Excellent living environment

The inherant natural beauty and ambience of our Strawmark bale homes can be felt no matter what the design. Gone are the days of hobbit style quirky straw houses. Modern lineal designs with quality render systems and a variety of exterior feature claddings make it hard to tell if it is indeed a straw bale home, unless of course – quirky character is your chosen style.

Energy Efficiency

With ongoing ‘energy savings’ that continue for a lifetime what could be better? Their thermal efficiency comes from a compressed bale R value of 9,  far greater than standard fibre insulation’s R value of 1.8 or any other construction method. The properties that keep you warm in winter work in reverse, keeping you cool and comfortable in summer with no wasted energy.

Earthquake

Strawmark’s homes are exceptionally solid, exceptionally safe, with proven strength against Earthquakes. Our bale walls, flexible and absorbent of earthquake movement, are compressed to load bearing capacity. Testing stronger than steel on weight bearing capacity, in that steel has a load point where it will weaken and fail, straw on the other hand, under tension can compress no further. Our loads are carried across the deep 500mm wall meaning the structure has to move more than 1.0 metre, 500mm each way, before ceilings and beams above can fall.

Fire

Strawmark’s compressed bales are highly fire resistant. They do not hold enough air to permit combustion. Overseas tests have proven the straw bale wall has fire resistance of 2 hours, far greater than the 30 minutes of timber frame wall.

Private and quiet

The Strawmark compressed bale wall offers a greater sound resistance due to the thickness and density of the 500mm walls.

Healthy living

This natural building material straw bale, has low environmental impact, is non-toxic and when compressed offers protection from harmful electro magnetic field radiation.

Sustainable and cost-competitive

The crops are grown annually in large quantities throughout New Zealand and the straw product after the grain harvest must either be burnt or baled. Why not utilise it in a beautiful Strawmark home? Building costs are comparable with other quality building mediums.

If you are considering building, find out how we can help