[GSBN] Fwd: Strawbale Classroom in Cork Ireland

[Derek Roff]

Seeing the videos of fire tests may be useful in convincing the council, in appealing to the "seeing is believing" tendency of our brains.  Catherine Wanek documented the New Mexico fire test in the 90's, and could probably send you a copy of the video.  Bruce King has a 10-minute video on his website of the fire test done a few years ago in Texas.  

http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/resources/straw-bale-fire-test-video

There are many other useful documents on Bruce's site, including PDFs of the ASTM testing reports for the one-hour and two-hour fire tests.  Scroll down to Fire Resistance on this page:

http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/strawbale-construction-code-supporting-documentation

Good luck,
Derelict

Derek Roff
derek at unm.edu

On Mar 13, 2012, at 4:03 AM, Tom Woolley wrote:

> Dear friends
> 
> here is the old chestnut about strawbale and fire!
> I would be most grateful if anyone willing to help with this could email Alan Wiseman directly
> I am sure that Alan is aware that properly plastered strawbale walls are not a fire risk, 
> however he needs some official looking documents to give to his local authority to convince them to issue a fire certificate
> 
> The situation in Ireland is different from the UK ...
> we were able to convince building control in Northern Ireland that we complied with one of the US Building Codes and that was sufficient to get approval!
> Irish Regs
> http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/BuildingStandards/
> 
> many thanks to anyone who can assist
> 
> Tom Woolley
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>> From: alan wiseman <wisemandesigns at gmail.com>
>> Date: 13 March 2012 09:46:47 GMT
>> To: <tom.woolley at btconnect.com>
>> Subject: Strawbale Classroom
>> 
>> Dear Tom,
>> 
>> I have received planning permission for a strawbale classroom .This is located in a built up area, next to a large block creche on one side and 2m away from a dwelling on the other side, a couples of miles from Cork city. But now comes the awkward part. As it is a commercial building we need to get a Fire Certificate This will be difficult as there is no precedent here in Ireland for this (there are plenty of structures, mainly dwellings, as you are aware, but none commercial that needed a Fire Safety Certificate).
>> 
>> I am aware of commercial structures in the UK that have been built with strawbales.I would like to find out how they managed to persuade the fire department. I have test results from North America but precedents in Europe, particularly in the UK would better strengthen our case.  I am hoping you might have some insight or indeed contact on this. Any help is greatly appreciated.
>> 
>> Thanking you.
>> 
>> Kind regards,
>> 
>> Alan. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 13 Amberley Lawn
>> Grange
>> Cork
>> 
>> Tel: 021 489 99 79
>> Mob: 086 877 6564
>> www.wisemandesigns.net
>> 
> 
> Tom Woolley
> 
> Rachel Bevan Architects
> 80 Church Road
> Crossgar
> Downpatrick
> BT30 9HR
> tom.woolley at btconnect.com
> 028 44 830988
> www.bevanarchitects.com
> 




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