Timber Frame Home

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

I've looked back over several years worth of posts but I haven't found any posts that really answer my question. When it come to construction and DIY I'm pretty clueless I'm afraid.

My good lady and myself are looking to buy a house which will be our first home. The place we are looking at is of timber frame construction. I'm a little old fashioned so for me a house was always made from concrete and blocks. I know in other parts of the world timer frame construction is popular but I had guessed there were reasons it wasn't so popular here.

Would a house made of a timber frame construction be an OK purchase? Is it something I should avoid like the plague? The house in question is semi-detached. What kind of noise insulation would there be on the wall between our house and our neighbours?

I'd appreciate any advice you folks can give as it really is something I know nothing about. Many thanks.

Poor Uncle Tom

A timber frame house, much like any other form of construction, if carried out correctly will perform as it should. That is to say it will perform as a house for your living needs.

As with any house being bought your solicitor will look for whatever guarantees they can get. It will depend on when the house was built, who built it, whether it was specifically designed as a timber frame, etc.

Is there a Certificate of Compliance with Planning Permission available?
Is there a Certificate of Compliance with Building Regulations available?
Is there a Certificate of Foundation Inspection available?
Are the Timber Frame Calculations available?
Is there DEAP calculations available?

As with buying any house you will need to get it looked over professionally, and depending on the age it may also be worth getting a BER Assesor to have a look through and get their comments for any future works which may need to be incorporated. Any professional looking over a timber frame house will need to check out the above items and will need to satisfy themselves that the structure can breathe properly, through adequate structural ventilation, and they should also be able to give you an estimate of the remaining lifespan of the timberframe.

mfceiling

As Poor Uncle Tom says, a timber frame house built and maintained properly is fine.
I live in one OP and it heats up quickly and stays warm, it doesn't feel any inferior to block built - my dads house is block built and is actually not as warm as mine.
It's a personal choice but i wouldn't rule it out because you have an idea that houses are only built with blocks.
A good house is a good house regardless of its build type.

De.Lite.Touch

Seconded what Tom says, plus... The real problem is that traditional builders don't understand how timber frames breathe. You can tell by odd little things like not installing the vents below the DPC level or below the eaves to promote air movement in the cavity, not sealing the breather paper on the outside of the insulation to prevent high pressure wind infiltration losses, not vapour checking the inside of the insulation, happily putting downlighters through it into the attic, then blocking the attic eaves vents, ramming twice the amount of quilt insulation between the frame members to give it "more" thermal resistance - all those little things.

And then there's the plain stupid things. Not doing a proper stepped cavity flashing when adding an extension and taking down the outer leaf, but instead leaving an internal cavity that can't breath. Not sealing the structural junctions and services penetrations between ground floor and first to give 30 minutes fire resistance. Not having a services duct or cavity to run services in in the first place, but piercing the vapour check in the external walls for every plug point. Not sealing the wall cavity with combined fire-and-insulation "sausages". There's a lot of that goign on.

See any one of those faults and you can bet there are others, like no upturned insulation quilt to the perimeter of the screed for the underfloor heated ground floor slab. Sure its a minefield. Get an architect or architectural technician well-versed in this form of construction to look it over. Oh, and suss out whether the UFH screed is gypsum based. I saw one "bloom" after it got wet and it just went to pieces in your hands. Might not happen to all of them, but if its not cement or a resin, it might.

De.Lite.Touch.

Kintarō Hattori

Thanks a lot for the replies guys, it's put my mind at ease. The house we're looking at is a new development. When we get the surveyor in to give the once over will the points above be something they would look out for or should we make them aware of possible issues?

De.Lite.Touch

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the replies guys, it's put my mind at ease. The house we're looking at is a new development. When we get the surveyor in to give the once over will the points above be something they would look out for or should we make them aware of possible issues?

You could ask them about these issues before getting them in in the first place to find out if they know anything about timber frame houses.

Also on timber frame houses they may not have used strip foundations.
As well as the inspection cert for founds, make sure there are certs signing off or warrantying both
- the foundation design [from a civil and structural engineer, not the contractor] as well as
- the timber frame house structure [you may be offered this from the timber frame firm's own engineer].

The problem with these assurances is that they don't cover the built work and here you rely on the builders cert.
You need a few bricks out around ground floor slab level to check the cavity was kept clear and the vents work and the timber frame fixing straps were installed.

You should also seek some kind of warranty or cert about site drainage if its in a rural area, and flood risk assessment, if one was required, or stating that one wasn't required, that's the case - no point finding these things out when its too late.
And you can use some common sense and get some info on the area by reading the development plan and going into the local authority and reading up the planning file.

That last is called a planning file inspection but really, you need someone competent advising you on all this in real life.
There's an awful lot more to it - look at the posts here on MVHR systems and house sealing for example.

De.Lite.Touch.