Stopped at a farmhouse near Leduc last fall and it completely changed how I look at insulation

The guy had this old place from the 1920s and he'd stuffed the walls with straw bales decades ago. Still holding up. No fancy spray foam or anything. Made me realize how much we overcomplicate things with all these high R value products when the old ways worked fine. Has anyone else seen something like that on a rural property?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris39420d agoTop Commenter

The straw bale thing is pretty wild when you think about it. It makes me wonder if we just get sold on new stuff because it's shiny and fast, not because the old methods were bad. I saw a similar thing with my neighbour's root cellar from the 1940s, just packed with sawdust between the stones and it keeps things cold all summer without any power. Sometimes the simplest fixes are the ones that last longest, and we forget that in the rush to upgrade everything.

coleman.jamie20d ago

packed with sawdust between the stones" - wait, that actually works??