Touchwood Homes Experiences

[Gone West]

@TerryE My experience of Touchwood Homes was about seven years ago. We went to view a house that they had built and had let to a tenant. They were on the same wavelength as us wrt low energy building and we liked it and a friend who was about to build decided to use them. She had a few problems with workers not always turning up when they were supposed to. This was because they had spread themselves a bit thin taking on too much work. They were building several houses in the Channel Islands at the time and the logistics caused them problems. That put me off and I chose a local company. By the time my friend’s build was completed I think they had got back on track and as far as I’m aware there are no problems now.

[IanR]

There's a few members here with, like myself, a Touchwood Home's frames and there were quite a few more over at eBuid, but with MBC dominating the discussions over there it possibly suppressed discussion on other manufactures and build types.

 

Our frame went up this year (2016) during July and August and I'd rate my experience with Touchwood as a success.

 

Our build is a Conversion of a portal framed cowshed, and the frame design and erection was complicated by the existing structure, that obviously needed to remain in situ during the build. Visible below is the original primary steel frame with roof purlins:

 

 

The TH Design process was far more precise than I expected for the construction industry. I was able to laser scan the original frame and prepare an as-built CAD model for TH to then work around. This was invaluable, since the original frame was a long way from square and plumb with the top of the portal frame being as much as 115mm out of position in places.

 

With my model imported this into their frame design software they were able to confidently design their frame dovetailing around the existing structure, and confident we weren't going to have some unexpected clashes on site.

 

The original structure and especially the haunches at the joints, required bespoke detailing of the timber frame to incorporate and guarantee a robust airtight layer. The TH design process allowed all of these conditions to be assessed and solutions agreed before a single piece of timber went up on site.

 

During the design process we exchanged 3D models back and forth to agree solutions and to ensure compatibility to raft and drainage etc. I also have from them a full 3D model of the final frame design that has informed follow on trades and helped decide MVHR duct, plumbing and cable routings.

 

This didn't however stop me from being nervous during the first stages of the frame erection when it would become obvious if my as-built model and their frame were sufficiently accurate. But I shouldn't have worried, the two fitted together perfectly.

 

Taking a step back, our decision on what build process to use, what type of insulation to use and what performance targets to set took around 9 months after our planning was approved.

 

Once we had decided on timber-frame with cellulose fibre insulation and Passivhaus levels of insulation and airtightness the list of companies capable of delivering this and giving guarantees was surprisingly small. Having removed many of the variables, we actually found it relatively simple to compare quotes. There were slight differences with what was and was not included, but these were all relatively simple to assign a value too, to allow comparison.

 

A huge positive I found with TH is there has been no extra charges from their initial quotation. If anything, the content probably grew a little during the design stage, but everything must have been within a contingency they had allowed for, since they didn't ask for anymore money.

 

With the majority of issues foreseen and resolved before the frame erection started, the frame build went without a hitch. Their frames are a mixture of pre-cut and cut on-site to a cutting list (whichever is more cost-effective), and stick built. I believe they're on site around 4 weeks for a "normal" build, it was a little longer for mine. While a panelised process may take less time on site, the overall timing would be around the same. For me, they turned up on the day they said they would and finished about a week later than expected.

 

I'm looking forward to the airtightness test. Unfortunately, due to a hiccup with the roof lights I'll not be able to test with the structure still open, so remedial work will be a little more difficult, but I have high hopes. The airtight layer on a TH frame is "simple by design", and looks very robust. I believe their claim to generally be better than 0.2 ACH @ 50Pa, and sometimes be better than 0.1 ACH, but the proof of the pudding...

Edited February 6, 2017 by IanR

[2104GJ]

Hello.

 

We are in the process of deciding which timber frame manufacturer to go with.  MBC is the name that keeps cropping up, but I'm reluctant to go with them without exploring other options.  Did you look at MBC, get a price from them, why did you go with Touchwood in the end? 

[IanR]

Yep, I looked at MBC and they quoted. I personally didn't have a great experience with them during the quoting phase. They were slow to respond and didn't answer questions related to their quote.

 

Their frame was 10% more than TH, but that's close enough at an initial quote stage to mean on another job they could be cheaper. Their quote for my slab was ridiculously high which suggested they didn't want my job. This left a "nasty taste" and they'd have been better to explain either that they didn't want the job or what risk they saw that meant they needed to over double the real cost of installing it.

 

Their panelised system was less suited to building around the existing structure, although this could have been worked on if I'd chosen to go with them.

 

Smaller factors were that I preferred the TH method for the airtight layer, I saw this as easier to achieve a good result and longer lasting (just my engineering judgement) and I'm not convinced that installing Warmell into an internally open panel allows for easy, consistent distribution of the insulation. I'm sure they get the correct weight of insulation into each panel, but I fear it will be less dense at the bottom and increase in density towards the point it is filled from. To me this gives a risk of settlement.

 

I caveat this with saying this is just my personal view of what I understood their process to be and have never heard of any issues, but my view of this was part of my decision.

 

Definitely explore other options, not just Touchwood, but Beattie Passive, and perhaps Cygnum and Frame Technologies, but do your research...

Edited October 3, 2016 by IanR

[TerryE]

Gosh, you call that a cow shed!  Are you going to hide it behind straw bails for 7 years?  But seriously it looks good, and I hope that you enjoy the final result.

Edited October 4, 2016 by TerryE

[Barney12]

On the strength of this thread I contacted Touchwood this morning. I have to say the email I received (same day!) this evening is already giving me a warm glow. 

Lets see what the quote looks like. 

 

By the way I noticed this:

 

http://www.touchwoodhomes.co.uk/index.php/en/homesgallery/11-roundhouse

 

Thats probably my most favourite ever Grand Design. Love it! 

[Trw144]

20 hours ago, TerryE said:

Gosh, you call that a cow shed!  Are you going to hid it behind straw bails for 7 years?  But seriously it looks good, and I hope that you enjoy the final result.

 

I thought it was a picture of the Touchwood factory! It's massive

[IanR]

 

4 hours ago, Trw144 said:

 

I thought it was a picture of the Touchwood factory! It's massive

 

I can't deny, I was a little daunted by it initially and even tried to demolish part of it, but was told by planning "that's not allowed within the rules".

 

I've grown to appreciate it now though!

[Ferdinand]

12 hours ago, Barney12 said:

On the strength of this thread I contacted Touchwood this morning. I have to say the email I received (same day!) this evening is already giving me a warm glow. 

Lets see what the quote looks like. 

 

By the way I noticed this:

 

http://www.touchwoodhomes.co.uk/index.php/en/homesgallery/11-roundhouse

 

Thats probably my most favourite ever Grand Design. Love it! 

 

That was the one which the wife hated the concept of it until it was built iirc, and the husband was building his own aeroplane in the shed?

 

It has been sold:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-58397390.html

 

And I ran into this interesting website:

http://granddesignsforsale.co.uk/

Ferdinand

Edited October 5, 2016 by Ferdinand

[Barney12]

4 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

That was the one which the wife hated the concept of it until it was built iirc, and the husband was building his own aeroplane in the shed?

 

It has been sold:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-58397390.html

 

And I ran into this interesting website:

http://granddesignsforsale.co.uk/

Ferdinand

 

Yep that's the one. 

Interesting website.

[IanR]

On 10/4/2016 at 19:28, Barney12 said:

On the strength of this thread I contacted Touchwood this morning. I have to say the email I received (same day!) this evening is already giving me a warm glow. 

 

Apart from being pretty good at frame design, engineering and erection, one of their guys regularly flies his drone around taking pictures, so you get a great record of the build:

 

[TerryE]

@IanR, any updates on how it is going and lessons leant?  This would be a great addition to this thread.

[Jeremy Harris]

A couple that came to our open day two or three years ago used Touchwood.  They were pretty happy with everything, except their room sealed wood burning stove, that over-heated the house (not Touchwood's problem!).

 

When we were looking around I missed Touchwood, but talking to the couple nearby who visited I got the feeling that they may have been a bit expensive.  Always hard to judge, though, as comparing prices on a like-for-like basis seems to be challenging, to say the least.

[Barney12]

Touchwood quoted for my project. I was very impressed with the pre-sale efforts. They were though more expensive than MBC.

[IanR]

For me Touchwood were slightly cheaper on the Frame, but in the same ball-park, However the slab, AFT via Touchwood, was much cheaper than MBC.