Fairytale Pigs Were Early Eco-builders
Apparently the first two of The Three Little Pigs weren’t so silly after all. The age-old children’s story would have you believe that building a house out of straw or sticks is just a silly way to go about constructing yourself a home, but it just so happens that those two little pigs were on to something with their unusual construction methods. These pigs not only could build sturdy homes out of these materials, but they also have the advantage of being environmentally-friendly materials as well.
If you remember, the first little pig built his or her home out of straw. From how the story progresses, it’s pretty evident that this little pig just really had no idea how to properly construct a home using straw as a building material. When properly constructed, walls are made out bales of straw and covered with some kind of sealer, often plaster on the inside walls and stucco on the outside walls. The tightly compressed straw bales are large rectangular shapes that stack together easily to form outer walls; some straw bale builders also use bales in the floors or ceiling to provide insulation as well. Bales should be staked together to provide extra stability, especially if your area is prone to renegade blow-hard wolves. If you live in an area that doesn’t recognise straw bale construction as a viable construction material on its own, you may be required to provide extra stability with wooden framing as well. Be assured that no wolf will blow down a properly constructed straw bale home.
For our second little pig with his or her house of sticks, it is also the case that there are ways to construct a home out of sticks that holds together very nicely and is also a great use of sustainable building materials as well. While it is common for homes to be wood framed, or “stick framed”, a more eco-friendly way for you to build a home like this is either to make sure that your wood (or stick) vendor has sustainably sourced materials or use an alternative method like cordwood construction which uses short pieces of wood or logs that would otherwise not be useful on house building.
With all the concerns these days about building more ecological friendly homes and using sustainable building materials, it is interesting to see how in some areas there are being homes built using materials that many people wouldn’t consider to be home building materials at all. Seems that at least two of the little pigs knew something that we’re just learning now!
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