Category Miscellaneous

Straw Bale Homes in Ontario: How They Work, What the Code Says, and Where They Go Wrong

straw-bale-house-walls

A straw bale wall is bales stacked like big soft bricks, pinned or strapped, then plastered both sides so the plaster skins carry most of the load. Ontario permits them as an alternative solution under the Building Code with an engineer and a designer who have done it before. Expect a plastered two-

Log Homes in Ontario: How the Walls Work, How They Pass the Energy Code, What They Cost, and What Settles

Home Designs

A log wall is structure and insulation in one piece of wood. Full-scribe (hand-fitted round logs), milled (machine-profiled logs with a tongue and groove) and hybrid (a timber or conventional frame with log or timber accents) are the three families. Ontario's SB-12 treats log walls separately: a log