STRAW BALE PROJECT TAKING HOLD

Since receiving the building permit on May 25 crews have made great progress on our straw bale project. In fact, by May 27 we had concrete footings and then, 9 days later, the foundation was poured. The worksite was a bit mucky and there was lots of rain to contend with. Our design has a frost wall foundation which is capped with a concrete slab containing an in-floor radiant heat system. The frost wall was built using insulated concete forms or ICF. They go together like Lego blocks and make up the wall forms and insulation all in one. Concrete is then poured into the hollowed centres of the blocks. It took almost a week of hauling truck load after tuckload, and over 800 tons of gravel, to fill up the inside of foundation which will eventually support the concrete floor. On June 15 wall framing began.