ISSUE #4
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Our Show Home - Roof on in under 2 months !
- Straw Bale Open Day at Ruatuna
- Great Fieldays Experience
- New Faces at Sustainable Structures
- Latest
Project News
Our Show Home - Roof on in under 2 months!
Ruatuna, our Straw Built Show home and Office, is coming together
very nicely!
Construction started on site in late June/ early July, and since then
we have:
- Finished the concrete floor slab - complete with underfloor hot water
pipes.
- Erected a GIANT 'protecting' canopy over the entire building site to
keep things nice and dry.
- Erected all the necessary framing/ 'bucks' for window and door joinery.
- Stacked all the straw bales in place.
- Compressed all the load-bearing straw walls with tensioned wire tie-downs
and cross bracing.
- Taken delivery of the Polypanel sheets that make up the monopitch roof
for the building, and installed these.
So that's from 'Nothing on the Ground' to ' Roof On ' in just under 2
months (26 working days actually) !
It's worthwhile for us to now include a whole lot of pics of this 'journey'
below, and a few comments to help fill in the blanks :-) Here goes:
Concrete being pumped for floor slab. The concrete floor is
going to be finished with a great floor stain we use - Kemiko -
that gives a fantastic natural finish. Coupled with the hydronic
underfloor heating in the slab, it makes for a cost-effective,
stylish end product.
Floor slab being laid. It's difficult to see but the underfloor
piping is in place (laid under the reinforcing mesh, so that
it doesnt 'float' to the surface)
Metal framework for canopy roof being erected (25m long
x 15m wide! )
Canopy roof in place. The idea is to erect the canopy at the
start of the building contract, so that absolutely no time is
lost due to bad weather. This proves invaluable when placing
the straw, as there is no danger of it getting wet! We plan to
utilise the canopy roof several times over on other projects.
Loading up the straw truck. All our straw for our projects is
stored in a warehouse in the Waikato, and stacked on pallets. Makes for
really quick loading!
Straw being delivered to site. On Ruatuna we have utilised
+- 350 bales.
First bale in place! Many more to come :-)
The onsite supervision team! Our kids just love straw -
they made their own fort, and had heaps of fun.
First straw wall up! The bales are stacked up in a load-bearing manner.
They get stabilised once the top plate is on,
and then tensioned down with wire tires.
Evan getting busy tidying up the bales. Pretty much mowing
the lawn :-)
Delivery of the polypanel roof sheets.
Getting the 16m long panels up to the site was an excercise
in Kiwi Ingenuity!
Roof panels going on! Each panel is 1m wide, with 150mm
polystyrene sandwiched between colorsteel. It provides
fantastic insulation (R4) and can span 6m unsupported.
Great for cost-effective projects!
A roof withiin a roof!
Internal view showing underside of roof panels. We plan
to 'sark' a portion of the ceiling with T&G boards, and leave
some exposed too. The 'clean' modern metal finish will contrast
beautifully with the undulating straw and plaster.
Straw
Bale Open Day at Ruatuna
We
are having an 'Open Day' for people interested in visiting the Ruatuna
construction site (down here near Whakatane in the Eastern Bay of Plenty).
This will take place on the 21st of August (a Sunday),
and will start at 10.30am. We plan the open day to last
+- 2 hours, and entry will be $20 (per car/ family),
a portion of which will be donated to a local community project.
The Open day will allow you to experience firsthand how a straw bale home
is constructed, and you'll have the chance to get answers to all those
questions you've been dying to ask!
We plan to also have a plaster pumping demonstration, as well a presentation
called the "Real Story of Straw' - that will give a great overview
of Straw Bale Construction. Morning tea will also be provided!
And as they say in those cheesy infomercials - 'That's Not All!' :-) We
are also going to offer some great 'Special Deals' for people interested
in building their own straw bale home!
So, if you are interested in attending the open day, please contact Bryce
Stevens NOW, and register your interest - there are limited space available
!
Please
email him on:
bryce@sustainable-structures.com
OR
Call him on 0800 787 272 (0800 STRAW BUILT)
Great
Fieldays Experience
We
are regular exhibitors at the Annual Mystery Creek Fieldays
(15th to 18th of June).
Our stall at the Fieldays was VERY well attended, and there was good interest
and knowledge shown about straw bale construction.
We had over 500 people enter our competition to win two night's accommodation
at our soon-to-be complete Showhome - Ruatuna.
The lucky winner of the competition - Hazel 'C' of Tauranga is "over
the moon". She says that she has already been lucky enough to visit
a Straw Bale house - and says "I just love the look and warm feeling
of them. I would love to live in one myself." We are pleased to help
her fulfill her dream, at least for a couple of nights!
Congratulations
Hazel!
For those of you who visited us at Fieldays - we appreciate your support,
and look forward to seeing you next year! Or better still - give us a
call and come and visit our new show home :-)
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New Faces at Sustainable Structures
The team at Sustainable Structures is growing! With the huge interest
in what we are doing, and the demand for straw built homes showing no
signs of abating, we have had the privilege of being able to add 3new
members to the team. These include:
- Bryce Stevens - Project Enquiries
- Frances Wharry - Administration/ Show Home Host
- Melanie Foot - Interior Design
Bryce is a past sales manager for 'Lockwood', and has
a passion for house design - having built and renovated several homes
of his own. As a once-upon-a-time professional Coromandel potter, he is
right at home with Straw Bale's natural organic feel. The energy efficiency
and sustainability of these homes sits perfectly with his life long commitment
to environmental issues.
Call him up on our new 0800 number -
0800 STRAW BUILT (0800 787 292) for a chat ...
he's really quite friendly!
Frances has a diverse background in managing people, teams and
orginisations. Exactly what we need as Sustainable Structures and Straw
Built Homes continue to grow! She plans to whip the office into shape,
and make visiting the showhome a fantastic and memorable experience :-)
Melanie is a graduate from Massey University in Wellington,
and is going to assist us in maximising the potential of our projects.
She is already busy styling the interior of Ruatuna - our new showhome!
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to top
Latest Project News
There's been a fair bit on the go at the moment!
- Straw Built Homes is progressing well with the construction of John
and Barb's home in Hamilton. The concrete floor slab is being poured in
early August, with the structural steel work being erected soon thereafter.
To put the size of this project into perspective - we estimate that we
will utilise well over 1000 straw bales (that's almost 4 times as many
as in our show home!)
Rainbows are a frequent occurence in the Waikato, with
it's intermittently sunny weather :-)
Setting out- making sure everything is exactly where it
should be!
Footings and foundations in place - ready for blockwork.
Blockwork going in!
Sub floor all ready for concrete pour. We have included
an 8 zone underfloor solar hot water system, that will allow our clients
to regulate the temperature of their home. All totally passive!
Big curved steel sections/ tubes in the engineering yard.
These will be used to make the structural frame for the building.
- Construction on Kevin and Anne's home in Te Puke is also progressing
really well. The builders - Lance, Paul and Gareth are doing a great job
of getting the framing up and ready for roofing (mid August) And then
its time to get the bales in place!
- Our small project in Te Awamutu is just being 'set-out' on site, and
building will commence within the next week. The local builder - Rod -
is keen to use the project as a good learning experience, for the next
phase of the project - which entails the construction of a 350sqm straw
bale 'Chateau'!! (Plans for this are already in advanced stages on the
drawing board)
- Straw Built Homes has taken delivery of its own plaster pump. This will
allow them to quickly and efficiently plaster the projects they are involved
with. For example, it's possible to plaster the outside of a standard
3 bedroom home within a day! Pretty good going. Phil and John - our local
plaster crew - are enjoying the efficiency and speed of the new machine.
Pumping plaster onto a straw ceiling.
Mitec 2000 - Plaster Pump.
- Design of a beach residence up in the Coromandel is in advanced stages,
and our Australian clients, John and Holly are really happy with the way
their new home is shaping up! We are going to be submitting plans for
building consent in late August.
- Design of a large comfortable home for Bruce and Jo is also making good
progress. The 3D, and 'sun study' modelling we have done on the project
has made it really easy for them to visualise the project.
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