StrawBale.com

Looking for Like Minded Folks in Virginia

info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:56:45 +0000

I just got a message from a man in Virginia who’s looking to connect with like minded folks to work on a straw bale project together. Check out his message below.

I’m looking for like minded people in or near Damascus, VA to join us in our projects building straw bale cabins & greenhouses along a 250′ stretch of Beaver Dam Creek. If interested, please contact me at
filnap@hotmail.com. Thanks.

Phillip

Straw Bales For Sale

info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:31:47 +0000

A friend of mine just finished baling his house (Wohoo!!) and has over 100 bales left over. He is willing to sell them for $3 each. That’s $1 less than he paid for them. If you’re interested, please respond here and I’ll make sure he gets in touch with you. The bales are in Ashland, Oregon.

The Little Unknowns

info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:53:00 +0000

I recently worked with a woman who was acting as her own contractor on her project. The building she was working on was a small studio on her own land, which she already owned outright. Nonetheless, she wanted help with her project. The bummer was, she brought me into the mix a little late. She was working from a stock set of plans and ended up spending a lot more money than she needed to.

The first problem showed up when she was doing her estimating for the project. She didn’t consider the need for accurate numbers since the building was “just a studio.” She figured that she could get it close and that would be good enough. Unfortunately, that “close” turned out to be off by about $3000! Yikes. She had not accounted for things like temporary bracing for the structure, tool rental or purchase, or the always present mistakes. Those things added up quickly and put her in a funding hole.


Another common mistake which she experienced was over paying for materials that are called out in the plans.  For example, she had several windows in the studio of a size that weren't immediately available in her area.  She could have purchased windows that were 6" narrower but opted to stay with what was on the plan.  That ended up costing her an extra $500 because she had to special order all the windows.  Had she researched the windows before she framed the openings, she would have been more likely to see the problem and adjust her framing to accommodate a slightly smaller window in each case.  As it was, she figured, she'd just deal with the extra $500 charge.  A little here, a little there...
The little unknowns of a project can add up really fast as she found out.  A little extra time up front and she would have saved roughly $3000.  Here's the real impact of that $3000, the overall job only cost $13,000 in the end so she added 30% of the actual cost of the building to her budget.  Imagine that on a $200,000 house.  That would be an additional $60,000!  That's no chump change.  Be sure to spend the time before the job to investigate everything thoroughly and get clear about how you’ll spend your money.  With accurate planning and an accurate estimate, you can be successful.  Without either of those things, you’re likely to end up like the woman in this story.  
By the way, she’s still really happy with her new studio, she’s just bummed she paid 30% more than she needed to.



Tax Valuation Appraisals
info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:05:13 +0000


Art credit: Harry Chen Thinks Aloud
I just received an email from a man whose home was recently appraised by the county tax office for the first time after final completion.  The property tax assessment turned out to be really high and he asked if there was any history of successful contesting of such assessments in my history.  I didn’t have anything to offer him other than support and advice.  Here’s the deal:





Property taxes are assessed from the outside of a home.  As such, the overall square footage on which you are taxed as a straw bale home owner is considerably higher than it is for a conventional home owner.  In the example of the man who contacted me this morning, he is being taxed on a square footage of 3100 SF even though his actual floor space is only 2400 SF.  That’s a lot of extra money they are assessing within the actual wall of the house.

My suggestion to him was to contest the assessment by suggesting that the county tax office support green construction and become a pioneer in the area for such appraisals.  They can take the exterior measurement  just like they usually do and then subtract all of the "excess" wall thickness so that they are left with a conventional wall thickness of 6 inches.  They can then base the assessment on that square footage.  Otherwise, they are actually penalizing people for building green which is a terrible message to send to the public.
I've asked him to reconnect with me once he gets an answer from the tax assessor's office.  I hope it's good news and I trust the assessor will see the reasoning in this approach and will choose to support efficient construction.



Subcontractors and Alternative Construction
info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:44:19 +0000


Many subcontractors start out confused and cautious when first introduced to alternative construction, but once they get a handle on the process of building an alternative house, most end up happy they decided to join the new process.  After all, consider how boring it must be to do the same thing over and over again, day after day.  You may even have experience with this yourself in your own job.  Most of us like to try new things.





That is not to say that we are not uncomfortable with change.  In fact, I think most subcontractors and other people involved in the building industry are uncomfortable with change; however, once they experience something new and realize they can accomplish the task with no adverse affect, they sign on in full.  The question is how to get to that point of understanding if they are too cautious to attempt the new system to begin with.

Information is the cure.  When subcontractors say no to your idea of an alternative construction project, they are most likely saying "I don't understand this."  If you give them the information they need, they will likely see the light.  Of course, this is dependent on your idea not being crazy!  Using straw bale construction as an example:  once my subcontractors realized that it really was a viable construction method that is time tested and ultimately really amazing (okay, I'm a little biased, I know), they were excited to try something new.  
The more information you can supply your subcontractors with, the better.  If you can find a way for them to take a class in the construction method you are planning to build in, then do it.  If you can find a specialist to consult with the subcontractor during the project, do it.  All of this will make the whole project move much more smoothly and will help the subcontractor reach a level of comfort.  That comfort will translate into better quality work and a happier overall experience.  



Managing a Flaky Subcontractor
info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:05:42 +0000
Here’s another excerpt from the Be Your Own Contractor Training course.  Hope you like it.
After all your hard work of looking for the right subcontractor you may suddenly find yourself in the awkward position of dealing with a subcontractor who simply is not dependable.  This is certainly an uncomfortable position to be in, yet you’ll need to find a solution to the problem and quickly.  Anytime you spend wishing the problem away will be time lost and added expense on your job.





Taking action is key, and taking it quickly is even more important.  As discussed in other areas of this training, you should be in contact with your subcontractors several times before they are actually supposed to show up on site. Being that as the case, they will have had plenty of warning about the start of the job, and will really have no excuse for missing their start date or subsequent deadlines.

The first thing to do is make a phone call.  Call the office contact whom you have been working with and ask what happened.  It is always a good idea to give them the benefit of the doubt.  That said, don't get taken advantage of either.  In that conversation, you should ask why the crew has not shown up when the start date, or continuation of work, was clearly agreed to.  If the office contact cannot give you an adequate reason, then you should respond accordingly.  Let them know that their not showing up is a breach of contract.  You can choose at this time to let them get off free with just a warning, but be sure to let them know you have marked the record. Set a new date and move forward.  
The piece I want you to get here is that you can be accommodating without being pushed around.  Your ability to hold your ground is really important.  If you don't make that statement from the beginning, chances are that you will be bullied by the subcontractor and your entire job will suffer as a result. This may seem simple and it is; however, far too many people end up pushed around because they don't like conflict.  Consider it as conflict resolution, not as conflict.  
The reality is that there will be conflict if the job does not complete on time and on budget and your bank will have no problem telling you that you owe them more money as a result of your time delay.  So, you can have conflict with the bank or you can have conflict-resolution with your subcontractors.  Either way, you need to be in charge and willing to stand your ground.  I suggest you take that stand early on with your subcontractors and set the stage for success.



How to Handle Jobsite Mistakes
info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:57:25 +0000


The fact of the matter is that you will be working with other people when building your home and some of those people will make mistakes, and so will you.  That’s okay, and should be expected.  There are some basic steps you’ll need to take in order to get things back on track and running smoothly again.  The first key is to stay calm and not let the mistake snowball into something worse, especially when it really doesn’t need to.  The list below of ways to manage mistakes on the job site is taken from the upcoming Be Your Own Contractor Training course.  Although each person handles issues and mistakes differently, this list is a great starting point.







1.	The big picture.  Never lose track of the bigger picture of the project.  Remember that the overall project is bigger than any one mistake.  It can absorb some loss in efficiency as long as you are on task to fix that inefficiency and are willing to learn from your mistake or the mistakes of others.
2.	Team effort.  Building a house takes a team.  It is very difficult to do on your own.  In fact, I would not recommend that you attempt to build a house on your own.  Why put yourself through that kind of stress?  Work with a team and support each other in the process.  If and when one of you make a mistake, get support from the rest of the team and share the experience with everyone.  You will all learn something from the process.  I have seen in my life that it is extremely rare that a situation that offers learning to one person doesn’t offer some type of learning to everyone in contact with it.  It may come from a different place, but sharing that opportunity will improve the job site and your relationships with those around you.
3.	You’re in it together. As noted above with the concept of team building, your team members will all be in the same boat together.  This means that if a subcontractor makes a mistake, it might affect the next subcontractor on site.  Discussing and sharing the mistake will help the boat sail more smoothly.  You may even discover a better solution from the collective thought process.
4.	Address the situation right away.  Don’t fester on things.  Don’t get frustrated and down because something went “wrong.”  Instead, know that you can fix any problem that is in front of you.  This is always true.  If you remember that then it will be easier for you to move quickly out of the slump and into the solution.
5.	Stay positive. You can always learn something from your mistakes or the mistakes of others if you are willing to look at the situation from a place of calm.  Stay positive and trust that you can handle any problem that presents itself.  This is a life lesson, by the way, not just something for construction.



Making Your Own Hydraulic Lime on the Cheap!
info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:23:19 +0000


Ever wanted to use hydraulic lime but not been able to find it in your area?  Or perhaps you can find it, but it is going to cost you more than the rest of the house combined to ship it to your location.  Have hope, there is a way to produce your own hydraulic lime from a much cheaper and more readily available source: quick lime and brick dust.







Simply add up to 5% brick dust to your quick lime and voila, you have a lime with similar properties to hydraulic lime.  To be clear, it is not hydraulic lime, per se, but it behaves in much the same ways.  This is considerably cheaper and the ingredients are available in most areas.



A Quick Tip for Accurate Estimating
info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:45:44 +0000


There are lots of ways to estimate the cost of your house.  The reality is that most homeowners turned contractors have very little experience with estimating and have even less experience compiling numbers for labor rates related to specific aspects of the job.  As a result, many owner/builder or owner-contracted homes go way over budget.  With the right training and practice, however, even someone new to contracting can be successful. Here’s a tip from the Be Your Own Contractor Training course that will help you with your estimating.





It’s important to realize that estimating is a blend of art and science and is something that takes a long time to completely master.  That said, success can be had with the help of proper training and material use.  One way to get insight into the estimating process is to use estimating books; however, their exclusive use can be a bad idea.  In my experience, the best way to fully utilize these books is to set up a spreadsheet to help you with the process. With your construction drawings in place, you can create take-off sheets to help dial in the details of the job.  A take-off sheet is simply a spreadsheet on which you write down all of the materials and their costs from a specific job.



Be sure to get as detailed as you can in the creation of the sheets. For example, when you are estimating the cost for the foundation of the house, the obvious things to price are labor, form boards, concrete and rebar.  Items that can ruin your estimate if forgotten are things like concrete stakes, form nails, and other connectors.  These things are often thrown into the “add a few bucks for nails” column, and the results are poor estimates. Breaking down the individual aspects of the job in finite detail will also help you build the home in your mind ahead of time, making the actual construction easier later on. 


If your take-off sheets are really accurate, you can go directly to the suppliers and get material prices for each aspect of the job. This will give you accurate material pricing; however, estimating labor can be a bit more difficult without the help of professionals if you have never completed a similar job before.  When it comes to labor, the estimating books are a great place to start, but keep in mind that the numbers in those books are based on professional contractors.  You’ll need to adjust those numbers to reflect your labor skills.   You can learn more about estimating and all the other management areas of contracting in the Be Your Own Contractor Training course.  Stay tuned for more!



Trying to Reach Kaaren Pearce About a Workshop in Winnipeg
info@StrawBale.com (Andrew Morrison Dicken Weatherby) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:44:28 +0000
I am not sure how else to reach you Kaaren.  I hope this works.  Your workshop sounds great, but your email does not seem to work.  If you get this, please respond to me at this blog and we will get in touch.