Julian Hearn

Hello, I am looking around at land and have cycled through most of the ones on the popular google search sites, like redfin, Realtor, Zillow, landwatch, etc... I know however that with all things there are always niche, unorthodox or very specific sellers, its just a matter of finding them. Like for example... people that want to sell their property for extra cheap because its haunted, or maybe they need to sell REAL quick for extra money or something. Undesirable, weird or odd picks.
I am wondering if anyone knows any places like that and can direct me? I am looking for land at least half an acre, $15k or under, and within the Tennessee, southwest NC, or blue ridge GA area.
Thank you for your time, in advance : )

Nancy Reading wrote:Hi Julian and belated welcome!
It might help the calculations if you give an idea of your climate zone.

If you're looking to use straw bales is there a reason that you're not designing the stud work around them? I suspect that you'll have more problems if you don't follow the normal unconventional building methods (if that makes sense!)
Good luck!

Its looking like it'll be North Georgia in the US... low elevation, very clay rich soil, humid air most of the time. And as for the stud thing I was planning on building a conventional house (stud space size- wise anyways) and wanted to absolute cheapest insulation option. If the R value will not be high enough with that option, I will reconsider but I dont know how it work hence my being here lol.

Jeff, Are those people on this forum?

John, I am looking up earthwool and like the price but the R value is only like 2 or 5 at highest so Im not sure itd be the best to use. And I would be using it for wall and ceiling.

Thanks for the replies!

Hello and good day,

I am making plans to build a home that is extremely low cost and nearly had a stroke calculating the cost for traditional housing insulation. I also would prefer to keep synthetic nonsense out of the place as much as possible so I was drawn to straw like how cob houses use.
I will have approx 500 sqft to insulate, and the stud space are not straw bale width, they will be more like a normal house width.

I have never worked with straw bales before, but am assuming I will be using the normal 2ft by 3ft size small-ish bales.
Can anyone tell me how many I would need so I can calculate the cost?

Hey guys,

So I have been reading up on cob and am trying to find an easy way to source clay and sand, and lime. The straw I know several places.
I know they keep saying you can source it on your land, but I have been moving around every year or so and dont know where particularly I am going to end up building this thing. So I dont know if I will have good clay content. I also feel like manually digging up tons of clay is a lot of work, to possibly not even have the right kind. (Not to mention the ugly giant holes I would have all over my property and currently not even knowing how large my property will be) IS there a right kind of clay? I know it has to be a certain percentage to sand, but can I not just, say, go to lowes and get some packs of AMACO air dry clay and call it good? I would prefer being able to just go out and buy in bulk assuming its cheaper that traditonal carpentry methods...

What about sand? Companies also sell bulk masonry sand which I am assuming would be the appropriate kind. I DO know I wont end up near a beach so I couldn't source locally. I was planning on making a house 576 sq ft. Is there any way to tell how much cob I would need (in pounds) for the inside/outside of the walls?

For those answering, thank you for your wisdom!