Wooden houses

homersimpson_3

if it's any help my friend lives in a timber framed house surrounded by bricks. house is lovely in warm in winter and cool in hot summer and she has no fans/air conditioning units. you can't hear the neighbours telly/music etc and the houses on the site (about 30 in culdisac) sell like hot cakes. people are older childless couples/singles (mid 30's to 70's) or young couples who buy houses and then move once they decide to start family. as with other houses alot depends on gardens, no of bedrooms, location etc

Happy_saver_4

We currently live in a ' timber frame ' bungalow we built,using sub-contract labour etc. Warm winters and cool summers without huge utility bills !!!

A well established way of building here in Wales. The 'timber frame' advantages are well recognised and properties sell easily at good prices with normal mortgages available etc.

We are so impressed we are just going to build two more; for family and us.

GDB2222

There was a pretty wide-spread problem a while back with this sort of construction, where the frame was susceptible to damp. Something to do with skimping on damp-proofing.

Jo4

gizmoleeds wrote:

Ignore carnet's rudeness.

You are quite right to be asking questions about this and researching an option which may be cheaper to build or run than an ordinary brick house.

When you say building on existing land - do you mean building alongside your current house or in place of it? (I am asking out of curiosity - I don't have much more to add here other than that I think it is a good thing to consider).

I am glad I am not the only one who thought carnet was rude!! We could build another house on our land but we do not know if we would be made to take the existing one down and just have the new one, I do not know what planning would say. THANKS for all your help! :A

Hintza

Jo.....


We are in the same boat in Scotland (renovate, rebuild etc). Many homes in Scotland are now timber frame and is regarded as the norm. In England they seem to have a problem with them.

But here are a few sites worth looking at:-
http://www.homesources.co.uk/builders_house.html

I particularly like this desgn (esp for Scotland) http://www.skyehomes.co.uk/.

I am busy spending the evening checking out these sites.

lush_walrus

carnet wrote:

Sorry, but can't quite see the purpose of this thread .

For the past 25+ years a high proportion of all new residential properties have been timber framed (with brick outer-leaf) and this trend continues to increase.

There is absolutely no problem with buildings insurance and these properties are treated no differently by Insurers to other, more "traditional" forms of construction.

They are also bought and sold just as readily as any other residential properties.

Sorry but what you are describing is not a timber framed house, that is a timber clad house, which is a totally different thing.

I house clad in timber takes its structural support from the block and brickwork, then the cladding is added to make it look pretty if you like. A timber framed house uses the timber to provide the structure, rahter than for visual effect.

Happy_saver_4

Just to clarify the position as there does seem some confusion here.

The current use of a 'timber framed' property describes a property where the main structure is of timber stud and panels normally constructed using 100mm or 150mm timber. The timber trussed roof is supported on the timber framed inner skin. A 50mm cavity is left and the outer leaf of the property is constructed of brick or rendered blockwork. Specialist wall ties are used to bond together the outer and inner leaf. All other aspects, foundations, drains etc are perfectly as standard.

Traditional construction ( which now has a few dis-advantages) is the inner and outer walls being of brick and block with the roof trusses supported on the outer skin.

The old timber built properties had no cavity construction and often only had a temporary 3 or 5yr building licence from the local Council and were therefore unmortgeable.

Someold properties had solid 9" brick/block walls and these walls were clad in timber with roofing felt behind to try and prevent damp penetration. Very poor construction.

Current professionally designed and built 'timber framed' properties are I believe an advancement. Perhaps if we didn't adopt new construction techniques we'd still be all living in caves or wattle and daube

Most people cannot even distinguish between a traditional and a 'timber frame' property. They do not look like the garden shed !!!

Construction and advantages here

Some pretty pics here