House building

tim_n

OK I thought I'd share this with the MSE forums because I hope it'll make interesting reading and will get some constructive thoughts back.

I'm 23, coming up 24 working as a project manager looking to build myself a house. Not just any house, but a green and viable moneysaving house.

As with any good house it takes a fair amount of planning. I intend to setup a website detailing how this project will progress, the architect plans and costs.

As a general overview my decisions are thus:

The house will require a fair bit of excavations, mainly for a large water tank as well as a borehole. The payback for a borehole is not in the interests of the average moneysaving person - it will take probably around 20 years to get payback, but does allow me the benefit of having an uninterupted water supply providing plenty of clean fresh water. The large water catchall will gather water from the roof and grey water from baths and sinks (after some filtration of sorts) to flush loos with and water gardens with.

The other excavation is a set of reed beds - these I believe are subject to watercourses etc. Dealing with your own sewage and having your own water supply does however negate the requirements of the hideously expensive waste water disposal charge, and provides me with plenty of fertiliser. The final stage in my vertical reedbed system is a large pond to which I will be using as a cooling/heating mechanism for my heat exchanger - the primary heating for the house.

The foundations of the building will be based on old tyres filled with water permiable substances (gravel etc) to allow drainage from the walls. The walls will be straw bale coated with lyme render. The drainage allows any cracks or crevices to drain out without soaking the bales (straw doesn't rot like hay as long as only the outside is dry). Using straw saves a great deal of material cost (around about £10,000 for the average build) and can generally built by unskilled labourers. The added cost of the lyme render will set me back far more, but building in straw has several advantages. Straw is a waste product, highly insulating (rating of 0.13) and natural to build with. It does not catch fire (try burning a telephone directory) and many buildings built using traditional cob techniques are still standing hundreds of years later. Try telling that to some of the cheap build companies.

Inside I will be running underfloor heating using the forementioned heat exchanger. The main advantage of a geothermal heat exchanger is that it can provide both heating and cooling to the house, burning about 1 unit to produce 3 units of heat - much better than normal electric storage heaters and of course can be powered by renewable resources! I can also keep fish in my pond...

Next is the roof - I've not decided on materials yet, the local produce seemingly to be mainly from the old brick factory. Ideally I'll find something sturdy and long lasting without being too damaging... answers on a post(card) please.

Photovoltaic just doesn't seem to do the job to produce enough viable electricity for my needs at present - especially not with the payback rates I would want to be using such enviromentally unfriendly chemicals above my head! I'd love to find a plot with a good sized well stocked stream running by to do some hydro work but that seems fairly unlikely at present! But that's beside the point (and it'd complicate the reed bed situation too). I'm looking at solar water heating for my baths and showers.

So there you go... a look into my own dream. Locally I've found a suitable site for £50,000 depending if I can get the town planners to change the status of the land. With a decent amount of planning I'm confident I can get the cost down to £100,000 with a sizeable contingency fund, the whole site being around 4 bedrooms and 1 acre.

Obviously with a total budget of £150,000 I'll be very lucky for this to work, but if you've got any other ideas or technologies you want to add to my range let me know!

Oh and I'll be adding some livestock too... nothing like a goat to attack me in the morning (for milk) and some ducks to provide some egg substidance!

Skiduck

Good luck mate, if I come across anything you haven't thought about, I'll post it here.
The heat pumps are a great idea on any new build.
Sounds like a very exciting project.

tim_n

I've got my fingers crossed. It's great how things are progressing though I've been told it's difficult for someone to get a mortgage on a straw build because of the stigma of burning fields, but mainly because it's a 'new idea' and there is no data on how long these materials will last.

pff...

Thatch companies however are known to insure and mortgage for such builds though (just in case anyone is wondering...)

Skiduck

where are you getting your reed beds from?

These guys have always been good IMO

http://www.titanpc.co.uk/reed_beds.htm

and just out of interest, how about this technology:

https://www.sunwarm.com I'm waiting for a visit from a rep to grill him over it.

Skiduck

also, you may not need it, but some of these books are very useful:

http://www.thearchitectureroom.com/SustainableHouses.html

Seakay

[QUOTE=

https://www.sunwarm.com I'm waiting for a visit from a rep to grill him over it.[/QUOTE]

Let us know how you get on and, if you don't mind, what sort of prices the rep quotes. It's hard to tell fom the site just how practical an option (or not) this would be.

SusanCarter

Sounds like a great idea - you'll have to let us know how it progresses.

babiebeany

This is exactly the type of project that we would like to undertake in a few years time and the fact that you are prepared to give the info to others is great. Don't forget to let us know your website adress when you get started.

skippy64

Dream project that I'm sure will become a reality. Like everyone else says best wishes for the project. Have you thought about contacting the tv companies once you are about to get it underway that feature builds such as yours ( Grand Designs, Discovery Channel etc), you never know there may be some financial reward if featured !!

sandieb

What a wonderful project. Do keep us informed.

Good luck.

savvy

Nice one tim..............it's something I've always wanted to do too. Have you ever watched Grand Designs? There was a straw bale house on there, I think it was the chap that worked as a charcoal burner and used to live in a hut. It was great how he could sculpture different shapes, he went for a rounded effect which made inside quite 'friendly' as such. Anyway it was fascinating stuff and perhaps you could email the magazine and see if he can put you in touch, to get more info

I love Kevin McCloud btw so checked out his site for you and there's a couple of links on there that may be of interest, especially the Somerset Trust, may have some info or contacts for you

Had you considered thatch for the roof???

Good luck with the project, needless to say I'm green..............with envy