which timber frame company?

[Amateur bob]

ive spoken to a range of suppliers recently, fleming homes, scotframe, rob roy, ptarmigan, and claymore, i origionally thought scotframe as they have a nice selection on their website and seem to be popular, concerns are though that theyre expensive, dont do groundworks and charge VAT for the kit(not good for cashflow)

 

has anyone worked with claymore from fife? they claim to have a company they work with for the groundworks which could be useful

 

[Mally]

I've been really taken by Scotframe, Ray Waite spent ages with us, he was really informative and had great insight.

 

I did feel a sting though when I saw the VAT, realising I would have to carry that liability through the entire build.

[Temp]

Presumably they don't do any assembly of the kit on site themselves? If they did their labour and the kit should be zero rated.

[Drew1000]

I have paid the deposit on 2 structural kits from Alexander Timber Design in Troon.  Hoping to take delivery 1st week in December.  They were the most competitive and have been good to deal with so far.  Can't comment much further until I get the kits on site and see how they fit but I would certainly recommend the structural option.  That way you do not have as big an outlay at the start.  You will need to supply your own doors/windows, plasterboard, flooring etc.  Using this option gives you good flexibility as you buy materials when they are needed (and can usually pick up a few bargains from sales/builders merchants/gumtree/ebay etc  I bought a kit from Scotframe before and through no fault of theirs the project ran on a bit but they deliver to a set date for each phase and although there was some flexibility it was not really enough for what I needed so if you go down the full kit option make sure you keep to schedule as material will be turning up to pre determined dates.  With the structural kit you can include all the internal partitions and this gives you pretty much a clean slate to work from once erected and as mentioned before gives you greater flexibility regarding the flow of materials.  Hope that helps.

[Amateur bob]

sorry for late reply it wasnt notifying me of replies what does everyone think of these designs?

New House - Ground Floor.pdf New House - First Floor.pdf New House - Elevations.pdf

[Jac]

On 12/11/2019 at 22:06, Drew1000 said:

I have paid the deposit on 2 structural kits from Alexander Timber Design in Troon.  Hoping to take delivery 1st week in December.  They were the most competitive and have been good to deal with so far.  Can't comment much further until I get the kits on site and see how they fit but I would certainly recommend the structural option.  That way you do not have as big an outlay at the start.  You will need to supply your own doors/windows, plasterboard, flooring etc.  Using this option gives you good flexibility as you buy materials when they are needed (and can usually pick up a few bargains from sales/builders merchants/gumtree/ebay etc  I bought a kit from Scotframe before and through no fault of theirs the project ran on a bit but they deliver to a set date for each phase and although there was some flexibility it was not really enough for what I needed so if you go down the full kit option make sure you keep to schedule as material will be turning up to pre determined dates.  With the structural kit you can include all the internal partitions and this gives you pretty much a clean slate to work from once erected and as mentioned before gives you greater flexibility regarding the flow of materials.  Hope that helps.

Hi Drew, can I ask as you are a good few months on from your posting, if your experience  with Alexander Timber Design, has been a good one so far?  We had been ready to progress with Scotframe but recent communications ( or lack of ) with them is giving cause for concern.  We are North Ayrshire based and have Planning permission for a 4 bed, 2 storey.

[Drew1000]

Jac

 

Sorry for delay but just picked up your post.  I would say my experience with Alexanders has been a positive one.  There have been a few issues but they responded promptly and resolved the issues.  One area I would focus on is the omission of mid or centre dwangs in the internal panels.  I have a few twisted studs which causes a few problems for fitting the plasterboard and I can only assume its mainly down to the fact I did not ask for this in my quote (where other companies I have dealt with in the past fitted these as standard).  The other area they did not supply was the airtight membrane that goes between the first and second floors and needs fitted when erecting the kit so I was disappointed I had to stump up another £120 for a roll of the membrane. Laminated copies of the drawings would have been useful as it poured with rain during the erection sequence and they do not last long on site outside. another area to look out for is the distance from the end of the kit to doors and windows and dimensions between these, it should all tie in for standard block/brick sizes and on one of my house did not.  Not so important when using block and render but I was using facing brick so was an issue to overcome I should not have had to.   From my experience so far, one of the kits has bay windows and my advice would be avoid at all cost as they are nothing but trouble (no fault of Alexanders, just a nightmare to get mullions and roof to tie in for someone with little experience in this area, although I am now an expert ?).  Not sure where you are in North Ayrshire, I'm in Kilbirnie and you are more than welcome to come and have a look at the kits for yourself, just drop me a note if you wish to take this up and I will help where I can.

[Drew1000]

Jac,

 

I also forgot to mention that I only got Alexanders to supply a structural kit plus internal panels.  My recollection is that Scotframe only supply the full kit.  I bought one from them a few years back and the kit was good, the issue is that you need to sign up to staged deliveries of the kit and inevitably you get delayed and although Scotframe were ok to accept a couple of weeks delay they pushed hard for you to take the next deliveries.  No fault of Scotframe just real life and the structural option gives you the freedom to buy the next phase of deliveries when it suits you.  It also means much less of an outlay at the start which can help with staged mortgage payments.