[GSBN] Update, question re: proposed SB code (hay bales)

[Jeff Ruppert]

Bale People!

Reading the discussion about codes while living in Afghanistan (where there are no codes) and building military facilities to ICC standards I say to all of you, WOW! 

When enforced as intended the current U.S. building codes are incredibly difficult to maneuver and certainly not something that any sane human would wish upon another.  This is no more apparent than in a place where most people live in earthen block buildings.  Regulation costs money even if it means safety.  It's a tough choice no matter who you are.

As so many of you know, most of the world could care less about codes, much less the complicated ones we make.  That said, this work is amazing!  At this point we need to let it be submitted as a great body of work with our full support.  There will be plenty of opportunities later on to change things.

Furthermore, while most of us would like to see the current code, which is dominated by a few industrialized materials, broken wide open to all sorts of alternatives, we are at the same time subjecting ourselves to the same processes and regulatory frameworks those other industries have created to keep us out.  This will make many of us very uncomfortable, but it will be inevitable.  We will no longer be on the fringe and able to experiment in such a free-form fashion like we used to on may client-based projects.  Sure, we can try anything we want in our backyards, but where codes are involved, this will dominate.

Bale construction has come a long way in 15 years and I look froward to the next chapter as it plays out.  Thank you Martin and the rest of you who have contributed to a big step in such a positive direction.  I hope it supports bale construction in a similar ways the Pima County/Tuscon Code did in the late 90's, and more.

Hope to see you all in Colorado in September!

Jeff




On Feb 15, 2012, at 9:00 PM, Chris Magwood wrote:

> Hi Martin,
> 
> We're in the midst of preparing an "Alternative Solutions" package for straw bale here in Ontario, a kind of back-door route to code approval that was created when Canada moved to its new objective-based codes, so I certainly have some sense of what you're going through. I never want to see another set of decimalized references again (9.25.4.3.1 (a) (iii).... aaaahhh!!!!).
> 
> I think the time of harvest issue is not really that important a point. The vast majority of bale builders use cereal grain bales, and farmers don't harvest cereal grains until the plant has ripened and dried. Any of the grains I know about would be useless if harvested green, so the only time this becomes an issue is if someone is using non-traditional grasses to bale. While it would be great to ensure that these are properly dry when harvested, I think you'd be spending a lot of time to ensure that a tiny percentage of builders aren't courting a potential problem.
> 
> Can you use the term "cereal grain" and/or "seed-producing grasses" rather than define specific varieties. There must be a real farming term that encompasses all such crops that could be used here.
> 
> I'd like to chime in with my own words of appreciation for what you're doing.
> 
> Chris
> 
> -- 
> www.chrismagwood.ca
> www.endeavourcentre.org
> 
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