Solid house?

Hello, someone recently recommended to me to build a solid house to build ecologically. Is that really true? Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with it yet, as we only recently decided to build a house.
Regards and thanks!

What do you understand by "ökologisch bauen"?

Use of environmentally friendly building materials, good thermal insulation, separation of drinking and grey water through [Zisterne],... I understand these things as ecological building :-) Solar panels are also being considered.

Solid or not... that has nothing to do with ecological.

When it comes to ecological building, just like you plan, it mainly depends on what you can afford ecologically. Because ecological is not always economical.
Every measure costs money, and sometimes so much that it is not financially worthwhile for you. But to know exactly, you need an energy consultant.
We built a prefabricated house made of wood and are close to the passive house standard... but not quite, as it wouldn't have been financially worthwhile.

Hello Haushexe,

I believe you chose the wrong headline, you meant Ecological Building.

As my predecessors have already noted, you can get an ecological product with solid houses, or not, the same applies to lightweight construction.

I think the right partner for you is an architect who either already has a lot of experience with ecological houses or who has a building biology education. Alternatively, you can also hire two people, an architect and a building biologist. In this case, you will probably be less happy with a general contractor or prefabricated house company, except for the combination where the architect plans the project, defines all components precisely, and the general contractor takes this as the binding basis of their offer.

Solid or not... that has nothing to do with ecology.

In ecological building, as you intend it, it depends above all on what ecological standards you want to afford. Because ecological is not always economic.
Every measure costs money, sometimes so much that it is financially not worth it for you. But to know exactly you need an energy consultant.
We built a prefabricated house made of wood and are close to passive house standards... but not quite, because it wouldn’t have been financially worthwhile.

Two things about that:
- Ecological building means at least about 5-10% more costs in the initial financing, depending on wishes and equipment, which will presumably pay off over the life cycle.
- An energy consultant has nothing to do with ecology. They advise and calculate only in the interest of the state (funding regulations) and industry (sale of insulation). Saving energy is ecological, but not with all materials, for example the common thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS) made of Styrofoam or another petroleum product are not ecological.

Good luck and have fun planning and building!

Best regards

K. Brodbeck

Thank you very much for the answers! Yes, it is clear that to build ecologically, you do not necessarily have to build a solid house, but that it can also be done differently. My information was only that it is particularly easy there. In other words, it sometimes causes lower costs, etc. Thank you very much, we are already having a lot of fun and are not letting ourselves get stressed :-)