[Strawbale] Strawbale building in north Yorkshire

["Barbara Jones" <strawbale@lineone...>]

Dear All
Thankyou for being so patient with this project. It has certainly been very
difficult for me, not knowing when, or if, it was going to start but I am
pleased to announce that we now have some definite dates to tell you. The
delay has been caused by problems in securing insurance, which have now been
sorted out, but which unfortunately mean that no-one under the age of 18 can
work with us this time. I am disappointed about that, but none of this is
within my control.
The second problem has been caused by the Building Regs dept. who have all
along been encouraging of us using car tyres for foundations, but in
practice have proved to be very wary of this idea, making us carry out
different tests on site and generally delaying everything for 2 months. Also
we have been forced to change the type of fill in order to get approval.
However, it is still important for the concept of low impact building that a
version of car tyre foundations has been officially approved, and I shall
continue to argue for simpler methods.

So the schedule is:
26th August to 13th September:  Filling and placing car tyre foundation
using
dolomite hardcore (not rammed earth).

13th September to 20th September: No Volunteers on site due to the
construction of a temporary roof over the building.

23rd - 27th September Finishing tyres and timber floor grid and
positioning it on tyres.

30th September to 18th October: Building the straw walls.This may continue
longer if we have fewer volunteers than anticipated.

From 18th October onwards: Opportunities for limited numbers of volunteers
to help with other aspects of the building eg trimming the walls, installing
windows and hanging doors etc.Unfortunately due to insurance constraints, no
volunteers can help with the roof except for loading it up with soil.

I shall be on site to teach and supervise the strawbale building from the
30th September, and if we have enough volunteers, then Be rowan will also be
there. This is a very exciting project despite the delays and I do hope to
see as many of you there as possible. It will be lots of fun and a chance to
meet again before the end of the season. For those of you who haven't worked
with us before, I'd really encourage you to join us, I think you'd get a lot
out of it.

You MUST register with TocH and pay a £10 admin fee to join us in this
project. You can get a form from tochjd@aol... If you have any problems or
difficulties with this, then contact me at barbara@strawbalefutures....uk
Don't let the form filling put you off, you can do it once you get there if
necessary.

For the foundations, you can join the project any day of the week as long as
you let us know, but for the strawbale work you MUST begin on a Monday for
training and induction unless you have already done a course with us, and we
have said it's OK.

Food, accomodation and training is being offered in return for your help.
Directions on how to get there can be obtained from John Dunmore at TocH.

With Best wishes
Barbara Jones



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