Hi,
I am looking to start building a house at start of next year and have got the design all sorted (oriented for passive solar as well as meeting all the requirements for my area which is bushfire prone). I have been looking into construction systems and had been thinking of Timbercrete single skin walls but have yet to find any reviews of people using it outside their website (which may be trying to sell a product...).
I plan to owner build with a project manager who I know and trust. However, he is semi-retired and said would only build brick veneer as too old to be bothered learning new building materials. I am not a huge fan of brick veneer due to poor insultation, lack of thermal mass where I need it, etc.
So I have been looking at reverse brick veneer house as it puts the thermal mass inside the building envelope and is cheaper than double brick (and the builder should do this). Was planning on using sandstone cladding (a place called Unreal Stone in Sydney do it) and then pain the brickwork. But I have two questions.
1: How do the internal walls and framing attach to the brick walls or do they attach to the external framing and the brickwork then does not form a continuous wall?
2: If the internal framing attaches to the brickwork, how much does this increase build time and cost (would not just be able to frame up and then do the bricks like a conventional brick veneer)?
There is plenty of info on what a reverse brick veneer house is with diagrams of the external wall and cladding, but nothing showing how to build it with the internal walls.
My other option is conventional brick veneer with very good insulation and then replacing on of the internal walls with a 12m long brick feature wall (this would provide thermal mass in the centre of the house so could benefit living and sleeping areas and fireplace would form part of the wall).
Any advice, knowledge is appreciated.