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1 hour ago, Simplysimon said:

go with timber kit i beams and blown celluose insulation, no blow outs and no cutting of woodcrete

This is just such a no-brainer. Watched a TF company put a 300m2 build up, including passive raft foundation, all to passive standards, in 31 days. AT score was 0.27 ACH.

If you want the satisfaction of self-building, go for ICF ( just not Velox ffs ), but if you want your sanity and marriage in one piece go turnkey TF. By the time you've buggered off to choose your bathrooms / kitchens and floor coverings, the house will be most of the way up.

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11 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

This is just such a no-brainer. Watched a TF company put a 300m2 build up, including passive raft foundation, all to passive standards, in 31 days. AT score was 0.27 ACH.

If you want the satisfaction of self-building, go for ICF ( just not Velox ffs ), but if you want your sanity and marriage in one piece go turnkey TF. By the time you've buggered off to choose your bathrooms / kitchens and floor coverings, the house will be most of the way up.

 

yeah i would go turnkey but i'm retiring from work end of March so will need something to do ?  

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2 hours ago, Chanmenie said:

yeah i would go turnkey but i'm retiring from work end of March so will need something to do

You will have plenty to do.

If you start reading the entries on here from April, come 2023, you will still have 90% to go.

 

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4 hours ago, Chanmenie said:

 

yeah i would go turnkey but i'm retiring from work end of March so will need something to do ?  

 

The original poster was specifically looking for something turnkey.

 

If I was doing it all again and had the time I'd be tempted to DIY with ICF, just looks like fun ;)

 

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4 hours ago, Chanmenie said:

 

yeah i would go turnkey but i'm retiring from work end of March so will need something to do ?  

There will be plenty left to do, trust me. You'll just have started to hate the process by the time you've got to the 'nice bits'. Some like the journey.....others prefer the destination. Horses for each of those courses.

 

 

 

Just sometimes the horse is only fit for the glue factory because it's too knackered at the end ;)

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17 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

There will be plenty left to do, trust me. You'll just have started to hate the process by the time you've got to the 'nice bits'. Some like the journey.....others prefer the destination. Horses for each of those courses.

 

Just sometimes the horse is only fit for the glue factory because it's too knackered at the end ;)

 

As complete novices, the turnkey to get weathertight was very important  - the window/door, roofing and render contractors were easy to schedule on the back of the frame schedule and then the contractor (MBC) returned to complete insulation and airtightness. We were then ready for first fix. We did not use their insulated slab option as we had another contractor build a basement in lieu of foundations but it was pretty straightforward.

 

Like many here I did the MVHR install rite of passage - took ages but there was time to kill on the build and it's good to get it in ahead of other first fix trades as it takes up a lot of space which may get 'stolen' by others.

 

There was still plenty to do.

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22 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

There will be plenty left to do, trust me. You'll just have started to hate the process by the time you've got to the 'nice bits'. Some like the journey.....others prefer the destination. Horses for each of those courses.

 

 

 

Just sometimes the horse is only fit for the glue factory because it's too knackered at the end ;)

 

Yeah I know where you're coming from Nick, I've done some reasonable size extensions before, I enjoy the journey but her indoor just wants to get to the destination  ?

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19 hours ago, Chanmenie said:

Heavy doesn’t bother me I’m big and strong, and the fact that it’s heavy is why it doesn’t blow out so easily like EPS, I’ve seen some of the disasters with EPS, even the woman on the TV who used Nudura had blow outs and walls buckling.

Any system is only as good as the people building with it. 

 

Hi Chanmenie, if the programme you're referring to was the house on Grand Designs with the curved turret section it wasn't Nudura. It was Beco Wallform actually.

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34 minutes ago, Budgie said:

 

Hi Chanmenie, if the programme you're referring to was the house on Grand Designs with the curved turret section it wasn't Nudura. It was Beco Wallform actually.

 

I think he's referring to Sarah Beanie, who built a new house in Somerset. 

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1 hour ago, Budgie said:

Thanks Happy Valley. No blow outs on the Beeny project at all. I know because I supplied the Nudura!!

 

 

Well I stand corrected it was Beeny, i thought she had a blow out, there were certainly some problems due to the concrete not being quite right, some of the walls bulged 

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3 minutes ago, Chanmenie said:

 

Well I stand corrected it was Beeny, i thought she had a blow out, there were certainly some problems due to the concrete not being quite right, some of the walls bulged 

 

Hi Chanmenie, sorry to disagree but one load was returned to the plant because it failed the slump test. Sarah remarked she could hear creaking during the pour but that was purely for the cameras but no blow pouts or bulges occurred at all. Because it was a fairly large footprint it was a nice steady pour, filling only a block height per concrete delivery load.

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3 minutes ago, Budgie said:

 

Hi Chanmenie, sorry to disagree but one load was returned to the plant because it failed the slump test. Sarah remarked she could hear creaking during the pour but that was purely for the cameras but no blow pouts or bulges occurred at all. Because it was a fairly large footprint it was a nice steady pour, filling only a block height per concrete delivery load.

 

there was more than one load returned on the episode 

 

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On 08/02/2022 at 17:05, Chanmenie said:

 

there was more than one load returned on the episode 

 

Blimey. Perhaps I wasn't there for the pour then and must have imagined it all.

As I said one load was returned due to the slump and that's it. Having said that, the load that was returned wasn't too bad, but just like on any TV shows they have to inject an air of jeopardy to make it more interesting. Unfortunately for them it was boringly straightforward. 

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks very much for all the replies. 


Being honest, reading through, I do not trust myself with any DIY at all. Where might be a possibility is getting the shell and base up via ICF and managing individual contractors. Turnkey and quick onsite build might be worth paying extra for, but then our access point is only 4.5m so we are not 100% that cranes etc needed to bring in the SIPS is going to be big enough, so we're waiting for a site visit to confirm that.

 

We are in advanced talks with Dan Wood, who seem very reasonably priced, around £1500m/2 and very helpful/responsive so far. Another, ECOCOCON, took 2 months to respond to an email, so I have not got back to them yet. Agile Property aka Modcell looked promising but were really poor in getting back to me and have not heard from them in a couple of months, so they are out of the running. Our main concern is air quality as I mentioned, so Modcell seemed a good option because of the materials used (straw).

 

It concerns me to hear the rotting of the timber frame. I guess Dan Wood's guarantee would cover that? 

 

ICF would be what we'd go for though by the sounds, if we had some assurances from 1 contractor who would take ownership of the majority of it. I am going to have a scour on here for Dan Wood info now, see what the reviews/feedback has been like.

Edited by jimmy_stocks
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  • 1 year later...

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