The Strawdio

The gap between the floor and the roof is slightly too small for 6 bales. This is deliberate, so that it won’t be necessary to drop the roof onto the bales – the roof should already be sitting on the bales when I remove the supports.

I wanted to be sure I could compress the bales enough so that they would fit in the gap, so I did a test:

It worked!

One day it was very windy and all the tarps blew off the roof. Instead of trying to put them back on I decided it was time to put the roof membrane on to make things properly waterproof.

The bottom of the roof was finished with a mixture of the OSB offcuts and pallets. This section doesn’t need to be wind/air tight as it’s an overhang, so it’s not over the livable area of the building.

I began this work once I received planning permission at the end of November 2022.

I also covered the roof with tarps during this period to try to minise the wear on the OSB. The roof OSB wasn’t SmartPly (though I was told it was) and it degrated in the weather much more quickly than SmartPly, so I wouldn’t get it again. I think it was Kronospan.

Fortunately my local farmer was happy to store my straw for me while the situation with the council was resolved. I went to help him with the harvest.

I’m not a huge fan of plans. I didn’t really draw any proper any plans until I had to apply for planning permission. At this point a good deal of the building was already in existence so the plans are more descriptive of what was there than of an intention.