Cob: misprint

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Fri, 25 Aug 2000, Bob wrote:

> There was a misprint in my previous message.  It should have read "In this
> area the building regulations do NOT allow a straw bale house except when
> straw is used only as a curtain wall.  I am in Bellingham, 
> Washington.   I believe this applies to all the surrounding counties not
> only for buildings in urban areas but also those in rural settings but I
> have not made a definitive survey so don't take this as absolute fact 

You may want to check that more closely, building codes GENERALLY (Your
milage may vary) do not specifically disallow any building technique, they
only specify some techniques as being pre-approved, and that any
non-pre-approved technique must meet certain requirements - fire,
structural, insulative, etc., and that you must prove that your proposed
building will meet these requirements to the satisfaction of local
building officials.  From what I have read and heard (including from
the officials where I am planning on building) is that they will
usually require as a minimum, a licensed architectural engineer's stamp
on your plans.  Some obnoxious building officials will require alot more
simply to try and keep you from building (in one case where new
requirements were added every time they talked to the building department,
the owner/builders finally sued the building department - and won), where
other open-minded and helpful officials may simply look over your plans,
make a few suggestions, and approve it without the engineer's stamp.

It is because the codes don't really disapprove of anything, that natural
buildings such as cob and strawbale are able to get built.  The reason for
all the work going into getting strawbale and cob added to the code is
that once they are preapproved techniques, it makes it much simpler to get
approval on plans, building loans, insurance, etc..  Unfortunately, when
these techniques get added, it is often only a specific variation of the
technique (such as strawbales used as insulation), so if you wish to
build using a different variation (such as unframed bale walls), you are
still stuck with going through the process for techniques which have not
been pre-approved.

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
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