Timber Frame House?

barry75

Hi All,

I am new to this site and am looking for some advice on a Timber Frame house.We are at the planning permission stage of the house.What are the pro and cons of building with a timber frame?Can anyone recommend a supplier.I recieved a good price from Clarke timber frame,anyone deal with this company?The house is a storey and a half ,225m sq in size.

thanks in Advance

Barry:)

AJL

I am going with a Kingspan TEK house. This i a house made of SIP (structural insulated panels). It is super super warm (better than TF). It is that bit more expensive but I feel it is worth it. If you google Kingsapn TEK or SIP you should get some info. If you are interested give me a shout. I have planning and just ready to sign contracts for SIP house. Cost of heating about 1/3 of normal house.

towbar

Clarkes were also well recommended to us but we went with Younger Homes, do frame and windows which has turned out to be an advantage as changes to windows and frame were automatically replicated and the responsibility of Younger Homes. For example the rear windows on initial plan werent large enough for escape windows so window design and frame had to be modified also a feature window needed a slight modification which architect had missed. Windows were installed 2 days after frame erected.

Carb

I went with Unique Timber Frame in Derry. They were the best quote I got and the only company that I dealt with, that took the time to go through everything in great detail. I never felt rushed or under pressure to get everything finalised. They actually came to meet me three times to go through everything. When I did eventually order, they delivered two and a half weeks later, which I suppose is a benefit of dealing with a newer company.

I didn't get a quote from Clarkes, but they seem to get good reviews. Either way, from a cost point of view, you'll probably end up dealing with a Northern Company, if you're in an area that they'll deliver to. For my house, the Northern companies were on average about 10K ie 25% cheaper than the companies down here. While the Southern Companies were sending me their terms and conditions, the Northern companies were arranging meetings to go through their quotes and iron out the minor details. I'm not saying there isn't a company down here that will be good to deal with (I've heard ok reports about KTF in Ardee but were too expensive), I just didn't come across any when I was going through the process.

towbar

I'd pretty much agree with notes on pricing and northern companies but if you want to deal with Southern company you could try Modern Timber homes Letterkenny who pretty much match the Northern quotes and deliver nationwide I think.

yop

Same as that, we have a home from Clarkes.
What I found with Clarkes was the quality of the timber used was superior to 2 other suppliers I checked out especially in the roof trusses.

Some companies will not supply stairs, doors etc also.

Also the price was I think, about 5k cheaper than the nearest Southern company.