Experiences with straw bale house?

unfortunately, I feel the same way as you and I also cannot send private messages. But if you enter my name + bauservice in the Google search, my ad with the phone number should appear there. You are welcome to contact me.

We want to build our house as a load-bearing straw bale house

Oh look, I just checked that out and even learned something. Thanks a lot for that!

Now the topic of KfW funding came up and we had previously planned for KfW 55. However, this standard expires on 31.01.22 and will be abolished without replacement.

That is phrased unfortunately: only the funding is discontinued (because the funding purpose has been achieved), the "Effizienzhaus 55" standard is very much current.

But since I am new to this forum, I cannot send you a direct message. Could you possibly contact me regarding this?

Unfortunately, that applies equally in both directions.

As far as I know, and unless something has changed in the last six months, the construction of load-bearing straw bale houses in Germany is only permitted with a special permit. I would apply for KfW 40+ directly; if the values are not sufficient after completion, the application can then be adjusted retroactively. Unfortunately, we only applied for KfW 40, and foolishly, an upgrade upwards is unfortunately not possible.

Hello everyone,

Interesting post and much has already been said.

Last year I also dealt with the idea of a straw bale house and ultimately decided against it.

We wanted it to be a bit easier and to use a functioning concept from a company. By chance, we became aware of a construction method with a double-shell timber frame construction and now want to build that way.

The interior insulation in their case is made of cellulose and is actually not inferior to straw. The advantage compared to straw is the lower wall thickness for KfW 40 values. Our plot is quite small and every cm is worth gold there.
The FASBA is also a bit stingy with information, etc.

If you want to deal with the topic more before building: there is a holiday home in [Vulkaneifel] built with straw construction. You can get an impression there and the landlord built the house himself and explained a lot to us about the structure and construction method back then. We were already very impressed by the indoor climate and the concept, but in the end it is nice to have a company with a functioning system that we can rely on during construction.

Best regards and good luck with the build, don’t let yourselves get discouraged

We then became aware of a construction method with a double-shell timber frame construction by chance and now want to build like that.

You are welcome to tell me more about it, also gerne per "external PN" (at gmx de I have exactly the same name as here), if you otherwise run the risk of being warned for advertising...

e.g. thicker walls -> larger base slab

Does a base slab only cost the area?

No matter how much weight it has to carry?

Intuitively, I would guess that bricks (and maybe concrete ceilings?) weigh more than straw bales ...

a few years ago we had a defective water pipe in the kitchen and water ran inside the wall down to the basement,

Maybe one could install sensors in a water-sensitive house (like the "water stop" for the washing machine) that control a solenoid valve on the main water line?