Glen

These look very similar to fixings we use at work for installing glass & perspex signs. A company called www.Ukpos.com supply them.

Hi ETC I appreciate the time taken to create drawings like this, it’s a very time consuming exercise, some interesting points to consider, I’ll see if I can incorporate some of this into our plan although I don’t want to amend the exterior elevations as I’ll be starting again with planning. Some points I previously mentioned which give boundaries to the build are as follows, the garage is accessed from the front as previously mentioned due to the right side being only 1.5m away from the boundary wall & is to house 1 car plus motorbikes, so not as tight as appears. The rooms we have in certain locations are to make maximum advantage of the path of the sun, also using the maximum allowance for part O of buildings regs. interesting points regarding UFH pipes 👍

Sorry Bozza, not Baz, i haven’t got my glasses on🤣

Hi Baz I like the flow of that, I’ll see how the rooms scale up when I get back to work (I’m on holiday at the moment, so plenty of time to ponder) this should give me & the wife plenty to argue about for the next few days!🤣🤣

Thanks Baz, I’ll take a close look at that when I get a minute.

Some valid points made by AliG & ETC, we considered downstairs living if one of us became immobile, but decided against it, & retrofit a means of access to the first if required. The scale of the kitchen & larder mirrors what we currently have & we use every inch, I’m hopeless but my wife is an excellent cook & enjoys being in the kitchen, with space for friends to sit & enjoy the space. We considered the direction of the ridge line & this one will create the minimum amount of shade on the rear patio & garden areas. The staircase next to the kitchen scenario, we are thing of moving closer to the entrance to create some wow as suggested previously by Gus. Storage in the eves, prompted by AliG has given me an idea of building in some bedroom furniture, rather cupboards or sliding doors which we previously did in other houses. some great ideas to explore from everyone 👍

Great idea Dave I’ve just been checking those out, it will save a fortune removing the 2 chimneys

Great idea John, I work with measurements & scale everyday so I can visualise space, but my wife has no concept of scale, we’ve had more arguments over this in the last 12 months than we have in 35 yrs of marriage 🤣

Hi Gus thank you for your comments, it’s certainly food for thought. I think we will most certainly remove the log burners & chimneys, I didn’t realise the ICF was so efficient, losing only 1-2’c as Connor mentioned. The original reasoning was we already have the stoves & ample supply of fuel. As for the internal layout, our current house has a much more impressive round entrance hall with an oak helical staircase, large open kitchen with social area & separate dining room & separate lounge. This currently works very well for us, with large family gatherings quite often, but we we’re struggling to replicate this concept in a much smaller space & we didn’t want a narrow corridor leading to the rear living area, hence the wide hallway. The house will be positioned almost centrally on the plot with a large garden to the front & rear & approx 7m on the left side (westerly facing), the garage is 1.5m away from the boundary. We want to make the most out of the views with the room positioning & the allowed glazing to comply with building regs. Currently, taking on previous comments I think we will ditch the stoves & chimneys, move the cloak cupboards into the office area, move the utility & hot water tank upstairs & move the downstairs wc into the current utility area, upstairs we will increase the bathroom space & maybe redesign the rest. I’m so glad i posted & feel we are really gaining from the valuable feedback. ps. If I thought we could incorporate PV I would consider it, but the whole front elevation is south facing & we have little roof space available , I’m also not a great fan of their appearance in a prominent position.

Thank you so much for the feedback, this I exactly what I was hoping for. It makes you question every aspect of layout, some of which I already had my doubts, hence the post. our previous history, we designed & built a 3000 sq ft 5 bed dormer house for our family, submitting & gaining planning myself, local builder put up the bare shell, we did the rest. That was 17 years ago! Wow, how things have changed in the last few years. We bought this plot on an un adopted lane which had planning for a 8m high 4 bed house, much to the objection of the neighbours as it’s surrounded by dormer bungalows. The location & surrounding was perfect for us, so we resubmitted planning for what we actually wanted. Again we drew up the design & submitted it. We had a few minor tweaks from planning & it passed! We have designed the house for our forever home for ourselves, although I thought that when we built the last one, so a valid point on possible resale to consider. Our current home has 2 log burners, which we use all the time, hence the current design, but I do have reservations about incorporating here, the thinking behind it was, if we have to have heat pumps, then we may need an inexpensive back up for boosting in winter! We have thought to move the laundry upstairs as that’s what we currently have & works very well, then move the downstairs wc to that space, creating a larger office/storage space. The lounge is 7m x4m with a 2.8m hallway! (The wife wants a large hall & wide entrance door/windows to allow as much permissible light in as possible. The garage I’m happy with as it’s housing 1 car plus a small work area & several motorbikes, it was easier to show the 2 cars on the plan for planning, as that alone was adequate for highway’s approval, leaving us to do what we want with the access driveway. the hot water tank was going in the boiler room (that’s what we have now) but definitely thinking of moving into the upstairs space (due to your feedback) the vaulted area we like, we want as much natural light as possible (without the cost & use of mechanical ventilation) the master bedroom currently shows a king size bed, but I think the en-suite needs a rethink. In our current house the only thing I would change is the size of the dressing room as it’s too small, but we may have gone to large with this one. The stair landing definitely needs a flood of natural light, I’ll check that. Again thanks for the input, it’s much appreciated.

Hi everyone I’ve been keeping a low profile over the last few months dealing with LA to get full planning agreed on our new build proposal. Finally after 10 months we’ve got the green light to proceed. we (me & the wife) are building using an insulated raft with ICF walls clad in natural stone with a slate roof & oak porch & embellishments. (Similar feel to the attached images). I was hoping to invite opinions & recommendations on interior design layout. The current plans show a vaulted ceiling to the rear over the family room, the light grey areas upstairs show where the ceiling height slopes from 2.8m to 1.5m where it meets the walls. We are sat on a 1/4 acre rectangular plot, the front elevation facing NE. Looking forward to any view points or critiques. Thanks

Thanks Nick, good advice

Thanks for that Conor, yes i`ll look into the alternative suppliers as i`m keen to follow this method of construction. As for the DIY approach i`m aware of the lateral forces of wet concrete, i was just wondering if anyone on the forum had done this before. I was basing the idea on similar constructions i had seen witnessed in Germany. Thanks again for your imput.

Hello, this may be just a crazy idea but has anyone built there own icf house, without the use of pre formed blocks? i`m currently drawn to the woodcrete blocks like Isotex, mainly due to finishing up with a timber interior surface for fitting kitchen units etc. I`m currently waiting on a quotation from the supplier, but i am expecting it to come in around 45K for the supply of the blocks, it then occurred to me, is it possible to build my own using a 150mm kingspan sheet bolted with spacers to an 18mm OSB board leaving a suitable cavity for concrete. The finished product would then simulate a sips build on the outside with a concrete thermal mass on the inside! My build is a dormer bungalow with gables, so assuming i build adequate bracing to prevent blow out & have the structural engineer calculate the rebar required, materials would come in at less than half the cost of preformed blocks! just a thought!

Hi just saying hello, This is my 2nd self-build, first one was tradition brick & block family house, this one is for just me & the wife & dog & thinking of ICF, we`ll see how it goes.