And Now the Fun Begins - Day 6

Today, we started bolting down the bottom plates. From our engineering plans, we could not be greater than 900mm between noggins / bolt down points.

Before we start, at each end of the bottom plate we place a piece of 5mm fibro or blue board under the bottom plate. This allows a gap for any moisture in the bales to drain out.

Dad had manufactured some brackets out of recycled 5mm, 50 x 50 angle iron I found in a scrap metal bin. They were cut 90mm in length, same as the noggins on there side, the drilled and counter sunk to house a 14g 50mm batten screw. We then sprayed it with rust proof paint.

From each separate bottom plate we measured in 450mm from the ends & placed a noggin on its side. We then measure 900 from the centres of these noggins to get our next tie down point. We used 125mm 12 Ø Gal dyna bolts. This allowed 75mm into the slab, which was required from the engineer.

We then need to fill up with 20mm aggregate. Mel did a great job at this. The stone is in there to help with drainage of moisture.

And Now the Fun Begins - Day 5

Bales arrive on site

And Now the Fun Begins - Day 4

Today we continued with the top & bottom plates as well as getting ready for the arrival for all of the bales coming tomorrow morning. We also had a bob cat into clear up the site for all the traffic in a few days.

And Now the Fun Begins - Day 3

Today, Dad & I got in and cleaned out the shed and carport for the arrival of our straw bales which are due in 2 days. It was a bit of a job but we got it done & was then able to continue on to finish the Top & Bottom plates. Here are some more progress pictures;

And Now the Fun Begins - Day 2

Today we kept on with the top & bottom plates. Getting onto a bit of a rythem. I have discovered a great place to purchase all my timber from with the best bucnh of blokes to deal with. North Eden Timbers. If it was not for these guys I would have struggled to get as rar as I have so far. Thanks for your help and I am sure its not the last they have heard of me. I have some more progress picture below. Enjoy;

And Now the Fun Begins

Well, here we are. Crunch time. I arrived last night and started some light preps for the guy to come and lay the ant capping. He arrived this morning and had it finished in no time at all. I got started on the top & bottom plates. Here are some photos on the progress.

Compression Plates

We are slowly getting everything together now.

We have all the compression plates cut & drilled. He are some photos of them getting rust proofed.

Its kind of like watching paint dry!














All our timber is ordered, windows & doors have now been sorted out as well and looking forward now to the build its self.

Have been talking to Frank from Strawtec who is also looking forward to seeing how the build comes together and I am glad that I have his expertise on site for the workshop.

Still positions available for the working bee wall raising & rendering the week after as well. Hope to see you there.

Remember, if anyone is interested in attending our Straw Bale Working Bee between the 14th & 17th of October please email us on stevomelo@yahoo.com.au.

Hope to see you there

Preperations

Greg & I headed down on site again yesterday to do some work in preparation for our build / working bee on the 14th of Oct. Here are a few pictures to run you through;

1. Trenches dug for Electrical & Phone Line.
These will be installed next week















2. Water Supply & Storm Water Line
We ran both water supply lines as well as storm water to the house for two reasons;
1. Water supply, from our tank, during the build.
2. The storm water in the same trench for then the roof goes on we can fill out tank right away. We actually had a tanker deliver about 40,000L as well.











Preparing pipes for in the tank & first lot of storm water in

Storm water pipe in as well as 40,000L
(Doesn't look like much)















Covering pipes with river sand and now neatly covered.

3. Cutting of Drive Way & Drainage
The guy from Barkers excavation was great, could not have got a better guy to do the job. I was expecting him to take 2 or 3 days & he did it in 1 and did an exceptional job. Thanks mate.




















Note: The lower 2 pictures area before & after shot after Greg & I used some of the many rock's we have onsite!

The Date's Set

Good news. We have a confirmed date for our Straw Bale Building Working Bee. 14th - 17th of October which is Thursday - Sunday. It is in the Bega area, for those who do not know. I will be there for a week before putting up frame work and prep work for the workshop and also a week after for rendering and putting up the trusses & roof. We are looking for volunteers for our working bee and maybe a few hands for before & after the workshop. If you wish to come and attend please email us on stevomelo@yahoo.com.au. Hope to see you there!

A few Touch Ups

Got back from the property today after 2 days away with Greg, a mate from Shellharbour. We finished off the shed roof & single entry door so we can store the bales when they arrive. Also attached all the compression rod joining nuts and covered them with saftey tape. You will also notice that all the form work has been removed now and the post stirrups are now in too. It was a very productive weekend. Thanks Greg & thanks to Melea for letting him out for the weekend.

Our Finished Roof
The Finished Door










Greg Helping with Nuts

Compression Rods with

Nuts & Safty Tape

We Have A Slab

We finally have our slab laied. It has been a while coming but its now down. Boris has been great. He let us work with him laying the pods. This saved him a bit of time and, most of all, saved us a little money. Below is the steps taken to lay our Waffle Pod Slab.

Saturday - 19th June

Last of Plumbing in

Screeding Complete & Compression Rod locations marked
Note the white paint on the form work

Sunday - 20th June

Termite & Moisture Barrier down











First lot of Pods & Steel -
You can see Boris pointing out all of our mistakes

Monday - 21st June

All Pods in Place

Time for the 600 odd chairs

Tuesday - 22nd June
Council Inspection - No real interesting photos this day!!!


Wednesday - 23rd June

The Pour

Massive Delays

We have had a huge delay with all the wild weather down Bega way. We have had down pores and high winds. The worst thing about all the rain is that none of our down pipes were connected to the tank!!! Have held up the plumber & therefore is now holding up Boris with finishing our pre-slab work. We are hoping that the plumbing can get installed later in the week. All we can do is wait & see if this weather gives us a break.

First Look at our Slab Site

Went down to the property to meet up with a few contractors today. Boris has now profiled & formed up our slab. The plumber should start within a few days and then we will be back to work on laying our Waffle Pods & mesh, which I also took deliver of while I was there. The form work gives us a real good idea of the house size & layout now.

Looking to the South

Looking to the North

From the Driveway

A Whole lot of Waffle

We have also had our tank back filled so we get a really nice view on top of our tank now, as you can see. This was one of our main purposes for getting the concrete tank was to sink it and have a nice viewing area to put a table & chairs on. To enjoy the view!!!