BaleHaus at Bath

A new week and the window frames are all in place ready for the glass to be fitted. The end of last week saw, amongst other things, the guys from Greenheart work very hard to take the very heavy phase change panel from the Grand Designs live house out of a first floor panel so that a new window frame could be installed. The aluminium flashing is now all in place and cladding is continuing. The timber floor should be arriving sometime soon and then this can be fitted and the inside of the house completed.

Again I’m away for the rest of the week, but this time I’m working; I’m presenting at the European Straw Bale Gathering in Belgium. As well as presenting I’ll be learning about straw research being undertaken throughout Europe and beyond and seeing different straw bale construction techniques in practice. When I return next week I’m sure the house will look almost complete!

The solar tube has now been installed and the roof is watertight; good timing for the rain predicted tomorrow! The aluminium flashing is continuing to be fixed into place and finishes the building off nicely. The windows, very kindly donated by Senior Architectural Systems (SAS), are being put into place this week by the guys from Greenheart who’ve also been doing the cladding as well as various other things on site. I’m away for the rest of the week and so I’m sure the building will look completely different when I come back on Monday.

The roof is now more or less finished and completely watertight. The view from the top is rather spectacular; you can even see one of Wiltshire’s White Horses on the side of the Wiltshire downs.

A hole has been made in the roof for the solar tube which will be fitted in the next few days. The window frames and accompanying glass arrived earlier today and will be installed tomorrow, if all goes to plan. The cladding is continuing to be fixed into place and the aluminium flashing is starting to be installed.

The electricians have wired in all the electrics for the house, including numerous double sockets and light fittings. All the joints between the panels have been sealed and are ready for the cedar cladding to go around the panels, so that the render is still visible. The cladding process started last week and will continue this week. This will add extra weatherproofing to junctions between the panels.

The roof is to be completed today and the windows are due tomorrow, although they won’t be installed until later in the week. All this means that we’re in for a busy week and that the house is almost finished and ready for monitoring! You can see a time lapse video of the building process to date on the BaleHaus home page; which I thought was rather exciting.

Work started again on site yesterday with the electricians coming to lay cabling for power and lighting in the house, which will be mainly hidden under the raised floor. Over the previous couple of work days the joints between the panels have continued to be filled to make airtight seals and the cladding should be applied this and next week.

Merl is finishing the render on the two panels that came from the structures lab as they have now cured for the necessary 14 days. The windows are due next, but because of the scaffolding still being in place these will be inserted from the interior of the building, so the webcam will not show much of this taking place, but there will be photos on the website.

So far this week work on stitching the panels together has been underway with zip detailing that includes airtight tape and plywood. The exterior cladding will then be added and is due next week.

The electrician was also on site with members of ModCell, White Design and myself to enable a strategy for the light fittings and switches as well as electrical sockets to be finalised. How many people does it take to position a light bulb?!