Straw bale family

home t

A suburban showcase of owner builder tenacity

BY DARYL MUNTON

We are Daryl and Erika Munton and Plus we had always wanted to do a joint top dollar for it, she got on the phone
have two sons, Karl 00) and Bailey (8). project and this was a great opportunity; and called far and wide to find the
We decided that we wanted to build the we get along well and discovered that we best deal. She's a good organiser and
most environmentally friendly house in also work really well together. researcher, among other things. She also
the suburbs as we could, to demonstrate provides support to expectant mothers
to other suburban dwellers that this and occasionally had to run off to a
Quality materials
sort of house can be built - using The straw bales were obtained from
birth in the middle of the night.
'alternative' materials and by someone
who has never built a house before. my cousin in Swan Hill, who grew the
wheat and baled it for us, maintaining 3D building
The design criteria were:
. use the power of the sun as much
the high quality we required of the
bales. Chris and Roger McQueen are
When I was leaving San Francisco
in 1999, I went into a great bookstore

. possible
a central kitchen so that Erika could
farmers and super nice people.
Most of the major construction
in Berkley and saw 'The Straw Bale
House' (Steen, Steen and Bainbridge,
see the kids wherever they were
. high ceilings to give a feeling of
space, with some lower ceiling areas
materials we recycled. Eight centre posts
are ironbark from a bridge in north
ISBN-13: 978-0930031718) - I just
fell in love with the concept instantly.
Queensland. On top of those are two When we went back to work in San
to give a feeling of a smaller, more dirty great big steel beams that seem to Francisco two years later, we sold our
intimate space have been made around 1900 and have house in Warrandyte and bought a
. large eaves to protect the straw bale 'p Johns and co' printed on them"- as block in Ringwood East. We took the
walls
. an interesting design that would
stand out in the 'burbs.
well as 'Flinders Lane.E.' I think they are
being recycled for the second time. Most
of the other timber is either Victorian
dimensions of the land with us and
began designing the house.
I bought a new laptop and began
As the block is north facing, we ash or oregon; all recycled and sourced mocking up ideas in a 3D package that
needed bigger front windows to let the from Turnbull & Scott in Footscray. I was familiar with from my 'day job.'
sun in. We wanted vehicle access to All of the posts and beams are When we finally came up with the
the backyard, so we couldn't make the connected with large steel plates that I perf~ct design, I sent 3D renderings
house the full width of the block. fabricated at my father's factory, using a and movie files to Belgraphik Building
Floor area on the ground floor is huge piece of recycled 8mm plate from Design in Belgrave (sourced from TOB).
325m2, plus another 93m2 in the loft an old gas tank. Buying that second-hand After fine-tuning the depign~the
areas. at a steel recyclers in Altona saved about drawings were sent to the ~ineers and
My father, David Munton, was $1000 as opposed to buying it new. computations were done. With these and
essential to this whole process, as he Erika was our 'source-erer.' If we the drawings, I set out building the frame
had built houses before and 1 hadn't. needed materials and didn't want to pay in 3D again, accurate to the millimetre

6
~
. TOB 140 . April/May 2007
 ~

'"

TOB 140 . April / May 2007 . 7

 /'

/
r
I/i
/
, I

8 . TOB 140 . April/May 2007

 ~ ""
so I could understand what I had ro do
"
to build this beast. I work in 3D all day
"'"
long in my job as a visual effects artist it- -- - - - iIr - - --111.-- --- - '"""-r- -
for films, so it was brilliant to be able to ~- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
!
pre-visualise the whole thing before a I
single bit of wood was delivered. I even I
used the package to work out the exact I BED 1
dimensions of all the pieces of timber
I
I
to be ordered. And for understanding I
some of the more complicated cuts, the I
package was used to measure exactly it. - - - ~ - --+ I-
where a cut was to be made. II ~~
The 3D images were great for II
explaining what I was thinking to my I~
+ - - Ii - - - - - - --1"
dad and others. At any point of the [I I 1
building process, if I wanted to clarify a
point to someone or just understand a
:
[
I:
I
FUTURE I
POOL I
:
I
new part myself, I would first sit down ~- - .i ~ - -- - L - - -1
and build it in 3D, then move to the : -Pt-- - k - -
I I

-e
real piece of timber. Even now as we +-+---1-- - - --
design the backyard or other parts, I CARPORT

always have the 3D model of the house

to add onto, to see how things fit.
I have often thought of offering my
pre-visualisation skills to other owner
builders to help them get through the complimentary each time he came to sure the neighbours wondered what was
design process with more information. inspect. Inspections can be a nervous going on. That was a fantastic day - a
Maybe one day... time but Chaz made us feel like we were lot of people doing the work were kids,
1
doing the right thing. some as young as five years old.
Building starts We tried to do everything we could My father came to help most days for
on the house ourselves. However, one the first year, sometimes just to get me
The block is a fairly flat 1O00m2 in
of the best investments we made was going and then he'd leave me to it.
suburban Ringwood East. The bottom
half of the street comprised of horse hiring a team of guys for the slab pour.
paddocks, with the top end of the They took over on the day and took Bale waDs
street established years ago. When the the stress away. $7000 dollars worth The frame is exposed on the
owners of the paddocks were thinking of setting concrete is not something I inside, with the bales wrapped around
of subdividing, Erika got in touch with wanted to deal with on my own. We the outside of the posts. We were
them and we bought the first block on also installed in-slab hydronic heating at continually reminded that this is not
one side. the same time.
'the normal way' to do a straw bale
We chose that spot because it still Once the slab was set, we spent house. Normal! What's normal? Anyway
had some trees and we liked the more 12 months building the large timber I think it has worked out very well.
naturil feel this imparted. In hindsight post and beam frame and roof. It was The timber framing looks great from
I think we should have removed some slow because I hadn't done this before inside, with the added bonus that.the
of the big gums, as they drop branches and all the timber was large. We made connections between the render and the
and are always threatening. But it feels special drill bits to work with the timber are all internal, which should
great in the trees. ironbark and Victorian ash. I remember reduce cracking because of the slower
For us, the process was longer than standing on a massive lump of ironbark temperature change inside. It was easier
we hoped for. We came back from the with a huge Mewbo drill and a 900mm to wrap the house in bales rather than
USA with the designs, talked further long drill bit (yes, I did say 900mm!), try to fit bales in-between timbers all the
with Belgraphik, got the plans drawn drilling through for the bolts. Then I time. I'm all about making things ea.§ier
and submitted, and passed by council in got a call to start work on a film that if I can. .'
a few months. night up at the Gold Coast. So I packed After the roof was up and we h~d a
We chose Chaz McKinna of up my tools, got to the airport and was dry site, we started on the baling. ~We
Nillumbik Environmental Building off again. made an attempt at doing the 'impale-
Surveyors (from TOB again) because At some point in that framing bales on imbedded reo' method, but it
he had worked with straw bales and process, the bales came. We had 520 was painfully difficult and we stopped
muddies before and he assured us it bales trucked down from Swan Hill, after a while.
would go through council without a and 40 friends and family all pitched in A friend of ours, Brad Hodge,
hitch. And it did. Chaz was great, he to take the bales from the huge semi- helped out a bit and was getting
helped with information when we trailer and stack them under the back into straw bale building himself. His
were stuck, he was so laid back and roof that we had already erected. I'm father, Brian Hodge (TOB Tips of the

TOB 140 . April / May 2007 . 9

 So the render mix is roughly (can't' This means we are not buried under a
remember the exact amounts anymore A: huge pile of bank debt and for that we
. Layer I: clay, sand, chopped straw
- hand pressed into bales
will always be thankful.
Karl and Bailey were there
. Layer 2: clay, sand, lime, chopped
throughout the process, and made thei]
own little contributions to the house.

. straw - trowelled on and shaped

Layer 3: lime putty, sand and
concrete colouring - trowelled on
I have video footage of Bailey pushing
some mud on the walls, and Karl woulc
stand on wood I was cutting to keep it
Check out the Huff 'n' Puff website still. It was a'very stressful time for me
for more details (www.gl.assford.com.au). and I wasn't the nicest guy all the time;
I hope they can forgive me for that.
-etails I found it hard. We had been home
educating the kids, but during the
While the rendering was going on,
I continued with the windows and process of building the house we sent
the kids to regular school. We returned
interiors. I hired a couple of carpenters
to home educating soon after.
who were friends to work with me to get
bits done. Simon Green, who helped at
various points all the way through, was
Labour oflove
a great help to me. He isn't a builder As far as preparing to build a house
either, but is just someone I work well like this, it look a couple of years of
with and we could sort out problems researching the techniques and talking
together. I found having him around to many people about it. We did
Note how the bales are wrapped around the
helped my confidence. workshops in Daylesford with Gentle
outside of the posts.
We installed new double glazed Earth Walking, we bought books,
windows, and used recycled timbers scoured the internet, hired people,
Trade contributor), was a builder and wherever possible. There is solar hot and asked my dad. Erika and I were
interested in straw bales, so we hired water and grid interactive solar electric. pretty much involved in the whole
him to consult on the walls. Together The drainage was all set up in such a thing, including the slab, framing, steel
with Brian, we nutted out the issues way that we can collect the greywater if cutting and welding, baling, rendering,
involved in building and securing the we decide to later on; all the greywater electrical, roofing, interior walls and
bale walls. He also helped us with fixing comes to a common point before it doors, kitchen, bathroom. It's still
doors and windows, how to support joins the blackwater. Similarly, the going on; we are halfway through
the bales over openings, and came up gutters all join together before heading lining the ceiling, there are still door
with a great way of strapping the bales off to the storm water point. Again, handles missing and some of the back
down with a buckle and strap system when we get up enough energy to put landscaping to be done. I guess it will
that made the process fun and easy. So never end.
in the water tank, we can just hook it
much better than the impaling system. up without having to dig everything As you can tell, this was really a
It took us a bit over rwo weeks to up again. We just couldn't afford to labour of love... and sometimes pain.
complete the bale walls, and then it do everything up front, so we planned We did it because I needed a change of
was on to rendering. Brian's son Micah these things for later installation. lifestyle and we were sick of not having
a real home. It was also a wonderful
stayed with us, and with Erika and We also had a few mishaps. Some
another friend Simon Green, they big ones and lots of smaller ones: I opportunity to work closely with friend
completed the rendering over a four- shot myself in the finger with a nail and family in the area we wanted to
month period through the winter. It live in. Building a house is a kind of
once, hit my head so many times I lost
was miserable and cold; sticking your primal thing, and to have it built with
count, squashed my hands and toes
hands into mud on a cold Melbourne the help of friends and families, with
and swore a lot. In total the process
all the memories built into the walls,
morning was not something to look took about rwo years, and at the same
forward to. is something that makes this house so
time I was teaching at Holmesglen
The render we used was made to a special...
TAFE rwo days a week. ...
recipe we got from Huff 'n' Puff (TOB My mum, Carol Munton, was a
once again!). It was a magic mix. We huge help. She was there almost every "'1.
. See Direct()1iYof Services
have had very little cracking at all, and other day - feedingus, taking the kids for full details on: Belgraphik
it looks stunning. You can tell which somewhere, talking and counselling us
Building Design (Vic), Nillumbik
of the walls we did first, but even that or other workers, or just encouraging
Environmental Building Surveyors
adds great character. That's something us to keep going. Erika's father, Helmut (Vic), Huff 'n' Puff (NSW).
the house has a lot of, character. It's Graumenz, assisted enormously, too.
. See display advert for details on:
not a modern architectural monument, He would come and help with the
Brian Hodge/Anvill (pg 4).
but it is also not a suburban shack, it's
somewhere in-berween and has a very
huge timbers, or cut something with
his chainsaw, but the biggest way was . See Line ads for details on: Gentle
lived in feel. financially by providing us with a loan. Earth Walking.

10 . TOB 140 . April / May 2007