Moisture and condensation Recently a client in Germany asked us: Do you know ubakus? Maybe you think “ubawhat?”, but we know Ubakus very well, for us Ubakus is a highly valued engineering tool for the design of our walls and roofs. So what is Ubakus?
A little background First a little background. Let’s say you’re wearing glasses, and you walk on the street during winter, it is cold, minus 5 degrees Celcius (for you across the pond: 23 Fahrenheit).
There are many different kinds of insulation materials to insulate your house. Polyurethane, glass wool, rock wool, old newspapers, wood fiber, sheep wool and the list goes on and on.
In this video we compare three common types:
polyurethane glass wool wood fiber. One remark about cost. In the video we say that wood fiber is “almost cheap”, i.e. it is slightly more expensive than the other materials. But this video is from 2015 and since 2020 woodprices have gone through the roof, also prices for wood fiber.
Log houses: round logs, laminated, corners, … A log house is a log house is a log house. Except, it is not. Log houses come in many variations. Here we discuss some of the main properties of log houses.
Laminated of massive wood One characteristic of a log is the wood lamination. Laminating is the process where we cut a log in long four centimeter strips, dry the strips, then glue them together.
At this moment (March-July 2021) wood prices have gone through the roof. And since our houses are wooden houses, it has consequences for our business, and maybe for you as a consumer as well. Why did prices go up, and by how much? And when will they go down again?
Why did prices go up? To be honest we don’t know exactly why prices went up.
What are the requirements for a foundation for a wooden house? They are nothing specials, i.e., not very different from the requirements for a traditional brick & mortar house foundation. A wooden house is lighter, but we don’t think that makes a lot of difference for the foundation itself. For us, as wooden house builders, there are three requirements: the foundation should be flat, it should let us anchor the house firmly, and the pipes and guides for water and electricity should be at the exact right spot.
Lithouse build houses with three types of walls:
panel walls log walls cross laminated timber walls They all have pro’s and con’s, let’s dive into the details.
Panel walls Panel walls are essentially hollow boxes filled with insulation material. You build a frame from 195 x 60 mm beams, and front and back you close with an 18 mm OSB-plate. Now you have a hollow box, say 2 x 3 meters and 231 mm thick.
Damp-open is one of the current hot topics in the construction industry, and you as a consumer will likely hear about it. But what is it exactly? What does it mean for your house and your energy bill. Not always very clear, so we will try to explain.
Disclaimer: we prefer damp-open, so now you know already where we stand in this discussion.
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