Building a small timber portal frame house in France

[pir8ped]

Hi,

 

I've done quite a bit of building - renovations, extensions, replacing rooves. Always DIY, low budget, usually working alone. 

 

Built a tiny off-grid cabin in a lovely piece of a valley - 23 acres of oak forest surrounding a meadow which is full of insects and wildlife. I'm aiming to keep it that way, with a few fruit and nut trees scattered about. But we can't officially live there, so I bought a building plot nearby.

 

The plot is nice and was cheap. The intention is to build a cheap timber house close to passive house standard. The plot is sloping 8 degrees, and I wanted a minimum of digging and concrete, so it's built on oak piles.

 

The floor space is under 50 square metres, so I'm not obliged to hire an architect or structural engineer or have air-tightness tests etc. But I do want the house to outlive me, and as the builder I am responsible to correct any defects that appear in the house over the next ten years. So I'm here, mostly for feedback and advice.

 

Brexit only allows me 90 days at a time in France. I'm generally happy to come and go (though the principle of losing freedom of movement offends me!). So some of the building I'm doing in the UK - making up I-Beams, and making doors and window frames, and taking stuff with me to France with my van and trailer.

[nod]

Sounds a great project 

Ive a friend who has done similar 

over the past five years 

He packs his family into his double cab and takes a pack of cement or plaster with him 

He gets some funny looks and comments off customs But building materials are far more expensive out there 

[pir8ped]

I've built a workshop/storage building on site so far, with all the slates and OSB brought from the UK. Technically, I might be charged VAT for a second time going through the border, but I happen to have found a crossing that gets me to the other side when the customs people are not at work so I'm waved through. It might not last, but so far, so good.

[Mike]

On 01/08/2024 at 13:20, pir8ped said:

The floor space is under 50 square metres, so I'm not obliged to ... have air-tightness tests.

Not sure, but that may have changed on 1st January 2023, when RE2020 (the current thermal performance requirements) started to apply to buildings under 50m². AFAIK the exemption only applied to RE2012.

 

https://www.inc-conso.fr/content/1er-janvier-2022-entree-en-vigueur-de-la-nouvelle-reglementation-construction-re-2020-pour