Timber frame supplier decision time!

[Post and beam]

On 13/09/2024 at 13:34, overthehill said:

if you can get out and look at half built or completed houses that might help

Potton do this a lot. We looked at 2 through them before we committed. One near colchester and one very close to Stanstead. Our own Potton build will be open to viewings by their prospects once we get to that stage. £250 John lewis vouchers is the usual sweetner i understand.

[Post and beam]

On 09/09/2024 at 08:39, zzPaulzz said:

so I'm estimating £6k to get to 0.6ACH (using Aero Barrier).

You dont mean all of the £6k to aero Barrier , do you?

I spoke to them at length at one of the shows earlier this year. £2100 for a 200 square metre house. It appears they price by the metre. They said that basically they would stay on site all day and keep spraying to get down to almost whatever figure you need. Diminishing returns not withstanding of course.

[zzPaulzz]

That’s what they quoted me for a 180m2 house. 

[overthehill]

We were quoted £2k somthing by aerobarrier and the house is 334 sqm

[overthehill]

On 13/09/2024 at 20:14, LnP said:

Sounds like you have things well in hand.

 

Regarding the Principal Designer role, I've come to the conclusion that in the timber frame self build world, very few clients appoint one. I had a conversation with the operations director of a timber frame company and asked him, how many of their clients did he think appointed a PD. He said less than 5%. Bear in mind that according to the guidance, a PD should be engaging with the timber frame Designer, and the Designer would send the pre construction information to the PD to put in the H&S file. Meetings between timber frame Designers and PDs apparently just don't happen. If there was a PD, the timber frame Designer would know about it. If it's a self managed project, the vast majority of his clients are apparently taking care of the PD role themselves.

 

If anybody on here has gone through a project with a third party PD I'd be interested to hear if they thought it was helpful, i.e. did it do any more than tick a CDM box. My suspicion is that it's possibly just another cheque to write for a professional service that doesn't add value. All a third party PD will do is collect the pre-construction information into the H&S file and forward it to the client. A self managing client can do it themselves.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by, "we will have to decide who will be the 'main contractor' on site if we have a few trades at once". According to the HSE, if you the Client are self managing, it's the Client's responsibility to comply with Part 4 of the CDM regs. It's as good as saying the Client is the Principal Contractor. If your groundworker is digging a hole for a sewer chamber, it's the self managing Client's responsibility to ensure his plumber doesn't fall down it (Reg 22, Excavatiions, which is in Part 4). The groundworker won't be responsible for that.

 

Btw, I think most diligent, self managing clients will naturally take all this on. It's not onerous and just about trying to run a safe project.

We got advice from a couple of PD's and they said to treat the contractor on site as the principle contractor for H&S purposes, not sure if thats right or wrong but thats the approach we will prob follow

[zzPaulzz]

Now I look back at my quotes I can’t find one from Aerobarrier to back up my £6k so ignore me.