New Member- SIP build near Oban

[mattp22]

Hi Everyone, I'm Matt. I've bought a plot of land near Oban in Scotland. Planning on doing a SIP build with passive foundation.

[the_r_sole]

Nice one, where is the plot (my neck of the woods!) 

How far down the line are you? have you had the delights of argyll and bute planning yet?!

[mattp22]

7 hours ago, the_r_sole said:

Nice one, where is the plot (my neck of the woods!) 

How far down the line are you? have you had the delights of argyll and bute planning yet?!

Hi, I'm in Bonawe- loch side plot. Plot came with PP but I want to alter design- Planners have been receptive so far. Where are you based and what are you building? I hope to start spring 2021.

[the_r_sole]

4 hours ago, mattp22 said:

Hi, I'm in Bonawe- loch side plot. Plot came with PP but I want to alter design- Planners have been receptive so far. Where are you based and what are you building? I hope to start spring 2021.

 

Lovely spot there! Is it Lesley the planning officer in that area still?
I'm based down the road but I'm an architect who works a lot in Argyll and Bute

 

[Gus Potter]

Yes great spot.

 

Every council is a bit different, you may get the odd delay, frustrated now and again, but you'll get past that, it will be worth it.

 

Have you considered "stick building" it? Here you get a good competant local joiner to cut the timbers and make the frame on site and this opens up opportunities to use local trades persons, get to know people and make new friends. You may also like the savings you might make.

 

There is no barrier to having a passive slab, much of passive slab design is borrowed and adapted from industial building design. The difference is that you would use a ~ 150mm thick stud for the walls and pack that with a high quality insulation. If you need more then you can pack out the wall studs. On top of that you line the lot with an insulated plasterboard to prevent / mitigate cold bridging and what we call ghosting.

 

You can create a gap between the insulated plasterboard and the insulation in the studs and this make an ideal service void. If you cut into a sips you can loose some of the structural integrity. So perhaps not so easy to change / alter things later on.

 

As an over view. If you want a timber frame (TF) a common approach is to go to a TF supplier. They design the frame / roof to carry the loads etc on their software which genreates a lot of drawings for production in the factory.

 

You'll need some input from a Structural Engineer any way. For a bit extra they (SE) will produce the panels drawings, just as a TF manufacture does. You give these to the local joiner and these drawings tell them what lengths of timber are needed in each panel, lintel postions, how to nail them together and so on. All they need to do is follow the drawings. Also, if the brickie ect  has got the found and underbuilding a bit off the square say (it happens) , it's much easier to resolve these type of problems as you can often adapt a stick built frame more easily.

 

It's quite common to do it this way. What you do when you are preparing panel drawings is to look at the type of contractor (generates a bit of competition on price?) the location, material procurement (do you need a crane or do you make the panels smaller so a couple of folk can stand them up?) and design for buildability as this can save much more than any panel drawing fee you may incur.

 

All the best, you'll love it!

 

 

 

 

 

[Cpd]

Hi and welcome, I am also Argyll and Bute With Oban being my nearest town. Not building from scratch as I have taken on an older property........ 7 years in and still trying to get it under control....... if I knew 7 years ago what I know now I would have flattered the house and started from scratch.... however I enjoy the process and treat it like a hobby.....an expensive hobby. 

[MikeSharp01]

Hi and Welcome to THE forum for selfbuilders. 150mm of insulation is OK if its PIR but anything else will need 300mm+ to get great energy saving and up there the average temperature is not in your favour. 

 

We are stick building with 300mm I-joists in Kent, fitted the last stud today!

 

 

[Gus Potter]

Good point Mike. Looks like you are making good progress.

 

A 150 thick PIR can get you on the ball park and if you have "wool etc" it needs to be thick, as you say. It's hard to get a handle on the best way to go about it.

 

For all, I'm being simplistic, but  take Scotland / Wales rural parts of England. Here you can often get a bigger plot for not much more.

 

But where plot sizes are limited and the land costs (Mike - Kent where you are) a lot  you may want to minimise the wall thickness and thus increase the internal floor area of both the house and the garden. You can still get a good warm house without loosing too much of the valuable floor and garden area.

 

In summary, there are lots of ways to achieve what you want. You may just want a warm house with low biils..

 

You may want to have a carbon neutral house.. if you really are serious about that then look at for example the carbon cost of the concrete and so on, how your solar panels are made, what it costs to produce the material/ lots of this stuff is shipped from the other side of the world to make the panels, then the removal of all of that at end of life..the fuel / crushing and transport invoved in that and so on.

 

It's an awful lot to think about. My view is to recognise that you want to build a warm house / extension, do the best you can for the environment, be pragmatic and do the best you can given the available budget you have.

 

Mike has made some great posts that are well worth a brouse.