Why don't we build more timber homes, like the US does?

BikingBud

Unlike other "businesses" building affordable homes should be about quality of housing and value for money not profit.

Both Titus Salt and the Cadbury family recognised that.

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81954294#Comment_81954294

Fine in a Dickensian novel, but in the real world no one would build anything if there was no profit involved.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81954294#Comment_81954294

Both Titus Salt and the Cadbury family recognised that.

Though with the underlying motive that providing good housing would attract a better class of worker and ultimately enhance the profits of the overall concern.

Not saying that is a bad thing to do though.

This is straying from the subject of timber houses a bit. Quality homes can be built using timber, so long as if used externally the owner is committed enough to maintain it.

BikingBud

S62 -Yup - The point is that they were visionary and recognised the broader benefits of providing safe, sanitary housing for their workers and prospered massively because of it.

We are not building enough houses in the UK because there is no will.

We are not building energy efficient houses in the UK because there is no will.

There are plenty of opportunities to redraw the landscape and change home building, providing a significant improvement in product and availability. Both are generally regarded as major influences to drive out business change, but there is no will.

Most people don't know and don't care about benefits of effective build methods and reduction of through life costs via near zero energy consumption because they are slaves to the status quo. It's just not in their thoughts in the same way that most people seemed totally oblivious to the fact that they were being asked to pay above market interest rates for the privilege of driving a new car.

If you offered a house that cost the council say £150k to build with near zero energy running costs at a price that covered the capital outlay how many would take them up on the offer.

We have naysayers we need visionaries.

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81954411#Comment_81954411

Your arguments are at odds with each other. You either want to provide affordable housing or high efficiency energy efficient housing.

The costs associated with making housing super energy efficient are passed onto the end user with the end product then labelled as "unaffordable", which is why most super energy efficient housing in the UK is one off and bespoke builds where the build costs are not as critical.

Jude57

I don't have an opinion on whether brick/block or timber built houses are best but something to consider must surely be the local climate? One of my guilty pleasures is watching US property renovation shows - don't judge me! I've seen episodes where timber built homes have, unbeknown to the owners or the renovators, termite infestations so extensive that the entire property had to be rebuilt, where honey bees are resident in the walls and just last week I watched one where property expert David Bromstad was renovating his own timber built home, extending it substantially and doing lots of other structural works, all within a fairly short timescale. When the old roofing was removed and while the property was not watertight, a huge storm came through the Florida area and rainwater was pouring through the house. As bad as that was, David explained that it was the almost immediate, certainly within hours, growth of mould on the timbers that caused the real problems because it meant that the entire property had to be 'tented' and every inch of every timber treated and scrubbed, as he said, even with toothbrushes, to eradicate every mould spore. It set the renovations back substantially and I dread to imagine the costs because I don't imagine it would all be covered by insurance.

BikingBud

https://www.dan-wood.co.uk/house-designs/bungalows/perfect-86e and

https://www.dan-wood.co.uk/dan-wood-technology

Others are available.

See turnkey pricing.

Pricing for commercial scaling would likely bring the cost down and my point was setting up the factory facilities in the UK around the strategic roads network provides access to the network and provides local employment that stays local, buys local and keeps the local washing machine of cash flow going.

We have a product to support GDP rather than a product based upon services that merely charge an overhead.

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81955146#Comment_81955146

And mortgaging that?

stuart45

You need to check the price for the foundations.

BikingBud

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81955604#Comment_81955604

Easier or more difficult than getting a mortgage against a house that has to be demolished?