Seems to be a growing trend, straw bale accommodation and recreational use buildings.
Any builders out there?.. Just curious to regs/ laws and such to actually building.
Cheers!
No real issues except the amount of area needed to accommodate the wall thicknesses. They're very energy efficient and easy to build. The construction is typically post-beam with the bales as infill panels.
You should be able to find heaps about them on the interwebby. A mate of mine whom is a self employed carpenter and currently chasing registration as a builder plans on building one in the next couple of years... although he has a few acres to build on.
here in kalgoorlie,they were one of the first to allow straw bale in town, but if you were to send in an application now you would spend alot of money and time banging your head against the wall. they hate any kind of recycled materials in buildings, so forget your recycled posts and beams.
Ive got a huge stack of 8x10 karri going to waste cos they just put too many conditions on any kind of alternative build.
I reckon straw bale would be awesome. just being able to carve all the shelves and niches straight into the wall would be a dream
I just really don't want to commit myself to a mortgage for some mass production modern home set on a piss small metro block. I just cant do it. Straw bale just seems the way for me. Buy some acreage away from Perth and build. Wouldn't have thought there would be any red tape or opposition.
It is an awesome construction method but some things to think about - price straw bales. Not hay - straw. It is not as common and therefore more expensive so if you do your math on hay you may come unstuck.
Then - it can't get wet. You have to almost guarantee you can get all the walls up, wiring and plumbing in, and rendered in cement before any moisture hits. That means summer time and going like blazes to get it up. So if it is an owner builder that may not suit some people.
A mate who is not a builder built this house in Margaret River from straw. Great house.
www.stayz.com.au/holiday-rental/p7449
paulford i know your line of thinking but the whole straw bail rammd earth reused shipping container sort of style of building is just to much of a stuff around. by all means dont spend 30 years paying off the same old white render walled, grey scaled roofed large glass opening back wall in a development block sort of thing. but when it really comes down to it when your sitting there with all your numbers crunched at the end of the day the alternative is really quite a bit more difficult. because when life hits the fan you need to be able to sell and quickly. and those are some seriously BIG numbers.
after going through the regulations regarding straw bale homes, i found this one interesting, clause 11;, must not be build within 100m of big bad wolves,
Select to expand quoteMilsy said..
after going through the regulations regarding straw bale homes, i found this one interesting, clause 11;, must not be build within 100m of big bad wolves, 
Select to expand quotelandyacht said..
here in kalgoorlie,they were one of the first to allow straw bale in town, but if you were to send in an application now you would spend alot of money and time banging your head against the wall. they hate any kind of recycled materials in buildings, so forget your recycled posts and beams.
Ive got a huge stack of 8x10 karri going to waste cos they just put too many conditions on any kind of alternative build.
I reckon straw bale would be awesome. just being able to carve all the shelves and niches straight into the wall would be a dream
Good advice, and the building industry regs are the same here in Vic. Basically with about 92-95% of all homes being 'project' (cookie-cutter) homes - instead of the home needing to comply with the building industry regulations, the regs have been designed & favoured toward the most common denominator, therefore the way has been paved for your mass production residential home companies, and any form of 'alternative' construction is getting more difficult each year as the standards seem to be slowly removing all references to alternative building and focussing on 'energy-efficiency' of brick veneer urban homes. Anything out of the ordinary is simply not (directly) referenced in building standards, code or regs.
I recently had to turn-away an owner-builder that wanted me to help him through the design & construction process of his own home from timber sourced on his property and using 'alternative construction' methods (including bracing, load-bearing windows, earth retaining above ground-floor without using membranes etc.) . Whilst I would have loved to be involved, the time that I would have had to commit to that project would mean that he would have had to basically 'employ' me for months. He couldn't understand why and was trying to do it on a shoestring budget & just get my advice when he wanted it - so I had to decline. So many meetings would be needed to get it through, including the planning process, getting engineering principles to work & convincing the building surveyor that they will work as a 'deemed to satisfy' alternative, assessing the energy efficiency of an alternative structure with passive heating/cooling, coupling, thermal mass etc.
Straw-bale shouldn't be as difficult as the structure is very straight-forward & the bale insulation properties can be calculated quite easily, but you need to find a building surveyor that is passionate about, or at least has an interest in alternative construction methods & not just interested in making sure it complies with relevant building regs. Good luck with it!
Yesses and No's - I did a course with Strawtegic here in Perth. Dave has built $2 million straw mansions and small straw cottages. He explains how he gets his designs adopted by Council and people's general misconceptions with straw etc. See the link below.
The Big Bad Wolf is a fairytale after all!
www.strawtegic.com.au/
Don't re-invent the wheel... talk to these guys! ^^^
Great to see there are specialists on the subject.
I have been involved in a strawbale project recently.
It's a fantastic construction method and has many benefits.
If you want to get plans through quickly get an engineers report. It is costly but will moves things through quickly and the Council will probably make you get one anyway (ours did).
My advice to anyone in WA is to stay the hell away from Strawtegic Concepts. I am one of the growing number of clients that have had serious issues with the quality of work and lack of professionalism.
I have since heard of a very experienced and knowledgable straw baler in Balingup who does training and builds. If anyone is considering learning I would contact him. I have heard good things about him.
Select to expand quotepaulford said..
Seems to be a growing trend, straw bale accommodation
you don't say 
Select to expand quoteSookie said..
I have since heard of a very experienced and knowledgable straw baler in Balingup
where else would he live ??
/sorry, small things amuse small minds
