Yukon woman says building code has made her planned straw-bale home unaffordable
A woman in Faro, Yukon, says her plan to build her dream home has been crushed by the Yukon Government's adopted updates to the National Building Code.
Sanni Schmidt has lived in Faro for 30 years. For the past six she has been preparing her property to accommodate a one-storey, 900-square-foot straw bale home.
"I put a lot of money in," she explained.
"I pushed some dirt. I built a retaining wall. I actually started the foundation."
Schmidt also hired an Alberta-based architecture firm, Battle Lake Design Group, to design the concept.
Straw-bale construction is a building method that uses bales of straw as structural supports and building insulation. It's considered a sustainable method for building, because straw is a renewable resource and has high insulation value.
Schmidt said she had everything lined up and then she went to apply for a building permit. That's when her dream of building her straw bale house started to fall apart.
"It starts that you actually need an architect that is Yukon-licensed, which, it's hard to find someone who knows how to build a straw bale house," she said.
"And then it continues with a structural architect. Of course he needs to be Yukon-licensed, which I have. But now the Yukon Government says you need a second structural engineer company that actually confirms the numbers of the first one ... So each time you're talking thousands of dollars."
Schmidt said this extra step has made this project unaffordable.
"If I build a stick house I don't have to go through all those loops," she told CBC News.
"If you build a log house, a cement house, a straw house, that's when they make it impossible. My question is, why are they so narrow-minded when it comes to building houses?"
Arnold Renschler is the managing director with Battle Lake Design Group. He echoed Schmidt's comments to CBC News.
"The Yukon Government, with their new building code, anything that falls outside of part nine of the building code which would include straw bale, and all kinds of houses ... now are requiring that all that engineering is reviewed a second time," he said.
Steps to be followed
Warren Badley, Yukon's chief building and plumbing inspector, told CBC News that he sympathises with Schmidt but to build any sort of dwelling there are steps that need to be followed.
He explained why a second engineering firm may have to review the work of the first one.
"It could be that Battle Lake Design Group doesn't have an engineer on staff that has a Yukon registered stamp," he said.
"All structural engineering that is accepted in the Yukon has to be stamped by a Yukon registered structural engineer."
Since a straw bale insulated home doesn't meet the criteria outlined in part nine of the building code, an energy modeller also needs to be involved with the design process.
Badley noted that he's seeing straw bale structures being used as an alternative to traditional materials.
"There is one addition to a home in Porter Creek. There's one under construction and one in the permitting stage," he said.
For Schmidt, Yukon's rules around straw-bale construction don't make sense considering there's a lack of affordable housing options across the territory.
"We're all screaming and hollering about the housing crisis. Here [are] people who want to remedy that. Who want to just go ahead with their lives, and the Yukon Government says, 'nope.'"
Schmidt says the experience has made her consider selling her property, scrapping her dream, and moving out of the territory.
