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John Glassford and Susan Wingate-Pearse run Huff n Puff Constructions, specialising in strawbale buildings, from their base at Ganmain in south-west New South Wales.* In this article John describes three types of cheap footings for strawbale buildings he has tried at Ganmain.
by John Glassford Ganmain, New South Wales.
STRAWBALE w alls require careful consideration before you build. You need to allow for the w idth of the
bales and, most importantly, for the w eight that the render adds. So w e alw ays allow for the w idth of the footings to carry the weight of the render. We make the footings 50 to 70 mm w ider than the bales. Without w ell-engineered footings you will have trouble with the walls either sagging in the case of piers, bearers and joists or sinking in the case of footings in the ground. We strongly advise that you consult a structural engineer once you have decided w hich type of footing suits your straw bale building. We are developing suitable foundations for strawbale w alls that minimise cement. Cement consumes an inordinate amount of energy and resources in its manufacture and in our opinion is an unsustainable building material. In this article we w ill look at three of the foundations we have used in our ow n straw bale buildings in Ganmain. We do not have any preference as long as the method is sustainable, cheap and easy to accomplish.
gets in it will easily drain off. We also anchor the concrete bond beam every 1.8 metres by using a cement pier that is tied into the bond beam with rebar. The bottom plate assembly is then fixed to the concrete bond beam by using dynabolts or a tw o-part chemical bolting system. This method not only uses onetenth of the cement but also reduces the cost to a quarter of a conventional cement and steel footing.
This is probably our favourite method of foundations for straw bale buildings because it is easy for ow ner builders to use, suits our climate well, and can be used on sloping blocks without soil excavation. It is, how ever, the most expensive of the three methods and takes the longest to do. You also need to be able to use a chainsaw w ith some degree of accuracy. Once you have had your soil analysed for its stability you can have a structural engineer design the size of the timber members for the piers, bearers and joists. Your engineer will also be able to recommend the span that you can carry with your timbers. We prefer to use recycled cypress pine for our piers w est of The Divide and prefer recycled turpentine on the East Coast of Australia. These two timbers can be found in many different types of structures such as timber bridges, w harves and shearing sheds. They both are resistant to termites and are to be found in many of our timber buildings that have stood the test of time. There are several suppliers of recycled timbers in Australia w ith the most noted being Nullarbor Timbers of Moama in New South Wales.
*Huff n Puff Constructions, Moore Street, Ganmain, NSW, 2702, phone (02) 6927 6027, email <huffnpuff@shoal. net.au>, Web: <ww w.strawbale.archinet.com.au>. FAQ | Resources | Straw bale home | Straw bale discussion board | Back to EG Web Page