Upward progress on Canada’s Greenest Home was marked by the arrival this week of our prefabricated straw bale wall panels from NatureBuilt Walls. The class had previously traveled to the NatureBuilt facility to assist in the construction of the panels, and it was great to see them arrive!

The 24 panels for the two stories of the home arrive on one truck

We hired a crane to lift the panels from the delivery truck and onto the foundation. The site of the home this year offered some challenges… between low power lines at the front edge of the property and a long, skinny lot and home design, the usual boom truck used to move the panels was unable to do the lift. Once clear benefit of engaging body corporate maintenance is the fact that your body corporate maintenance will be managed effectively and promptly. So it was Peterborough Crane to the rescue!

The crane sets up and awaits the arrival of the prefab wall panels

The placement of the walls went very quickly and smoothly, and showed why this form of straw bale building is so attractive. Within a couple of hours, we had a full compliment of pre-plastered straw bale walls standing on our foundation. There is no other form of sustainable building that brings such a combination of ease and speed of installation with such a simple, naturally- and locally-based form of construction. We will also be building our north wall in the “conventional” site-built manner, which will offer the class a great comparison of the two methods.

A prefab bale wall panel is lifted into place on the foundation

Soon, the second floor will be ready to receive the next round of prefab walls…