Diesels in london

[lolsteve]

I think the turning point was the great fire of london, city councils got scared by the idea of half their cities being kindle waiting to catch fire so they made a push to move to masonry etc
You can see the lack of faith in it as a material even in the 3 little pigs story, the straw and stick/wood houses fall but brick is strong and mighty which protects the little pig. Whether that's a coincidence or not is up to you but it made for some good writing

It does seem like a short lifespan but that 60 years is the minimum time, so it could well see past that. The problem with making materials that last forever is that they don't really go away, yes the concrete becomes rubble but it ends up in some landfill somewhere not degrading away. some of the concrete tower blocks/housing projects of the 50s/60s are starting to be decommissioned now so they're only reaching the 60 year mark themselves.
Think our humidity and wet winters doesn't help much with timber lifespan but should be fine if kept dry

Material costs the timber looses , a clt structure costs on average £240 per m2 whereas an equivalent steel/concrete structure is £190. for a 25 x 25m structure there will be an additional cost of £31,250 per 1m development height or £68,750 per floor if we assume a 2.2m floor height, which after 9 stories adds up to well an additional £620,000 in materials alone. However since the material is new and not well established its understandable it's more pricey, if it became more in demand we could see the price fall a bit
The cost advantage of timber though is the on site costs. Constructing the Murray grove building took 9 weeks to complete by a 4 man team working 3 days a week. a total of less than a month to construct a 9 story building and the only real plant they needed on site was a mobile crane unlike concrete which needs the storage tanks, mixers etc or steel which needs heavy duty cranes and welding equipment and so forth

Initial costs are very off putting and it does seem for the most part that timber building is a bit of a gimic like " look we care about the environment" rather than genuine costs/insulation reasons. Although that is a good idea by the building company, would like the opportunity to create my own eco home some day too.
Timber would be more than adequate for a garage though, you could run a brick layer along the bottom to keep the timber off the ground then possibly build a structurally insulated panel frame on top. Easy to assemble and would be very well insulated for those cold winters working on the car

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I dont think the mrs wants to live in a set of tits. Few years as yet but ideas for the build keep floating about.

She'll be fine If in a couple of years you actually want to get the project moving give us a ring. By then I should have some experience under my belt to do the calculations correctly and can use the project to add to my portfolio for becoming chartered