Bricks and mortar are the conventional choice for building a garage. Reporter CHARLOTTE McDONALD spoke to Richard Williams who chose to use straw bales instead.

IN the early 1900s farmers built their homes on the plains of Nebraska in the USA using straw, many of which are still standing today.

This was in part where the inspiration came for Mr Williams, of Woodhurst Avenue, Petts Wood, to build a garage for his cars.

He learnt about these old techniques on a week’s course about building straw bale structures at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.

The father-of-three said: “I was visiting a friend and I thought what else could I do the next day, so I decided to pay a visit to the centre.

“They have all sorts of things there such as how to grow herbs and vegetables, and I saw straw bale buildings.”

Deciding he wanted to learn more he took a course there.

After completing it, the 56-year-old then spent time honing his skills by helping a friend build a straw classroom for a National Trust property and another friend with a house in Portugal.

Fully prepared, he embarked on the project to build his own structure in his back garden using 120 bales.

Mr Williams, who has taken a break from working as a gas and oil pipeline designer, said: “It’s just something I really wanted to try and do.

“I just thought I’d spend a year trying to do it.

“One day I might move somewhere else where I can build a house built of straw.

“It would be three times better insulated than the law demands for a house.”

Straw, which is made from the dried out stems of wheat and barley plants, is a by-product collected by farmers.

“It takes a lot of energy to make build bricks and breeze blocks but it doesn’t take any to make straw.

“The sun does all the work by drying it out.”

Mr Williams spends a few days a week working on the building, with the help of his lifetime friend Ian Charlesworth from Sussex.

They started last August and hope to have it finished in June this year.

Mr Williams said: “The base is made of old railway sleepers- I found a supplier on the net. The straw bales come from a farm in Biggin Hill.

“The windows are recycled. I bought them off Ebay and cut them down to size.”

Once the walls of straw are complete, they will be plastered with lime, another technique borrowed from the past.

Mr Williams said: “It’s a very old fashioned material.

“All sorts of medieval buildings use lime plaster. It is waterproof when it rains but it allows water vapour out.”

To finish off his structure he plans to add a window made from glass bottle ends - the final touch of recycling materials.

It has been entered into the Bromley Environment Awards in the category of green building and green household.