House Made Of Straw Gets A Reluctant OK -- County Officials Still Skeptical

Jane Bakken and Jack Fecker have wished they'd never bought land in King County, but now they're glad they waited.

After a two-year fight, the couple is about to get a permit to build the first straw-bale home in King County, on a hill near Carnation.

"We've gone through torture," Bakken said. "But this is King County, it's our home. We'll be ecstatic when we see it in writing."

That should happen soon. The county Department of Development and Environmental Services is giving the plan conditional approval even though officials say doubts remain about the structure.

About 50 similar buildings have been built in Washington and hundreds more nationwide.

King County has been steadfast in refusing to grant permits on grounds of safety. The walls are made using compacted, 2-foot-wide straw bales, chicken wire and steel bar, covered with stucco. The debate is whether straw-bale homes can resist moisture in the Puget Sound region, and how strong, durable and fire-resistant they are.

Moisture seeping into the bales is the main potential problem, said plans examiner Chris Ricketts. Testing is inconclusive, he said, because most straw-bale homes have been tested in dry climates. Bakken and Fecker counter that a tar-paper wrap and three layers of stucco will shield the bales from the elements.

Increasing interest in straw-bale construction has forced the county to consider it, Ricketts said. Building officials will

collaborate with David Riley, a University of Washington professor of architecture, in studying another prototype building in King County, he said.

While the county searches for evidence of durability in straw-bale homes, it will grant Bakken and Fecker a permit on three conditions:

-- They get a certification letter from an engineer.

-- The house's title be labeled as experimental.

-- They sign an agreement absolving the county of liability in case of an accident.

Bakken and Fecker's plans call for a 1,100-square-foot prototype home. Once approved by county inspectors, it would become a garage and the couple would build their dream straw-bale home. Doing most of the labor themselves, they estimate the cost of the 2,800-square-foot home at $50,000 to $65,000. They hope to finish the garage portion by the end of next month.

The couple's struggle began in April 1995, when they met with Ricketts and Fire Marshal Tom McDonald and agreed a home could be built if it passed appropriate tests. After Bakken had compiled an 8-inch file of tests a year later, the county responded with a 26-point memo of unanswered questions.

An architect's response to that memo failed to satisfy building officials, and four months later they denied the permit. Since then, Bakken has complained to the County Executive's Office of what she maintained was an abuse of process.

"We were curious about how you measure moisture content in the bales, and they basically said you just stick your hand in the bales and see if it's moist," said McDonald. "We didn't think that was good enough."

The couple helped Michael and Spring Thomas of Port Townsend build the first straw-bale home in Washington in 1993. They were intrigued that straw insulates at R-55 levels, far higher than state requirements of R-19, and that straw, the unused stems of rice, wheat, oats or barley, is annually renewable and usually burned as waste. They also saw straw as a money-saver.

Four years after being built, the Thomases' beige-and-peach stucco home has needed no repairs or re-working. It does show a few long, thin cracks in the stucco.

Jefferson County building official Michael Ajax said he was skeptical of the Thomases' plan at first, but now is convinced a straw-bale structure is as good as one made of conventional materials.

Several building officials and architects in the western United States agreed with some of King County's concerns, but said they were satisfied by structural testing done in the past five years.

David Eisenberg, an architect from Tucson who has written a book on straw-bale construction, said straw is more fire-resistant than wood when compacted at 500 pounds per square inch of pressure because little oxygen can get in.

Bob Fowler, a Pasadena, Calif., building official and past chairman of the International Conference of Building Officials, said builders have to keep moisture outside the walls, but he said that is necessary with any type of construction.

King County's questions are legitimate, Fowler said. "But the situation in the world today demands we find a new way to build homes, and this is one way."