The easiest/cheapest way to build a well-insulated exterior wall?

[zachris]

There are many traditions in the construction industry, but when you watch exciting programs like "Grand Designs" that showcase house builds from England, you see an incredible range in exterior wall constructions and frames. What always stands out there is that they mostly have uninsulated exterior walls, which doesn't work so well in Sweden.

What I wonder is if it's possible to build cheaper/simpler than what is "standard" in Sweden today, but still achieve a well-insulated exterior wall?

For example, can you build the thinnest possible wall in "stone"/steel/wood/concrete/hybrid that is only dimensioned to withstand the necessary loads and then add polystyrene on the outside?

Personally, as an amateur, I think that the wooden constructions with moisture/vapor barriers that are standard in Swedish houses are incredibly (unnecessarily?) complex.

Looking at the section on frames on Wikipedia, it becomes clear what I mean with their examples: concrete frames for industry, steel frames for offices, wood frames for houses. Why is it like that?

 

[Forbo]

Well... probably because wood is much cheaper than concrete and steel. I would like to build a stone house myself, but I build with wood due to economics. In Grand Designs, which is otherwise violently interesting, there are rarely budget constraints of a normal nature, and a different building tradition.

And the reason why wooden walls are "complicated" is because wood is sensitive to trapped moisture and water, and there's water vapor both from people indoors and from nature outside... hence shell protection and plastic and so on and so forth.

 

[barajag]

There is a lot of tradition in the construction industry, but when you watch exciting programs like "Grand Designs" which showcases house constructions from England, you see an incredible range in exterior wall constructions and frames. What always strikes you there is that they mostly have uninsulated exterior walls, which doesn't work so well in Sweden.

What I'm wondering is if it's possible to build cheaper/simpler than what is "standard" in Sweden today, but still achieve a well-insulated exterior wall?

For example, can you build the thinnest possible wall in "stone"/steel/wood/concrete/hybrid that is only dimensioned to withstand the necessary loads and then slap on foam on the outside?

Personally, I think, as an amateur, that the wood constructions with moisture/vapor barriers that are standard in Swedish villas are incredibly (unnecessarily?) complex.

Looking at the section on frames on Wikipedia, it's clear what I mean in their examples: concrete frame for industry, steel frame for offices, wood frame for villas. Why is that?

Can't give you any direct answers to your questions, it's quite complex because even if you write a bit, you can fill pages about regulations for energy consumption, moisture, etc. (or link to various pages).

I think along the same lines, but the more I google about energy-efficient houses, passive houses, and other innovative buildings, the more confused I become.

But why I responded is because I'm on the hunt for a cottage that would become a bit of a guinea pig for my ideas.

There is a thread about building solar panels out of beer cans, where it was discussed that plasterboard stores heat. Since I would like to build a house of natural stone (the more I google, the more types of stone seem to exist) anyway, build a frame with two heart walls and a chimney, all from nature and clad it internally with spiral ducts (see the beer can thread) and plaster to see how long it retained heat. In the meantime, you can live in the cottage.

This probably won't happen until next year, but those who wait for something good always wait too long.

So in short, you didn't get answers to your questions.