ADVANCES IN TIMBER TECHNOLOGY
Simon Orrells reveals the cuttingedge timber solutions that can deliver a quicker, more sustainable and more cost-effective route to your dream self build home
Timber frame has long been a popular system among self builders. Its speed of construction, quality, and thermal and sustainable benefits make it an excellent option. Plus, as it offers a complete build solution – providing all the walls, floors and roof with one engineer and one point of contact – it gives much better programme certainty and cost control.
Timber has always been at the forefront of the self build industry on a technical level. Once upon a time, it was deemed more expensive. But what many people didn’t take into consideration was that, while the initial outlay may have been higher, it saved costs further down the line. Now that Building Regs have improved to require lower U-values (a measure of thermal conductivity), it’s clear that timber frame is a great value build solution, as it is naturally airtight and offers excellent thermal performance.