BaleHaus at Bath

Merl has been continuing the work needed to finish off the render on the panels and has been applying different internal finishes to show the choice available. Work has been continuing on the roof and should be completed next week. I can’t quite believe it’s going to be August tomorrow, but I’m sure it will bring with it some exciting developments on the house and hopefully not too much more rain!

The guys from Greenheart have been continuing with the construction of the roof today, enabling more insulation to be added. A hole appeared in the roof for the installation of a Solatube, to let natural light illuminate the stairwell. Merl has been finishing the render on the panels using various techniques, including spraying the render on.

As promised the site was action packed once again today and the StrawCam saw some straw for the first time today.

The two panels that were used for structural tests in the labs were not finished to the normal high quality of the ModCell panels and so Merl, the rendering guy, has had to remove the external coat of render and will re-render them this week. This revealed some straw through the first coat of render, which was rather obvious from the StrawCam and is currently being covered to protect it from the weather over night. Merl is also going to add some finishing touches to a few of the other panels as well as patch holes created in panels to install the remaining sensors. The HygroTrac sensors are now all in place and I’m very pleased to say are all working!

The first layer of roof insulation has been added by Greenheart and is being protected by a temporary cover tonight before the final membrane is installed later in the week.

After an eventful week the BaleHaus at Bath has appeared from the foundations and now stands as an almost complete house! The Eurban guys worked very hard and late last night to enable the main roof structure to be craned into place. The roof was finished today, the bottom of the panels were grouted and rather striking yellow airtight tape was applied along the edge of the render, ready for cladding next week.

The render is to be finished on the ground floor panels on Monday, which is when the remaining sensors will be installed on the first floor panels. I didn’t want to disturb the guys finishing off on site today, so thought it best to wait to put these in place. Next week will see the roof made watertight by adding a recycled membrane, supplied and fitted by Esha. Lots of other finishing touches will also be taking place that I’ll keep you updated with.

Not much activity on the webcam over the weekend and no blogs from me, but on Monday it’ll be action packed once more!

All the first floor ModCell panels are now in place along with the corner boxes, which are also full of straw. Most of these panels are being reused from ‘The House that Kevin Built’ for Grand Designs live last year. The remaining panels were from the labs of the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering. These panels were used for structural tests, conducted by Chris Gross, who has also helped with aspects of this research project.

The ring beam for the roof is now in place and is waiting for the roof panels and insulation to the installed. Whilst this was constructed I practiced fitting my sensors (measuring temperature and relative humidity) into a mini ModCell panel so I can install the remaining ones into some of the first floor panels. I discovered a very effective way of doing this and will be installing them myself tomorrow!

The next couple of weeks of the build will probably not be as visual as the last few days, which I hope you’ve been enjoying on the webcam. I will, however, be keeping you updated with the progress of the build.

The weather has very much improved since yesterday and work is continuing on the BaleHaus at Bath build. The construction of the ground floor is complete with partition walls now in place.

The floor plate for the first floor was craned into position with ease earlier today. The sole plate is ready for the ModCell panels that will make up the first floor; these are being manoeuvred into position now. Banisters for the stair can now also be seen and the stairs will follow shortly.

The team were not phased by the appearance of the house on Points West, the local BBC news programme, last night and we all hope the weather will continue to be good for the reminder of the build!

Despite the bad weather the ModCell panels are being put into place for the BaleHaus at Bath at an impressive rate. The panels are being lowered in by crane and manoeuvred into place by the Eurban team, managed by Finlay White of ModCell. The team are then fixing them into the sole plate (horizontal timber fixed to the slab). The corner boxes that complete the envelope are also being put into position and the ground floor structure should be finished today!

The scaffolding was put up towards the end of last week and the final panels were delivered from the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering’s lab to site this morning thanks to Cowlin, especially Andy Webb who is project manager for the new 4 West building.

The BaleHaus at Bath is a pre-fabricated straw bale house made from ModCell panels. The house is designed using mainly renewable materials and aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions during its use as well as its construction, compared to conventional housing. The house is part of a research project that includes various industrial partners and members of the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath.

The panels are made from solid timber frames, filled with straw and covered with lime render. The ground floor panels for the BaleHaus at Bath have been made by ModCell in a ‘flying factory’ in Southstoke, about 4 miles from the site. The first floor of the house is being constructed from panels that previously used for ‘The House That Kevin Built’ for Grand Designs live last year.

The research being undertaken on the house includes monitoring of the panels using sensors inside the panels to track the condition of the straw. People will be simulated within the house and along with the monitoring data this will enable a refined model of the house to be created. The model can then be used to experiment with different elements of the houses design, layout, orientation, climate etc.

The foundations of the house have been poured and the scaffolding is due to be in place this week. The panels were brought to the house this Tuesday and are due to be put into place by Eurban to form the house next week. The assembly of the panels should take 3-4 days next week and then work will continue on construction of the roof and internal elements.