Mansfield Update May 25th

 

Here is a photo as promised from last week’s blog entry that gives people an idea of the volume of sand that would be required for the job. This is our second load of sand and should just see out the job of roughly 300 sq metres.

 

 

Hello again,

Top coat has started on our current job at Mansfield, and it looks fantastic. At this point I’d like to say that Mansfield has turned out to be one of the friendliest and welcoming towns I’ve ever worked in, although I’ve got to admit that the vast majority of smallish country towns we’ve worked in have been full of really lovely people. It truly is a pleasure to travel around our beautiful state and meet so many fantastic people.

Many people believe that strawbale is rough and rustic by its very nature, but that’s not necessarily the case. Unfortunately, some of the people that look at our jobs think that super flat and neat is the only way we render strawbale but we’re quite happy to do ‘rustic’ if that’s what our client wants – it’s our job to give our client what they want, not what we think the building should look like.

Our current clients, Stephen and Fiona, were a classic potential strawbale couple – Fiona wanted a strawbale house come hell or high water, because of it’s ecologically friendly nature, but Stephen was pretty hesitant, because the only finished buildings he’d seen looked pretty rough, poorly finished, and didn’t mesh well with the other components of the project. As soon as Stephen saw the finished product at our previous job at Barwite, he was visibly relieved and very pleased that he’d followed his ‘green’ sensibilities and opted for strawbale. Not only had he followed his instincts and opted for the green alternative, but he suddenly realized he could have a pretty slick, professional looking job into the bargain.

Similarly we had a couple last week who drove up to Mansfield from the Upper Yarra Valley, one of whom was a dedicated strawbale convert, and the other was pretty sceptical. By the time they’d had a good look around and asked all the relevant questions, they were both well on their way to starting their dream strawbale home. Good luck to them!

The top coat on the job is being done fairly neat and accurate, not only because the owners like the look but also because it suits the look of the building.

One of the principal motivating factors in doing “the strawbale thing” is giving our clients exactly what they want, and seeing the ‘light bulb moment’ when they see their dream coming together, better than even they could have imagined. That’s job satisfaction!

Until next week,

Hooroo

 

 

Mansfield Update May 20

Hi Everyone.

Our second truckload of plasterer’s sand arrived this morning, meaning that we’ve already used 20 cubic metres of sand, and we’re well over half-way through the second coat of render. The sand that we use for our render is sold by a Bendigo firm called Epsom Sand and Soil, and has been sold for years to hard plasterers and renderers. It’s a fairly ‘lean’ sand, meaning that it doesn’t have a great deal of ‘fat’ or clay in it. This means that it can be put on the wall fairly thick, and doesn’t shrink and crack. If we were to use a ‘fatty’ sand like brickies sand, each layer of render would have to be applied quite thin, to avoid excessive cracking.

If you’re planning on rendering your strawbale home yourself, find your nearest solid plasterer, and ask them where their sand comes from. In all likelihood, this will be ideal sand for thick rendering of strawbale walls. It costs about $1400 to get a truck and trailer full of sand, which is a touch over 20 cubic metres, to Mansfield, but it’s worth every cent to know that we have the right sand for the job. We have the added complication of needing the sand to behave in such a way that it’s ‘pumpable’ in a pressure vessel type render pump, but if a strawbale builder is rendering their house by hand, then a good quality local sand can probably be sourced to do a perfectly adequate job. Keeping an eye on the shrinkage of the render is one of the main keys to doing a top quality job.

Unfortunately we don’t have the photo that was to accompany this blog which was to show you the approximate size of a load of sand and how far that would get you but perhaps that one can wait until next week. Life is very busy…..

See you next week, Mark

 

 

The Blog

Hi all, the blog will be updated by tomorrow night (Tuesday), we are waiting on some photos, please come back and check us out then,

Many thanks,

Mark and Cathy

Mansfield Update – May 11th

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mums out there.

This week we’re a couple of days or so behind schedule because of a few mechanical hassles with the render pump, but hope to make up the lost time over the next few weeks. The first coat of render is on and the house is basically waterproof, which means we can sleep soundly at night, even if its pissing rain, which it should be doing in the North-East at this time of year.

Except for a few nervous hours when the straw was still exposed, we’ve been extraordinarily lucky with the weather, even having some days in the very high teens or low twenties during this last week. All of this great weather is a huge advantage to us as drying time is critical at this time of the year. no matter where you are in Victoria.

Whereas the builder on our previous job had only allowed us a total of 35mm for the render, making it pretty tricky to ensure an adequate thickness of covering, the builder on this current job has allowed us a full 50mm, which over the whole of the job of nearly 300 square metres, means an extra 11/2 cubic metres of render (that’s a lot of mud!). The ideal thickness on a strawbale job is 45mm, as a 50mm render thickness not only means an extra metre and a half of mud, but this has to mostly be applied in the second coat. There’s only a limited amount of mud that raw straw will hold on the first coat, and if the top coat is too thick it will be prone to excessive cracking, therefore, the second coat is the only place to apply the extra 5mm of render. If the weather does turn particularly wet and cold, we may be struggling to get enough dry second-coat to start the top coat on. The building is situated on a gentle, North facing slope, with good air flow and plenty of sun, meaning it should dry out pretty easily.

Well until next week,

Don’t hesitate to email us with any questions or queries and we will answer as soon as possible,

Hooroo, Mark 

Mansfield Update May 5th

Welcome to the blog for this week.

I thought I’d briefly mention the electrical work on this house as Fiona and Stephen run an industrial and commercial electrical business, they’ve come up with some great ideas in the electrical department for their new home. As can be seen from this weeks photo, short sections of 90mm PVC pipe have been placed inside the straw and frame construction that forms the window heads. These are happily just the right size to fit a little low wattage light fitting into, (the kind that normally fit “flush” into the plaster ceiling) and will provide a lovely highlight to the curves of the openings.

Stephen has screwed the top of the pipe to a timber noggin between the trusses so that the bottom of the pipe is exactly level (and square) with the render of the window head, providing a neat looking finish. These should look fantastic, and we’ll post photos on the website as soon as we can!

Another interesting innovation is a switch placed in the kitchen so that the power circuit running televisions, computers, sound systems etc can be switched off all in one go, thereby saving about 10% of the running costs of all the appliances. Great idea hey? Saves running around every night to turn everything off.

Stephen and Fiona are dedicated to the cause of saving this world for their kids, and are definitely leading the way in lots of areas. Good on ‘em!

The first coat of render has been pumped on, and the second coat is underway. By the end of this week, weather permitting, we’ll be starting the top coat, and we’re on the homeward stretch.

Talk to you then.