SNO man

Agreed. Probably trying to be too architecturally flash, for a first timer. Thick/sturdy ICF would be much easier to build and brace - the 350 Passive looks virtually impossible to blow-out, and I'm basically just making a square box. I'm talking to custom brick-slip firms, who can make the tricky chamfered window-surrounds, rain-ledge and other Victorian features, which the conservation officer wants me to match in the front facade of our street. If we can do these in a slip (rather than a full thickness brick skin) I'm more likely to go with the extra thickness of ICF.

Thanks Paddy - just emailed them now.

Any chance you still have an email address for those two lads Paddy?

Paddy Yes, I looked at the new Amvic 350 Passive but think we can get good enough with the R30 they have, or Nudura equivalent. I was looking at Amvic because it happens to be the favourite of a local ICF builder who is also a basement specialist, so hoping to do a deal with him for complete shell (hoping to keep in-budget with me labouring alone on some things, like ICF build between pours). Where did you get your Amvic 350? They seem not to have it at at the Ireland HQ yet. Russell Thanks Russell. I should have provided more detail, so it was a bit of a lazy post/question. Here's a bit more thinking behind the query: Q: What do you mean by passive eps thickness. A: I mean "getting close to a thickness of EPS that's needed for Passive House levels of insulation" (don't need totally Passive level, as we're in London and can't afford the wasted square-footage of crazy-thick walls) Q: Why do you want the ply to attach things to, the blocks have the plastic ribs every 8 inches plenty of attachment points, this week I fitted 18mm osb over my walls in the kitchen area, used imperial osb and it lines up perfectly with the blocks A: No they don't for the OneSeries, which is a "one-sided" ICF >> EPS with ribs outside house as normal, and wooden formwork on inside, which you can either remove for a clean concrete face (I really like that cool industrial look for our main living area) or leave it on if you want to attach conventional drywall. nudura.com/products/nudura-one-series/ Q: If you want a bare concrete wall then you can do it there, but no need to do it anywhere else. A: The only reason I'm interested in doing it everywhere, is to keep all the insulation on the outside of the thermal mass. This keeps the thermal mass of the structure structure at the temperature of your living area, rather than half way between inside and outside... and in theory keeps internal temp more "even" (because your living area is not insulated from your thermal mass by an internal layer of EPS). Q: Dont make it harder than it needs to be. A: Wise words. So I'll probably drop the 1Series idea and just using something with similar values to the Amvic R30, but worth asking around first I thought.

hope so !

Hi Alex, How was your experience with OneSeries? I'm really keen to get close to passive EPS thickness, but would prefer keeping the thermal mass all on the inside of the building (and quite like the idea of exposed concrete on some walls and keeping the OSB formwork on for others, to attack drywall). I've only found one example online of a newbuild using one sided Nudura, and it seems their builder went massively overkill on extra bracing, to help ensure it stayed true (I think they worried EPS one side of the formwork and wood on the other might be likely to compress more on one side, or be harder to true-up with normal braces). Do you have any pics and feedback? I'm planning to build a 4 storey in London and basement under the lower ground will probably not be ICF as we are digging/building to edge of plot with no external access at the sides. cheers