Hello everybody, my name is Nathan and I am building a Straw Bale house with the assistance of Huff'n'Puff constructions in April. I am seeking course attendees so I am putting this out there to see if anyone wants to learn to build an affordable house (I'm having a go at doing it under $80,000 - wish me luck cos the cheapest quote I could get from local builders was $240,00) made with a material that is replaceable annually (in our case wheat straw - sourced from less than 50 kms from the house site).I am a partner with Adam Grubb and Dan Palmer in Very Edible Gardens and I am also keen to develop a Permaculture Demonstration site in Castlemaine. An ethically built house using Straw as a wall material with recycled materials elsewhere (where possible within the constraints of time and budget) is the core of Zone 1 design (when you get a blank slate - which is rare).
I attended a workshop myself with Huff'n'Puff ( http://glassford.com.au/main/ ), 4 or 5 years ago in Beaufort (near Ballarat) for a couple named Clive and Gab and found it so inspiring and awesome (they built it for $56,000) that I went home, bought a packet of chalk and drew my room sizes on the street I live in in Fitzroy, downloaded Google Sketch-up (for free) and designed my simple house. The experience of actually building a house with a bunch of other dudes made the whole dream seem so solid that ...... well here I am - looking for 5 people to sign up and learn these things - over the course of 5 days:
Theory -
Load bearing versus bale in-fill;
low cost footings and foundations;
engineering details
Wall systems
Council requirements
Australian test results
Design parameters for Straw Bale
Roofing for Straw Bale
Render theory
cement, lime and earth
electrical and plumbing: electrical wiring and plumbing requirements for strawbale building.
Practical -
Bottom and top plates
Window and door framing
wall raising
Windows and door fitting
Pre-compression of walls
Preparation for clay/chaff renders
Render mixes
Application
Lime putties/colour
Also there are evening slide shows of USA and Australian straw bale house tours (so you avoid thinking of my humble abode as the template)
Also resources I have compiled over the years in relation to the house include but are not limited to-
-Site selection criteria (very important to assist in avoiding mistakes in land purchase and -relationship breakdown an all too common issue with Owner Builders
-Map resources - topographic, geological and hydrological.
-The Sustainable features of the house -(off grid so all our own tank water etc) including geothermal cooling vents!
-The things to watch out for with councils including 'not mentioning what you don't have to'.
-Haggling the Realtors
-Tips on Bushfire resistant design - I take this stuff seriously and have begun designing for clients through VEG. (David Holmgren has heavily influenced my thinking here but also my own observations and that of Joan Webster - the Don of Auzzie bushfire writers.
-Reading lists
-What we wanted from a country town - bear in mind we had no money to build this house but thought what the heck lets get the land revalued after 4 years to see if we could borrow on our equity and it had doubled in value from our purchase price (bank evaluation - the real estate agents say even more) - so these factors are important and are also touched on in land selection criteria.
-Section 32, conveyancing,
-Septic application
-Bushfire Attack Level rating systems (the new scary for Owner Builders - post Black Saturday.
My wife Belle and her mum Di will prepare lots of delicious food during the days and if you want you can camp out on our block which backs on to 8 and a half thousand hectares of forest (The Diggings Heritage National Park- so early morning walks and views will clear your mind)
Workshop fees (taken from their website):-
Our costs have not risen since we started workshop # 1 in 1997. We can keep the costs pegged for a short while, and your investment is still only $500 (includes GST) per person for three days, $550 (includes GST) per person for four days, or $605 (includes GST) per person for the full five days. This includes smoko, lunch and afternoon tea every day.
You will need to send a 50% deposit to confirm your registration. But please book early. Our workshops are very popular, and a booking with a deposit will take precedence over bookings without a deposit.
Our public liability insurance premiums have just doubled! So we are going to have look at raising our workshop fees at some stage sooner than later. This is unavoidable, and I am told we are lucky to get public liability insurance for this type of activity.
Please call us at anytime for any further information on our workshops (02) 6927 6027 if you are calling from outside of Australia 61 2 6927 6027. Email: john@glassford.com.au
Thanks heaps people and I'd love to see you at our place learning to build a house of straw.
Nathan
