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Building a wooden house


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[:)] We have sold our house in U.K. and have been offered a good piece of land in France.  We have been offered rented accommodation for six months only so we have not got a lot of time.

We are thinking of having a wooden house.  The local mayor was enthusiastic about the idea.

We have tried to find a firm who would supply the house in kit form and construct it for us.  So far every email we have sent to firms specialising in wooden houses has been ignored.  Does anyone know such a firm in the area of Haute Vienne (87)?

The owners of the land want us to complete the purchase but we don't want to end up with just a field and no house. 

We would be grateful for any advice.

Joy.

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http://www.google.fr/search?hl=en&q=Maison+Bois&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.exportbureau.com/construction/timberhouses.html

http://www.woodco.clara.net/page6.html

http://www.de-bois.com/

http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&q=constructeur+chalets&btnG=Rechercher&meta=

http://www.finnishwoodhouses.com/

While I have not realised my own dream for a wooden house on the Larzac plateau, you might find some of these sites useful.  I cannot say any of them are good or bad.  But you might find something.

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Did you send the E-mails in french?

There are several specialists in my region and also some nationwide ones, but given that most have more than enough work they are unlikely to want to burden themselvelves with translation.

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There is an article in this months LF magazine about wooden houses which may be of interest.

On a recent visit to Spain (we don't live that far away) I visited one of the numerous sites where they sell wooden buildings and sheds. The system used is lengths of pre shaped wood designed to connect to the one below by using a more 'tongued and groove' system. The house I saw built using this construction used a big version of the wood you now see used for these large sheds that are being sold by the likes of Mr Bricolage (probably spelt wrong but you know who I mean). The house was of four bedrooms with a fifth making a large study or games rooms. There was a large entrance hall, kitchen and dinning/lounge area. There were two large bathrooms. The only construction required by the buyer was the 'pad' and in this instance a stone interior wall which also had  fireplace. The price of the house including erection (excluding base and wall) was 199,000 Euros. The price did include the kitchen, plumbing and electrics as these are installed during the construction.

I believe, from what I was told in very bad English (I don't speak Spanish), that the wood comes from one of the Scandinavian countries pre shaped ie the tongue and groove already cut and pre treeted with a 10 year warranty after which further treatment would be required to maintain the preservation of the wood. The designer draws the plan and then the wood is cut (for windows, doors etc) and numbered to help with the erection. The wood was about 8" high and 4" thick from memory (well it looked big) and had pre drilled holes running vertically through which screw thread was passed and nuts added to tie the thing together.

I did think that this type of construction lends it's self very well to geothermal heating systems from what I have read on this forum. I don't have any personal experience or know anyone personally who has had a house built by this method so prudence and research is essential.

I would be very interested to follow how the OP gets on or anyone else having a wooden house built in Frence. Perhaps a blog might not be such a bad ideae ither here or some other website.

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Its a very popular construction technique in Germany where its been done for years now.  I saw a firm offering a very substantial timber framed house with the walls made up of a clay/woodchip mix made on site and poured to make very thick but very well insulated walls.  They had a version with triple glazing, solar panals and clever windows and ventilation which claimed to have zero heating costs, even in a cold part of Germany.  Building costs were comparable to conventional construction but faster.  I was impressed! I'll try and find who they were, I know they operate in the East of France at least.
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Saw this just the other day while reading the Montpellier Gazette.  The price and the floor space, plus the innovative design got me going. I thought, hmmm...  Must send the URL even if nothing happens.  I now nothing aobut it, but if you like I can photocopy the article and send it along.  Probably the website is just as good as one particualr article with pictures of guy who ordered it, built it with two pals and two professionals for some bits.  Instead of 200,000, it appeared to cos thim 120,000 euros.

Edit (Quillan) - Hope you don't mind but I have corrected the link for you.

http://www.domespace.com

 

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Thank you for your reply.  We were thinking of a construction in Ossature Bois - the local mayor explained the different types of constructions to us and also took us to see examples of some he had constructed himself in a leisure complex he owned.

We wondered if anyone had personal experience of a reliable firm.

Joy.

 

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