ISSUE #1
-
3 Straw Built Building Consents Issued in Oct 2004
- National Straw Built Survey to Local Authorities
- We're Looking for Straw Built Homes
- Moisture Meter testing of local Straw
Built Home
- EBANZ Weekend in Warkworth
- Presentation to Central North Island Building Inspectors
3 Straw Built Building Consents Issued
in Oct 2004
October was a busy and productive month, and culminated in Sustainable
Structures getting 3 building consents from 3 different Councils! No mean
feat! These included getting consents for:
- A small straw built project near Rotorua
- The Waitoahe Valley School project here in Opotiki (This will be the
first public straw built building in NZ!)
- Crisp residential home in
Gisborne.
(checkout our work section to see the School and
Crisp house projects)
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National Straw Built Survey to Local Authorities
One of the questions we get asked a lot by people, is:
'How many straw bale buildings are there in New Zealand?'
It has been a question we haven't been able to answer!
So, we decided to find out ourselves, by putting together a questionnaire
that we then sent to all local councils/ authorities around New Zealand.
This asked the building inspectors to tell us: how many straw bale
buildings had been built in their area, how old they were, the council's
current position on 'consenting' a straw built building, as well
as a few other things.
We have received a pretty good response, 46 out of the 75 or so councils
have replied so far!
So now we have found the answer to our question:
There are less than 150 straw built buildings in New Zealand!
Let's get busy building more!!!
We're
Looking for Straw Built Homes !
As mentioned above, we are currently actively involved in gathering as
much information about New Zealand’s straw bale buildings as possible,
so that we can further their acceptance within the ‘formal’
building industry. This involves us chatting to as many people about straw
bale homes as possible, as well as assessing existing straw bale buildings
all around New Zealand in different weather conditions and environments.
So, if you own a straw bale home, or perhaps have been, or currently
are involved with straw bale construction, we’re keen to hear from
you!
We’d really welcome the opportunity to hear about how your straw
bale ‘experience’, and what your thoughts on straw bale construction
are. Most importantly, we’d love the chance to visit a straw bale
home that you might know of, so that we can do a few tests to assess its
performance :-)
Please email us on:
straw-is-fab@sustainable-structures.com
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Moisture Meter testing of Straw Built Home in
Eastern Bay of Plenty
Recently, we were called on to assess the moisture content of the bales
in a locally built, 5 old year straw built home, here in the Eastern Bay
of Plenty. More significantly, we were being asked to do this within 10
days of the hundred year flooding we had here in July 2004!
There was no need to worry, as the home passed with flying colours!!
Moisture meter testing produced results of 9% moisture content in the
bales, with only one reading of 16% on the bottom bale of the 6 metre
south facing unprotected façade!!
(see below)
All these readings were below the required level of 18%, proving the 3
coat stucco system we use, really works in keeping the straw healthy.
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EBANZ Weekend in Warkworth
Over Labour Weekend we took part in the annual EBANZ (Earth
Building Association of New Zealand) conference up in Warkworth. It
was a great chance to meet up with other like minded people in the industry
- and to discuss how we can all continue to work together towards having
healthy, warm and environmentally friendly homes.
The first day consisted of a tour of a number of different earth built
homes within the area.
The highlight of the day for us, was visiting Rainbow Valley Farm,
a permaculture based community established over 15 year's ago. Here we
got to visit the beautiful home of Joe Polaischer (the founder of the
farm), and then listen to him talk about passive heating, environmental
issues, permaculture and much more .... all VERY inspiring.
We recommend a visit to Rainbow
Valley Farms if you are in the Matakana area.
The second
day was called Muddy Sunday, and consisted of hands-on dirty work, where
we all had fun building rammed earth, adobe brick, and straw bale walls.
A GREAT Weekend!
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Presentation to Central North Island Building
Inspectors
We're always looking for opportunities to talk about Straw built construction,
and we got a great chance to do just this, when we presented a talk called
the 'Real Story of Straw' to over 30 different building inspectors
in the Central North Island.
This involved a 45 minute PowerPoint Presentation, that covered an overview
of:
- Straw Built facts (worldwide)
- The Straw
Built industry in NZ
- Our Company - Sustainable Structures
- The Straw Built Construction technique
The presentation was well received by the inspectors, especially our poking
fun at ourselves, by referencing ' The 3 Little Pigs' (a standard joke
when it comes to Straw construction :-)
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