Wooden houses?

MessyMare

My partner and I are looking at a Swedish Timber house; while I know one downfall (a pain in the bum to heat), does anyone know any other downfalls? This would be our first home and due to the large plot we are possibly looking at it being our forever house so would like to know of any experiences with these types of house.

Thank you in advance!

sequence

I doubt it's hard to heat, they are light years ahead of us in terms of energy efficiency. But I have no experience....

shane42

i like wooden hse , what puts me of is the fact they must go down in value rather than up

Owain_Moneysaver

Most houses go down in value rather than up - they depreciate and need maintenance. It's the land that increases in value. At least a timber home is almost 100% recyclable.

Any house you build would have to meet British building regs anyway, but it's not hard to surpass those.

MessyMare

It's not a house being built- it's an ex council house already built from Swedish timber. Thank you for your replies

PasturesNew

Ah, so is it a "timber framed building"? These can be tricky to get a mortgage on. I think we all envisaged you owning a big plot of land and were considering building/installing a Swedish log cabin on it!

[Deleted User]

Ahhh, that is completely different. The name of the type of council house?

edsks

I'm not an expert - but would insurance be higher? (thinking that the more timber there is the more likely to more fire damage if there is a fire and the easier it might be to catch and spread fire). Just a thought.

MessyMare

This was my thought too; although the one we were originally after has sold (boo) but we've got our eye on my friend's place at the other end. Thank you for your replies

shamac

We have one of these and it is quite the opposite heating wise...it is very thermally efficient and retains heat in the winter whilst staying cool in the summer.

tux900

Asking for experiences of Swedish timber houses is like asking for likewise on British brick houses... the comments you'll get are unlikely to be of any use to you given at best they can only be generic. The method of construction matters far less than who built it, when it was built, how it was built, to what specification, etc.

Can you elaborate on what the property is? Rightmove link maybe? If not, what exactly do you mean by 'Swedish Timber'? Is it timber-framed? Fully timber? Log cabin? Factory built or timber source?

Regarding heating, this should not be an issue at all if it is properly designed and built. Indeed, timber has many advantages over bricks and mortar in this regard and the reduced thermal mass can mean it is quick(er) to heat (yet still slow to cool given adequate insulation). A proper design should not necessarilly pose any additional fire risk issues either.

Mathew