building attributes and its high thermal rating. Straw bales are a superb insulation and have been used for construction for centuries. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Locate a source for quality straw bales from a local farmer as freight costs for long-distance shipping can outweigh the benefits of using straw bales. When selecting straw bales, be sure they are tightly baled and that they haven't become saturated with moisture. The best bales to buy are those which have been recently baled following the local grain harvest season.
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Level a 3-foot area of soil around the interior of your barn if it is a simple soil floor. If it is finished with wood or concrete, this job has already been done for you.
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Transport the bales to your location, or pay to have someone haul them for you. Wear gloves, and use two bale hooks to carry each bale into the barn. Place them along each wall all the way around the barn.
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Stack bales until the inside walls are covered with bales standing about 6 to 8 feet high. Since you won't be providing any structure reinforcements along with the bales, you must not exceed this height because falling bales can cause severe injury or death to humans and animals. This is a sufficient height for insulating a barn with straw. Heat rises and cold air settles. Stacks of 6 to 8 feet of straw bales are adequate to ensure that they slow down heat loss and the buildup of cooler air at ground level.
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Perform periodic cleaning along the edges of your straw bale stacks, removing any animal manure from within about a foot of the insulating wall. Moisture causes straw bales to compress and to settle, which can make a freestanding insulating wall unstable. Repair any holes in the exterior walls of your barn to stop any rain or snow leakage through the wall, which can also affect the stability.
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Tips & Warnings
Never attempt to use loose straw piled along the walls of any building. While tightly baled straw has a very high fireproof rating because of its lack of oxygen internally, loose straw is highly flammable and could accelerate the burning of the building should it catch fire. You only need one layer of straw bales around the interior of your barn's walls. Straw bales that are 23 inches in length have an average insulating R-Value of R-65. (See References.)
Always use proper lifting procedures when lifting and carrying straw bales. Use your legs rather than your back for lifting. Wear heavy coveralls when carrying straw bales to prevent straw poking through clothing material. Alternatively wear a set of chaps.
