The Bale House, Hastings Country Park - Timber Frame and Roof

For the next instalment of our recent blog series, where we’ve been looking back our experiences of building the new Hastings Country Park Visitor Centre, we focus on the next stage of the build after the groundworks and foundations have been completed. 

This is when the building really comes to life and starts to take shape, as the timber frame and roof go up. Read on to learn more about the timber frame and roofing aspects of this build, and some of the challenges we faced.

The Timber

Huff and Puff Construction try and source UK timber, as local as possible, wherever can.  For this job we have used East Brothers Timber in Salisbury, Capricorn Eco Timber in Stafford, as well as suppliers in Sussex such as Copford Sawmill in Heathfield and Balcombe Estate Sawmill. 

Timber is a complicated subject and there are lots of factors to consider. If you are considering a timber framed build, we would recommend that a good place to start is a chat with your local sawmill about wood suitability. Huff and Puff’s MD, Phil Christopher, grew up dismissing softwood timber as being inferior to hardwood timber; thinking that surely hardwood timber is better?  But, as we’ve discovered in our experience over the years, it’s a lot more complicated than that - especially when considering the environmental aspects and how long timber takes to grow.

Whilst a lot of folk dream of having an oak timber framed house, oak takes a really long time to grow and huge amounts are now imported.  All types of wood have their own resistance levels to decay and insect attack. We use a lot of Douglas fir and larch in our framing.  These are resilient softwoods that work well structurally.  As a rule, Huff and Puff would advise the use of ‘heartwood’ - the older timber in the middle of the tree - rather than the ’sapwood’ - the living timber around the outside.  The heartwood is an inky brown colour and the sapwood is white.

Huff & Puff Top Tip: Bigger sawmills (and some smaller ones) will be able to grade timber for you to make sure it is suitable and meets your structural engineer’s requirements.

The Frame

The main building frame, roof timbers and cladding for the Hastings Visitor Centre are all Douglas fir.  The posts in and around the building are larch.  We also wanted to treat the external timber to preserve it - in the case of the posts, which are structural and exposed, this is the most sensible thing to do.  Timber preservatives can be a hideous cocktail of chemicals, but they do not have to be.  For example, limewashing timber is cheap and effective.  It creates a breathable barrier on the timber that offers substantial protection.  It will just need repainting now and again.  We have used a Swedish product SiOO:X (pronounced soo-x) which is non-toxic and environmentally friendly and should last for 10 years or so.  It’s a bit like a silicate paint on lime render.  It’s applied in two stages - a ‘wood protector’ that soaks into the wood and a ‘surface protector' that ads water repellency.  Most wood silvers as it weathers and this product offers that same look very loosely, the silvering effect being hastened by contact with water.

The Hastings Visitor Centre was originally envisaged as load bearing straw bale, where all of the weight of the roof is on the straw, however we now frequently use a method where we erect a lightweight timber frame first and infill the straw. Essentially the framing is identical to robust load bearing methods, just with more posts. This method is a much better fit for our teams and for the site - which is incredibly exposed, being over 130m above sea level and on the edge of a cliff. We have experienced winds of approximately 70mph about six times since the project started and anchoring the building solidly has been imperative. We often refer to the method as a hybrid, as the straw is still a structural part of the walls, both for load and racking. For working ‘hands-on’ with straw on site we find this method works better than load bearing commercially for a number of reasons as follows: 

1. Building professionals can do measurements and calculations on timber which makes things easier all round. Straw and mechanical fixings work together, rather than relying on one or the other. 

2. We’d estimate that 75% of people don't 'get' load bearing and this method makes them feel safer and more likely to build with straw. 

3. It's safer on site with multiple trades as the framing and a good amount of roofing gets done before the straw work begins. 

4. More bales around notches means more regular walls, eliminates snaking and the need for pinning etc.

Commonly, we would build at least parts of the frame off site and then truck them in. As with most timber framing, it’s very helpful to be able to do the fabrication in a workshop and just assemble it on site.  However, scheduling issues meant that was not possible for this build and everything was built on site.

The main issue on the building site for the new Hastings Visitor Centre has been the weather and mainly the challenge of keeping the timber dry. We also had huge heavy beams for the roof (some that weighed in at about 300kg), that needed to be moved and manoeuvred into position using post and beam framing methods and a manual, mechanical Genie lift.  We were very glad to have Jamie Thomas and Jonathan Kalviac on the crew, both experienced timber framers, who generously shared their knowledge of how to move these heavy roofing beams.

The frame consists of two structural timber box beams - one at the bottom of the wall and one at the top.  We build the bottom beam first and then position and fix posts that will support the top beam.  Then the bottom be a can be insulated with wool or foam glass aggregate, for example, and then lidded and sealed so no water can get in.  We use roofing membrane to stop the timbers getting wet and provide another layer of waterproof but breathable protection.

The top beam is then built in the same way.  Temporary bracing is used to make sure the building remains stable and square whilst all the timber elements, and finally the straw, is inserted.

The Roof

The roof of the new Hastings Visitor Centre has an exceedingly shallow dual pitch, it looks almost flat.  A single ply membrane has been used, which is common for flat roofs.  We did hope for and consider a ‘living roof’ for this project, however because the area in which the building is situated, is so protected environmentally, there were challenges with finding suitable flora that would be in-keeping with the site and also be suitable for a rooftop location.

Our main challenge during the roofing stage was the weather we encountered last autumn that was particularly bad with frequent high winds and incessant rain.  It caused us significant issues. The main priority in weather conditions like this is keeping everyone safe and protecting the building as best as possible.  Eventually we had to put a scaffold hat over the entire building and in January, when the roof membranes were laid, we had days when the site was so enveloped in cloud that water was condensing on the underside of the scaffold roof, so it was still raining underneath it!

Huff and Puff Construction would like to thank all those who worked so hard on the timber frame and roofing stage of this build. Next month’s blog will take a look at the next stage of the Visitor Centre’s build – as we focus on the timber frame and roofing stage of this exciting project. 


The Bale House, Hastings Country Park - Groundworks and Foundations

In our latest blog, we take a step back - right to the beginning of the project to build a new, straw-bale Hastings Country Park visitor centre - now called The Bale House. In this post we’ll explain and explore how the groundworks and foundations took shape for this exciting new building.

The new Visitor Centre is located next to the old one in the Hastings Country Park. The park itself is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and its position is perfect to take in the glorious views across this beautiful landscape. Although the site might be considered a challenging choice for some, in that it’s near a cliff edge with horizontal wind and rain likely at times, the design of the Visitor Centre eliminates any concerns of the possible ‘wetness’ of the site, principally through the use of timber rain screen cladding on the side of the prevailing wind (the south and west).

Groundworks, simply put, involves excavating material from the building site to the point where the foundations of the building and surrounding area can begin. Once Huff and Puff Construction had cleared the site and completed the groundworks our attention turned to building its foundations. 

Focus on Foundations:

The site of the Visitor Centre is a mix of heavy clay and sand through to mudstone and sandstone. Areas of the site under the building had to be excavated to different depths to find good bearing ground. Deeper areas were filled and compacted with recycled crushed materials and compacted to create a level surface. A limecrete (the lime version of cement-based concrete, using hydraulic lime, sand and aggregate) base was then poured. Ashlite concrete blocks were then used to create plinth walls (low walls for the rest of the structure to sit on). These blocks are made from 100% recycled concrete and these blocks took us up to ground level.

On top of this, two courses of ebony bricks, were laid using NHL 3.5 hydraulic lime mortar, which took us 200mm above ground. (NHL 3.5 lime is slightly softer and accommodates movement). 

Huff & Puff Top Tip: The mortar should always be softer than the bricks - because then any movement cracks the mortar and not the bricks (which would cause structural failure).  Although we would try to eliminate movement by design (with good foundations) straw bale buildings can naturally accommodate a very large amount of movement - unlike masonry where movement could cause serious structural damage.

Floor buildup:  

The most common solid floor construction, in standard non-straw building projects, uses a plastic damp proof membrane, a lot of petrochemical foam (for insulation) and cement-based concrete.  Instead Huff and Puff Straw bale Construction methods ensure the use of a product called foamed glass gravel (made from recycled glass from bottle banks) for the main floor substrate.  This is insulating and hydrophobic, so it creates an insulated floor that will not absorb moisture (it creates a capillary break) - all without using petrochemical products.  On top of this is a 100mm limecrete screed.  This creates a completely breathable (vapour permeable) floor, just like our walls.

There have been some challenges encountered during the foundation stage of the build, and we did encounter a seam of fine silica sand on the site. This was interesting because historically, very close to the site, there was a quarry that extracted this sand.  For those interested in the history of this site, it was the Fairlight Mining Company back in May 1939, who leased land from a Major Sayer between the top of the Warren Glen and Fairlight Church to dig for this silica sand (used for making optical lenses etc.). It created the large quarry at the top of the glen and a smaller one nearer the church, which today is the site of the Hastings Country Park car park. Overall, the sand itself was less of a concern than the amount of clay that we also encountered at the site. Clay is prone to movement through a freeze/thaw action.  So, most of our excavation work, therefore, aimed to remove the clay down to mudstone or sandstone, which is much more stable.

Huff and Puff Construction would like to thank all those who worked so hard on the foundation stage of this build, including the team at Red Kite Design and Build. 

In the next blog we’ll take a look at the next stage of The Visitor Centre’s build – as we focus on the timber frame and roofing aspects of this exciting project. 


Visitor centre artist's impression

How UP STRAW and teamwork is creating a new flagship visitor centre for Hastings Country Park

Visitor centre artist's impressionSince 2019 Huff and Puff Construction have been hard at work on an exciting project to deliver a new flagship straw-bale building for Hastings Borough Council – a new Visitor centre at Hastings Country Park. This centre will house information about the park, its habitats, geology, heritage and species, together with a café and new toilet facilities. It will also provide an excellent facility for visitors to find out about the landscape in which it is situated, and will act as a useful resource for community activities, including those for school children and family events.

Getting this project and plan literally ‘off the ground’ and constructing a building of this nature, however, takes a lot of teamwork. Huff and Puff Construction have collaborated and worked in partnership with many teams, to deliver this building, including the following organisations and groups that have helped make it possible:

Hastings Borough Council is a lead UK partner in the UPStraw project, and the project client.

UP STRAW is a collaborative approach to creating straw awareness and use (see more below).  It includes participants, many of whom are part of the European Straw Building Association (ESBA)  ESBA is an independent, not for profit, European association. Its aim is to promote and develop the use of straw, as a sustainable way of building in all the senses of the term “sustainable”: renewable, ecological, healthy, energy and climate efficient, social and economic.

    SBUK is a membership organisation whose aim is to promote straw bale building and best practice in the UK. SBUK is a member of ESBA.

    Constrawtium is a group of SBUK members - including Huff and Puff Construction - who have come together to collaborate on this build and show that we scale up straw bale building in the UK.

      What is UP STRAW? 

      The Visitor Centre project was funded by Hastings Borough Council together with a funding award from Interreg North West Europe. The Interreg award is part of an innovative project called 'UP STRAW' which is increasing awareness of straw-bale building across North West Europe. The project aims to promote straw as a premium biobased sustainable building material that, when used to construct buildings, has the ability to significantly reduce the resulting buildings carbon footprint. The new centre will be the first straw-bale building in the borough of Hastings and the first built as part of the UP STRAW project, which will also see a public building constructed with straw in each of the five project countries; UK, France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. UP STRAW partners are also working to increase straw bale building skills and awareness within the construction industry.

      So, how did the Hastings build come to life? 

      UP STRAW project visit 2017Straw-bale Building UK (SBUK) are a UK sub-partner in the UP STRAW project.

      Back in September 2017, Huff and Puff Construction Managing Director, Phil Christopher, who is also on the board of SBUK, attended an UP STRAW meeting held by Hastings Borough Council - a lead UK partner in the UP STRAW project.  Hastings Borough Council’s ambition, led by Environment and Natural Resources Manager, Murray Davidson, was to build a flagship straw building in the UK - a new visitor centre at Hastings Country Park.

      With currently so few straw bale builders in the UK, finding companies capable of taking on such a large project as the Hastings build was difficult.  It was at this meeting that Phil, along with SBUK colleagues, suggested SBUK members be asked to come together as a consortium to deliver such projects. 

      In 2018 a handful of SBUK members, including Huff and Puff Construction under the team name Constrawtium, came together to bid for the contract to deliver the Hastings project and were awarded the contract in December 2018.  Read more about the consortium in this previous post: https://bit.ly/39qkgUN  

      Work then started on site in mid-May 2019 and we are on target for completion by the end of 2020.

      Why a Straw Bale building?

      The centre will be the first public building in Hastings to be built using straw bales. Straw is a renewable material with great insulation properties. It allows the building to breathe naturally, keeping it cool in summer and warm in winter without the need for additional heating. By building with straw, the aim is to keep the carbon footprint of the building as low as possible in keeping with Hastings Borough Council’s aim and desire for sustainable management of the surrounding nature reserve. 

      Follow our progress as we head for completion.

      We’ll keep you posted over the coming weeks about our progress, as we head into the final stages of the build. Keep up to date and follow us on FaceBook – or Twitter @HuffPuffCons for regular Visitor Centre build updates.


      We’re ‘Breaking Ground’ this May for Hastings Country Park new Visitor Centre!

      Huff and Puff Construction are ‘breaking-ground’ in Hastings this week as we kick start work on the new Country Park Visitor Centre which is due for completion in Summer 2020.

      Hastings Country Park - Background

      Hastings Country Park, owned and managed by Hastings Borough Council, is a beautiful nature reserve on the south-east coast of the UK. It’s a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The 345 hectare’s boast spectacular scenery, cliffs, coastal grassland and heather, ancient woodlands and a sustainably managed farm, all within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

      Hastings Borough Council have been planning a replacement Visitor Centre for The Country Park and we’re super pleased to be working with them and as part of the team they’ve now invited to bring their vision for this new building into reality.

      This build is part of a European funded project (Up-Straw) to increase the uptake of straw bale buildings within the public realm.

      A Unique Collaboration

      Members of SBUK (Strawbale Building UK ) like ourselves, have collaborated with each other to deliver this project.

      There are four companies (including ours) involved in our new consortium that will work together over the coming months to create this new Visitor Centre, using and combining all of our collective skills and straw bale building experience and expertise:

      The other consortium members:

      Green & Castle Ltd

      Green & Castle are independent sustainability experts. They provide bespoke sustainability, renewable energy and energy efficiency advice and training. Their client’s range across the private, public and community sectors.

      Red Kite Design

      Red Kite Design aims to promote sustainability, resilience and low impact living through environmentally friendly construction projects. Red Kite specialise in ecological design and construction, using natural materials, including straw bale, timber, earth and lime.

      When it’s finished the new Visitor Centre will be provide a fantastic community space comprising a café, ice-cream kiosk, with visitor information and family friendly facilities on offer. We’ll keep you posted over the coming weeks about our progress and take you through each stage of this exciting new Straw Bale build.

      Keep up to date and follow us on FaceBook - or Twitter @HuffPuffCons for regular Visitor Centre build updates.


      Huff Puff House has arrived!

      Huff Puff House side
      We are delighted to launch Huff Puff House!  An eco-friendly, energy efficient and truly affordable self build home.

      Visit www.huffpuffhouse.com to find out more.

      Over the last year we have been working closely with Brian Waite, the talented designer, to be able to bring this stunning design the largest possible audience.  Previously called 'strawbalehouse' we have rebranded the design to bring it fully into the Huff and Puff fold.

      With a range of sizes and options, we feel this could be a game-changer for affordable, energy efficient housing in the UK and beyond.

      For example, the kit that could help make a generous 12m x 6.5m, 120sq m home, costs just £36,000 (£30,000 +VAT).  With your own labour, and help where necessary, such a build could be completed for less than £100,000.

      Huff Puff House first floor
      We can provide you with the kit and extra services if you need them, such as help with design, planning, building control, training and construction.  As little or as much help as you need.

      Order our upfront design service (normally £500 or less) and once you have your planning permission and order a kit we'll deduct that cost, up to £500, from the cost of your order!

      Please take a look around the website - www.huffpuffhouse.com -  for more information - and if you would like any assistance please email info@huffpuff.me.

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      Shaftesbury Build and Training Course

      I've been busy this month working with all the wonderful folk at Bittles Brook Farm in Motcombe, Shaftesbury, in preparation for the building and training course we are running there in a couple of weeks.

      I've come to know the farm through Jonathan Davies, who is a recently graduated Master of Architecture, educated in Australia, Sweden and the UK.  It's refreshing to work with an architect that fully understands how to work with straw and has a passion for designing truly sustainable buildings.  We've been working together on Huff and Puff projects since the Sherborne Art Cabin, and our connections have brought me to meeting the wonderful Bourchier family at Bittles Brook Farm.

      Horses at Bittles Brook FarmClive takes care of the sheep rearing on the farm, whilst Carolyn runs 'The New Horse' - a place where people of all ages can learn to interact with their horses as equals, understand the therapeutic qualities of horses, and where horses themselves can get some therapy and rehabilitation.  I've never had much to do with horses, although I've always wanted to, and it's magical to see these wonderful animals being treated with such love and respect.

      This farm itself is nestled in the rolling Dorset countryside just two miles from the historic town of Shaftesbury, famous for its Gold Hill (remember those Hovis bread adverts!), and surrounded by truly magnificent views.  It really is a very lovely place.

      The farm is in need of more storage space for hay and equipment for all the animals, and this has given a great opportunity this summer to get everyone together to use their areas of expertise to design a load-bearing straw bale building to meet the need for storage and utility purposes, as well as as a new hay barn.

      Jonathan digging foundationsThe new building is going to have a footprint of 7.5m x 5.5.m and will be built on car tyre pier foundations.  The last few weeks have involved getting materials on site and, most significantly, Jonathan digging out the holes for the car tyre piers.  The ground on the site is really heavy clay, and even a mini-digger had a bit of trouble getting through it.  The holes are all dug now though, thanks to Jonathan's perseverance, and the piers will now be built up, alongside all the carpentry work in preparing the bottom ring beam of the building.

      Once all that is in place we'll be ready to get on with the straw, which is coming via a swap for some hay, I think, via a man with a very exciting sounding small baler (I really do get excited about such things!) that can make them accurately, super-square and even vary the size!

      Hopefully more blog posts soon with further progress.  And in the meantime do check out the course page if you fancy coming along to learn about how it's done.  Camping and all food is included in the price - currently just £350 for five days for the next few bookings - and it will also be a great opportunity to ask questions about your own ideas and projects.


      This week we have been mostly digging holes...

      All holes dug!
      All holes dug!

      Week four of the Sherborne build and the first week of young people and Youth Centre staff helping on the site.  The main focus this week has been digging the holes for the car tyre piers. We needed 11 holes in total and, as mentioned previously, the clayey and rocky soil had been baked rock hard in the recent heat.  The week before we had considered wetting the ground to see if it made digging any easier, but didn't because we thought it would just make things messier. By Monday this became fairly academic as the first rain in weeks had done the wetting for us.  And it really did just make things squidgy and no easier to get out.

      This week we have had many wonderful young people on site, digging holes by hand, ably assisted by Darren, Helen, Mike and Anna (and anyone I've forgotten to mention) from the Youth Centre team.  Darren's Dad, Perry, at Castle Estates, kindly loaned us a second wheelbarrow to get the muck shifted.  Tom and I loosened up some of the soil with the electric breaker, however by far the bulk of the work digging holes was done with good, old-fashioned hard labour.  It was amazing to see how readily everyone pitched in and enjoyed the work.

      The treasure we have found on site!
      The treasure we have found on site!

      Various treasures were uncovered during there digging (nothing to alert the authorities to I hasten to add).  A few nice fossils, some old nails and metal work, and my personal favourite - an old style ring pull from a drinks can that I was sure would be of interest to those born after such things had been firmly attached to the cans involved.  As well as finding treasure, it was decided some things should be buried in the build for good fortune and for our descendants to perhaps marvel at in the future.  A time capsule has been prepared, to place in one of the piers, containing information about the Youth Centre, the build, and all of the people who have taken part so far, and a recent coin will be placed in each hole too.

      Just before Thursday lunchtime all of the holes had been dug and we moved on to sorting the tyres into correctly sized piles of three, ready to place into the holes.  Thursday afternoon was very pleasantly taken over by a break to watch all the young people who had been doing a circus skills workshop putting on the most marvellous show of tightrope walking, plate-spinning and assorted clowning about.

      Using a drawknife to remove bark from the chestnut posts.
      Using a drawknife to remove bark from the chestnut posts.

      Next week we have a sculptor and wood carver coming on site to work with groups of young people to carve two of the chestnut pillars we will have on the porch at the front of the building.  Tom and I had spent the early part of Thursday morning fetching these chestnut poles from Dorset Fencing Supplies - and visiting Dave Partridge of Dorset Hurdles, coppicer and hurdle maker extraordinaire, in the woods at Bloxworth near Wareham, to pick up an order of hazel pins, for pinning our building's straw bales together.  I always say Dave has the nicest office I've ever seen, as whichever wood he is in, it is a simple canopy over his work in some of the most beautiful Dorset woodland.  On Thursday afternoon we also managed to pick up some larch that Tim Dunning, also of the Dorset Coppice Group - like Dave - had kindly sourced for us.

      On Friday we needed to get the chestnut poles stripped of bark, ready for the carving on Monday.  Once again Perry from Castle Estates came to our rescue by very kindly lending us a drawknife to get bark off.

      Complete ring beam base.
      Complete ring beam base.

      As well as tamping some gravel into the base of all the holes to firm them up ready for the tyres to go in, time was also spent gluing and screwing together the remaining sections of the bottom ring beam.  We now have one complete circle!  We have now also ordered the rest of the larch for the ring beams and have had to go as far as West Sussex to find it.  In the greater scheme of things this is still not too bad a distance, I suppose (about 100 miles) and if we'd had more notice I'm very confident we could have got it all within fifty miles of the site.

      On Monday we'll start building the car tyre piers.  We are filling them with 10mm shingle to give us a capillary break under the timber work of the building.  If you haven't come across capillary breaks before tune in next time to find out all about them!

      Please comment below or get in touch with your thoughts on the build progress so far.


      First weeks of the build...

      The Art Cabin Site
      The Art Cabin Site

      Well it's been an extraordinary month on the Sherborne build.  You may remember we are building a straw bale roundhouse.  It's being built with community involvement and will become a community building.  Going from so much planning and preparation into actually being on site has been very exciting indeed.  Here is an update on the first weeks of the build.

      We started off earlier in July by setting up the site.  First of all the fencing was delivered and set up so we could keep the site secure.

      From the middle of the month, Tom - my nephew - arrived as the first official addition to the Huff and Puff Construction employee list.  We marked up the site and began to remove turf from the build area.

      There is a lot to set up on a construction site.  On this site we are using the Youth Centre's facilities for the welfare of those on site.  We have designated fire and first aid points and a double gazebo - kindly loaned by Sherborne ArtsLink - to give us protection from the elements.

      Marking out the first car tyre pier.
      Marking out the first car tyre pier.

      Having sampled the soil on site I knew we had about 30cm of a clayey topsoil, with solid clay below.  We dug the hole for the first pier - I say we, but Tom did most of the digging - and it took about a day.  This was chiefly because the ground has dried out so much and it's really hard going.  We have 11 piers in total, so a rethink was required (one which you'll see later, in the form of a hired breaker).

      We moved on to cutting the timber for the ring beams.  The building will have two timber structural ring/box beams.  One beneath the straw bale walls and one above.  These fix the bale walls in position and tie the whole structure together.  Whilst straw bales are really easy to put a curve in, timber is not.  With a circular building the ring beams call for a lot of curved sections to be cut.   I'll go into the technical details of this more in later posts.  For the top and bottom of the ring beams we are using SmartPly OSB3, 18mm thick.  SmartPly is the current green building OSB of choice because it is manufactured without any added formaldehyde.  Building suppliers can probably source it for you even if they normally have a different brand.

      Ring beam templates.
      Ring beam templates.

      In order to get the template cut to the right size, we laid out a section of board on the marked up site.  For all the complexities circles bring, it is great to be able to put a stake in the middle of the site and work out sizes just by running out a piece of string, rather than having to make complicated calculations.  A section was marked up on the OSB board (a 2440mm x 1220mm sheet) and cut out to be used as a template for all the other sections.  By working out the exact internal and external circumference for the OSB element we were able to work out how many section we needed - 8.8 in our case - and so another template was made up for the final, ninth section, to complete the circle.  It took probably two or three days to get these sections cut.

      Glued and screwed noggins drying.
      Glued and screwed noggins drying.

      Our first volunteer arrived this week in the form of Robert.  Tom cut up noggins that will rung from the inside to the outside of the OSB sections and Robert glued and screwed them up into pieces two high, to give us the 240mm internal height we need in the ring beam.  Although it was extra work to do this, the full size we wanted wasn't readily available - and it is normally cheaper (and stronger) to fix two pieces of wood together rather than to use one solid piece.  The glued up pieces were set aside to dry.

      Ready for gluing/screwing.
      Ready for gluing/screwing.

      That brings us up to Friday of this week.  After weeks of sunshine we actually saw a bit of rain.  I took cover in the gazebo to make up a jig so we could assemble the curved ring beam sections and noggins reliably.  We have 36 sections to do in total, so although this took a while, it should be time well spent - plus we can use it future too.  Offcuts of OSB were used to create sections for the noggins to slot into, so the tops can be glued, then a curved section fitted on top and nailed and screwed into place.  Then the complete section can be removed and the next one made up.

      I hope you are enjoying reading about the build.  Please do leave comments via the comments section below, or use our contact form, or Facebook if you'd like to get in touch or get involved in the build.

      There is a bigger gallery of photos here (and a frequently updated album of all the project photos on Facebook here -):

       


      Sherborne Big Build - Go, Go, Go!

      Our Sherborne big build will be - drum roll please...  at the Sherborne Youth and Community Centre!

      The project is for a seven metre diameter straw bale roundhouse, and will run from now until October.  The centre, on Tinney's Lane in Sherborne, is a community hub for both the young of Sherborne and the local community, all of whom will be invited to take part in various ways.

      Local charity Sherborne ArtsLink are overseeing the project, working with the youth centre team, with funding coming from the Big Lottery Fund.  Huff and Puff Construction have been engaged as principal contractors for the project and I've sought advice from the best in the straw bale business - Straw Works and Strawbuild - for advice on the design of the build.

      As well as helping to build the roundhouse - currently being called the 'Art Cabin' - there is a schedule of art activities in progress, for the young people of Sherborne to create artistic works to go on and in the build.  Already underway is a project to create a stained glass window that will be a focal point in the far wall, opposite the door into the building.

      You can read the Western Gazette article here: http://www.westerngazette.co.uk/Sherborne-youth-center-builds-community-art-cabin/story-21342624-detail/story.html

      Here are a few photos from the site and more updates will follow very soon.  If you have any questions, please ask in the comments below.  It's all very exciting!

       


      Sherborne Big Build - Launch Tomorrow!

      Sherborne Big Build Mystery LocationThe Sherborne Big Build is officially launching tomorrow!  Beg, steal or borrow a copy of the Western Gazette to find out the location!

      Or alternatively check back here because I'm bursting to tell you more!

      In the meantime here is a photo of the site marked out ready to go.  Can you guess where it is?

      Another update tomorrow with all the details!