Timber frame houses

[Marmablade]

There are lots on the market and I wondered if MN had any person recommendations of ones you've used to buy your own home please?

I'm not sure I'm too keen on the idea of SIPS as our current normal brick house is mouldy due to poor ventilation and so the thought of a mouldy timber frame house worries me. Can you do timber frame without?

Also I'd like a mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR) system - does anyone have any recommendations for those please?

If anyone has any self build advice I would be grateful if you could share it with me.

are you anywhere near Swindon, they have the national self build and renovation centre - loads of companies, info, part built houses there. Unfortunately we werent brave enough 10 years ago and are too old for the upheaval now.

Not a million miles away so thank you.

You can do it without yes. However SIPS are very likely to go mouldy and if building a house you can design good ventilation etc. And SIPS are really good insulators so are in my kind better then any material really especially as they go up so quick.

SIPS only go mouldy if they get wet when being installed. Once they are wet, there is no recovering them. Given the UK climate, they are reallly not suited for building there. You can do ordinary framing with a timber frame, in the US its called hybrid build.

I meant unlikely. I disagree with not being good for UK as many people are sratig to use them. It is also not that hard to keep then dry and once quickly and I mean quickly put up and covered and sealed they ate amazing. I love them.

Theres also CAT in Wales for environmental products and courses. Potton in Cambridgeshire has several of their designs built and they also run general info courses on how to find plots etc. They were incredibly helpful. Border Oak (beautiful but pricey) have a couple of show homes that are open monthly. They probably offered the most complete package of design and their own builders.

Border Oak are my favourite so far but I'm wondering if I can get the same quality for less? Holy grail obviously!

We built a timber framed Potton house two years ago, with MVHR. Its all brilliant! Please DM me if you'd like more info, I have lots

I think Border Oak were expensive because they did alot of the work for you and gave you skilled builders, experienced project managers etc. Perhaps you could negotiate with them to leave out those services, but then theres more risk involved, so perhaps theyre not more expensive really. There was a similar company in Wales, but Ive forgotten their name.

@Terfterfterf thank you!

I'm actually PM trained although haven't done it for a while and have 2 young children who take up an inordinate amount of time. Balancing that and the ease/cost of someone doing it for me