PowerSwitch

One of the Hockerton Housing Association houses is for sale. It's only the third time one has come on the market.

Cool.

But six hours a week is 'back breaking'?

People with that sort of money could probably use some exercise.

That's what I thought Em.

Great idea and looks amazing and you buy into the community.... but judging by those pictures it / the rooms are small and I guess for £500000 there are many parts of the UK, out of the south that you can build your own eco house and have some land. £500000 is very pricey in Nottinghamshire, even if you have a share of the land.

Interesting place but as other people say, a little overpriced.

I have been interested in that communal living and reading the house designers' book "The Autonomous House" was one of the first things that got me interested in environmental issues. Apparently the Vales are in Australia or New Zealand now.

The only places on environmental communities in Australia that seem to be available are generally overpriced arid scraps of land that have a lot of community rules that seem to benefit the founders of enterprises and not any latecomers.

I am thinking of designing and environmental house of my own in about ten years but on my own terms.

It shouldn't take you ten years to design an eco house. Ten days should do it!!

kenneal - lagger wrote:It shouldn't take you ten years to design an eco house. Ten days should do it!!

That is true but I will need 9 years and 350 days to save the money for it.

An ulta eco house design should only cost ten to fifteen per cent more than a shit house design.

kenneal - lagger wrote:An ulta eco house design should only cost ten to fifteen per cent more than a shit house design.

I would like to see some data that supports that. The high end Eco houses being built in my region have almost double the wall material (studding size and insulation) than a traditionally built house, plus have heat scavenging systems to retain heat from exhaust air that needs to be vented to maintain healthy air quality inside the very tight house structure.
Not that these construction elements won't pay for themselves over a relatively short time considering the present and future cost of central heating but I have to, on first glance, doubt that you can build such a house for only fifteen percent per square foot above the traditional structure.

In the UK that is the generally accepted rate and one architect who I have spoken to said that if you don't announce the building as "eco" and just get it priced there is usually a small difference if there is any.

kenneal - lagger wrote:In the UK that is the generally accepted rate and one architect who I have spoken to said that if you don't announce the building as "eco" and just get it priced there is usually a small difference if there is any.

Are you talking about the architect's fees or the actual building costs? Obviously a ten inch thick wall with sprayed in foam insulation costs more per square foot then a six inch wall with fiberglass batt insulation.

vtsnowedin wrote:Not that these construction elements won't pay for themselves over a relatively short time considering the present and future cost of central heating but I have to, on first glance, doubt that you can build such a house for only fifteen percent per square foot above the traditional structure.

The house I'm currently building might be described as ultra-eco and is costing less, not more per square meter than a traditional structure.

clv101 wrote:

vtsnowedin wrote:Not that these construction elements won't pay for themselves over a relatively short time considering the present and future cost of central heating but I have to, on first glance, doubt that you can build such a house for only fifteen percent per square foot above the traditional structure.

The house I'm currently building might be described as ultra-eco and is costing less, not more per square meter than a traditional structure.

Sorry Clv but a straw bale house built with a lot of volunteer labor is not a fair comparison between a standard construction house and one designed and built for maximum energy efficiency.
Put your design out to bid and have a builder build it with paid crews and then we can compare costs.

Agreed, I know what you mean. But my costs are my costs. Maybe "having a builder build it with paid crews" is simply an expensive way to build a house?

Yes, we've had some volunteer labour because we made the project fun, interesting and provided great food (maybe a 'conventional' build could try that?) but the volunteer aspect is a relatively small proportion compared to the work I've simply done myself or the work we've paid for.

The other way to think about construction costs is to consider how things used to be built. How did people build houses 200, 400, 600 years ago? Much of the work was done with a similar economic model as we're employing - ie doing it yourself + some community help + some expert trades to do the tricky bits. The modern, conventional way of building isn't necessarily the smartest approach.

It’s the smartest approach if profit is the goal, and quality is just an irritation to be dispensed with if at all possible.