[Strawbale] Re: Strawbale Digest, Vol 21, Issue 2

[Martin Doyle]

Hi. As someone who has no actual experience of Strawbale building,  
simply a great interest, I purchased building with awareness earlier  
this year. After having to pay extra duty etc to get it into the UK,  
it became a rather expensive purchase!

The book and the DVD are very well produced and kept me engrossed for  
many hours - I also think that the end product is a beautiful if  
rather small building.

However, as I watched the DVD I did get quite disheartened at the  
apparent complexities that were in the building process. The more I  
watched, the more it seemed to alienate me, the uninitiated builder  
and I ended up thinking that building with strawbale was going to be  
far too complex for the average guy - all the other books and their  
authors I've read have gone to great lengths to assure the 'new'  
builder that strawbale is accessible to everyone.

I was also disappointed at the amount of concrete used in the build -  
I accept that this may be due to code / building regulations  
compliance, but nevertheless, part of my reason for liking strawbale  
and other 'alternative' building methods is the fact that you use  
more ecological building materials.

Are there any other strawbale DVD's available in the UK, and if so,  
how can I get them?

Thanks, Martin

On 2 Jun 2007, at 11:00, strawbale-request at amper....muni.cz wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>    1.  Re: Brilliance is subjective (Rob Tom)
>
> From: "Rob Tom" <ArchiLogic at yahoo...>
> Date: 1 June 2007 17:00:46 BDT
> To: "European strawbale building discussions"  
> <strawbale at amper....muni.cz>
> Subject: [Strawbale] Re: Brilliance is subjective
> Reply-To: European strawbale building discussions  
> <strawbale at amper....muni.cz>
>
>
> On Thu, 31 May 2007 21:16:48 -0400, Catherine Wanek  
> <blackrange at zianet...> wrote:
>
>> Thus Ted had to use rebar pins,
>> wire mesh, etc., which many experienced straw-bale builders now would
>> choose to avoid.  Therein (I believe) lie Rob Tom's criticisms.
>
> Actually, "no".
>
> As mentioned, it has been a number of years since I first saw the  
> DVD but a few of the items that come to mind now (aside from the  
> above) have more to do with basic building techniques/methods and  
> basic design that would apply to buildings of any sort, not having  
> anything to do with Code restrictions/prescriptions.
>
> ie Foundation forming technique
>    Concrete finishing method (aside from the acid-etched concrete  
> choice)
>    Framing technique
>    Sheet metal roofing technique
>    "Passive solar" design
>
> ... all of which were done improperly and/or just plain badly and  
> to suggest that they were done with any degree of "awareness" is  
> simply inaccurate.
>
> "Awareness" suggests to me that one first has an understanding of  
> the basics and having contemplated them, implemented changes that  
> are an improvement upon the norm .
>
> That was not the case in the BWA DVD that I viewed.
>
> -- 
> === * ===
> Rob Tom
> Kanata, Ontario, Canada
> < A r c h i L o g i c  at   C h a f f Y a h o o  dot  C a  >
> (winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply)
>
>
>
>
>
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