Green Means

Straw Bale Cottage

By Shannon Scott

             Anyone physically able with horse sense and persistence can build an energy-wise home on a shoestring budget, without hired help.  This week’s column tells how to begin a one bedroom straw bale cottage - site selection, drafting, and gathering price estimates.

            First, select a money-saving building site.  For this project I chose a south sloping spot, less than 100 ft. from an existing well, close to a power transformer, and easily accessible off a graveled driveway.  This site maximizes sun exposure for passive and active solar heating, yet minimizes trenching, pipes, wiring, and road work. 

            Second, build small.  Smaller costs less.  Using free on line design software, along with graph paper and scale ruler, I drafted a 40’ x 26’ rectangle, 1,040 square feet, with open floor plan and mono-slope roof.   24” thick straw bale exterior walls result in a 792 sq. ft. living space.  1,040 square feet x $50 per square foot = $52,000. 

            Is it possible to build an energy smart, green home for $50K?  If I skimped more on materials I could probably do it for even less.  Plus, green materials and solar energy mean a few federal tax rebates.

            Third, with rough drafts in hand, I shopped for a good structural engineer.  Structural engineers have extensive mathematics and physics backgrounds, requisite knowledge how and why building components bear loads, maintain shear strength, and stand up to erosive elements such as water, soil, and climatic conditions.  Cost depends upon project size and complexity. 

            Lostra Engineering produces clean, easy to read blue prints for a flat fee.  They produced sound prints for my first project, and will use them again.  Avoid any professional who charges per square foot.  Often the second thing they tell you, following flattery, is “Go bigger”.  Engineering costs for this cottage will run about $3,000. 

            Now gather utility hook up prices, permit requirements, and materials estimates.  You’re not actually applying for permits at this phase, just gathering costs.

            In city limits, you’ll need municipal water and sewer hook-up costs. 

            Elko County requires a septic permit as a prerequisite for a building permit.  DIYers can perform their own percolation test, examining and recording soil composition at different depths and water drainage rates.  The State Department of Public Health offers explicit instructions how to conduct a perc. test.  They review test data, then issue site specific requirements and permit.  The permit runs a few hundred dollars, tank and lines generally under $2,000.   

            After obtaining a septic permit and with completed blue prints, apply for a building permit.   Permit fees vary with building size, based on a building’s total valuation.  Bigger buildings have higher rates.  Currently, if a building’s valuation is $50,001 to $100,000 a permit will cost $580 for the first $50,000 plus $6.25 for each additional $1,000. 

             A transformer within 100’ from the proposed cottage makes electric hook up easy.  Since a solar system drastically reduces propane demand, I can plumb a small propane tank, less than 100 gallons, through a wall, no trenching required.  Utility service hook-ups total less than $1,000.

            Sierra Pacific aluminum clad fir, Low E² windows from a supplier in Twin Falls, came in under $10,000.  Loewen, a comparable brand, would cost just over $10,000.  Both companies use Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI) or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) lumber. 

            Floor Radiant Company of Vermont gave me a package price for everything to heat domestic water and supply floor radiant heat: solar collectors, Grundfos pumps, floor tubing, heat exchanger, on-demand water heaters for back up, manifolds, copper pipes, fittings, the works,: $13,000 delivered. 

            Pacific Steel in Elko has good ASC brand metal roofing prices and told me they could have panels on the next truck – great local service.  Finish roofing for cottage plus carport - about $3,000.  Pacific Steel also carries rebar and other steel construction products.

            Concrete runs about $110 per cu. yd.  For footings, block fill, and slab about $3,000 for this project. 

            Straw bale prices fluctuate, currently $6 - $8 per bale, about $700.  

            Completed blue prints enable a DIYer to sketch plumbing and electrical schematics, and to get prices on these materials.  Blue prints allow accurate lumber and steel estimates as well.

            Plan well, do some homework, and it’s possible to build a lovely home for under $100,000.  Budget 10% - 15% of total cost for unforeseen or unexpected circumstances, and when soliciting prices remember, "The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the cheap price is forgotten." – unknown.