16 THE OWNER BUILDER � 192 December 2015 / January 2016 � © www.theownerbuilder.com.au

Straw bale tilt-up panel system

Into the mainstream with the new Super Insulated Tilt-Up Panel System: SITUPS

straw bale 2.4 x 1.2 x 1.2m in size. We made three panels out of the one bale and had a lot of waste with the ‘method’ we used at that time. Back to the drawing board we went.

In between building straw bale houses and wineries among a few of our contracts, we kept on refi ning the process over the past eight years. We had these early internal panels (150mm deep) tested at the University of Western Sydney. Our tests were to establish their load bearing and wind loading capacity; they did not pass muster for load bearing but showed us their potential.

Load bearing prototypesAfter many experiments and much

research we have set on a method that we feel has the potential to change the way we build with straw bales. We also realise that several straw panel systems are now on the market in parts of Europe and Canada. Our opinion is that more is good and will only lead to the acceptance of building a house, fl ats and even high rise units and many other types of building by adopting straw as the medium in tilt-up wall technology.

The SITUPS vary from 2.45 to 3.0 metres high and come in various widths from 600mm to 1.2m and are 350mm deep. The cladding can be a variety of material from renders to weatherboard, corrugated steel and many other forms of external sheeting. Internally they can also be clad in render or plasterboard and various types of lining boards. It is recommended that walls are given a

sealing coat of lime before any cladding is applied.

There are now a number of completed SITUPS buildings, with more underway in NSW and Victoria. One of these is a three-pavilion home in the Hunter Valley with another at an organic farm in Canowindra (see case studies following).

The future

The panel system will greatly reduce carbon emissions from new buildings through savings during manufacture and the operation of the building. We already know this, having built many straw bale buildings since 1998 together with 155 straw bale building workshops completed.

Our goal is twofold: fi rst to reduce the carbon impact of modern buildings and secondly, to be able to use a waste product of our wheat and rice cereal growing in Australia where rice straw alone is burnt at an alarming rate. Some one million tonnes goes up in smoke, particulate and carbon every year. Enough straw to build 44,000 three-bedroom SITUPS homes on an annual basis – and that is only from the rice grown in one area of Australia.

All the other benefi ts that come with straw bale homes that we have known of and practised over the past 18 years apply equally to the SITUPS. The main difference to conventional building with straw bales is that the panels are uniform and pre-compressed at time of manufacture, hence are very fast to build with, saving time and money. �

Susan and John Glassford run Huff ‘n’ Puff Constructions in Ganmain NSW, offering construction, workshops, tours and consultancy. 0412 116 157, www.glassford.com.au

Recent times have brought an increasing wave of environmental and energy effi ciency awareness in the building industry throughout Australia. This increased awareness of the effect of logging on our forests, lakes and streams, as well as heightened concern for the energy cost and effi ciency of our buildings plus ever-increasing costs of construction materials, is bringing tremendous pressure for change to the Australian building industry.

A primary focus of this change is the development of alternative forms of construction for single and multi-family housing as well as commercial and industrial buildings. With a tradition that dates back almost 200 years, the Australian building industry has used timber extensively for use in wood frame construction.

SITUPSHuff ‘n’ Puff Constructions are in the

process of developing and bringing to the market place a unique, cost effective and ecologically sound, structural, super insulated tilt-up panel system (SITUPS™). It uses, as its core material, waste agricultural cereal straw from wheat and other cereals commonly grown in Australia, and greatly reduces the amount of structural timber required.

These panels will be able to be put into place by two people. The reduced construction time, the energy savings, the non-toxic nature of the product and its strength and durability indicate we have a building system whose time has come.

HistoryWe made our fi rst panels on the banks

of the Murrumbidgee River at Hay. It involved a BIG chain saw and a jumbo

BY JOHN GLASSFORD

THE OWNER BUILDER � 192 December 2015 / January 2016 � © www.theownerbuilder.com.au 17

Top: Using the SITUPS panel system for wall assembly, this house went from a slab to having the roof on and the walls up, ready for rendering in just a matter of days.Above left: Panels all come ready to install – pre-compressed, uniform in size and square.Above right: Loadbearing testing ensures SITUPS meet consistent standards.Right: Each panel can be put in place by two people but a little mechanical assistance makes the job even easier!

18 THE OWNER BUILDER � 192 December 2015 / January 2016 � © www.theownerbuilder.com.au

went smoothly and more seeds were planted for me to be able to become an owner builder myself.

I had attended The National Art School, studying sculpture after leaving school, and have worked in many restaurants, fi ve star hotels and resorts, all the time learning about what I liked and the type of environment that made me feel creative and with a sense of well-being.

My favourite book as a teenager was a book about alternative or ‘hippyish’ buildings in America, mainly timber, but also including a straw bale house – this house stuck hard in my memory.

I had owned and renovated three houses, so when the time came to make my move to the country and the real estate agent said, ‘Why don’t you build a straw bale house,’ it was Bingo! I jumped at the opportunity to become my own supervisor and create a niche for myself to enjoy living in. I purchased land on the banks of the Cudgegong River, with unobstructed views of the showground, oval and common area. Heaven at last!

Using SITUPS

Without any hesitation I launched myself as an owner builder, quickly deciding to ‘do a straw bale.’ I realised that doing the compressing, engineering and planning myself would be beyond

One of my fi rst memories as a child is of me sitting in my stroller watching my parents and grandparents building a double brick house on the Georges River, south of Sydney. Everyone was having a good time working hard and I enjoyed being ‘supervisor’ on site. I remember the pride they all had in completing the building. It was a sad day when we left that house, but we moved on to more building and renovating.

The path to owner building

In Sydney we lived in four different houses, and when my parents decided to move to the Blue Mountains and become owner builders again I was excited to watch and learn. The building process

CASE STUDY 1

Ready to goBY MANDY BARKER

THE OWNER BUILDER � 192 December 2015 / January 2016 � © www.theownerbuilder.com.au 19

my skill; the SITUPS from Huff ‘n’ Puff Constructions were all ready to go.

I had the house planned around the panels by Kerry Smith Designs (since retired) in Wagga Wagga. He did the plans exactly as I wanted, with a focus on good quality building methods and simplicity. There is a concrete slab over waffl e pods, the walls are SITUPS and the roof is Ritek, allowing an open plan area 6 x 12m to be supported by two beautiful iron bark poles, without any other structural construction needed for the roof.

It was very easy to erect the panels with a small excavator, only taking 10 hours from delivery to the site to having them ready to be fi xed to the slab and the Ritek roof installed on top of the walls. This is a perfect combination of materials, both providing maximum thermal insulation and both being complete units with engineering approval provided.

Susan and John from Huff ‘n’ Puff were fantastic with their staplers and drills,

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carport

studio

courtyard

29m

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bedroom

bedroom

bath

20 THE OWNER BUILDER � 192 December 2015 / January 2016 � © www.theownerbuilder.com.au

CASE STUDY 2

Clean, systematic, modularBY SAM STATHAM

CASE STUDY 1

preparing the walls for rendering. My walls were sprayed inside and out with three coats of a lime based concoction by Robbo and Adam from Young; I was very pleased to fi nd some superfi ne sand, which enabled them to spray the fi nal outer coat as well.

Finishing

After the fl oor, walls and roof were completed, with the plumbing and electricals running along the top of the panels then down the walls to their outlet points, the fun started with the carpenters fi nishing off outside and in. Carpenter and saw miller extraordinaire Lance Owen and his joiner assistant have also been fantastic – another perfect combination for the building. Lance lives

at Capertee and has a sawmill, planer and supplies of many different timbers.

I found my oregon at the Blue Mountains Recycled Building Materials yard in Lawson, the camphor laurel came from the oval at Rylstone and Lance supplied the river oak and cedar. I also had some pine from the mountains that was dried and ready to plane and cut. I love the deep window sills and the architraves around the windows and doors, giving an old world feeling of warmth and showing the skill of Lance as a carpenter.

I can only encourage others to be brave and enjoy being creative as owner builders. Thank to all the skilled tradespeople involved at my site. Back to the oiling and unpacking, looking forward to a happy time in my straw bale house and garden. �

As a farmer’s son I had built a fair bit in my time, along with my father, Richard, and my brother, Nick. It was such fun – and I had the time, resources and a family farm ready to build a proper house on next!

Exploring the many owner builder options, I had fi rst read about straw in a magazine like this one – or maybe it was this one?! Whilst the article had inspired me to build from straw, especially from

an eco and thermal point of view, it was the experience of a beginners’ straw bale building workshop with John and Susan in May 1999 that turned inspiration into confi dence, and then action. During that

THE OWNER BUILDER � 192 December 2015 / January 2016 � © www.theownerbuilder.com.au 21

three-day workshop we built ‘Jack’s Flat,’ using local straw infi ll between natural gum tree poles. It taught me above all that straw is the most owner builder friendly material out there and that it can allow you to express yourself as no other material does.

Taking action

Within a year of the workshop, my brother Nick and I were putting up the frame and getting the roof on, and just realising how much work was involved in straw building. As it turned out, the fi nishing of the straw, especially with round timbers, cathedral ceilings and second-hand windows and doors, was a huge task. But we just loved doing it, throwing mud render onto the straw with wild abandon and working with the soft undulations of the local triticale bales, to end up with the house I now live in with my wife Simone and our three kids (see TOB 142 Aug/Sep 2007).

It was 15 years later, that the itch to build returned. In that time, on our community farm, Rivers Road Organic Farms, we had fi ve new neighbours build in straw next to us, using the whole gamut of straw techniques from load bearing to steel and mesh infi ll and hybrid mud brick, cob and straw. Having watched for long enough, my parents, Richard and Florence and I, were also ready to give another farmhouse a go.

Using SITUPS

By that time, I had lost count of the number of raucous, inspiring and fun days and nights spent with John and Susan; they were not just my gurus, but my friends and I wanted our next project to be a part of the next phase of the Huff ‘n’ Puff journey – the long awaited tilt-up panel building

CASE STUDY 2

deck

13m

deck

bedroom

15

.5m

bedroom bedroom

bathroom

kitchen & living

22 THE OWNER BUILDER � 192 December 2015 / January 2016 � © www.theownerbuilder.com.au

system. Whilst obviously more expensive than hand stacked straw bale walls, the SITUPS offered the advantage of being prefabricated, loadbearing, engineered, straight, square and fl at. A perfect surface for the tricky jobs of rendering and fi nishing that we wanted to minimise as much as possible, whilst still having the aesthetics and qualities of straw.

For us, the SITUPS promised something that we missed in our fi rst infi ll house – clean, systematic, modular – which avoided all the tricky, customised jobs in our fi rst house and allowed us to better use the latest in modern building technology. Like many modern building components, they came with the engineering to give council certifi ers – and ourselves – confi dence. And they come square and tight, ready for rendering and fi nishing with a fraction of the work needed to fi nish undulating, hand stacked straw bale walls.

We still used some second-hand building materials, including fl oorboards and windows, but we embraced prefabricated steel pier, bearer and joist systems, conventional brick stem walls, a steel ring beam on top of the SITUPS and prefabricated roof trusses. These materials allowed us to make use of local

tradesmen who live and sleep in these materials, allowing us to build our place quickly and effi ciently. Dad and I only had to focus on those parts of the process that are not mainstream – and that is mainly the erection of the SITUPS themselves; tying them down with brackets, tying them together with the steel ring beam, and the carpentry involved in the second-hand windows and doors and the jarrah fl oorboards. Apart from that, we are using local skills as much as possible – and we are loving it!

We are not there yet – in fact much of the work is still ahead of us. But now somewhat older and wiser, we reckon that today’s owner builder can make great use of local, mainstream building skills, but adapt them to the dreams, designs and materials of the individual. �

� Rivers Road Organic Farms

A unique model of rural development – Community Title under organic certifi cation.

www.organicfarms.com.au

CASE STUDY 2

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