From: Mark Bigland-Pritchard <mark@lowenergydesign...>
Reply-To: European strawbale building discussions
<strawbale@amper....muni.cz>
To: "SB (Europe)" <Strawbale@amper....muni.cz>, "SB (repp)"
<STRAWBALE@LISTSERV...REPP.ORG>, "SB (yahoo)"
<SB-r-us@yahoogroups...>, "SB (bale-on)" <bale-on@yahoogroups...>
Subject: [Strawbale] concrete footings
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 01:12:31 -0600
Hi folks.
I'm organising the building of a small (30 m2) sb structure this spring, on
an environmentally sensitive site. We need to minimise the amount of
concrete going into the ground (to minimise embodied energy, to minimise
local ecological impact through changed soil chemistry, and to minimise
transportation costs). So I've ruled out a concrete pad. A rubble trench
foundation is ruled out because there is no suitable rubble locally. I'm
therefore looking at some sort of pile foundation. Treated timber below
ground level wouldn't meet the ecological criteria set by the site
managers, and I don't want to take the risk with untreated timber; my
previous experience of using boulders is that it's not the best way to do
this because the timbers on top of them have to be individually shaped to
fit (time-consuming, and not suitable for the mostly unskilled volunteer
labour which we will have). So I'm looking at using concrete piles,
probably arranged in something like a 2m grid, to support the building.
My question is this: does anyone have experience they are willing to share
of using proprietary systems for shaping the concrete such as that at
www.bigfootsystems.com ? (Bigfoot make a bell-shaped footing out of
recycled plastic, into which the concrete may be poured.)
My second, more tenative question is: can this sort of system be used with
rammed earth instead of concrete? (I don't think I have the time to learn
everything I'd need to know to do this this time round, but it would be
good to know what's possible for future work.)
atb,
Mark
Borden, SK, Canada
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