K78 Posted January 14, 2020 Author Share Posted January 14, 2020 This is the house that was built in Holland. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 Decent thickness of EWI on that and the decrement delay is going to be measured in weeks, rather than hours... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted January 14, 2020 Author Share Posted January 14, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, iSelfBuild said: I know where to get the moulds from They really are the most basic of production, no reinforcement and a single lifting anchor wiggled in. You could buy the mould and put it in at a ready mix place and ask them to dump the waste loads in. Surely they pay to get rid anyway and once they see the potential sell them the mould back. Failing that you have Solway Precast in Girvan near you, would be shocked if they don't have lego block moulds. This is why they make them mate. Excess returned concrete is turned into blocks. About as green as concrete gets. loads of moulds on eBay. Edited January 14, 2020 by K78 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan52 Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 19 minutes ago, K78 said: This is the house that was built in Holland. Looks fine enough. Do they make the half height blocks to help with coursing or do you need to cut them. Are you able to design your house so the width and length suits these so your cuts are a min. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted January 14, 2020 Author Share Posted January 14, 2020 Just now, Declan52 said: Looks fine enough. Do they make the half height blocks to help with coursing or do you need to cut them. Are you able to design your house so the width and length suits these so your cuts are a min. Yes they make down to a 300x300x300. Massive range of sizes and shapes. I have no intention of trying to cut these. I’m going to do a sketch today and they will run it through their CAD software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan52 Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 11 minutes ago, K78 said: Yes they make down to a 300x300x300. Massive range of sizes and shapes. I have no intention of trying to cut these. I’m going to do a sketch today and they will run it through their CAD software. That will make it much much more of a viable option. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 1 hour ago, K78 said: This is the house that was built in Holland. Looks passive slab too ..?? Are they custom lintels I wonder or cast in situ with rebar ..? I would check with them how the floors go in - this looks like a 200mm block arrangement (do they do a flat top block..?) and the joints seem to be sealed up with spray foam. And as @Jeremy Harris says, the decrement delay will be impressive ..!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted January 14, 2020 Author Share Posted January 14, 2020 2 minutes ago, PeterW said: Looks passive slab too ..?? Are they custom lintels I wonder or cast in situ with rebar ..? I would check with them how the floors go in - this looks like a 200mm block arrangement (do they do a flat top block..?) and the joints seem to be sealed up with spray foam. And as @Jeremy Harris says, the decrement delay will be impressive ..!! My thinking was joint hangers for the first floor installation like with icf. They do flat top blocks and angled Blocks for gables. Im pretty sure those blocks are 600 high and 300 wide. I will double check though. I don’t think they make 200mm Lego. I wish they did tbh. I actively avoided using the term “thermal mass” in this thread just for @Jeremy Harris ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 Ok so I am pretty impressed ... takes a lot too ..! I would do something slightly different, may take a bit of effort but be worth it I think ... I would use beam and block flooring at first floor - lay it onto a flat top and then build a simple wooden form around the outside of the building with 25mm OSB. Rebar half way up and then pour a full ring beam all the way round level with the floor and then I would start again with the blocks on top. Same again when you got to the wall plate and cast a ring that holds the whole thing together. Still doesn’t solve the lintels question but I think it would be much stronger. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted January 14, 2020 Author Share Posted January 14, 2020 29 minutes ago, PeterW said: Ok so I am pretty impressed ... takes a lot too ..! I would do something slightly different, may take a bit of effort but be worth it I think ... I would use beam and block flooring at first floor - lay it onto a flat top and then build a simple wooden form around the outside of the building with 25mm OSB. Rebar half way up and then pour a full ring beam all the way round level with the floor and then I would start again with the blocks on top. Same again when you got to the wall plate and cast a ring that holds the whole thing together. Still doesn’t solve the lintels question but I think it would be much stronger. They make lintel blocks. They are cast around a reinforced steel cage. I will look into your suggestions tonight. I genuinely appreciate the advice. My thinking initially was strip foundations with a insulated concrete floor and UFH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell griffiths Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 TBH that house in Holland looks very good, if you can achieve that then I’m happy to eat some humble pie, as I was probably the first to say it was a silly idea. Keep the pics coming. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said: TBH that house in Holland looks very good, if you can achieve that then I’m happy to eat some humble pie, as I was probably the first to say it was a silly idea. Keep the pics coming. we are all waiting to see the final range of blocks and if they can work from a plan and supply a jigsaw .drawing for assembly 200mm blocks would be best if possible. still not sure pricing will work out --but hopeful just the thing for Australia with a concrete roof as well Edited January 17, 2020 by scottishjohn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 On 14/01/2020 at 17:21, K78 said: My thinking initially was strip foundations with a insulated concrete floor and UFH. How would you deal with the big thermal bridge at the base of the blocks. though? You could probably design a passive slab, with a reinforced ring beam around the edge, that would take the loading from the blocks. That would then give you insulation under the floor slab, under the blocks and up around the edge ready to be continued with EWI up the walls, so no thermal bridging at all. If you fitted UFH inside the concrete slab then you would effectively be warming/cooling the slab and the walls, like a giant storage heater/cooler. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 I suppose the next obvious question is why no one has made accurate big std type concrete blocks before to do this or even thermalite then just use thinset Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 9 minutes ago, scottishjohn said: I suppose the next obvious question is why no one has made accurate big std type concrete blocks before to do this or even thermalite then just use thinset Probably for a few reasons. The building industry in general is pretty conservative, and would rather stick to doing things the way they've always been done - probably one reason why we stick with labour intensive stuff like laying thousands of brisk and blocks to build houses. Another reason may well be the cost of transporting and erecting large blocks like this, that are too big and heavy to be lifted by hand. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 (edited) heres another way maybe if your man made long thin versions of these then you don,t even need a crane and just hand fill the holes? another way --wonder if blocks this size are available in uk Edited January 18, 2020 by scottishjohn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue B Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Looking at the picture, your plot is above the road / pavement so anything falling from the build may land on passers by. If I have that correct ......... I can understand your worry about an ICF blowout with the danger to people below. However, i can’t help but think one accidental mid-handling of a Lego block, that falls, would be far more dangerous. I think your risk assessment for the build must include protecting passers-by. With ICF the danger is only during the pour. With the Lego blocks it is as you lay every single block unless I am looking at the picture incorrectly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvincentd Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Have I interpreted your posts correctly; you and a mate, plus £360 for a farmer and telehandler will see the block element of your house up in 2/3 days if you use this method? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, mvincentd said: Have I interpreted your posts correctly; you and a mate, plus £360 for a farmer and telehandler will see the block element of your house up in 2/3 days if you use this method? Yes. 7 hours ago, Sue B said: Looking at the picture, your plot is above the road / pavement so anything falling from the build may land on passers by. If I have that correct ......... I can understand your worry about an ICF blowout with the danger to people below. However, i can’t help but think one accidental mid-handling of a Lego block, that falls, would be far more dangerous. I think your risk assessment for the build must include protecting passers-by. With ICF the danger is only during the pour. With the Lego blocks it is as you lay every single block unless I am looking at the picture incorrectly. You couldn’t mishandle a block. They are lifted by machine, with a very experienced operator by shackle and chain. The blocks we used for the wall weighed around 1.5 tonnes. The wall design was much more complicated than a house would be and it was a simple process. There is no safer way for me to build (not saying that’d the same for others). The risk of someone dropping something from scaffold height would make a regular block/TF build potentially more dangerous to passers by. The smallest block we will use is 512kg. They are designed to be dry stacked for industrial and agricultural purposes up to 8metres. There is no danger of a wall collapsing during the build and as you can see from the pic they aren’t going to fall over dry stacked on my site. If I was building with ICF blocks it would be diy with pours every 2 metres. If you look at the Durisol build thread on here, bursts are the only risk. As mentioned earlier if I was going icf, I would need the contractor to the the work and a lot of additional bracing. The aspect of my site that makes it unsuitable for icf makes it perfect for concrete Lego. As it is close to the road and elevated, it is very easy to have blocks delivered and placed exactly where I want them. For some sites (tight access etc) it would be a impractical nightmare trying to get these blocks delivered and the machines in needed to lift them. I may use the block supplier to stack them this time round. When he delivered them he stacked them perfectly in around 5 mins. The machine he used defied physics(to my simple mind). He didn’t have to shackle the lifting eye with a chain like we did. It just clamped either side of the blocks with “rubber” pads, lifted them like they were nothing and stacked them precisely Edited January 18, 2020 by K78 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan52 Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 What is access like to be able to load the blocks on to the wall. A telehandler will struggle to lift 1.5t out more than 10m without ending up on its nose. A 13t digger might be a better option as it can just park up and slew round and round with out every moving. The lorry had a hydraulic grab so just squeezes them. You can get these as an attachment for a telehandler but your increasing the weight on the end of the boom so you can't lift as much or as high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 On 17/01/2020 at 08:54, scottishjohn said: I suppose the next obvious question is why no one has made accurate big std type concrete blocks before to do this or even thermalite then just use thinset Every block layer I spoke to hated the idea of large blocks. Too heavy was the general consensus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 (edited) 13 minutes ago, Declan52 said: What is access like to be able to load the blocks on to the wall. A telehandler will struggle to lift 1.5t out more than 10m without ending up on its nose. A 13t digger might be a better option as it can just park up and slew round and round with out every moving. The lorry had a hydraulic grab so just squeezes them. You can get these as an attachment for a telehandler but your increasing the weight on the end of the boom so you can't lift as much or as high. The wall was finished over a year go mate. went up 3/4 days of awful weather on a 1.8m wide incline foundation. Access is good. Don’t know what size machine he used but it was much bigger than the 2 smaller diggers used for excavation. The house blocks are half the weight of the ones used for the wall so it won’t be a issue thankfully. Edited January 18, 2020 by K78 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 The block supplier has been on a job in Essex all week. So he maybe a option for @scottishjohn after all? He will be back on Monday to take a look at the design and come back to me. He has been wanting to do a house but no one crazy enough has asked before ?. He has got some more information on the Dutch house too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan52 Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Just now, K78 said: The block supplier has been on a job in Essex all week. So he maybe a option for @scottishjohn after all? He will be back on Monday to take a look at the design and come back to me. He has been wanting to do a house but no one crazy enough has asked before ?. He has got some more information on the Dutch house too. Could be a chance to push for a decent discount and let him use your build to promote the blocks as a viable option for other people. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 (edited) 16 minutes ago, Declan52 said: Could be a chance to push for a decent discount and let him use your build to promote the blocks as a viable option for other people. That’s part of the idea mate. Film and blog the whole thing. Edited January 18, 2020 by K78 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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