Timber frame

overview

‘Timber frame’ has several meanings:

Platform frame where walls are assembled on site into storey[for the purposes of part B (fire) of the Approved Documents to the Building Regulations] this means a. any gallery[for the purposes of part B of the Approved Documents] – A raised area or platform around the sides or [...]

Larch and Lime passivhauses

Larch house entrance

Although not self built, the two passivhauses at Ebbw Vale may be very relevant to many self builders. Built in 2010 as show houses mainly for the attention of housing associations, they are attractive and innovative while being relatively modest. The 3 bed Larch House is clad with a locally sourced [...]

‘Under the Sun’, Birmingham

Bringing existing houses up to a high standard of energy efficiency is a much greater challenge than with new ones.

This particular example of eco renovation is outstanding because of the way it will achieve a net zero carbon rating while at the same time reaching CSH Code for Sustainable Homes. A standard for [...]

The Tree House

The Tree House in Clapham, London is a recently completed and very elegant example of a self built detached house. It has, on occasion, been open to the public as part of the London Open House programme. Situated on a small urban plot of land dominated by a large sycamore tree it has [...]

Rowangarth

October ’09

Jim and Jo Monahan are nearing completion of their passive solar house in Spinningdale, Sutherland. This is a timber frame house which utilizes roundwood for many of the structural members. This is a way of using timber at its maximum strength because it is not cut across the grain. The timber framing [...]

McKay house, Stonehaven

October 2009

This low energy house is set on a hill overlooking the sea near Stonehaven. Its clean and simple lines echo the vernacular of the area although it is essentially a very modern building based on passive solar construction. The walls are double skin aerated concrete block with 300mm of insulation, achieving [...]

McIver House

Evanton, October 2009

This passive solar, larch clad timber frame house has recently been completed. It is highly glazed on the south elevation and has a concrete floor slab for thermal massthis is about how much heat something can absorb – so it involves its specific heat capacity and its volume. It can be [...]

Kirk Park

Aberfeldy, October 2009

This is a timber frame house of 76 sq,m. built in 2001. In terms of heating it benefits from its double storey[for the purposes of part B (fire) of the Approved Documents to the Building Regulations] this means a. any gallery[for the purposes of part B of the Approved Documents] [...]

Kashentroch, Banchory

October ’09

Home of Alexander and Vinny Burnett, Kashentroch is an elegant and spacious open plan timber frame house in a beautiful setting close to the Dee. The original part of the house (with the pitched roof on the right of the picture), built about 5 years ago, has recently had an addition of [...]

Houses by Ecos

ECOS, (formerly known as the Somerset Trust for Sustainable Development) is a charity which has been behind several green house building initiatives. Although not self-build, their houses are excellent examples of what is possible and are open to viewing on certain occasions. At present there are two schemes which are complete or nearing completion and [...]

Walls

The main types of walls

Regardless of the type of wall construction, all walls have certain functions to fulfil and certain challenges to contend with. From a green perspective, three of the most important aspects of walls are their insulation values, the embodied energythe total amount of energy it takes to make a material [...]

Design it yourself

Have fun designing your house.

There are several worthwhile advantages if you do your own design work (or at least part of it) -

it may be the only way to get what you want. you achieve a kind of creative act that you can do in very few realms of your life. you [...]

Part L and SAP (England)

The Building Regulations, part L, is the section which covers energy conservation for new buildings (with part L1A covering new buildings and part L1B covering existing ones)

At present there is a period of transition which is well explained in an NHBCThe National House-Building Council describes itself as being “the leading warranty and insurance provider [...]

Cohousing

Lilac nearing completion, April 2013

 

One of the most recent cohousing schemes to get off the ground is LILAC in Leeds. They are committed to ecologically sound building and have an interesting ownership structure,

See the comment below from Martin about a possible new scheme in the Wye Valley

The Lancaster Cohousing, [...]

Bandodle house

October 2009

On the Hill of Bandodle, Aberdeenshire, stands a beautiful timber frame house designed by architect Genevieve Jones for her family. Incorporating high levels of insulation (in the form of 350mm of shoddy obtained from Elgin woolen mill) and mainly locally sourced materials, Larch, Douglas fir and Caithness slate, the house also has [...]

Hedgehog Co-op

Hedgehog Self Build Co-op, Hogs Edge, Brighton

august 2009

One of Brighton’s examples of community self build which started in the late 1990s, this development of ten timber frame houses is based on the Walter SegalThe architect who devised a simple timber frame self build system (often simply known as ‘Segal self build’. see more [...]

Chewton Mendip

A very interesting terrace of three houses, on a curved road junction, has recently been completed in this Somerset village.

Some of the main features of the design are:

Very high insulation levels provided by insulating concrete forms (ICF) with added exterior face insulation Structural insulated panel (SIP) roofs Eco-slab ground floors and upper [...]

Allerton Park, Leeds

Walter Segal self build

This is made up of 3 adjoining houses which were built by three families, starting in 1993. They were constructed according to the Walter SegalThe architect who devised a simple timber frame self build system (often simply known as ‘Segal self build’. see more on the Segal method self build [...]

Self Build Central

Self build eco houses in the Field of Dreams, Findhorn FoundationThe Findhorn Foundation is a large community near Inverness. There is a strong emphasis on sustainable building and living.

Over the last decade or so the green building movement in the UK has gone from being fringe to mainstream.

Architects, builders and suppliers are [...]

Earth Heart

 

Earth Heart is a community of 22 people in 8 homes based on a large converted farm in Derbyshire set up in 1998 around home education. Although not initially concerned with eco-build, they have embraced the concept thoroughly during their upgrading of an old farm house and several outbuildings into dwellings.

There [...]

Hockerton Housing Project

The five earth sheltered houses. Image by WindandSun who provided the PV installation

The Hockerton Housing Project is the UK’s first (and almost only) earth sheltered housing development. It is a remarkable place, not only because of the five houses which are built into the side of a hill and are almost zero [...]

Alterations & Fashion

‘Energy use’ is usually associated with how much energy is used to construct a new building. However, this is only part of the story. Most buildings get altered and repaired and redecorated a considerable number of times during their lifetime and taken to an extreme, some houses are constantly having ‘makeovers’. This can vastly [...]

Findhorn Foundation

October 2009

The Findhorn FoundationThe Findhorn Foundation is a large community near Inverness. There is a strong emphasis on sustainable building and living. near Fores in the North East of Scotland has a couple of interesting areas of eco-housing and a whole approach to living lightly on the earth including 750kW of electrical energy from [...]

Building Regulations

February 2013

See the government web site on Building Regulations

Building Regulations deal with whether the building is built properly and is safe and energy efficient etc. more+/-»

They are not to be confused with Planning Consentthe legal basis for being allowed to do some form of development such as building a house. (not to [...]

Ashley Vale, Bristol

autumn 2009

from left to right – individual houses, the communal village green area, bungalows, the terrace of houses and, (bright red), the flats above the workshops and community centre

CLICK ABOVE FOR 3D PANORAMIC IMAGE WITH DRAG AND ZOOM

This is one of the most interesting recent examples of group self-build in [...]