| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| tahir |
Kit housesAre there any UK alternatives to Huf Haus?http://www.huf-haus.de/en/ |
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| hardworkinghippy |
Try looking at Walter Segal's work.
The concrete post system he used inspired me to build a wooden cabin which took just two months to complete. http://www.segalselfbuild.co.uk/c HWH |
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| tahir |
Ta HWH 
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| tahir |
Just found this lot, apparently an Austrian company taken over by the Irish Forestry Commission, look very nice indeed:
http://www.griffnercoillte.ie/main.htm |
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| Bec |
When I first looked into self build I looked at kit houses. Then I discovered straw bale building and hope, one day, to have a straw bale house. I just love the fact that you get thick walls making it look far older and more rustic in my view!!
Bec |
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| tahir |
Yup, straw bale looks great. | ||||
| tahir |
BTW if anybody saw the Finnish kit house on Grand Designs last week that was the missus' cousin Stuart that works for them and helped build it. | ||||
| Northern_Lad |
Did anyone see Grand Designs last week with the Finnish kit house? Now that did look good. | ||||
| tahir |
See above |
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| Northern_Lad |
Cross-posting going on there. Does that mean you can get discounts...? 
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| Northern_Lad |
...and a web-site... http://www.erlund-house.com/ | ||||
| tahir |
Probably, interested? He's a nice fella and his dad's a Morris dancer, I'm sure he wouldn't mind throwing a few lessons in for free. |
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| Northern_Lad |
Oh, now you shouldn't tempt people that way. Very interested in this kind of house - very much a zero overall impact product, that functions well, designed to suit and looks good. |
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| tahir |
I thought it was amazing, especially on the budget, £53k I think excluding the groundworks. It doesn't look like we'll be doing a new build otherwise I'd have been on a plane to Helsinki very soon to see cousin Stu. | ||||
| Blue Peter |
Wasn't the final budget about 120+K? and I'm assuming that that didn't include quite a lot of labour (mainly because the bloke was working about 100 hour weeks doing it himself)? I'm also assuming that coz and Finnish MD chap don't normally work on their builds. Perhaps if you do have a chat to Stuart, it would be interesting to know what a realistic price for such a house would be, because it certainly does seem like a good system, Peter. P.S. Despite the very nice house system, the most gob-smacking thing on that programme was the Finnish machine for felling the trees. [put your preferred expletive here] me! it was just like War of the Worlds. Absolutely phenomenal. |
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| tahir |
Might just do that, I'll try and email him some time today, busy talking about planning applications at the mo |
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| tahir |
Just emailed him, I'll let you all know when I get a reply | ||||
| macatsuma |
my mate imports sustainable wood products from Lithuania including kit versions of log cabins, decking, garden furniture etc, i'll send him the link to here and he may pop in to give you a web address so you can have a shufty | ||||
| tahir |
That'd be good, ta mac | ||||
| wellington womble |
Beware of things like straw bales - the NHBC won't cover them, and a gurantee is usually a condition of your mortgage - other companies may cover them (zurich for example) or you may, of course, be lucky enough not to need a mortgage!
Saw a kit for log cabins and barns a while ago - either in KGM or country small holding - I'll see if can dredge it up! |
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| tahir |
Ecology Building Society provide mortgages on straw bale |
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| tahir |
Just had a reply from Stuart, he had 600 emails in his inbox the morning after Grand Designs was screened 
He says that construction costs are usually 30% on top of the kit cost which in the case of that house was around £60k, this is just for bare shell. |
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| Blue Peter |
so, that's 80K, and then whatever it costs for electrics, plumbing, kitchen, bathroom. I know that it starts to get difficult then (cheap kitchen, designer kitchen, etc.), but you do need to know roughly for those last bits, though I presume that they're fairly standard in the construction industry (for bog standard stuff),
Peter. |
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| tahir |
They're not interested in the rest of the job as far as I understand, unlike Huf Haus who can deliver a completely finished and habitable house.
I'll ask the question though. |
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| tahir |
One clarification that I've already received is that the 30% excludes any foundations/preparatory work, it's purely an assembly charge. | ||||
| wellington womble |
that's fine, but you won't be able to sell it to anyone with a different mortgage company ('preciate you wouldn't want to though!) Does anyone know if they comply to building regs - presumably they still apply? |
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| Haddock |
Not quite sure what a Kit house is (DIY or is it assembled on site by a buliding firm?), but here in Germany lots of new houses are *Fertig Hauser*. Basically your house turns up on a Truck, then with the assistance of a crane the pre-made walls are put together, the floors laid, and the roof beams put in place by the building firm. This is normally achieved within 24 hours. Some houses come with roof sections pre manafactured (including tiles).
Various firms have various options. For ours (Danhaus) we had everything done apart from the plastering and wallpapering to save costs. There are options where firms just put up the shell, and you do the rest.......but if you ever saw me doing DIY you would know why we didnt take that option. Fertig Houses are normally timber framed and usually very well insulated. On our housing estate approx 50% of houses are of this type. Below are a couple of sites for Fertig Houses http://www.danhaus.de/ http://www.fingerhaus.de/fingerhaus/index.php?parent=1008 There are a lot more firms that do these type of houses, and many have web sites. |
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| jema |
Just listening to R4 on post war prefabs. We have a few still in Swindon I believe, and they are pretty good still I hear. | ||||
| tahir |
Just had a reply from Stuart, they can do wiring, plumbing etc but they advise you use a local contractor. He says that if you buy a house from one of their "stock" designs they can deliver the kit in 6 weeks | ||||
| tahir |
Just found this place, look very interesting and reasonably priced too:
http://www.skyehomes.co.uk/ |
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| Jonnyboy |
As a rough budget for a standard hpuse with nothing too fancy. Electrics: £3k Plumbing: £2.5k Kitchen: £3k - 25k and onwards Sanitary ware: £500 quid and upwards, way upwards if you choose |
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| tahir |
Whole house electrics for £3k? not round here mate, or plumbing for £2.5k.
I reckon you could almost double that our way (if you can find a decent sparkie or plumber) |
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| sean |
We got our last house totally rewired, that was about 3K. Redoing the bathroom including a new boiler, new stack pipe etc here was about 5k. | ||||
| Jonnyboy |
You should move then matey, that's what it's costing me
But I'm sure regional variations can be quite large. When I worked for a shopfitting company it was cheaper to pay sparks to travel from ireland and pay their accomodation. |
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| wellington womble |
Totally by chance I have just found the wooden house I was thinking of. It called Scandanavian Systems (proably not UK based, then!) and the address is in edinburgh. The one pictured is kind of a alpine wooden house, called the finlodge 1, 4 bed, two bath, for £19,300. Obviously you would need to buy some land to put it on too, and it's plus delivery, which I imagine would not be first class post!
They reckon it complies to bulding regs, comes complete with double glazing, doors and wood floors. I assume there's no plumbing, ekeltrickery or fittings included though. Be a great way of getting a cheap house, that looks pretty good though. They do a whole range of stuff, there's no website, but tel 0131 220 8211. *Edit - there is some further info here, but not a lot! http://www.finlodge.me.uk/index.html |
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| dougal |
Coming late to this, but isn't it reasonable to expect that *installation* (building 2nd fix) would be much cheaper on *labour* than would *re*wiring (when you don't get a clear run), and there's no question of "making good" during the build. |
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
well that was weird i never heard of them the whole time i was in skye even though they are based in portree which i was in and out of all the time 
oddly enough they show a picture in their gallery of Design - "The Skeabost" Location - Edinbane, Isle of Skye if you look at the photo you'll see some huge evergreens in the background... those evergreen trees were at the back of our garden when we lived in edinbane small world eh?
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| tahir |
Just been recommended this magazine, they have a good section for beginnners:
http://www.selfbuildanddesign.com/begfram.htm |
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| Windymiller |
Does anyone have a video recording of this programme? If so, I'd like to see it. I also like the look of the Erlund House system. I don't want a palatial size house, just for one or two people, and a cat. My brother is a plumber/heating engineer, and my brother-in-law is an electrician... |
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| tahir |
Stuart's a really nice bloke, email him, I'm sure he'll have access to a video of it, or pics at least. |
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| Northern_Lad |
For those who can get digital, the Grand designs with the guy building a kit house in Kent is on more4 tonight at 7pm. | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
Do you have to pay extra for more4? | ||||
| sean |
Nope, 'tis on Freeview IIRC. | ||||
| Windymiller |
I managed to watch the programme, I was impressed. Whether I could put in 12 hour days, 7 days a week, is another matter. But It was a huge house, my needs are more modest, something like the Aatos or Aulis would be big enough, the latter has a carport on the side. I think I'd get a poly tunnel to keep the parts dry, especially here in Wales. The tree harvester is some mean machine! |
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| kitcat |
Hi, new poster 
I just created a thread about building a log house. apparently Finlodge 1 costs about £20k for materials. Land is sorted so I reckon about £50-£60k total? http://www.scandinavian-systems.com/finlodge1.php Has anyone actually done this and can you get a mortgage to build one? |
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| Windymiller |
Mrs, W. and I were able to book a few days in Moondara, a palatial Erlund house in the Cotswold Water park. We were very impressed, and though it's bigger than we need, it is really amazed us. We are now looking for a building plot... |
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| dpack |
late 80s i was involved in building a flat pack science block for a school in kent
very cheap and easy best way for newbuild is make it in a comfy factory and connect it together on site |
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| dpack |
and bodgers housing crisis thread
wow |
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| crofter |
I seem to remember that the 20k doesn't include a roof covering... |
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| Windymiller |
That's because planners prefer certain types of roof, depending on local practice. But you do get a waterproof structure, ready for slates/tiles/shakes/shingles. Corrugated iron might be preferred!!! |
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| Windymiller |
We have seen another plot, not large but it has a one-acre paddock attached. But the planners insist on a rendered painted finish on the front and end, to match the rest of the village, so a job for an architect. Now to see the bank manager. | ||||
| MarkS |
Why does that require an architect ?
Although - that would def. make me think strawbale. But I would have thought that any timber frame design would accomodate that. Just put laths on those walls rather than whatever cladding they would usually use and apply (lime) render. Then limewash. Its setting an easy target imho. Things like roof materials & slope, proportions etc make a lot of difference but they aren't saying anything about that ? |
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| Windymiller |
I should have said the architect might be needed as the site slopes about 1 in 10, so a bit more substantial base will be required. It wouldn't be timber frame but solid milled logs, see http://www.honka.com
As the logs contract quite a lot vertically as they dry out, I may have to mount the panels on vertical battens with self-aligning fixings, but will have to ask Honka. Planners won't accept strawbale, others have tried and been turned down. |
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| MarkS |
Do you know why strawbale has been rejected ?
Once rendered it would be impossible to tell. I would be speaking to the planners to ask for proper reasons for rejection. Are the planners just ignorant? I'm sure there are new gov guidelines in favour of eco friendly builds. I would check if rejection has been for a technical reason or just ignorance. If for a technical reason (not understanding strawbale builds, U values etc) then you can counter that. |
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| Gervase |
Ceredigion planners are notoriously cretinous, I'm afraid. Unlike their more enlightened brthern across the Teifi in Pembrokeshire. Grr! | ||||
| wellington womble |
Yes. In fact, it's part of the person spec! |
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| Windymiller |
The planners also insist on tall windows, ok with that, and roof angle no less than 35degrees with blue/grey flat slates/tiles, not the curved ones often used on Scandinavian roofs, ok with that as well.. I planned to use blue cement/fibre slates anyway. (Cos I can fix them myself) AFAIK, I can also put in Velux or dormer on side away from the road. I'm loading up my house design program tonight to do some ideas for the bank to look at. | ||||
| Windymiller |
Sadly, the council's policy on acceptable house exteriors, and the fact that a bridging loan to buy the plot before the present house is made ready to sell, will be more than we can afford, means that we are postponing the plot search until next year. The deluge that passes for summer weather suggests that an investment in some scaffolding, tarpaulins, and roof sheets, would be a wise one. Getting the house watertight with minimal delays is essential. According to my rain gauge, we had 35mm of rain in 24 hours, the average is 51mm for the whole month! | ||||
| tahir |
You can weatherboard a strawbale, there's an example in Jon Broome's new book. That was buiilt on a really tight budget (and the occuopants are extremely happy with it). | ||||
| xpaulx |
Re: Kit houses[quote="tahir:20459"]Are there any UK alternatives to Huf Haus?Yes, try these - all a variation on the same theme My favorite is Scandia-Hus, but the others also offer similar kit build services, the huf haus has got to be the stand out winner though for real impact/inspirational design. Potton do lovely more traditional kit homes and appear very, very good in their field. Benfield ATT, Cloud Nine, Fleming Homes, Baufritz, WeberHaus Paul Day PD Architecture for all your planning and building regulation needs |
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| gil |
Welcome to Downsizer ! 
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| Penny Outskirts |
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| therigpig |
grand design Finish Log HouseHi does anyone know the companies web site where I can look at their other houses and get some more info ??Cheers all[/b] |
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| therigpig |
grand design Finish Log House web address??Hi does anyone know the companies web site where I can look at their other houses and get some more info ??This is relating to the guy that built a Finish log house in Kent Cheers all[/b] |
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| tahir |
http://www.erlundhouse.co.uk/ | ||||
| therigpig |
cheeersThanks for the address |