Straw Bale volunteers

[Thurston Garden]

The house is almost ready for bales!

We are having a bale building day on 28th May. Location - near Melrose in the Borders.

The plan is to have 4 bale teams, one on each corner, led by an experienced baler. Camping available if required. 20 min walk to the pub on Saturday night.

If anyone is interested in joining us, pm me. I can puck up from Edinburgh or Berwick stations.

Ta!
TG.

[Annpan]

We would love to

We don't think we'll be able to get childcare though.... if that is going to be a problem we will try to figure something out.

[Thurston Garden]

Ann it would be great if you could both come! The plan so far is to try and have folk on site for 8:30 on 28th. Let me ken if you are able to join us!

[pocaniehontas]

Hi ! I haven't been registered in may so I missed whole thing... I live in Galashiels, so maybe we could meet? I try to meet somebody in person who built with staw bales. If I could still help, just say so :)

[Thurston Garden]

Thanks for the interest. The house is finished now - I have been living in it for a year and love it.

[pocaniehontas]

I understand you have no interest to meet. It is fine, I hoped to meet new interesting people from the area :)

[Thurston Garden]

PM sent.

[pocaniehontas]

I seem to have some problems to answer private message. I updated my profile a bit. My interest in straw bale houses is coming from very prosaic reason. I want to build my home and straw seems the best option in this area. It is available closeby it is cheap and I have some friend who built few of them in Poland, they can come and help. In this country I am not sure how should I try to make my dream truth, so I search individuals who managed with building regulations and can give me some advice. Other reason and it is as much important, I want to meet interesting people with similar interest, crazy but in the positive way

[Thurston Garden]

To be honest, building regs are not an issue, or that's what I found out. A good architect and a sympathetic engineer is all that's required. I am sure the council is more open minded to alternative building styles than people might at first imagine.

Finding land will be the problem!

[pocaniehontas]

I do realise that, it also sounds it would be the biggest cost as well. It also seems I would have to have cash to buy and build. I have 7yo son, he cannot be far from school. That's other requirement. Plus for at least 2 years I cannot leave Borders, and that's because help my son needs and a job I am doing.

[Thurston Garden]

I think my land was 40% of the total cost. Build cost was something in the order of £150/sqft or £1500/sqm. I did use a lot of experienced labor and that is definitely where the cost is. Labour and professional fees probably make up 40% of the total cost. That only leaves 20% for materials but I guess it depends on what kind of finish you are looking for.

Bales need to be arranged well in advance because not many farmers now make small bales - they all make big round ones. I paid £3.50 a bale I think but that was delivered. Clay for the internal render was difficult to source. My windows and doors were good quality but cost £12k! A lot of the labour can be done by yourself/frineds - I was working full time so my time was limited and I used a local guy who had experience of straw.

[pocaniehontas]

something wrong with prices, sorry I am pedantic :P 150/skft it would be 14/skm.... is the price in feet right or in sq meters?

[Zech]

something wrong with prices, sorry I am pedantic :P 150/skft it would be 14/skm.... is the price in feet right or in sq meters?

Do you want to double check that?

[pocaniehontas]

I gather info for my own house, prices are crucial for a future of the project :) and you see if the price is 150/sqft it makes 14/sqm, but if it is 1500/sqm it makes 16k/sqft :) as you see it makes huge difference :P I grew in metric system, since I came to Scotland I more less got used to imperial measurements, although I still have problems with kg and stones :P

[Thurston Garden]

Both are right, give or take a few quid

100sqm @ £150000 = £1500/sqm
1000sqft @ £150000 = £150/sqft

If you like to be exact, 100sqm is 1,076sqft. I like to keep things simple though! I actually don't know the exact cost of the house. As the build progressed I stopped counting exactly but gut feel is £150,000 for 100sqm inc VAT (some of which can be reclaimed) and professional fees but excluding land.