ABOUT US

When built properly, straw works.

Straworks is a Peterborough based company that has been designing and building straw bale buildings since 2004. We take pride in our work and have fun doing it, because when built properly, straw works.

Deirdre McGahern

Deirdre McGahern started Straworks in 2004. She is is a licensed (BCIN) designer, a carpenter and a natural builder and as president she also runs the company. You can read more about her here.

Miles Johnston

Miles Johnston joined Staworks in 2019 with a decade of experience swinging a hammer and project managing high-end residential jobs. His specialty is fine wood working, but he also excels in framing and all aspects of carpentry. Plastering is totally different, yet when given a trowel and pushed off the deep end, Miles excelled at that too. There doesn’t seem to be anything he can’t do or make – earrings, bread, chickens, vegetables, toys, yogourt, pigs and paddles. He is incredibly skilled and hard-working yet graceful in his approach to life. He never gets too fussed-out about anything and has a beautiful way of supporting others in his every his move. Father of two, partner, friend, brother, neighbour and son, Miles is there for many people in his life. He’s going to make you feel great, and together you’ll move mountains./span>

SEAN Saunders

Sean excels at the detail work and trowelling too. He has been the end of the line on almost all of Straworks plastering jobs since 2008 – an impressive total of 21! It took a pandemic for him to finally let me take and post a picture of his face! The mask makes it ok… I’ve posted many of his amazing pants. Everyone, this is Sean, aka Pajama Pants and Sesei. He lives to plaster and we 💚 him just as much.

Michael Henry

Mike researched plasters and plastered his way across Ontario for the last two decades, first with Camel’s Back Construction and since 2016 for Straworks. His attention to detail and the mad-scientist plaster experiments have made him a noted expert in the field and a sought-after workshop leader on plasters at the Endeavour Centre. Michael is co-author of Essential Natural Plasters and Ontario’s Old-Growth Forests. He lives in Peterborough, Ontario, with his wife and two children.