Lately we have been involved in a number of projects for timber frame houses. Several are now under construction, or shortly to start on site, se we thought we should post an update.
Stating the obvious, timber is a naturally occurring, low carbon and beautiful building material. A further advantage of timber frame construction is the ability to maximise insulation between studs, and inside or outside the frame. When coupled with careful detailing of airtightness membranes, this can give very high levels of thermal performance.
Last Thursday we held a lunchtime event in the office on air-tight construction, with a presentation by Neil Turner of Ecological Building Systems. We had a select list of invitees and it was fascinating to hear the builders discussing the merits of ‘stick build’ against factory made timber frame, and the issues in achieving a very high level of airtightness.
So a little bit about our projects……..
A tight urban site -first up, in central Bristol we have just issued tender documents for construction of a pair of timber framed town houses on a very tight site. The key issue here has been how to keep the walls as thin as possible, something timber frame is very well suited for, with high performance insulation between studs.
A micro house for under £100k -also in the city, is our proposal to build a micro low-energy house in a back garden site in south Bristol. The notable thing about this is that it meets the national space standards, and the construction is going to cost just £100k. It was planned as breathable construction, using sheepswool insulation, later revised to mineral wool to keep the budget tight. Construction starts this week on this, and it will be completed early in the new year.
Two grand designs with spectacular country views -in the Mendips, we are working on the conversion of a former poultry farm into a pair of amazing timber frame “grand designs” with fantastic views. The framing has allowed the design to take maximum advantage of these views. Construction is underway on site and the developer client is intending to include a host of features. The buildings will be highly insulated and airtight, utilising Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR), Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP), Solar PV and electric car charging points.
Factory build eco home -our last example is a new build eco-house in the Somerset countryside. This involves off-site construction of the timber frame by MBC. It is constructed as a twin wall timber frame incorporating pumped Warmcell cellulose fibre insulation to achieve Passivhaus level performance. The new house features MVHR, an extensive array of solar PV, and Air-Source Heat Pump for underfloor heating and hot water.
The frame was fully manufactured before coming to site -what was really impressive is that the building went from just an insulated ground floor slab (pictured right) to a fully completed timber frame in just one week (see pictures below).
