News

Ventilation in public buildings

Ventilation in public buildings

Translations: NL
Previously we wrote about “damp closed or damp tight buildings” and the fact that nowadays almost all utility buildings (offices, hospitals, airports, schools, …) are damp closed, i.e. moisture can not leave the building via the roof or the walls, or even via windows as often such building have no openable windows. Instead all air is refreshed via an air conditioning system that pre-heats incoming air using heat exchangers and heat pumps.
Loghouse in Denmark

Loghouse in Denmark

In 2020 we built a house in Denmark, close to Legoland. Appropriately our house was made from wooden logs that you stack together, not too dissimilar from plastic blocks that you stack together. These photos are far from perfect. Made with a phone, we forgot to bring our camera, sorry about that. This was nog a small house. We built it for a Dutch family that emigrated to Denmark some twenty years ago.
Riethoven log house

Riethoven log house

Translations: NL
In the South of The Netherlands we built the Riethoven house. Designed by the owner himself, this house is both a log house and a panel house: the ground floor is a log house, and then the second floor is a panel house, but constructed in such a way that you can not see the difference. If you would not know any better, you would think it is all logs. The panel construction gave us just that little extra flexibility to meet the demands.
Tour de France

Tour de France

About half our projects are in France, and as a result we travel through France regularly. And for tax purposes our accountant wants us to keep a log of our travels. No problem,we have an app that logs our whereabouts, every now and then it generates a file that keeps the accountant happy. Just for fun we placed the logs on a map. TomTom is our friend, except for those moments where it goes wrong, for instance when TomTom doesn’t know about this small river that we can not wade through.
Concrete pole foundations

Concrete pole foundations

Translations: NL
As for any other type of house, our wooden houses need a foundation. And foundations are a very local thing, in that the actual construction is very much dependant on the local conditions. In the Alps and the Pyrenees you need to drill away rocks until you have a flat surface. In The Netherlands everything is already flat, but usually soggy so that your house will sink and disappear in the mud.
Bigger crane

Bigger crane

Translations: NL
For panel houses we usually take a 10 ton-meter crane, that is: a crane that can lift one tonne over a 10 meter distance. Or 500 kilo’s over a 20 meter distance. For the average house with 6-meter panels that is just enough to lift panels from a truck, swing around and hoist the panel on the foundation. For an average house we need a crane for about three weeks.
Wood prices

Wood prices

Translations: NL
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.
Electricity box

Electricity box

Translations: NL
We were doing a hand-over inspection of a house that we had finished, and then we saw the electricity box. Very often these boxes are a little ehh… unorganized, to put it kindly. Apparantly the idea is: you close the door, you don’t see it, why bother. But this one was different. Done by an electrician with a little OCD. Very nice!
Yellow and blue log house

Yellow and blue log house

Translations: NL
With temperatures going down in Lithuania, and wind coming from the North-East, usually after a few days the Dutch go skating. And indeed, with Lithuanian temperatures going down to -25 Celcius, the ice started growing in The Netherlands and then the Dutch get into this frenzy where they all hope for the Great Event: the Elfstedentocht. And with Covid-19 the Dutch government did not want to let that happen, twenty thousand people on the ice was not a good idea, but also, they were reluctant to call off an event for which the Dutch had been waiting more than twenty years.
American barn

American barn

Translations: NL
Almost finished: an American barn. More to follow… In Almere in The Netherlands by the way, where something comparable, but bigger, has been built a couple of years ago: the “Rode Donders”.