To full utilization of crushed straw in civil engineering industry is necessary to know its technical parameters. During previous projects on VŠB – TUO, Faculty of Civil Engineering have found parameters like settlement, thermal conductivity or airborne sound insulation. The research on these parameters have had favorable results, therefore the research is going on and other characteristics of crushed straw are finding out. These days the research team deals with determination of important fire characteristics of crushed straw. Fire characteristics play substantial character by building materials and their design in buildings. Nature materials are generally regarded as flammable. If some material is pressed, the same rule as in the phonebook – if you ignite one sheet of paper, it burns. But if you try to ignite the whole phonebook, it will be not so easy. This article is reported the first step of research on the reaction to fire. This is the preliminary classification of crushed straw into reaction to fire. The test was made according to methods which are described below. There are some changes in methods due to different structures of crushed straw.

This article is focused on an experimental measurement of settlement of blown insulation from crushed straw. Straw has appeared like building material in recent years. It is ecological and cheap building material which is required for sustainable construction. Straw is usually used in form of bales. These are generally used like thermal insulation filling the supporting structure. An alternative to straw bales can be crushed straw. Crushed straw is not used in building industry currently. Its thermal insulating properties and structure are appropriate to use it like blown or loose thermal insulation. The experimental measurement was necessary to verify application of crushed straw by blowing or bulk and to find out values of settlement. Results of this measurement are described in this article.

With regard to the current European trends in civil engineering and sustainability are still explored new building materials. In this case it is ideal to use natural materials such as straw. Its use as a building material is both ecological and economical. Excellent thermal insulation properties of straw have been known for centuries but the aim of this paper and the measurements were also demonstrate air-tightness and acoustic properties of a straw houses in the Czech Republic.

Construction has recently become greener and returns to the materials that used by our ancestors. Recycled paper is considered as ecological material. Cellulose insulation is made from it has been used for several years. People do not believe in this blown insulation mainly due to the settlement and the creation of thermal bridges in the least desirable areas of the structure. This paper presents a description of a new test filling insulators which should clearly define the issues settlement.

Paper presents results of measuring of airtightness and acoustic properties of clay house. This clay house was built as a "SuperAdobe house" from the bags filled with clay. Construction of the clay house is a cupola. Objective of the measurement was to evaluate the quality of peripheral construction in terms of airtightness. We also wanted to verify the acoustic parameters of earthen structures and determine the value of airborne sound insulation.