Ground
Drains, the slab, and the level the rest of the house has to trust.
No slab over a drain we have not filled and watched.
Design-build yard · Lossiemouth, Moray
Built for weatherthat argues back.
We walk the plot before we price it. Douglas fir, Caithness slate, and lime, for houses on the Moray coast.
Douglas fir. This is the week the house becomes something you can stand in.
- On this coast
- 14years
- Handed over
- 41houses
- In one yard
- 4trades
- Next measure
- Thumorning
Works
Houses we have already argued with the weather about.
- Area
- 186 m²
- Programme
- 46 weeks
- Trades
- Stone, fir, lime
- Status
- Handed over
The north wall is the quarry stone that was already on the plot. The frame inside is Douglas fir, left visible. One winter was spent in the frame, on purpose.
- Area
- 92 m²
- Programme
- 31 weeks
- Trades
- Concrete, larch
- Status
- Handed over
A room for a boat and a room for a person. Board-formed concrete where the tide can see it, larch where it cannot. We built in the months the water allowed.
- Area
- 240 m²
- Programme
- 38 weeks
- Trades
- Cross-laminated timber
- Status
- On site
Two classrooms and a corridor that does not echo. The wing is raised so the playground stays. The school has not closed. That is the programme.
- Area
- Repair
- Programme
- 14 weeks
- Trades
- Lime, slate
- Status
- Handed over
The wall was lime, then it was cement. We took the cement off, let the stone dry, and put the lime back. A new slate roof. No new rooms.
Programme
Six stretches of time. The middle ones are muddy.
The visible week
Douglas fir, cut in the yard and raised on site. For a few days the house is a drawing you can walk through.
You leave with
A frame you can photograph, still open to the weather.
Trades
Four trades. The yard keeps the ones you can see.
Frame
Douglas fir you can see. Cut in the yard, raised in a week the weather agrees with.
No joint covered because the cut was out.
Envelope
Caithness slate, lime on stone, and openings that face the weather we actually get.
No roof closed while the frame is wet.
Fit
Doors, the stair, and the bench. The parts a hand meets every day.
No joinery ordered from a book we have not built from before.
Materials
What the houses are actually made of.
Used on Quarry House
Douglas fir
From a mill we can name. The frame, and sometimes the stair.
The yard
The people who are actually on the tools.
Site
Sets the site out in the morning and will stop a pour that does not fall the way the drawing says.
From the site
Notes from weeks that did not go to plan.
The yard keeps a book. A date on the programme is a date.
12 Mar · Quarry House
The slate went on dry. We had waited nine days. We could have pushed it. The timber would have told on us in November.
04 Feb · Elgin
The school wing is up on pads and the playground is still a playground. The head teacher walked the corridor in her coat. It did not echo. That was the brief.
19 Nov · Hopeman
Cement came off the croft wall in sheets. The stone underneath was fine. Helen has the lime. We start it when the wall has had a week of air.
Contact
Ask for a measure.
We price after the walk. The first visit is free if the plot is within an hour of the yard.
- Yard
- The Yard, 14 Seatown Road
Lossiemouth IV31 6JJ - Hours
- Monday – Thursday07:30 – 16:30
- Friday07:30 – 15:00
- SaturdayBy measure
- SundayClosed