MCoops

@Nickfromwales ICF is the full elevation, up to eaves, including gable ends, of which we have 3 as the house is an L shape. Full Oak frame within. We do need some help erecting the ICF (2 jobs, child in school, not living that close to site at the moment, we can't build it all) - which is also having an impact, as we are really struggling to find anyone that will work with woodcrete blocks. People only seem to want to work with the EPS blocks, all had bad experiences when building with woodcrete on jobs. We have had quotes from Nudura for supply which we are happy with, and Ecobrix.

Easier indeed, but what's life without a challenge hey 🙃 The Oak will be fixed to the ICF behind each post, so we can't slide a board in fully behind it. What the Oak company have done in their show home looks good though, they've skimmed behind. I think we will just need to leave more of a gap for trowel access. We've had a few plaster incidents with Oak floor, so I know the pain of cleaning that up! One I will 100% avoid in this build!

@JohnMoWe did wonder how easy it would be in reality to chase out the woodcrete. It doesn't look like the easiest thing to cut, though I've not tried yet. I do have a block though, I will test on. Durisol (Ecobrix) advised against battening and boarding as the wet plaster is needed to meet the air tightness. We do have all the props available for EPS ones, but that is one plus point to woodcrete the fact these aren't needed. Though, everyone I've spoken to has had a blow out on their woodcrete pours - every chance this is user error though too, not necessarily the blocks. Thanks for your experience!

@Iceverge Plan is to get the Oak frame in place first. This is all being made off site so will just be craned in and fixed. Then the ICF walls will be built around the outside. Then the SIP roof panels will be added. We need to get the Oak out of the elements as quickly as we possible as the rain affects the finish, and obviously the drying out time increases the wetter it gets.

Wow, 30mm - that is something we definitely can't encounter as we have to spec the Oak frame to be xmm off the ICF wall - we were thinking to allow just a small gap, maybe 20mm, to allow a wet plaster skim behind, but will definitely look into this more and allow more wiggle room.

@ToughButterCup We have an almighty plasterer we found while renovating and have already t'd him up for the job, whatever that job ends up being. Worth their weight in gold plasterers! Hubby had a go once, never again haha!

@Nickfromwales Appreciate your experiences. It's not the first time I've heard them. The water issue seems to congregate at DPC level, and with so many bridges going from external to internal it seeps inside, particularly around opening as you say. So many people have said this - hasn't filled me with confidence. I believe Durisol (Ecobrix) is the oldest block, but unsure on timescales on the others. We do like the solidness of the woodcrete blocks, but the airtightness (or lack of) seems to be an issue to, with Ecobrix actually telling us we'd need to go and foam all the gaps up - which isn't really the point. It's an absolute minefield. Might just reinstate the cob barn 😂

@JohnMo Talking Durisol, ISOTEX type ICF blocks. Just from talking to people who have built with it and had problems. Everyone seems to have a different experience / opinion. Assuming your build went well?

We've had a good chat with @ToughButterCup Interesting you've seen it on EPS too, wonder what standard the build quality was done to. If they're on the mass new estates nothing would surprise me, they seem to go up so fast with so little care and consideration. Will definitely look into battening before fitting the cement board externally. Internally - well we were going to wet plaster originally as we'd planned on using Durisol, but we're a bit unsure on that now. Leaning more towards Nudura, which will need battening and boarding. Though we are thinking of lining with ply, we're not a fan of plasterboards - can't get the same fixing into them like you can masonry. Still a bit unsure on that side of things. Just trying to get the thing up and out the floor at the moment haha!

I'd never thought about Brick & Block like that - but yes, its essentially the same isn't it haha! Having the Oak solely on the inside means it can move all it likes really, adds to the character. All our airtightness is in the ICF walls and SIP roof. Glad you're making headway with Oakwrights, maybe we spoke to the wrong person there - or maybe they were busier then and not so much now, who knows. We've found a great local supplier and builder so we're happy enough. Hope it goes well for you when you start!

There definitely isn't much love is there haha! I think a lot of the big guy clients are paying the companies to do everything for them to be honest, we just were not prepared to pay what they were charging, and wanted much more input than they'd allow. I've not seen that insulation - will have a look. All Oak frames need skinning with something, we're just going down the ICF route rather than sips or bricks, that's the plan anyway... Luckily we have found some great SEs, but are doing all the design ourselves, so learning A LOT! The Oak supporting the roof is definitely the norm. We've got our planning already, with the final cladding material being half render and half clad, but we can always apply to change this if we want / need. Nothing better than the look, feel and smell of raw Oak.

We've had bifolds before (albeit the cheaper end of the market ones) but we weren't that impressed, so we are looking for either a french or patio door style I think - to be decided! They're the easiest way to do the roof with how the Oak frame is. A cut roof is much harder to achieve, and insulate we've found, and the less exposure to the elements the Oak has the better - so timescale is on the mind too. At least a roof is a serviceable item, more so than walls, so if there are any issues we can get to it. The render issue with woodfiber is interesting. The more we research it the more this comes up - it seems whilst the concrete inner itself doesn't track water, the woodcrete does absorb it while out in the elements during construction. And it's then difficult to get it to dry because we plaster and render etc, and it can't breathe, so the plaster and render fails - real pitfall for something that has legs. We'd batten before any render, and are also battening out the render / clad levels too.

Ha, no doubt indeed! I didn't envisage investing £3k in bats but here we are! I'll have a look at your blog. We love Bude - looking forward to being close to it.

Yes, we are essentially building the house twice. That's pretty much how is goes if you want an Oak frame that meets regs. It was a similar cost to SIPS to be honest, which is what most OAK houses seem to be skinned with, but we weren't a fan. The rebar and lintel design in the ICF isn't as much as it would normally be - it's only bearing the windows and doors, the upper floor and roof are hung on the Oak, so the Oak is the main structure. We've designed the house and rooms around the Oak already, so space and placement of things shouldn't be an issue. We did speak to Oakwrights about it, but their costs were eye watering, and they didn't seem interested in any custom design - they wanted you to pick a house from their catalog kind of thing. That was our impression anyway.

Hi, I don't think they are - just the oak framing companies details, which is all over the web anyway. The previous docs are all on the planning portal also, so already in the public domain. Thanks for pointing it out though.