Kits and Mortar

Right at the end of Grand Designs Live, as the exhibition was shutting up shop, I finally got the chance to have a look around the House That Kevin Built (big post to come about that soon!). Whilst I was snapping photos, I got to talk to Finley White from ModCell, whose company put up the bottom half of the house.

The ModCell bits are the ground floor panels you can see either rendered or, on the left-hand wall, glazed to show the straw off. Glazing the panels is not normal practice, but it was nice to be able to see the straw inside in this instance. Essentially, these are wooden frames (sustainably sourced, of course) that have been filled with straw bales and then rendered with a lime render, making them super-insulating and vermin-proof. All this is done in a ‘flying factory’ near to the build site using local materials to reduce the amount of transportation required.

The panels can then be assembled very quickly and easily on-site and as they are already rendered, the structure can be made water-tight very easily. Finlay also explained to me that builders generally dislike having straw bales kicking about as they have to be kept bone dry throughout the build, have a tendency to shed straw which then gets everywhere, and are a bit of a pain in the neck. ModCell, on the other hand, deals with all the straw away from the build, keeping the site tidy. As all the rendering is done in the ‘factory’, you’re also less at the mercy of the weather – joy to any British self-builder’s ears.

I was really impressed with the idea, and it’s a real shame that I didn’t get to talk to ModCell earlier in the week as I would have loved to have done some video with them. They have lots more information on their website, including a load of photos from the Grand Designs build.

If you’re looking for a quick build that’s a little different, why not live in a shipping container? Already waterproof, and able to be sited almost anywhere that’s flat – only the corners rest on the ground so you don’t need to lay lots of concrete – you can whip up a container house in no time. I had a look round an empty 20ft container on the Lendon Containers stand, and they are surprisingly large with a lot more headroom than I expected. A bit long and thin, perhaps, but join a few together and there’d be more than enough space. And they can easily be stacked – containers on ships are often piled up to 14 high – so there’s no problem if you want a two storey house.

Price-wise, they’re not all that expensive. The nice chap from Lendon said they went for £4k for a 20ft (if my memory serves) although you can probably get them on eBay cheaper if you want to fit and install them yourself. I’m not sure how much a whole build would cost, if you were to make an entire house out of them, but I suspect it’s much more affordable than bricks and mortar.

Indeed, GDL had three containers decked out as a bedroom, lounge and full bedsit, and stacked three high just to show you how easy it is. Sort of like giant, habitable lego. The beat-up exteriors look great in an urban setting, but if you’re out in the countryside do you really want a heap of rust in your garden? Well, that’s easily fixed – containers lend themselves well to being clad in whatever material you want, and you can even put a living roof on them to soften the angular look even further.

The bedroom container was bigger than our bedroom is here, and although it was a bit longer and narrower, they got more furniture in than we can, so a container wins in the “vs our flat” challenge. Standard width and height is 8ft by 8ft 6 ins, and length can be 10 ft, 20 ft or 40 ft. One day I’ll have to work out what our flat’s square footage is, so I can do a proper comparison.

The lounge container is probably smaller than our lounge, but then, ours has a kitchen in it too. Put two containers together and whip out the middle wall and you’d be laughing, though. Containers can be well insulated – although there’s a trade off as the thicker the insulation the more space you lose inside – and can have windows, doors, shelving and air-conditioning fitted, so they’re easy enough to turn into a useful space.

And if you want a speedy guest bedsit, or you want to live on-site whilst you’re building your house, there’s just enough room in a 20ft container to do that.

I was thinking the other night… ok, fantasising, if I’m honest… that what I’d do would be to have a container on-site to securely store all the materials that come early, to keep them dry and safe from acquisitive hands, and then once the build was done, move it to the back garden, clad it in cedar or something else that looks nice, bung a living roof on top, and bingo – instant garden shed!

Even though Grand Designs Live finished on Sunday, I still have enough photos and thoughts for about another ten blog posts. One of the companies that I was very keen to talk to before the show ended was Carpenter Oak, who were demonstrating on the Traditional Build Techniques stand. If you’re a Grand Designs fan, you may have heard of Carpenter Oak (or their sister company, Carpenter Oak & Woodland) as they designed and built the timber frame for the beautiful Argyll house. The two companies used to be one, but diverged so that Carpenter Oak could specialise in new builds and Carpenter Oak & Woodland could focus on restoration work.

I absolutely love green oak framed buildings, with all the oak exposed and wonderful big double height spaces. Although I say that this blog is about finding out what sort of a house Kevin and I want to build, I will admit to a prior bias towards green oak. It’s beautiful, environmentally friendly, warm and full of personality – a much needed antidote to the soulless places I’ve lived for much of my life. So I was delighted to get the opportunity to talk to Glen, below on his shaving horse, about oak framed houses.

In the first part, we discuss types of builds, spiders. how environmentally friendly green oak is, sustainability, where the oak comes from.

And in part two, Glen tells me about the frame they had on the stand, how much it costs and what its fate will be:

If I had the opportunity to build a green oak house tomorrow, I’d jump at it. For the moment, though, I can only dream.