Guide to Straw Bale Building

by amazonails®

Click here to download pdf file (1000k)

Any group or training or educational establishment must
have express permission from the author
for use or reproduction of any part of this Guide.

The Guide is provided free for the use of individuals.

**Please note that this guide was written 6 years ago,
and is in need of updating - we have developed our ideas
and expertise to a great extent since then. 

Please contact us for more information or to discuss
how we can help with your build.**

lime versus cement

Sustainable Practice - Why use lime instead of cement

Lime has been used as a binder for stones and brick, and as a plaster or render, for thousands of years. The knowledge of its properties and how to use it has only been lost to current practice in the UK in the last 100 years; other European countries still use lime extensively within construction.

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low impact foundations

RAMMED CAR TYRE FOUNDATIONS

Introduction:

As an example of a low-impact, environmentally friendly building technique, it is hard to better the use of recycled car tyres as foundation material. If not exposed to ultra violet light via sunlight, their estimated life expectancy is 30,000 years! Significantly longer than environmentally high-impact concrete. They have been widely used, particularly in the USA, to build whole houses, known as “earthships”. The first earthships are now being built in England (near Brighton) and Scotland (near Fife) with full Planning and Building Regulation approval.

Most buildings need to have some sort of foundation on which to build. This fulfils several functions:

• To provide a solid, stable base that distributes the weight of whatever is built upon it over the ground beneath.
• To raise the walls above ground level, to protect them from groundwater and rain.
• By using a damp proof course within the foundation, the walls can be protected from damp below them

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