Double skinned blockwork house?

[FLF]

Hi my partner and I are looking to build a relatively inexpensive first home (bungalow). We have been wondering if we went with external wall insulation would it make sense to have the outward skin wall to be block instead of brick for cost saving?

 

Would there be any major disadvantages to this?

 

 

[Iceverge]

Welcome.

 

Do you mean a cavity walled house?

 

EWI external wall insulation doesn't require an external layer or masonry. 

 

In any case it might be easy to think the walls of the house are an expensive part but they're not really. Keep the roof simple and the structure simple to make the best use of your cash. Any plans(without your personal details) to share?

[DannyT]

Blocks will be cheaper and quicker to lay.

About £40m2 brick labour cost vs £18m2 block cost. 
On a good day 1 and 1 I’ll lay 300-350 blocks

or 600ish bricks. 35m2 block vs 10m2 of bricks.

No advantage what so ever using brick over block then applying external insulation.

[nod]

If your looking at the difference between block and block render  Or block and face brick It’s about the same 

[Iceverge]

Over a lifetime I'd say brick would probably be cheaper then given that you could avoid painting it. 

 

Mind you, render does offer excellent protection if you suffer from driving rain and is lightly to be more windtight if you're thinking that far ahead.

[Dave Jones]

pick any non standard construction and it will cost more. stick to tried and tested to keep costs down.