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  • Featured Topics

  • Recent Posts

    • Gus Potter
      New concept to make self and custom build easier and more accessible.

      By Gus Potter · Posted

      You don't need to.   For all: The following assumes you are not in the building trade, have all the advantages that that brings. It's intended to appeal to folk on a budget, possibly first time self builders that are willing to learn and invest time.    As I've said before, in the old days self building was a great money spinner even if you were a complete idiot. Property prices were achieving a year on year 10% at a minimum increase in value. Thus on a two year build the land just alone would increase in value.    The game is changed now. For a while it worked where you could go to a TF company, say Scot frame etc, AFD foundation design were doing a lot of really great stuff, Tanners Structural Design were chipping in etc. for example and others for "work packages" and it still stacked up, the profit was less for the novice self builder but still worth a go.  You still got a return from "managing the project"   One of the main problems I see at the moment is not just the regulatory stuff (Planning and BC), it's actually the idea that you can put different work packages together without dealing with the interfaces, where the hidden cost lies. We could describe this as "day works", expensive! The "work package" providers are now taking too much cream, there is little left for the self builder, and the risk remains the same.   Designers are certainly not helping. Few if any take the time to help you coordinate, some of this is bad practice, but also, there is tendency for folk to think good designers are like washing machine engineers, we are not here to fix your washing machine. In the round all the cream is taken out the project before you get a shout.    One fundamental key to a good self build is to not pay too much for the land. A while ago you could buy a nice flat grass plot, easy services and so on. But these now are less attractive as they command a high price. What is attractive is a cracking site, great views, but brown field. In other words maybe a bit contaminated, hard to service for example. if you crack that nut you can get it cheep. The big developers are not interested, your local builder with say 10 men is not interested as they will have to pay for professional advice, they look for the easy route. This puts you in a pretty good negotiating position if you can identify what's wrong with the site and explain to the seller, this is is a good offer I'm making, and here is why.    Now just say you could get a 100k plot for 70k by explaining to the seller, you are selling a pig in poke. To do that you need to just bring forward the professional fee advice. It's not going to cost you the full whack, an advisor may give you this advice for under £1.0k.    My own view is that it's now time to go back and consider old school stuff, say getting local ground workers in to do the founds, joiners to stick build the TF, slaters for the roof. You buy the materials, you then own them, eases cash flow. I think this can deliver a good bit of profit!    In summary I do think self build can be profitable, we just need to go back to old school stuff and the basic laws of business. But adapt with a view to say modular construction. @Square Feet has some thoughts on this in fruition.           
    • Nickfromwales
      Hep2o (Hep20) Information

      By Nickfromwales · Posted

      That’s what I use, but you need to have a straight cut and then file the face flat afterwards. Rubber seals are quite forgiving tbh. 
    • Gus Potter
      when is a screed dry enough for flooring?

      By Gus Potter · Posted

      Possibly not! Have you commissioned and run your UFH for a few weeks?    If I was working for the flooring contractor I would be aware that the underlying structure also has to condition, move about a bit, it's not just the screed.   They are just getting paid to lay the floor? But maybe being sensible. If something goes wrong then think about it from their end, put yourself in their shoes and work back from there. They could be faced with a massive hassle trying to prove movement is also related to the structure and not their fault.    To be blunt, the suppliers of flooring and the installers have so many caveats, not least min and max floor temperatures, which are hard to achieve when you have congestion of UFH pipes. Sometimes you have to make your best guess. Anticipate where movement will occur in your particular self build and lay the flooring accordingly.    To make things a bit harder, it's often the summer that modern highly insulated TF house expands as the UFH heating has been off, particularly if on say a concrete slab, this is counter intuitive!    
    • lmrn1
      Failed at first hurdle

      By lmrn1 · Posted

      Neighbour had to dig a big hole to see how far down pipe was so got permission.  Said he’s got all paperwork so may ask him if I can have a look
    • Gus Potter
      Piled foundation cost

      By Gus Potter · Posted

      The soils are just above the plasticity A line, not much to worry about.    Lots of rafts get designed with an L shaped building, we design joints for this and make sure the super structure can cope with anticipated movement.    The allowable bearing pressure is good at 115 kPa, a standard benchmark of 100kPa is a good comfortable reference point.    Where does the water table sit?   You probably need to post the full SI for the best feedback, there will other stuff buried in it that you may not have the experience to be able recognise it's importance.     

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