He talked about having to compress the bales which every other source states as only being necessary when you are building a load bearing straw bale house. Of course ours is a timber frame with the bales only being used as infill. So no need to compress.

We've had to concede the top storey in straw bale because the Council had serious concerns about maintenance issues with a lime plaster over bales on a top storey. The leaky building crisis in NZ has had major repurcussions for Building Inspectors it seems. They've gone all jumpy about everything that could possibly leak in the next 15 years. They've all been told they'll be liable for it so they won't sign off anything that seems in the remotest bit unusual. And because straw bale is not covered by the building code we're stuck in the middle.

So I've had to produce a research portfolio with case studies, any research I can find and examples of building codes that do cover straw bale.

I have to thank Reinhold Huber and Lynne Hindle, Daniel Tohill and Jude Bishop and Hermann Otto and Penny Kempton who have all opened their straw bale homes to me to help me prove that straw bale does stand the test of time.

Daniel Tohill and Jude Bishops House, Kaiwaka

What I've learned is that there may very well be ideal methods recommended by experts but other methods seem to work too. Hermann and Penny's spacious and beautiful house has a standard concrete plaster and has stood strong on an exposed coastal ridge for 10 years with only one crack so far. Reinhold has used straw bale walls around a sauna in a sheltered and sometimes damp area, again with no problems at all over 10 years. Daniel had a window in a straw bale wall with no flashing at all, fully exposed to the westerlies and when he came to take it out there was no rot in the wall.

Hermann Otto and Penny Kempton's house, Ngunguru

I'm not suggesting that these should become recommended practises but it does show that there can't be any hard and fast rules just things that may work better than others.

Anyway, we've had our plans redone with the weatherboard exterior on the upper storey and I'm just about ready to resubmit all of this to Council.

We'll just have to wait and see if it makes a difference.