[Strawbale] What concerns do people have about building SB

[Brian Waite]

Oliver, 
for me Definitely Planning Permission - I had to go to appeal after the local planning official told me "Cumbria (north west England) is not the place for innovation" and straw was an "alien" material! Winning the appeal then aggravated the building control department who have since created one obstacle after another (they refuse to believe that strawbales won't spontaneously combust and will not accept any existing fire test results). Now I am having to engage an independent building control firm from the south of England. The practicalities of that I have yet to discover. My original concern was moisture in this climate (we have horizontal rain) - that led to my design which is specifically intended to tackle that problem.
Originally it was only to be my retirement abode but during the design process it occurred to me that it could become a "kit" for self builders so I did some research - just amongst friends and business acquaintances. The overwhelming conclusion was that resale was their main concern. The "organic" appearance of nearly all the strawbalehouses I could show them, whilst appealing, worried everyone when it came to committing to such a large (family) investment.
Brian www.strawbalehouse.co.uk
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Oliver Blake Swann 
  To: Strawbale at amper....muni.cz 
  Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 1:45 PM
  Subject: [Strawbale] What concerns do people have about building SB


  Hi All,

   

  There has been some chat on various email groups about pests in walls and other issues about straw bale homes that concern people. So I thought I'd try to discover what really concerns people the most. I've made a web vote...

   

  "You want to build your own straw bale house but you are concerned about potential problems. The one problem that concerns you the most is:"

   

  Pest infestation

  Fire hazard

  Re-sale value

  Damp problems

  Structural problems

  Getting a loan

  Planning permission

  Building insurance

   

  You can vote on the link below and collect the iFrame code if you would like to include the vote in your blog.

   

  http://naturalhomes.org/naturalhomesvote.htm

   

  Regards, Oliver

   



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