StructuralEngineer

[MikeSharp01]

38 minutes ago, pocster said:

And I have the best avatar !

You call that an avatar, given the derivation of avatar (Sanskrit: अवतार, IAST: avatāra) a concept in Hinduism that means "descent", refers to the material appearance or incarnation of a deity. on earth. I think there is perhaps one clause there that your avatar runs close to not being!

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Plus they have the advantage of being able to walk safely on the downstairs ceiling plasterboard.

 

No that's downstairs, building  paper on concrete. I think she's safe.

[Onoff]

 

Descent as in lowering the tone, bringing people down to his level...

[Ferdinand]

On 12/03/2018 at 09:56, MikeSharp01 said:

I also have an interest in this and have tried to stimulate thinking on it here, to little avail at the moment, because it is a no brainer when it comes to solving the housing crisis, can't quite understand why it has not been forced through / enabled / incentivised by HMG - must be a vested interest I have not spotted - oh the house builders I suppose!

 

@MikeSharp01

 

Going to disagree with you a little on this Mike.

 

Timber Frame is significantly offsite, in that large parts of house are factory made and arrive on a lorry.

 

And the UK timber frame share of new housing is now over 25%. Eg https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/planning-construction-news/timber-trends-report-tops-previous-years-growth-forecast-beyond-2018/34474/

 

For self build it has a majority share.

 

Do we need to talk about types and degrees of offsite construction? Perhaps we need to think about preinstalled modules and services, where I agree we are nowhere near there yet.

 

F

Edited March 14, 2018 by Ferdinand

[SteamyTea]

How hard would it be to manufacture a basic wall module that could be knocked up in a shed/garage/shipping container but just about anyone that also complies with the thermal, structural and safety elements that are needed for a house.

 

Thinking that some basic jig would need to be made and people then just slot in the OSB and timbers, then glue/nail together.

How hard can that be?

[StructuralEngineer]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

How hard would it be to manufacture a basic wall module that could be knocked up in a shed/garage/shipping container but just about anyone that also complies with the thermal, structural and safety elements that are needed for a house.

 

Thinking that some basic jig would need to be made and people then just slot in the OSB and timbers, then glue/nail together.

How hard can that be?

Great minds think alike . This is precisely what I've been working on for the last few years. I've developed a simple modular system that can be built in your garage or shipping container, using just a battery powered hand drill, using materials from DIY stores, fits in your standard family car, and complies with all UK building regs and planning.

 

The beauty of it is that, given the UK weather, components can be manufactured on an evening in your shed or garage, then driven to site in your car at the weekend. It's modular and you can put up a single watertight module (2.5m cube) on site in a day. At the "entry level", if you rent some land or a bit of forest, you can put one module up as a shed/office/cabin, then expand on that as time goes on. Since it's demountable and transportable, even if you end up finding a better location elsewhere, there's no money wasted.

 

So far I've done all the structural calculations, 3D models and have built some prototypes -- though the project is ongoing and I have yet to build something in earnest with it. It's fully Open Source, which means anyone can take the design, use it, expand on it, create derivative designs... even take it and make money out of it.

[SteamyTea]

Which brings me back to thinking about foundations.

What would be s suitable, and DIYable system to use.

If you look at what @recoveringacademic got up to at his place, you will see some of the problems he encountered.

[newhome]

2 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

How hard would it be to manufacture a basic wall module that could be knocked up in a shed/garage/shipping container but just about anyone that also complies with the thermal, structural and safety elements that are needed for a house.

 

Thinking that some basic jig would need to be made and people then just slot in the OSB and timbers, then glue/nail together.

How hard can that be?

 

Wasn’t the whole hog clearly but this is what we had. Timber frame and ‘Supawall’ panels 9 years ago. Not sure what progress has been made since. 

 

 

 

 

[SteamyTea]

@newhome

What sort of foundation do you have, and was it quick and simple to do?

[newhome]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

@newhome

What sort of foundation do you have, and was it quick and simple to do?

 

Foundations were here already as we bought the plot after the foundations were laid which is why we were also tied to the house design, but planners wouldn’t have been receptive to a different style of house anyway as they kicked off when we wanted to change the fenstration as ‘it would spoil the cottagy look and be out of keeping’. FFS there is nothing ‘cottagy’ about this house and they seem to have completely overlooked the Swiss Cottage type house behind me that is completely out of keeping already!

 

They are quite deep and ‘traditional’. We had more put in for an additional room too (see photo). I know that they are deep as the structural engineer insisted that I dig down to the bottom of the foundations to expose the ground beneath where the original foundations met the additional room to get the SER for the extension. He said they might be 450 - 600mm he thought. He was coming to inspect it on the Monday am so I started digging with a garden spade on Sat am. 1.2 metres down on Sun lunchtime it was too deep and the ground too heavy for me to dig further. I admitted defeat and someone came and dug the rest out in the dark on Sun night. It was about 1.5 metres in the end. Structural engineer peered into the hole and said ok. I was half dead mind