Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.
BuildHub.org.uk

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Blogs

South coast ICF build

Schedules...what schedules?

Lies, damn lies and building schedules! Where does the time go! it's been a month since the roof was started a process that should have taken a week...and we're only just ready to put the standing seam roof panels on a month later. More on the standing seam roof in my next blog. At the time of my entry we were trying to find a roofing team to finish the work. The team drafted into build the roof had had to return to Glasgow to meet other commitments requiring our builder to find anothe
God is in the Details

Accessible Ablutions 3 - Half Way Photos

This project has now been going for a week, and should be finished with just under another day of work.   Tiling and grouting has been done, and it is now just to fit the shower, the loo, and install shower screen and those grab handles etc that we have obtained so far. Then it will a case of experimenting and putting the final touches in as the shower is used.   Here are a few slightly rushed  photos taken at this stage.   Two runs of pipe installed for the future
God is in the Details

Accessible Ablutions 2 - Ducts for the Future

At the end of day two ... the shower tray is in. I was planning a moulded non-slip shower tray, but these are proving elusive without a special order so I have gone for a normal one instead and will add a full size non-slip mat.   The only other point worthy of note is that the UFH manifold-and-gubbins are under the stairs, but that a lot of other gubbins is in the garage at the other end, so I am putting in a couple of runs of water pipe in case they are needed later. These will be se
God is in the Details

Accessible Ablutions 1 - Strip Out

And so it begins ... the refurbishment of my downstairs bathroom to be a shower room.   The self-builder who added an upstairs and extension to the bungalow got a few things wrong, and one of them was that he put a bathroom downstairs, and a shower room upstairs; exactly the wrounf way round for when a frail relative or disabled visitor needs to have downstairs facilities.   So this summer both bathrooms are being overhauled - starting with the downstairs one this week.
Mr and Mrs Triassics New Home

The Slates Start Going on in Typical Cumbrian Weather

We have a lot of roof and the only planning condition we have, is that we use local slate, 18 tonnes of it at a cost of £22k.   So here’s the front roof of the house.   And the rear roof of the house.    A total of 18 separate roof planes in all! Why oh why did I let the architect talk me into this design?   Once the Timber Frame company left a local roofer started to batten our the roofs for our random width, diminishing course roof. Everything was
Druim nan Darach

Insulation 3 and rendering

The last entry was back in February when we put down some much needed flooring and we have made some progress on both the interior and exterior of the build.   The first job was insulating the first floor.    Two layers of 80mm quinn therm was then fitted between the rafters leaving a ventilation gap to the sarking/breathe membrane.     A final layer of 25mm quinn therm layer on top with a service void.   For the flat ceiling we used a couple of
God is in the Details

Checklist for Dodgy Media Articles

Inspired by *this* piece in a newspaper by Rupert Jones, I am compiling a Checklist of Items for testing the dodginess of an article.   1 - Is the author a specialist in the area being reported?   2 - Does the feature image actually relate to the content of the article? Is it giving a false impression?   3 - Does the Title represent the article accurately? Is it sensationalist? (The title is the snippet that will make Twitter).   4 - Does the "hook" (proba
God is in the Details

Supervisory Cats

For a reason or reasons unknown to me I am about to pen a short piece about cats.   I think it is mainly because @AnonymousBosch posted a picture of his supervisory cat, here.     Now, that cat is a lot of things, and whilst allegedly Jellicle (ie black and white), is not so. It is clearly a Rum-Tum-Tugger - particularly given a penchant for using 'playbites' as a slightly abrupt management tool.   It is also the fault of whoever did not tell me about the
Coffee Towers

Window dramas

So, I know I promised  tales of cladding and roofing in the last instalment, but I have reviewed my photo stream and in fact realised that the window install was the next thing. At the end of November (as we all know, winter is prime building time), we finally retrieved our bargain basement windows from storage and brought them to site. Ah, the bargain basement windows, a tale of joy, horror, stress, fury, confusion and eventual revenge all in one.    I should explain. When we had secu
Coffee Towers

Our house on a lorry

So, I just remembered that I actually had this blog. I'm killing time waiting for a phonecall, so, updates! Over a year later! Stuff has happened. Lots of stuff. Lots of money. Many tears. Some moments of "FFS, what?!", many moments of "HOW MUCH?" and "how the feck does this bloody shower fit together?" and a few, rare, beautiful moments of "woah, that looks awesome".    The last entry ended on a lovely "woah" moment of the successful pouring of our beautiful concrete floor throughout
God is in the Details

2019 Design of a High End HMO

I thought this might of interest to Buildhubbers. I have been sent this as material to inform the redecoration / minor makeover of a student house in the summer.   It is some pics of a recent 'Co-Living' (= HMO for Professionals) development designed by Comfort Lettings, one of the most forward thinking Lettings Agencies in Nottingham. It shows how these developments are evolving. It is a careful refurb of a largish terraced house roughly 15 minutes walk from Nottingham City Centre.
South coast ICF build

Putting the lid on

With our final concrete pour over last Friday, we breathed a sigh of relief. The worst of the messy work was done and it we could start work on the roof.   It was a heck of a week and loads got done, on a very busy and noisy site. Good for us but not for our neighbours. It’s a problem every build faces, maybe worse for a self build where you have known your neighbours for years and been on good terms. We’ve done what we can to keep noise down and not to work antisocial hours, but somet
Clancutt Lodge

For my Dad

Apologies for the lack of updates on the blog. Things have been quite taxing over the past couple of months, coming to terms with my Dad's unexpected passing.    I have struggled to find my feet, and to get anchored in the present again. My beautiful wife Kim and my (mental) kids have been amazing, and I think that I am ready to carry on in earnest.    Long story short, I am getting my mojo back a bit now, so expect a big update in the next 48h - there might even be a bit of
God is in the Details

Saving Stamp Duty on Derelict Properties

This is potentially relevant to Buildhub users who have purchased, or are purchasing, existing properties (derelict or habitable), in order to repair or replace them. It concerns whether you pay the Residential Rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax, or the Non-Residential Rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (which are lower).   (Gird your loins - slightly - for this, and get a cup of whisky plus a couple of Jaffa Cakes.)   This post is General Information only, and does *not* constitute advi
South coast ICF build

Three pours down..none to go - thank goodness

We’ve just done our final concrete pour, in fact two pours in one week. From ground floor to gables in two weeks with Easter in the middle is quick, a little too quick to enjoy. We can now get a real sense of how the house will look. Next week we are ready to start work on the roof.   Before building the first floor, a temporary floor was laid around the room perimeters using 12mm OSB. This was done to provide a working area to build the blocks from and allow bracing to be put in
Self-Build in Shropshire

Finishing the Shell

Sorry for the delay since the last blog. Things have been very hectic keeping a track of everything that is going on with the build and holding a job down !  As we approach end of January and move into February there are lots of things going on simultaneously on site including battening the roof in preparation for the roofers, finishing of fitting the smartply in preparation for blowing in the insulation and fitting the windows and doors.       The first window goe
  • jonM
God is in the Details

In a renovation install your ASHP early - here's why

If you install an air-source heat pump (ASHP) to heat your property, it will attract a subsidy called Renewable Heat Incentive, which is a payment to you based on how much CO2 emissions are saved by the installation of the system.   The calculation is done on the basis of the guestimated CO2 emissions numbers in your (less than 2 years old) EPC Report, taking potential savings by loft and cavity wall insulation (which you can often get done for free) into account. Naturally that means

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.