[GSBN] prefab strawbale

[John Swearingen]

That's interesting info, Chris, particularly your construction costs.  Maybe
we should try something like that!

I'm not clear how, with a module that's pre-plastered, you tie modules
together and make them weather-tight as well as structurally sound (don't
forget, our ground shakes violently now and then).

It seems that your 'poured' walls are simple and easy for unskilled
builders.   What would be the difference if you installed pre-fab walls w/o
plaster, and a professional crew did the plastering as normally done?

John "Beyond Fab" Swearingen

On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 4:09 AM, <cmagwood at kos.net> wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> Very interesting to see this prefab discussion pop up! As some of you
> know, I've been working on a prefab system for a while, and finally got a
> chance to put to work on a full scale building this summer.
>
> I've seen the Modcell system, and have many of the same reservations as
> have been expressed here on the list. It seems a lot of material and not
> much savings.
>
> Our system here is just a typical load bearing wall that's made off site.
> We use minimalist 2x4 box beam top plate and 2x4 sill plates, so there's
> no more wood in the wall than any other building, and in fact much, much
> less than any of the framed bale wall systems. In fact, it was watching
> people ignore good old load bearing walls in favour of heavily framed
> systems that got me wanting to prefab in the first place. I thought that
> if we could eliminate the two complaints of weather protection and
> wobbliness, then everybody could do load bearing.
>
> In terms of transportation... all the bales, lumber, sand and masonry
> ingredients get shipped from a source to a job site. Whether those
> materials come to the "factory" first, get assembled and then continue on
> to the job site seems pretty minor. In some cases, it may lower the EE,
> sometimes make it a tiny bit higher, but not enough to discount the idea
> of prefab. One of the beauties of our system is that the "factory"
> requires only typical job site tools (chop saw, table saw, screw gun,
> mortar mixer) and some floor space. Micro-factories are the way to do
> this, not big centralized plants.
>
> Our walls went together (with student workers, most of whom had no
> building experience) in 1/4 of the amount of time we'd usually spend doing
> site baled work. They turned out consistently sized, square, straight,
> load bearing panels for less than the cost that any builder could make
> standard frame walls.
>
> You can check out photos of our system on the Photo Album section of the
> class website at www.sustainablebuilding2009.ca. Those of you who've seen
> me present on this subject know that I'm pretty enthused about it. After
> too much time putting up test sheds, now that I've got a real building
> done this way, I'm only more enthused than ever!
>
> Chris
>
>
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-- 
John Swearingen

Skillful Means
www.skillful-means.com
blog: https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com
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