was really straightforward, although it did take
16 weeks instead of the usual eight to receive
the decision,” says David.
“We liaised very early on with tree and
ecology officers at the council, to assure them
we valued and wanted to enhance the setting,
so we had no real issues despite living in the
greenbelt. The only change they requested was
to reduce the height of the garage roof by a
metre, which was an improvement anyway.”
The house and basement were designed
together, but when it came to the construction
the Jones needed to organise their groundworks
separately, using a company recommended by
Baufritz. They employed a project manager to
oversee the groundworks, concrete basement
and slab, before the Baufritz project manager
took over for the remainder of the build.
“I was no longer working full-time, so
probably got more involved than I strictly
needed to, as we were only living 10 minutes
away,” says David. “We were very fortunate not
to need to live in a caravan and were able to
stay in our home during the build.”The existing house was demolished, and the
site cleared before the new basement could be
excavated and prefabricated concrete walls
installed. “One corner of the basement needed
to be dug a metre deeper than planned, until
they hit a firm base, before being built back up
again with concrete,” says David. “Inevitably,
when they then tried to install a drain, they
immediately hit solid rock.”
The upper two levels of the building were
constructed using offsite prefabricated closed
wall and roof panels, built in a factory in
Germany using low-carbon construction
processes, sustainable timber and other
biodegradable building materials. Timber
windows and doors are pre-finished in a light
grey paint, and the saddle roof has been clad
with handsome interlocking grey clay roof tiles.
Each section of the house was made with the
insulation, cladding, external doors and triple-
glazed windows already in place, to ensure
excellent airtightness, so that when they arrived
onsite the panels could be constructed
extremely quickly.VIEWS
Sliding glass doors in the sitting
room open onto a balcony and
give views across the steep,
secluded valley to the sea28www.sbhonline.co.uk september/october 2019