Russell griffiths

Can you recommend any.

Here’s one for you then @FM2015, what sort of methods are people using to airtight woodcrete blocks. There are a couple of questions knocking knocking about at the moment regarding this.

Why ripped off, have you any idea of the cost of moving an artic truck across the country. My windows had a £700 delivery cost, plus £700 additional for unloading and positioning on site. The first cost I had no choice the second one I avoided by doing it myself with a forklift. Pick the right product for the job not the one that has free delivery.

Why is everybody hung up on transport costs, surely it all adds up to total product cost the time you get the product to site. Product 1 is £1000 plus £200 transport product 2 is £200 plus £1000 transport. Same same.

Everybody seams so hung up on the u value of one element of there build, yet don’t seam to grasp the fact that it is a whole load of parts of a house that you need to put together well. I have seen timberframe houses with walls with very good numbers on paper, yet when built I could see out to the sky with only the lead flashing forming any sort of airtight element. It really is about choosing a good system and building it well, you can take a standard 100mm concrete block and build it to a good standard with good insulation, or you can take a highly insulated timberframe and build it badly with gaps and joins everywhere. You need to look at a system that is robust with good detailing and good methods of construction.

You use a telescopic vent to bring the air back up to your damp course level. Problems, the trench you have made around the building can collect with debris leading to water ingress through the vents. Poor air flow due to vent hidden under ground. Do you have to have beam and block its a poor floor construction insulation wise.

https://www.british-gypsum.com/~/media/Files/British-Gypsum/Brochures-and-Leaflets/Product-information/Gyproc-Soundcoat-Plus-Brochure.pdf

Why have you got your airbricks underground, it’s not really a good idea and can lead to problems.

You can, but it won’t be cheaper.

To get to our finished size we both walked around our current house with a pen and paper and a tape measure, we didn’t talk about our thoughts just walked about jotting down the sizes that we thought rooms needed to be. The boot room needed another 1.5m in the width, but we could trim 0.5 from the main bath, we then had a chin wag about it and added it all up, in total we came out at 180m of living with 40m of garage attached, none of our rooms are big, just nice and usable. I think yours is a bit tight.

Go and have a drive around gravenhill in Oxford there are more external finishes on houses than I have seen anywhere else in the world.

Have you considered digging a bigger hole and having a low retaining wall instead of having to waterproof your building walls i did this on a garage that had a height restriction.

You can search 3/8inch as well, some air con is imperial.

I’m confused as well, are you intending to live in this as you build the new place. If you want cheap then stop looking at that external tile cladding, it is eye wateringly expensive. No no type of cladding should be fixed to the osb, you will need an external weather barrier membrane on top of the osb then a batten to create a void, if mot any moisture that penetrates the rain screen will touch the osb and could penetrate, the batten allows a drainage gap and also ventilation to dry any moisture that gets through. Metal sheets will be the cheapest form of cladding, as long as you stick to corrugated and avoid raised seam. Dont go smaller than 125mm for the walls 100mm of rockwool type insulation is not enough without a serious heat source and then you will be heating the garden as much as the room. You need to identify exactly what what you need this room to do then design around that.

im not exactly seeing the problem, these are my windows, if you look the mullion is very thick where an opening joins a fixed pain. If that window of yours had 4-5 openings then the mullions would be that thick all across. Would that not give what you are looking for.

@Dreadnaught one for you I think.

It’s about having a continuous concrete core, any block can be airtight if it has a continuous 150mm layer of well vibrated concrete. Its the block junctions where you have two layers of woodcrete touching each other, the woodcrete is a poor air tight layer and the gaps between the blocks even worse. Unless you where to use a can of squirty foam between each block they are inherently gappy and require a second airtight method.

Nope, none of the woodcrete blocks are as far as I’m aware, happy to be told I’m wrong.

What is the normal method of air proofing woodcrete blocks? has anybody used either a spray on plaster or a spray on airtight liquid membrane it seams to be a problem im coming across lately without any firm answers.

You are going to need a waterproofing system for those outer walls, this needs designing now with your icf supplier, and building regs designer.

I’m not understanding what you have done, you need to explain with a rough scale drawing showing a section and the heights you have. Not really sure why you are a metre into the ground. Is this just a simple garden room, office garage, workshop, a few more details needed including usage so we can gauge insulation levels and position and build method for the walls.

I have vaulted ceilings in every room, when it rains heavily you can definitely hear it, is it unpleasant, no at the moment I do not have ceilings fitted just insulation on show, I intend fitting 15mm acoustic plasterboard on the ceilings which I think will take the sound down even lower. Is it silent ? no. is it annoying ? Not really I think with the telly on or just background talking I think it will just blend in, you certainly get a fair bit of noise from the rain on the windows.

@scottishjohn morning John, you keep spouting on about woodcrete blocks not needing any bracing, I would suggest you get some more hands on knowledge not just from talking to the rep selling the product. My knowledge is based on having built one icf house using a poly type block. But also I am currently working on two woodcrete block houses. one has the walls up the other is halfway up. Both the woodcrete blocks have needed significant bracing, the one built has some very poor walls, the one being built has a huge amount of bracing on it as it’s a struggle to keep it straight. I think people need to do their own research and not listen to the rep selling the product. if anybody tells you you don’t need bracing they are talking out of their backsides, or they are suggesting you pour a 1m strip at a time.

I think you need to choose your product first, then ask the supplier who they know. Finding a contractor first they might have a preferred block type that you don’t like.