Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Topic started by: rogerzilla on 05 January, 2018, 12:31:54 pm
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-42574099
Not nice for them but I can't help thinking the JustGiving solution is wrong. Was the house uninsurable due to its construction type (can't believe that - you can insure a thatched cottage or a beach hut), or did they not believe in insurance (there are people that don't, for religious or other reasons)?
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I think that there's no square for that outcome on the Grand Designs bingo card - yet.
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Grand Designs bingo card?
<Googles>
https://carina.org.uk/granddesigns.shtml ;D
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Wood, insulated with sheep's wool; wood-burners. I would have wanted some nod to fire-proofing.
Mind you, the guy round here who built the first cob* house for many decades managed to burn it down and had to start again.
*Local mud with inclusions.
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(Sings)
I've taken 90 Bisodol
I've had a bellyful of Tommy Walsh's Eco House
Burp!
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Grand Designs bingo card?
<Googles>
https://carina.org.uk/granddesigns.shtml ;D
Brilliant! - is there a similar site for the DIY SOS prog ?
Rob
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Grand Designs bingo card?
<Googles>
https://carina.org.uk/granddesigns.shtml ;D
Lizzie's a friend of mine. I'll get her to add it...
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Grand Designs bingo card?
<Googles>
https://carina.org.uk/granddesigns.shtml ;D
Lizzie's a friend of mine. I'll get her to add it...
Are you the Kimble mentioned at the bottom?
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Grand Designs bingo card?
<Googles>
https://carina.org.uk/granddesigns.shtml ;D
Lizzie's a friend of mine. I'll get her to add it...
Are you the Kimble mentioned at the bottom?
I am indeed.
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I did wonder ;D
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An excellent list although I always look for the sad looking cat picking their way across a muddy field and wondering whether the neighbour has a cat flap and somewhere warm for them to sleep..... ;D
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I always thought sheeps wool was slow to burn.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/grand-designs-27000-eco-home-in-wales-burns-to-the-ground
Straw bale walls. I wonder if they had buried electrickery in them?
Anyway, having watched the GD episode....... http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4za1fw .........I think they deserve another chance, and if they can raise the cash through a fundraiser, good luck to them.
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I've read loads about straw bale buildings, including the claims that they don't burn. Even watched the fire test vids. None of it convinces me. I've watched straw bales catch and smoulder for weeks when a grass fire licked a haystack.
The fire tests are usually of highly compressed bales and they carefully test just the ends. A bit like heating a plank of wood and declaring 'look, this substance is fire-resistant'. Bollocks.
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The bales used in straw bale build should be very highly compressed but I suspect that the majority of builds are not using these as they cost more. If properly compressed a straw bale is very very difficult to set alight and will just smoulder on the surface making them easy to deal with.
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The bales used in straw bale build should be very highly compressed but I suspect that the majority of builds are not using these as they cost more. If properly compressed a straw bale is very very difficult to set alight and will just smoulder on the surface making them easy to deal with.
ahuh. Just like peat, yeah?
Peat fires burn underground for years. Once it catches, it smoulders away.
Yes it is hard to set fire to it. Once it catches, it smoulders.
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Yes but it doesn't go into mega combustion and can be damped down without significant impact to structural integrity if caught. I suspect that the bales used were not properly co.pacted for building. Unfortunately there is little regulation in this sector at the moment.
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I suspect that an eco-home is much like a regular home in that once occupied it's full of flammable Stuff and sources of ignition. Not hard to ignite relatively smouldery materials if a proper fire gets going...
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Yes but it doesn't go into mega combustion and can be damped down without significant impact to structural integrity if caught. I suspect that the bales used were not properly co.pacted for building. Unfortunately there is little regulation in this sector at the moment.
I don't think you have any experience of this sort of fire.
I have. With hay stacks and compacted organic matter. Memorably a grass fire catching on old compacted sawdust and soil.
When fire got into old (extremely compacted, consistency of peat) stables manure diggings, it took several weeks for it too breach the surface. It had briefly, for maybe 2 minutes, contacted the surface of the old stable sawdust and soil before being spotted and saturated with water. Several weeks later fire breached the surface of the ground 6 feet away. It took days of soaking with water to put that out.
If the straw bales are very densely compacted and there is suspected fire penetration, you couldn't simply dampen down. You would have to remove the bale structure to a significant amount back from the affected point to be certain there wasn't any combustion taking place.
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Whatever the character of bale, it was still coated with a non-flammable plaster. And any embedded wiring was fire rated. I’m with Kim on this one. Houses of all types can burn. They may just have been unlucky. I wouldn’t give our 1880’s terrace much hope if a decent fire started.
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Ole Big Tractor next door heats his house with some contraption which burns big bales, it burns a treat, but when there's a very cold snap it stinks the whole village out.
Anyway, anything will burn given enough heat and oxygen, even Celotex.
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Having watched the show, I can see why people wanted to help in some way after hearing about it. It seems like a cool project, both the house and the surrounding infrastructure, and they seemed cool people.
The BBC article said it was uninsured as it was not yet finished - I can understand why no insurer would want to take on a house made from reclaimed and grown materials that was constructed by a large number of volunteers and is not yet complete. How can you possibly make it compliant with building regs for example? And that's before you hear about the complex planning arrangement that requires the person living there to produce 75% of their income from the land.
As for the flammability - I've not yet seen anyone successfully burn a brick, but I've seen burned down brick buildings. Stuff inside houses burns very well, and a timber frame can't help. The press are reporting that it was initiated by an electrical "junction box".
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Fire in incomplete buildings can be a very different thing to fires in complete buildings. (Returns to work to write strong letter to timber frame designer).
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