Okay this will seem random because I already replied, but I was checking craigslist. Everything that’s free is in anchorage(2 hrs away), anyways I seen some pallets. What if I stuff straw into the pallets that I would use for walls? Would that have an insulating factor and ventilation as well??
Sorry I get excited when I have a 💡 moment LOL
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Getting excited is good! I'm excited for you. And happy that you are interested in alternative building techniques. I've read and researched a lot about these and there are just sooooo many alternatives to wood frame and paneling construction.
Straw has a great R value, but of course the thicker the better. Usually full bales are used for exterior walls, but since you are building a small space, that will make it more heat efficient so you don't need a super high R value. I had a neighbor who overwintered in a yurt several times with pretty lame wall insulation (almost none) but it was small so his little camp stove was more efficient. Same concept.
The first thing I do when I have a brilliant idea is do web research on it to see if someone has already done it so that I can learn from their mistakes.
Because I make loads of bad decisions =)
I found this video of a guy building a bath house doing exactly what you are describing.
Slip straw is stray that has been lightly coated with clay slip that has been packed into wood framed walls.
You can see that he has chicken wire tacked to the outside: I assume that means he is planning on using clay plaster to finish the exterior surface. The same could be done on the inside.
Clay slip and plaster is super easy to make if you have clay-type dirt in your yard, which most people do if they dig deep enough, even if they have sandy soil. You can make it yourself with a shovel, buckets, water, straw, and self-made sieves.
However, I also looked through your craigslist and saw some other stuff that gave me ideas.
You have 4 different posts of people giving away exterior dog houses. Goose housing? Join two or three of them together for goats?
I also saw a free hot tub, which if I was there I'd be grabbing if I could. I actually built an outside carp pond from a hot tub shell once I might make a post on one day.
What I was thinking was that the cover on it would be invaluable as a roof for your pallet shed, with a native high R value and a split in the middle so you could fit it to a peaked frame for better snow shedding. Then you could either flip over the shell onto a cinder block skirt foundation and use it for more animal shelters or use it for dry storage/composting/or even a cold frame/hothouse by building a new cover for it of poly stretched around a wood frame for an improv greenhouse.
I was thinking that if you didn't want to mess around with clap slip and plaster another alternative to achieving pallets with straw insulation would be to pack your straw into the pallet walls, ensuring of course you have a gravel pad or some sort of foundation with good drainage, and once your walls are packed you could tack poly sheeting to the inside and outside. Because you need to keep moisture out of that straw, both from blowing snow and goat respiration.
Since your goat wants to eat poly sheeting (yummm) you could layer the heaviest gauge wire you can find over the poly sheeting (I do a similar thing to deter rodents from gnawing into areas) Or you might find some free metal roof panels or metal sides off of an old travel trailer or garage that you could skirt the inside with. You would still need a good roof on the top as well to keep snow/rain out of the walls.
You notice that the guy who did the bath house has really deep eves on his roof and that's a thing that you will see a lot on straw bale construction because you really want to keep water off the walls.
That made me think about drifting snow, and that you'd want to probably be building on at least a cinder block skirt foundation and probably stretching some poly over the outside. Unless you want to build a wall around the shelter to protect the walls from drifting snow.
As far as ventilation in that type of structure, just leave some gaps in between where your roof comes down and meets the walls. That was the only ventilation that I had in my second coop for winter aside from that little chicken stained glass which has a wire frame around it, and it was fine.
Finally, I noticed that you have a lot of free tires on your craigslist and was thinking "oh she could pack those full of straw for her walls, and they are already water-proof!" (yeah people actually build structures using stacked car tires)
But those would probably be pretty work intensive to transport, and you'd definitely have to figure out interior wall liners to keep your goat from chowing down on car tire =p
Damn dude! I was thinking damn near the same stuff!
In ID, where I grew up they had under ground tire houses.
I seen the dog houses too!
I didn’t think of the hot tub though. The ground freezes very hard here so it would crack from the ground freezing or the water not getting pumped out.
I just need to make sure that stuff will fit in my van. I can fit a washer and dryer at the same time.
I will message about the over sized dog house for sure!