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anywhere near the work site. Also, it is critical that you maintain a worksite clear of loose straw to minimize thi s danger.· Pests Again the compressed nature of straw bales, lack of anythingworth eating, and lack of moisture makes poor homes for pests. Ingeneral, the vast majority of experience with straw bale has proven it tobe less susceptible to rodents, bugs or other pests, partly because of thethree layers of stucco, tight sealing and again the compact nature of thestraw bales.· Building Codes Most countries actually support straw baleconstruction in some form or another. The United States, and certainstates in particular, have support including fire code testing. In Canada,the six thousand square foot straw bale home we worked on in the cityof Mississauga (near Toronto), went to the building code committee forreview. This review took about a year but has resulted in a very clearruling in support of straw bales. The ruling required that the architectsand engineers involved in the project back up claims that this naturalfiber insulating material met the building codes principles for qualityconstruction standards, including susceptibility to fire, strength andother building criteria. Keep in mind that you still may need to relate toyour local building inspectors these cases and even some of the technicalback ground of this system in order to get them on board.The other thing you learn about straw bale is that two design types are possible.Actually there are perhaps hundreds of different ways or variations on thesetechniques, but in general, there are two popular techniques. First, you can buildusing post and beam construction techniques familiar to many builders and verycommon all over the world. In this configuration the straw bales are primarily forinsulation although the walls themselves are substantially stronger than conventionalwalls. The second design technique is a load bearing straw bale design. Thissystem does use the incredible strength of the straw, compressed, to actually bearthe weight of the roof.Most building codes now support post and beam based (non load bearing) strawbale construction. Some areas also support load bearing straw bale (for instance inQuebec, Canada). Always make sure to check with local building codes beforegetting too far down the path with straw bale.139