Engineers Reports and Sunny Breaks

Culburra Beach has had 569mm of rain since 1 January 2012, with 51 wet days and only 38 dry in that time. So it was with great pleasure that we finally got back down to our block of land and had two sunny days, albeit with rain overnight. We took advantage of the good weather to venture further afield, 20 mins down the road, to Honeymoon Bay. A little protected keyhole beach an short drive through the bombing range - obviously only accessible when the range is not in use. Outside peak holidays seasons Honeymoon Bay was a delightful child friendly beach, but given its small size it is  easy to see how it could get overcrowded.

Still no Council Approval, however the rain has provided some solace, as it would have been difficult to commence building in such poor weather. But we have moved closer to Approval, having this week submitted a further (and hopefully last) engineers report to Council on the hemp masonry walling. Some months ago Council estimated that approval would take about a week after we submitted this report, a neighbour estimated another four or five weeks - we shall see who is correct.

Meanwhile even more engineering work is being undertaken. In orders to obtain sufficient bracing in the timber frame, the standard tables would require the use of plywood sheet bracing. This would involve the attachment of a sheet of ply to one side of the frame, leaving a section of the wall the size of the ply only 45mm thick on the far side of the plywood. I was concerned that this would leave no means for the hemp masonry walling to key into itself on the other side of the frame and could create a weak spot. So I conservatively decided not to use sheet bracing. Due to the large windows on the north side this meant that there was insufficient space for a standard (non - plywood) bracing unit and therefore I am required to have an engineer design the bracing.

My other engineering need is for the additional awnings between the upper and lower windows on the north side and wrapping around the corners. I bear responsibility for this difficulty. I drew the plans and the awnings look great and are sized for solar passive design, excluding summer sun and allowing winter sun in, but when I sought quotes for the timber frame, the framing companies could not quote for the awnings as the rightly said there was no detail as to how it could be built. The use of steel for the support of the awning would be one option, but likely to be too expensive for my budget, steel also has much more embodied energy than timber and rust is a bigger problem closer to the ocean. So it looks like the answer may be some sort of a diagonal timber brace. I am awaiting the engineers solution.

Kafkaesque Trial of Council

Council required yet more engineering information on the hemp masonry walls. So we provided them with the information. Then on 13 December, just when I thought there was a faint hope that we might get Council approval before Christmas, the response from Council was that the information provided was fine, the report referred to the performance criteria of the BCA but the engineers report needed to actually "certify" that the hemp masonry walling complied with the performance criteria of the BCA, quote the deemed to satisfy provisions and how each had been addressed. All the relevant information has been provided to Council, it seems we now have to get a further engineers report that restates and rewords all the information to fit Council's requirements. Makes me feel a little bit like a character in a Franz Kafka novel. 
   
The frustrating thing is that Lismore and Eurobodalla Councils have approved the hemp masonry walls with the same information I provided Shoalhaven Council after the first requisition in relation to the walls. Now one additional engineers report more and they are still not satisfied. Hopefully a further report in the new year will finally satisfy Council and get us approval so we can start the actual process of building. The one saving grace is that Klara from the Australian Hemp Masonry Company has been most helpful in obtaining the necessary reports.

While I did not get Council Approval for Christmas I did get water! During the last month Council - but this time the water section - installed my water meter and a tap, and I saw it for the first time on Christmas Day. I was so excited to have water that I took a photo of the water meter. The first before it was used and the second after a brief run through showing the very neat reading of "0000000".