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New farmhouse in Central Scotland


gavztheouch

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Hello,

 

I am hoping to build a new farm house on a 14 hectare farm. I have been running the farm for 3 years now and have proven I can make a living and ready to expand.

 

I have been designing houses in my head and on paper for most of my life dreaming of one day actually building one. Building bases or den was my favorite thing to do in my youth. Now that I have the chance to design my own home I have gone a little strange and fixated on a house design I like in Australia and can't seem to see any way of changing it to make it my own. I have swung from oak framed homes to modern long houses like this and favor the simplicity of construction and design. A simple pitched roof and rectangular single story main body should be much easier to build.

 

I plan on using ICF for the walls with a polished concrete slab floor with underfloor heating to again simplify construction. I have had experience building similar shaped buildings in block and brick but this will be my first house build if I get planning.

 

What would you change to make this home your own. Should I be worried about being sued for copyright if I built a similar house.

 

 

longhouse.pngtrentham-long-house-1.jpg

 

TRN_Plan-1024x723.jpg

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30 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

That looks like an efficient use of space and quite simple. Why not build in Timber frame which is so popular up here?
 

 

 

The main reason for ICF over timber frame is..

 

I like the idea of the thermal mass of the concrete. Leave the wood burner on till I go to bed then when you get up in the morning it should still be warm.

The solid concrete walls are easy to seal as there is no air gaps.

Will not rot so no need to worry about sealing the structure to the weather and you can clad straight onto it. If your cladding rots it will not matter in terms of weather protection.

Insulation is built in and there should be no thermal bridging or need to build a double staggered timber frame wall.

Walls should last much longer than timber frame, although both would easily see me out I guess.

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Looks nice and simple.

 

I would say that shelterbelts etc need very careful handling as there is little shelter in the inherent design.

 

Also doesn't the sun come from the North in Australia (doesn't it?) B| . So your sheltered entrance and terrace may need to be on the other side. Or I ma be wibbling.

 

I think I would want a potential second living space for privacy, and perhaps make use of doors straight from bedroom to the terrace.

 

Ferdinand

Edited by Ferdinand
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@gavztheouch question re copyright of design is an interesting one. 

I don't know the legalities but I guess if you were to copy it exactly then you most certainly would be vulnerable if the architect firm was to find out (I.e by reading about it on a public forum. Oooooops!!) 

 

However, i can't see it would be that hard to change a design sufficiently for it to be questionable if it was copied. We certaintly took inspiration from a large number of designs in the local area, that's one part of the online planning system that is rather useful! 

Edited by Barney12
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You really need to keep in mind your site when designing a house and not just copy one directly. You have to consider views, orientation and sunlight, location of entrance, slope and topography, etc. You might have to flip, mirror, etc the house or parts of it to align with any views you have. eg you don't want the large glazed area facing to the north where you have no view but you'd also need to consider if it was facing south would it overheat that room. If you're on an elevated unsheltered site you'd want to consider the prevailing wind direction and ensure that the carport between the garage and house doesn't end up a wind tunnel.

 

By all means use the house as a starting base or precedent to inform your design but take careful consideration of your own site and requirements.

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I spoke to the architect last night via email and he is open to supplying basic design drawings with a license to for me to build a slimier house. I am happy to make the drawings for planning, warrant, etc. I guess it will all come down to price in the end. If it is too expensive I may have to think again.

 

@Alexphd1

 

What are the big cons of ICF you have seen so far? Which system are you using?

 

 

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my biggest head ache with ICF is from my architect and my old engineer. My archiectect has been very slow to accept ICF and my old structural engineer was a nightmare to a point he turned around and asked "what do you know? ". I am based in aberdeenshire and my new structural engineer is in Cork.  So first of i would make sure everybody was 100% behind the project. I believe ICF is good for hands on self builder or if you can find a contractor WITH experience but if you are relying on a local builder with no experience to put it up then i would think twice.

 

If you break it down in to £m3 cost for the insulation (eps, xps etc)  and some nylon ties as a product its way over priced!  At the end of the day its just permanent concrete shuttering thats also insulation. Each icf manufacturer has their own unique points ie support during build or a slight design difference over their competitors . I choose nudara for the first build (parents) but i have held off ordering for my build just to see how things go. Up to now i am very happy with nudara. I also think it matches very well with a highly insulated raft foundation such as the kore system.

 

Where abouts in Scotland are you located?

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We are hoping to start the icf on my parents next week. it better do what's it says as the boiler is already bought..... we never bothered with the nudara course as we where busy but we done the quadlock course which was very interesting.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 16/11/2016 at 18:12, gavztheouch said:

I like the idea of the thermal mass of the concrete.

 

A Larsen strut timber frame filled with cellulosic filler has reasonably high thermal mass, especially balanced by a passive slab.  The decrement delay factor beats ICF hands down.  The main problem for you with this type of design is that when couple with MVHR and no thermal cock-ups, its too well insulated to prevent a log stove overheating the house.

 

Anyway one comment on the design: it seems out of balance.  It shows three small double bedrooms, a snug and an open living area.  OK, if the house has a couple as occupants and the two extra room are guest rooms for occasional visitors, but if the 3 bedrooms are routinely occupied then have you enough living rooms.  Either that or you need to make your bedrooms larger to include living space for a desk or a settee...  At a minimum, I would suggest making the master bedroom a lot more spacious.

 

Another thought extend the house to move the bedrooms 2 and 3 some 1.6 - 2m apart and fill the space with a split forming 2 small walk-in wardrobes this will free width for a desk / dresser / couple of chairs or whatever.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
3 minutes ago, gavztheouch said:

Planning went in on 12/01/2017.

 

Should I hear anything from the council before the decision? I think the max amount of time they can take is 2 months?

How much have you engaged with them before putting the application in? We had two meetings and a couple of conversations before it went in - we heard nothing during the decision process - I called them once about 6 weeks in to be told the decision would be soon, but there are no problems (it was a delegated decision). 

 

They may contact you before the decision if there are things they would like changed, depends how they operate. 

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We submitted our plans via the on-line portal and the whole process from start to finish - being granted Full planning permission - went very smoothly indeed. The Council we dealt with were the Scottish Borders Council. As for any contact, perhaps each individual case is different but we had a couple of telephone conversations simply to iron out the Developer Contributions that were applicable in our case. They also made the decision within the appropriate time frame and I got the impression they were keen to do so as well. Perhaps this is a "performance measurement" they have to abide by. Either way - good luck.

 

PW. 

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1 minute ago, jamiehamy said:

How much have you engaged with them before putting the application in? We had two meetings and a couple of conversations before it went in - we heard nothing during the decision process - I called them once about 6 weeks in to be told the decision would be soon, but there are no problems (it was a delegated decision). 

 

They may contact you before the decision if there are things they would like changed, depends how they operate. 

 

I spoke to one person at the department, they were not willing to come and view the site but referred me to some design guidelines for the countryside. I got the feeling they were busy and did not want anymore work on their plate.

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2 minutes ago, Redoctober said:

We submitted our plans via the on-line portal and the whole process from start to finish - being granted Full planning permission - went very smoothly indeed. The Council we dealt with were the Scottish Borders Council. As for any contact, perhaps each individual case is different but we had a couple of telephone conversations simply to iron out the Developer Contributions that were applicable in our case. They also made the decision within the appropriate time frame and I got the impression they were keen to do so as well. Perhaps this is a "performance measurement" they have to abide by. Either way - good luck.

 

PW. 

 

Thanks sounds promising, I feel like I have a genuinely strong case and would be willing to be scrutinized by the council. There have been quite a few scam farms setup in our area just to exploit the system to gain planning permission. Having said that all cases I could find in the archives, scams or not have gone through without to much hassle it appears.  

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  • 2 years later...

Getting back to this project after devoting a lot of time to my business it looks like I may finally have time to get started back at the house. The planning was provisionally excepted on the condition that I obtained a letter from my neighbour to state that he agreed for us to widen the entrance to the road making a bellmouth. I had secound thoughts on the postioning of the house and have since withdrawn the planning application to think again about the design and postion. I am keener that ever to make this close to passive house standard, either with a self design or possibly an adapted kit house.

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On 16/11/2016 at 18:12, gavztheouch said:

The main reason for ICF over timber frame is.. I like the idea of the thermal mass of the concrete.

 

Consider using a twinwall Larson strut TF with blown cellulosic filler.  Better decrement delays.

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