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  • Featured Topics

  • Recent Posts

    • flanagaj
      Communicating with trades. Any tips?

      By flanagaj · Posted

      I appreciate that this might sound lift a daft question, but how do people go about communicating with trades to ensure the task is completed satisfactory and to LABC warranty standards, without sounding like you are insulting their intelligence or micromanaging?   As you know, we have had two brickies and both were shit.  They cut corners and didn't take pride in their work.  For instance, the last guy had never laid Marmox blocks.  His response like many (incorrect of course) was to say "that's what the insulation upstand is for".  Needles to say, they were fitted with large air gaps at the joints ...   It's difficult managing these people yourself, as they see you as someone not in the trade and therefore assume you know nothing and that their 20 years in the business makes them an expert.   Our new bricklayers start Tuesday and I want it to work.  I should not have to go out and see that the 3 courses of brickwork on the internals has been simply butted up to the 3 course that run perpendicular without either being bonded or tied in ..   Any pointers welcomed on the best approach.  I can completely see how a Clerk of Works is helpful here.
    • JohnMo
      UFH - Supply and Return pipes...

      By JohnMo · Posted

      150mm is fine, but filling just floor is lazy. A new build requires so little heat.    Layout on software, you can simplify it a little by making the angle 90 degs between the two wings.   One manifold or two the supply and return will be similar lengths. I would aim to use one manifold. You will not need a pump and mixer on the manifold, so don't let anyone sell them to you. Just run supply and return in 28mm you will have zero issues. Would suspect heat loss is below well 4kW, do don't let anyone sell you a big heat pump. I had a 6kW and found it too big, so swopped it out to a 4kW last winter.   Note on your loops A-1, move manifold in room and all pipes passing through room do the heating - delete dedicated loop. A-2 and A-6 delete and use pipes passing through that area, spread them out instead of bunched up.   Pipes can be 100m long. Loops A-10,11 and 13 add up to less than 200m, so could be 2 loops instead of 3. But if using 1 manifold that may not be possible, however an optimised design may allow 200 or 250mm centres do then that room and room next it could reduce the loop count.  
    • Alan Ambrose
      Trapezoidal / profile roof questions

      By Alan Ambrose · Posted

      >>> How complex is the roof?   Very simple, house is a rectangle with dual pitch roof. It does have some veluxes and an SVP and a coupla vents coming through it.
    • Gus Potter
      Fine silicone finish by Norrsken

      By Gus Potter · Posted

      You know the answer don't you!   You have two choices, let the render progress, but the window frames may not be fully sealed.    In reality, have you checked your window contract fine print as to what length of guarantee you have on the glazing units. If you use good mastic the frames should be ok..pragmatically.   But again look at you warranty, often now the sealed units are not warranted for the same length as the frames. If you get a failure in  a sealed unit your warranty may be rejected if you have not fully sealed the surrounding frame.    There are no friends in the desert these days, check the fine print on the window warranty!
    • Gus Potter
      New concept to make self and custom build easier and more accessible.

      By Gus Potter · Posted

      In the"old days" A first time self builder with no experience could save at least 15% on the build cost of a house. Now in the old days the market was rising, thus the value of the property also increased by on average, say 10%, over say a 2 year build time. You had to be a complete idiot to lose money on a self build. So even if you were not that good your self build could return a tax free return of up 25%, but nine times out of ten you would not lose your shirt.    The market has changed a lot.    @saveasteading who has decades of experience pointed out.. and I agree, much of the profit for the volume builders now lies in the land transaction, the actual building of the houses are not the main profit element, the house building is just a means to and end, basically a bit of a hassle!   Now if you buy a serviced plot on one of these serviced schemes, the seller (developer) has already taken off the cream of the profit, you as a self building then are looking at marginal profit, but carry much more risk.  Self building in this case is not going to make you lots of money, it may give you the house you love though and if that has value for you then it's viable.   Now say you do a house that sells for 300k. You'll be lucky to clear 20k after all the taxes etc if you sell it on , if your motive is to make money, you'll have to risk dealing with a builder, a huge amount of personal time.. etc.. the reality is you are likely to be better off if you just do a Saturday morning shift in Aldi, you may even get a pension contribution!   I've had the good fortune to talk and meet with @Square Feet who has some ideas about how we get back to making self building more attractive, not least financially. It's early stage ideas, will take time to develop, but looks promising.    The reality at the moment is for your average self builder the financial risks are high vs the rewards. There are still a good few very well off self builders who don't really mind if they make money of not.  But the whole idea is to encourage young folk to self build and improve their financial health which results from their own hard work.  But as above.. it really is the case.. you are better off at times doing a Saturday shift at Aldi!

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