Fast, environmentally friendly technology
In recent months, this has been the question I most often answer in connection with the construction. I have been dealing with construction technology for many months. My criteria were simplicity and speed of construction. From the beginning, I planned to carry out the maximum part of the construction by myself.
Internet survey
Thanks to the internet, I have familiarized myself with almost all current technologies during many hours of watching numerous videos on YouTube and reading articles. Unfortunately, what appealed to me the most, a prefabricated house that is delivered to the site and can be inhabited immediately, was not an option in our case. Although I already had a specific offer for such a 4+2 house at a price of around 30 thousand euros, it turned out that transporting it the last 2 km to our location was impossible. Transporting it halfway across the world is not a problem (the house would be shipped from the Netherlands), but the steep turns on the slope leading to our land are an insurmountable problem.
Local practice is either a traditional brick house or, more often, a concrete skeleton into which walls are then built. I wanted to avoid this to minimize the amount of concrete and dependence on local workers. The experience of building the foundations confirmed that this initial assumption was more than far-sighted.
ISOTEX - environment friendly blocks from Italy
In the end, I decided on ISOTEX blocks. These are blocks made from recycled wood containing thermal insulation, laid dry and filled with concrete. These blocks’ thermal, acoustic, and fire-resistant properties exceed European standards. The manufacturer claims construction costs are about 30% lower than traditional construction. ISOTEX has been produced in Italy for over 30 years. Another traditional manufacturer of similar technology is based in the United Kingdom, and several derivatives can be found from other manufacturers based on a similar principle. It is a proven technology and not an untested experiment.
ISOTEX caught my attention because it uses recycled wood, has credible tests from seismic areas in Italy, is built dry, and has enormous online support for builders. Thanks to the tutorials created, construction seems very easy.
Pitfalls of "new" technology
In practice, things are always more complicated than marketing materials, but I am still glad that I chose this technology. The big challenge was convincing the architect to consider this technology. It was not until he called another Greek architect who had already built a house in Greece using this material that he acknowledged the technology made sense. Other problems were associated with venturing into something no locals had experience with, but everything was successfully resolved.
I consider it a mistake that I agreed to the architect’s request to order roof blocks made of the same material, which I did not originally plan. Although this gives us above-standard thermal insulation for the house, which means saving on air conditioning in the summer in Crete, the cost of the material and its transportation doubled. It is questionable whether these costs are worth the thermal savings. From an economic point of view, certainly not. Even in this case, the roof must be concreted, formwork must be built, and reinforcement must be inserted. Unlike the walls, where the savings on construction technology are significant (eliminating the need for building formwork and subsequent installation of external insulation), the roof saves only on thermal insulation, which is almost negligible.
Transportation
And a fun fact at the end. The transport from the manufacturer in Italy to Heraklion (by ship) cost about the same as from Heraklion to the east of Crete (four containers), and the transport of the last 2 km to our plot took the most time (partially manual transfer to a smaller truck). It constituted about a quarter of the transportation costs!
Take a look at the photos of the material arriving at our land.
3 comments
I am in the very early stages of looking at land in Crete, but that actual location could change yet. I live in the south of England and hope to use any house I have built, insulated to very high standards – there is no point having a winter home if it’s going to cost too much to heat and keep warm. So, I guess my only question is how to gauge the level of insulation required, for walls, windows, doors and roof the latter whilst maintaining a space for solar power panel(s). Where to find budget figures would also be useful.
Crete does not have severe winters, so the insulation is mainly due to the summer heat. 🙂
ISOTEX is one of the best solutions for this! It has very good built-in thermal insulation and the mixed recycled wood construction also has good insulation and microclimate characteristics! After almost a year of living in an ISOTEX house, I can say that it is very pleasant for winter and summer! It is very easy to warm up in the winter with a simple stove, and in the summer the house is nice and cool, even though it is 40 degrees outside.