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Blogs

The House at the Bottom of the Garden

Plumbing Design – Part I

I have been doing the design validation of my plumbing solution partly so I am comfortable that it is feasible and partly to write this up so that others have a model of how to approach this task.  The last time that I did anything like this was with my current house where everything apart from taps for drinking water was fed off a (non-potable) header tank in the roof space and the central heating system was a classic 2-pipe (with branches) radiator system fed from a gas boiler.   Eve
  • TerryE
The House at the Bottom of the Garden

Harveys Water Softeners

If you have a Combi boiler, or SunAmp, or pretty much any device with a built in Plate Heat Exchanger (PHE) and live in any region which has hard water (about 80% the UK population), then you will need a water softener if you want any decent life out of your plumbing installation.  As far as I can see you are down to one of two options for a direct plumbing solution: the UK Harvey twin tank system and the US Kinetico range.  All of the rest are niche suppliers, IMO.  The Harvey system seems to b
  • TerryE
Construction in Cornwall

It's nearly dry!

So I'm still here, plugging away. Apparently I have a roof that is constantly underestimated in terms of the amount of work required. Both chippies and roofers took weeks longer than expected. Still, all part of the fun!   Since my last update the cut roof elements were completed, dormers etc. Tiling was completed this Monday. I've insulated the loft. Marley Cedral cladding has begun in the past couple days.    Next steps are for fibreglass flat roof to  hopefully be complete
  • Grosey
The House at the Bottom of the Garden

Heating the Slab – an overview

We have a passive-class house where the net heating requirement to keep the house warm in the coldest winter months is approximately 1kW.  The only heating system for doing this an underfloor heating (UFH) system base on 3 ~100m UFH loops buried in our passive slab.  That's it; no upper floor systems; no towel rails; nothing.  The reason for this is that our timber framed house is super insulated and air tight so there is very little temperature variation throughout the house, but that's all bee
The House at the Bottom of the Garden

SunAmp - our alternative to a UVC or TS

I just wanted to include a brief post explaining from a self-builder perspective why we have decided not to use an Unvented Cylinder (UVC), Thermal Store (TS) or combi-boiler for our domestic hot water (DHW) in our new build.  Instead we are using 2 × SunAmp PV heat batteries heated by E7 tariff.  So why? We decided that we don't need gas to be installed avoiding the Gas connection charges, per day supply charge and the maintenance costs on gas appliances.  Big saving here.
  • TerryE
The House at the Bottom of the Garden

Window and Door Detailing on a Stone Clad MBC Timber-framed House

As I've previously discussed we have an MBC Passive Slab and Timber-frame, but unlike most builds, our house also has a very traditional stone cottage-style exterior because the new build sits between our current farmhouse, which dates back over 400 years and a cottage which dates back approaching 200 years, so our planners required that we use the same local quarried stone.  So a topic that often comes up is "how do we do the window / door treatment on a timber-framed house with an exterior sto
Sips and stones may break my bones...

Price creep on the SIPs. The Grand Designs Effect?

Hmm, sent the full plans off for the SIPs price a while ago, and got the proposals and price back showing where steel beams would be required and were factored into  the price etc.  Sent our deposit off and now getting emails (in language we struggle to understand what they are actually trying to say) saying they'll have to add this that and the other - starting to get a bad feeling that the price is getting bumped.  The designer is saying they did not allow for X, Y & Z in the price and so
Scooby Cottage renovation.

Going, going, gone! The back wall, that is.

Not a lot happened over Christmas and New year while we waited for the builder, Patrick, to arrive to remove the pillar between the kitchen extention and the middle room.  We initially decided to not remove the pillar but after great thought, it seemed to be the best thing - it would create more light into the dark middle room and hopefully it would make the kitchen easier to fit out.  And at a cost of around £2k it was a large chunk of the budget.  This is the view across the room, into th
Wee Hoose on the Croft

If you like it then you should have put a roof on it

I had the offer of some help from a neighbour so decided to crack on with the roof sheets. These are corrugated sheets 4x1m and in the thicker 0.7mm spec, so fairly heavy and awkward things to handle. I did get the first sheet up and fixed by myself but am not daft enough to turn down an offer of help when it appears!   When I bought the roofing, I had recently read @ProDave's less than glowing review of Jewsons' plastic headed roofing screws, so made a point of asking what would be su
Sips and stones may break my bones...

Hooray!

Well, we finally started real work. Fortunately the snow melted yesterday, but the sun shone on us today and it was perfect weather for setting out and stripping the site.   We finally found a good builder with a lovely attitude and a fair price. I know these folks by reputation so was pleased to find their quote was competitive. Just the owner was on site today along with a digger driver from a firm he uses, and what an enjoyable day it has been. The two of them taking the mickey out of each ot
Wee Hoose on the Croft

New year update

I was about to write 'time flies by with too little progress to show for it' and then realised that was exactly what I said last time! Anyway, since the last update, I have battened out the walls and fitted the first layer of larch cladding on the gables. There was a fair bit of head scratching and working out how the detailing around the windows etc was going to work out before I could get on with the battens. The larch also had to be treated with preservative oil- this will be an ongoing task
An Orkney Build (in ICF)

Part 15 - Decorating and Landscaping

It's been a few weeks since the last update, but we've had plenty of activity on site.     The decorator has taped, filled and sanded the walls.  He was good enough to do the house in two sections, which let me paint one half of the house while he was taping and filling the other.  10 days in total of painting say me roll three coats onto the walls and ceilings.  First coat was a thinned down Armstead contract matt.  Second coat Armstead contract matt, finished by a third and final coa
  • Stones
The House at the Bottom of the Garden

Coping with a Thermal Flaw in the Design

(This post is a précis of a post and thread discussions that took place on the eBuild forum October last year and subsequent discussions with my builder.)   Many of the self-builders active on the forum will have used or be familiar with the Passive Foundation system marketed by MBC Timberframe.  The essence of this is that the foundation is a raft slab that incorporates a ring-beam that sits inside an EPS former.  This former both acts as shuttering for the concrete pour and as insula
  • TerryE
The Fun Irish (House)

So it begins...

I got the notion last week to start up a Blog on buildhub after enjoying the advice and knowledge everyone had contributed over the past year (or part thereof) since it launched. I've been on a journey to finding my own home for about two years after renting for the last 20. I thought I'd summarize where I'm at and how I got here to help others hovering around the same place and to spur them onwards to achieving their great dream too!    So, where am I exactly? I've completed Stage 1 -
Salamander Cottage

Piling: Preparing for the Quotes 2 - costing

Making a sensible guess at what it might cost We already know from the previous Blog Post that , at the moment, Stone Columns is the preferred method. So, it's straight to SPONS for a look-see.  Here's a link to the book, it's expensive, but it's saved me more money than I care to count - and here's the twist - it's increased my level of confidence no end. Because I know what a reasonable price is likely to be. Here's the link to a post I made about it recently - goes into more detail
Salamander Cottage

Piling: Preparing for the Quotes 1 -piling method

'Forewarned is fore-armed' say some. Others 'do your due diligence'. Bottom line - do some background research. Here's mine. (With as many internet links links in as I can to help you with yours) If you can pick a hole I what I write, or see that I've missed something, I'd be so grateful if you could tell me. Method We already know that we have to pile. Does the SI report give a hint at which type of pile? Have a look at this Phase 2 SI Report: Concrete Design page 12, point 7.4:
Sips and stones may break my bones...

Hurry up... and wait

Well, progress of sorts, with BR agreement to the plans and finance decision in principle all fine.  Getting builders quotes has proved very problematic for some reason, which wasn't an issue I foresaw. Out of 12 who responded via those check-a-trade and trusted people web sites, only 2 eventually came through with anything, one very detailed and very good, who is so busy they could only offer to do the founds, another who I really liked when I met the owner, but whose quote came in one day and
Construction in Cornwall

It's going up!

Just a few new photos of current progress. Tanking was completed and polished concrete slab finished at 2am on a Friday night a few weeks ago. Which meant standard house construction could finally begin. Things have progressed well with no major snags at this stage, up to first floor level now ready for block and beams delivery on Monday. The Steels that arrived were a fair bit more substantial than we were expecting. Lots of fiddly work at this stage but after the 1st floor is in place I'm hopi
  • Grosey
An Orkney Build (in ICF)

Part 14 - Drainage and a few other things

Work continues on site with our foul and surface water drainage now installed;      Following an initially negative assessment of the treatment plant design by the digger driver, its installation worked out far better than he or I expected, causing him to take back everything negative he had said.  A hole was dug out to the required depth and the conical shaped treatment plant lowered in.  Naturally it pivoted about on the point of the 'cone', but all it required was four le
Scooby Cottage renovation.

Rendered, painted and some heat!

Things have been moving forward last month with the render on the gable wall finished.  I think it looks great and so I was able to get it painted as we have had such good weather!  Three coats on the new bits and one coat on the rest.  And the idiot that I am, I have no photographs of the finished work from up the scaffolding.  You will just have to take my word that it looks really good!    But with autumn here and winter arriving far too quickly, it was becoming clear that we needed

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