building
Perhaps not the most exciting photo, but it has a special significance because these three logs were salvaged from five old, but sadly diseased, chestnuts that had to be cut down along Cook Street in Victoria. It feels good to be able to recycle the wood from these noble trees as posts within the building!
Feb 4th... The theme for January was 'building code'!
On the 20th I had a meeting with two of the senior building inspectors from Saanich municipality to do a presentation of my plans and discuss the intention. This was not an application for a building permit but rather a way of introducing them to the design, materials and techniques that (hopefully) will win their approval in due course.
Attending the meeting in addition to myself were: David Romain, my structural engineer; John Gower, a designer who has offered me great input in the project; Nick Jablanczy, manager of the Inspections department; Don Pedde, senior building inspector and; Mark Boysen, Sustainability coordinator for Saanich municipality.
Given that most of the elements of the building fall outside the scope of the code, I believe it is important to familiarise the inspectors with the project at an early stage, allow them to raise concerns and questions (which we can then address before applying for a permit) and, not least, show them that this is a serious undertaking, rather than some romantic desire to play with mud and straw!
As a first step, I think it went pretty well.
Although I was well aware of this, one of the points that was emphasised during the meeting was that we will need to provide 'equivalences' for most, if not all, of the alternative methods that we use in order to comply with the intent of the building code requirements.
Typically these equivalences are in the form of 'Letters of Assurance' provided - with great expense but sometimes questionable guarantee - by qualified professionals.
An interesting snin-off from this has been the birth of an initiative to set up a working group to research, develop and collate a library of appropriate equivalences that can be used by this and future projects. This will help us overcome the constant hurdle faced by people wishing to build with alternative methods.
Although early days, the initiative has exciting potential to change the way builders and inspectors approach the challenges of using alternative methods of construction!
On other fronts: my back has been 'out' since Christmas eve but is, finally, staring to improve and I can get back to some of the more physical tasks - such as making my new compression cylinders. It has been a frustrating time and has set my testing process back at least six weeks, but February is poised to be a great month!
On the 20th I had a meeting with two of the senior building inspectors from Saanich municipality to do a presentation of my plans and discuss the intention. This was not an application for a building permit but rather a way of introducing them to the design, materials and techniques that (hopefully) will win their approval in due course.
Attending the meeting in addition to myself were: David Romain, my structural engineer; John Gower, a designer who has offered me great input in the project; Nick Jablanczy, manager of the Inspections department; Don Pedde, senior building inspector and; Mark Boysen, Sustainability coordinator for Saanich municipality.
Given that most of the elements of the building fall outside the scope of the code, I believe it is important to familiarise the inspectors with the project at an early stage, allow them to raise concerns and questions (which we can then address before applying for a permit) and, not least, show them that this is a serious undertaking, rather than some romantic desire to play with mud and straw!
As a first step, I think it went pretty well.
Although I was well aware of this, one of the points that was emphasised during the meeting was that we will need to provide 'equivalences' for most, if not all, of the alternative methods that we use in order to comply with the intent of the building code requirements.
Typically these equivalences are in the form of 'Letters of Assurance' provided - with great expense but sometimes questionable guarantee - by qualified professionals.
An interesting snin-off from this has been the birth of an initiative to set up a working group to research, develop and collate a library of appropriate equivalences that can be used by this and future projects. This will help us overcome the constant hurdle faced by people wishing to build with alternative methods.
Although early days, the initiative has exciting potential to change the way builders and inspectors approach the challenges of using alternative methods of construction!
On other fronts: my back has been 'out' since Christmas eve but is, finally, staring to improve and I can get back to some of the more physical tasks - such as making my new compression cylinders. It has been a frustrating time and has set my testing process back at least six weeks, but February is poised to be a great month!