How Inexpesive?

With healthy amounts of research and some lateral thinking, you can build a home with lower running and maintenance costs that considers the environment without blowing out your construction budget. We are looking to combine straw-bale construction with pre-engineered steel buildings to build a Passivhaus; in other words... cheap, enviromentally friendly insulation covering an economical structure to produce an ultra-low energy home. Research and theories are great, but we won't really know the costs and preformance until we build a Straw & Steel home, and that is exactly what we are going to do in Spring 2015!

Building a home to the Passivhaus standard normally costs 5-10% more than traditional construction due to upgraded insulation, windows and ventilation with heat recovery. Our research shows that with the reduction in costs thanks to use of straw-bale and pre-engineered steel buildings, costs will run approximately 6% less than traditional construction costs. Since the pre-engineered steel structure is load bearing, non-structural timber and unskilled labor can perform most of the on-site work, greatly reducing labor and materials costs. If you don't mind getting your own hands dirty, many of the labor-intensive aspects of the build can be done DIY with minimal instruction, further reducing costs.

Ultimately we believe that the costs will be in-line with a traditional build if you contract it out, or between 10-30% less if you DIY (since labor accounts for around 50% of construction costs). To prove this, we are building two separate homes on the piece of property we obtained in the greater Sacramento California area. For simplicity's sake, we will explore the budget for the smaller of the two structures; a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom approx. 1512 sqft home without a garage. This budget is a work in progress and will be updated as we obtain quotes for our specific design as opposed to indicative pricing/ballpark estimates (as marked with *).

Item Average Cost Percentage S&S Cost Note
Total $121,263 100.0% $114,280 A savings of approx. 6%
Building Permit Fees $2,033 1.7%
Impact Fee $1,865 1.5%
Water and Sewer Inspection $1,931 1.6%
Excavation, Foundation, and Backfill $11,145 9.3%
Steel $662 0.5% $16,000*
Framing and Trusses $16,294 13.5% $3,259* All structural framing covered under Steel costs.
Sheathing $1,401 1.2% $0 Covered under Steel costs and Straw-bale wall system.
Windows $4,022 3.3% $5,000* ~20% upscale for higher performance windows.
Exterior Doors $1,407 1.2%
Interior Doors and Hardware $1,886 1.6%
Stairs $688 0.6%
Roof Shingles $3,439 2.9% $0 Covered under Steel costs.
Siding $5,718 4.7% $5,718* Rendering/stucco costs.
Gutters and Downspouts $569 0.5%
Plumbing $7,190 6.0%
Electrical Wiring $5,256 4.4%
Lighting Fixtures $1,435 1.2%
HVAC $5,731 4.8% $5,731* HRV (in-line with NAHB average), ERV (~20% less) or Exhaust-Only (~50% less)
Insulation $2,224 1.8% $1,500* In-roof and under-slab insulation only as straw-bales insulate walls.
Drywall $5,316 4.4% $5,316* MgO Board is supposed to be in-line with Drywall costs.
Painting $3,929 3.3% $1,965* Exterior paint covered by tinted render/stucco.
Cabinets and Countertops $6,801 5.6%
Appliances $2,368 2.0%
Tiles and Carpet $5,472 4.5% $2,736* Only second floor requires flooring
Trim Material $2,444 2.0%
Landscaping and Sodding $4,247 3.5%
Wood Deck or Patio $1,255 1.0%
Asphalt Driveway $1,785 1.5%
Other $12,750 10.6%