<i>Petitio principii, </i>my dear Bruce. Is there something wrong with wood? <br><br>Or do you mean, to <i>much</i> wood? or <i>redundant</i> wood? or too many wood <i>buildings</i> cluttering up the landscape?<br><br>Ah,.... we could go on for a long time about this. <br>
<br>But you have to wonder (or at least I do, and with all due respect), why a very expensive and perhaps somewhat silly modular system gets lots of funding, a live cam lots of people with bright vests and hard hats to celebrate. <br>
<br>I would submit that it's about marketing in the broadest sense. As remarked earlier, the architecture and building trades depend on spec-easy systems---no matter the cost---and this system is just that.<br><br>I do have confidence, regardless, that straw bale gives good value for dollar when all real factors are considered. It's a long way from a one-paragraph specification, though. And that, I would say, is the "building standard" that straw bale hasn't met.<br>
<br>John "Specularly Spectacular" Swearingen<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 4:07 PM, Bruce King <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ecobruce@sbcglobal.net">ecobruce@sbcglobal.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div style=""><div><br></div><div><br></div>Prefab or site built, compadres and commadres, what still drives me a bit nuts is that we are still using quite a lot of framing lumber to build (most) straw bale buildings. There are lots of compelling reasons for that, of course, but I keep hoping someone will make the breakthrough that makes load-bearing straw bale much easier and hassle-free.<div>
<br></div><div>There are lots and lots of load-bearing bale buildings all over the world, yes, of course, but they are not mainstream. Meaning: in one way or another they are not easy, or cheap (??!!??), or just don't meet (or haven't yet been proven to meet) the kind of building standards that most of us have to work with.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Straw bale building is stuck in a bit of a wood rut, and I don't know how to bump it out. Do you?<br><div><div class="im"><br><div> <span style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="">
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<div><div style="margin: 0px;">Thanks,</div><div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px;">Bruce King</div><div style="margin: 0px;">(415) 987-7271</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><a href="http://bruce-king.com" target="_blank">bruce-king.com</a> </div>
</div></div></span></div></span> </div><br></div><div><div><div></div><div class="h5"><div>On Jul 29, 2009, at 3:51 PM, John Glassford wrote:</div><br></div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div></div><div class="h5">G ' day Again<br>
<br>Re the costing of the Pommie Panels.<br><br>They say from 250 pounds per square metre that is expensive, very expensive. That brings them in at around $500 per square metre and as we all know it takes around three standard bales for one square metre of wall. In our case that costs $15 per square metre just for the bales. Then you have to build them and render them of course but the margin is huge in the case of the Pommie Panels v the good old Nebraska way!<br>
<br>I am of the opinion that tilt up panels will have their place but the costs of manufacture transportation and erection cannot compete with the way we build with straw bale just like this little cottage:<br><br><a href="http://glassford.com.au/main/?attachment_id=1751" target="_blank">http://glassford.com.au/main/?attachment_id=1751</a><br>
<br>The Straw Wolf.<br></div></div><div class="im"> _______________________________________________<br>GSBN mailing list<br><a href="mailto:GSBN@greenbuilder.com" target="_blank">GSBN@greenbuilder.com</a><br><a href="http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN" target="_blank">http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN</a><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>John Swearingen<br><br>Skillful Means<br><a href="http://www.skillful-means.com">www.skillful-means.com</a><br>blog: <a href="https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com">https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com</a><br>