poroton
Hi Gollmacmorna,
We did the brickwork ourselves. Were in the lucky position that my partner was able to work at it practically full-time for a while & we both put in a lot of evenings & weekends! Fbt showed us how to lay the bricks on the first layer - they have grooved edges which makes it really easy, but that's explained better on their website -and then we just carried on. There are also internal blocks and lintels etc in the poroton range and a special liquid mortar which is really easy to mix & use. With a bit of work and a good engineer to check the work now & again it worked out fine (Engineer had also just built for himself using poroton so that was a plus!). On the outside, my partner plastered using, again, a special plaster suitable to the poroton, and outside that a layer of wood cladding which keeps wind & rain off the walls. On the inside we used plasterboard, skimmed the joints & painted. We mounted the plasterboard sheets on wooden laths fixed to the poroton.
Costs - have it all written down somewhere - will mail that later. Prices may no longer be the same , but will give a rough idea.
Estimations: FBT worked out how many of each type of block we needed & delivered - no problems. Anything extra we wanted came straightaway.
At the time FBT were also building - I think now they only supply the blocks. But they couldn't have been more helpful
Laoise