Re:360 reasons to build with SB

["Huff 'n' Puff Constructions" <huffnpuff@shoal.net.au>]

John Dittli wrote:

> I commend you on your costs, the componants for my grid tie PV system are
> $7,000 US alone! We need to cost things out so people out there that are

Our utility will provide some rebate for solar as well as wind but we also get a
$7,000 rebate from the Commonwealth Govt (federal) for going off grid and
reversing the wheel.  On top of that we will be getting special rates form the
manufacturers/distributors of the panels as we will be promoting their products
through our company.  That goes for the self composting toilets and the grey
water system.

So we have been able to keep our capital costs down in a dramatic way and even
though some people look at us in a funny way, we do not have two heads, we think
that having people pay one selves to help one build ones own home out of straw,
chaff and earth is the smart wolf's way of showing how to be mortgage free and
happy!

Thanks for your kind words and I hope that many more of you on this list will
follow Andy Gladish and the other Gladdies of building small pavilions as
described by Andy and as we are doing. The fact that pavilions take up a larger
footprint is a furphy.  The fact is that the smaller the buildings the smaller
the spans the less infrastructure you need in the form of roofing and footings
AND this is the way I go about the rest of the building:

Footings rubble trench, rammed rubber tyres or recycled piers, bearers and
joists.
Bond beam for the bottom plates cement with 30% pozzolan e.g. chaff. Works well!

Floor earth for thermal mass and recycled timber floors for those who can find
the stuff.
Walls load bearing straw bales naturally.
Pre compression tie down high tensile fencing wire and medium gripples.
Render earth/chaff/lime putty what else would you want!
Bottom and top plates recycled cypress pine (termite proof timber the best in
the world available here in Ganmain).
Now the roof;  Insulation Al sarking as an anti con, hessian to cover the
anti-con, and then pure course to medium wool straight off the sheep's back from
the closest shearing shed about 5 miles away.  Untreated and thrown into the
ceiling cavity or below the iron roofing.  Used recycled corrugated iron also
available in large amounts locally.

The roof members i.e. purlins rafters etc. we usually use recycled cypress pine
out of a derelict shearing shed (Big sheds that we pull down some of them have
been over 20,000 square feet and yield a lot of beautiful cypress pine.)
However this is a finite resource and we are looking at getting the local
cockies to grow bamboo for roof members and I am getting some progress here.

So to those of you who feel that pavilions use more material you could be right
but I feel that by using the above methods, even if the footprint is 30% more
(debatable), than the same amount of living space that you get from a monolithic
building, I feel that the difference in materials would be marginal.  The other
major benefit of pavilions is the fact that you can create interesting
courtyards between the buildings that with some creativity become part of the
whole complex.  So I do not see five small buildings but one medium size shelter
that has five different roof lines, (they look so sweet!) that appear to give a
sense of a small village even though we have 2,000 square feet of covered
buildings the courtyards (not built as yet) give the builing envelope a much
larger feel.

So off the soap box for now got to go render with Tom dip zee bales Rajven.

Kind regards The Straw Wolf
http://strawbale.archinet.com.au
61 2 6927 6027