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Thanks @-rick- Will reply properly tomorrow.

Got it - will look into that. Yeah I know - I can't see how to make it bigger without increasing the footprint though. Will do Yes, I wasn't sure how big they needed to be so went over rather than under. I'm worried about overheating - I did have larger patio doors/bifolds in there but it's a lot of glass that's bang south facing. I think I want the dining table to be near the fantastic view. Cheers

650mm might be ok, but still seems tight. I think if you want to design for accessibility you need more like 800mm. Given the space you are working with (and other areas of seemingly big open space) I think I'd personally want to use some of that space here. Maybe model it and see how things fit. Even if you need all that space, I would be tempted to shift the whole room right to create more space in the master. Another thing to consider is whether making this room wider but not as long would work (needs shifting other things around but I think you have potential to do it if you want). You mean external symmetry? For symmetry inside, I was thinking you'd put a window in line with the bedroom one at the other end of the building. So theres a continuous path through the building (if you leave the bedroom door open). But you also have kitchen island/wall in the way (even if needed for roof support it can likely be altered to accommodate this). Basically I like the idea but I think there is potential to improve it. I mentioned Noah Daniel before, he has a couple of floor plans where he's done this and the before/after from sometimes very minor changes is amazing. Does this clear things up? Not sure I'm getting across my thoughts. Dining tables come in lots of sizes (even for the same number of people). Obviously you want something that feels roomy but just worth bearing in mind that a different table might feel different. If they have bench seating (as in the drawing) that will close things in even more. The layouts are very different. I like yours more but I still get the feeling it can be further improved. Obviously it comes down to personal taste. As you have it is good for welcome guests as a wow factor but will be less good if you get unwelcome people at your door. Those you might not want seeing everything. To be clear I'm not saying you need a whole private lobby area, but think about ways of creating a bit more privacy if you want it. Ok, here I have some further thoughts. If you are on a limited budget then you might really want to think about your windows. If you stick to standard size glass then the glass is cheap and the frames are expensive. Your long narrow windows have a lot of frame to glass. If you go over about 1x2.4m then glass starts to get expensive, as does installation and handling it (it also increases the cost of the frames as they have to support the weight). Additionally, you have windows down the floor. The detailing of this will be more tricky to make look good. If you are doing all this yourself then might well be worth it for the look but if you are paying people to do it then it's an expensive look, especially as you are doing it on every window. Stepping back, part of the design of a new build is to place the property on the land. I know you've been shy about the plot details for good reasons but maybe it's worth sharing a little more (even vague outlines) to see if the plot offers opportunities?

Hi Everyone, I wondered if anybody had used or come across Interfuse Optilyte/Optilite blocks? They appear to decrease the U-value of the wall enough when used instead of Plasmor Fibolite or other lightweight aggregate blocks to meet building regs without making the wall deeper or having to use insulating plaster. Its hard to find a price online so wondering if it's a niche product, although E H Smiths have given me a price of almost £3000 for 1620 blocks. I'm really looking for a way to make a brick and block, full fill dritherm 32 150mm cavity wall meet building regs cost effectively without thermolites.

Ok, I know I need to check that. It seemed like it should be as it's bigger than my 2nd bathroom at home but I will do the maths and make sure. I think the open plan thing should be ok for me. I can just put the dishwasher on when I go to bed. I doubt I'd hear a fridge over the telly but I might. If it's really a problem I could carry the partition right across at a later date. This was actually my plan at first but with the vaulted ceiling I think it would be too complex. Ok, I will check that thanks. Ok, I was going with Gus's advice but will talk it over with him. Cheers

Fair point but I think I may have the internal walls a bit thick so maybe 650mm at the end of the bed? I will practice at home and see how that feels. I was thinking my son would stay in this room when he is home so maybe a desk looking out and a chair to throw his old clothes on? Yes I like that too. I was actually going to put a window in the ensuite at the gable end to balance the other two and form some symmetry but I forgot. Not sure what you mean there. OK. On Old Holloway the kitchen is a U shape sideways and seems a bit constrained. There's also not enough space for their dining table to my mind but that's because they've taken a chunk out of the building to act as a sun shade (I will attach some pics below). It just feels from looking at it and watching the videos where they are sitting around the table that it would benefit from a metre or more of space to get by. The half dividing wall between kitchen and living room was placed there to act as a support for the main ridge beam. I quite liked that if I am honest. I'd rather that than lose a whole room's worth of space to a lobby. I think it would show off the views right from the first step in the door. Other bits - I am on an extremely tight budget so I am hoping that between Gus Potter (SE) and I we could dispense with an architect. I get that they can be worth the money, but it's also no point them designing something that is impractical to build, so I probably value Gus's input more. But yeah - I guess I am asking in here as real-world input from actual self-builders is invaluable for this sort of stuff. I will check out the link.

We do enjoy a kaleidoscope of digressions on here, but a new thread in PP would be appreciated. Cheers. You can start by posting a link to this thread for context / continuity, but please add here again for anything relevant. Thanks for asking.

You’re a glass half full person, which is quote refreshing to see / hear. Time to start a new thread with the most dreaded DIY task ahead now Glad it all worked out well. “NEXT PATIENT PLEASE!” Lol.

I want to discuss the planning permission aspects of this, do the mods want me to start another thread or carry on this one ?

Circulation space in Bedroom 1 feels more cramped than in Bedroom 2 Bedroom3/Study is quite tight at only 2m wide - if it is a study, then fine. For a bedroom, I would go bigger. I'd keep the vaulted ceilings in the living/dining areas and bedrooms but certainly create a flat space above the hallways/bathrooms. Quite useful for running MVHR ducts and some sort of mini plant room (which is what we've done). Internal walls at 200mm are quite thick? Even assuming blockwork - 100mm plus plasterboard/skim means a bit of saving and 'extra space' in some rooms here Personally, I would have more glazing in the living/dining area but that could open up to solar gain as it looks south facing. Again, this is a personal choice but I would swap the kitchen and dining areas over - have a run of tall units on the back wall and a proper island. Current placement of the island looks out of place - and blocks the flow from the living area to the bedrooms. Much nicer views when using the kitchen and I guess eating at the island for a majority of the time - rather than the dining table.

Related to points 1 and 2 above, the en-suite is too small, I really don't think you will actually fit a shower, WC and basin into that space with all the required activity spaces. Do you REALLY want kitchen/ diner living as one room? We lived a while in this house as it was being built using the kitchen / diner as a living room as well. The noise of the fridge in what is supposed to be a quiet space irritated me, not to mention when the dishwasher went on. For me a separate living room is a must. One thought if you want to cover all bases is that straight wall would lend itself to accommodating a huge sliding door to close the two rooms off should you wish? I am not sure your kitchen is big enough to support a kitchen island under Scottish regs. You definitely need a 1400 by 1200 activity space between the island and the main kitchen units, you would have to check what the minimum width required is to pass the ends of the island. I would not use a roof pitch of 40 degrees. 45 is So much easier for marking out and actually building it. Only go lower if there is a height limit in planning.

Might come back with more thoughts later but these are things that spring to mind on first look: 1. If your master bed is 2000mm long (larger/european beds are often this length) then you only have 639mm of walking room around the end of it. Seems tight. 2. Relatedly, bed 2 seems disproportionate. What are you going to do with that space at the end of the bed? 3. Linked to point 1, both beds appear to be the same size. If they aren't already king/super king size then consider making the allocated space in the master suitable for that (even if you don't initially want a bed that big). Thinking mainly of window positions as that can't change later. Having said that, I like your positioning of the window centralised to the central corridor. That's a nice feature so keep that. 4. On that central corridor you may consider whether that flow through should continue (or be intentionally interrupted). What you have now seems neither. 5. Living/Kitchen/Diner doesn't sit quite right to me. Not sure why yet but keep juggling options here. 6. Front door opening direct onto the living space as currently seems a bit suboptimal. Not sure there's a better option but as with 5, playing with things may open up options. Stepping back and only regurgitating what I've read others say on here, consider how far you want to go into the details before speaking to an architect. If you are working on a tight budget and plan to spend minimum on architects (ie, more a arch-tech not architect) then go ahead and do as much yourself, but if you want to engage a proper architect then spending too much time now may artificially limit the options available to the architect. I'm sure there are lots of similar channels out there but I've found the 'fixing floorplans' videos made by Noah Daniel to be fairly inspiring with lots of good ideas how to make a great space. Maybe take a look. https://www.youtube.com/@noahdaniel.studio

Hi, I've been messing around in Sketchup trying to come up with a basic floorplan for my single storey house in Southern Scotland. I'm not a professional at CAD or anything so please forgive the roughness of the plans. They are very much a sketch at this stage. The design is loosely based on a house built to passive standards in Herefordshire in 2018 called Old Holloway which featured in a design segment on a Grand Designs episode. I liked the 'just enough' ethos of the design, but I have changed the layout. It is helpful that the architect has a blog which details a lot of temperature performance stats for the house and so on. The cranked external area is based on another Grand Designs featured property - again in Herefordshire. Some points: The external walls aren't shown thick enough at the moment as that part hasn't been finalised. Just now they are shown at around 350mm which is obviously not enough. The internal walls are shown at 200mm thickness and the internal doorways at 900mm. Internally will be a vaulted ceiling. Some parts ie bathrooms might be flat ceilings with storage above but I haven't worked that out yet. The internal wall height of the non-vaulted part is 2400mm. The lowest part of the wall in the lean-to is 1800mm. The angle of the main roof is 40 degrees. I've forgotten to mark north on the drawings but it is at the bottom of the page in the floorplan ie where the Sketchup logo is. Prevailing wind is from the south-south-west. The building isn't massively exposed but isn't particularly sheltered either. I'm planning on some sort of shading for the south face of the building, but I haven't figured that out yet. The building will be clad externally in black agricultural sheeting. It is in a rural area so I am hopeful that planning will allow this. There will also be an 8m x 6m garage which will be used to store bikes, hobby kit, tools etc. I'd love to know your thoughts and clever ideas.

Function certainly beats form here. I’d have to be painting that if it was stuck in the middle of my roof. Fair, but I am consoling myself with the fact that this now sits on my neighbours roof and so it's their problem! 😂 Actually, I must admit, even I've stopped looking at it now and so I am looking out for something else to worry about. Maybe I'll pick one of my own DIY jobs this time; plenty to criticise there I'm sure!

Function certainly beats form here. I’d have to be painting that if it was stuck in the middle of my roof. Won’t leak though!

Clear the grout / adhesive away from each outlet and get a decent sized bar as I suggested. 100mm is a stub, which will give you near zero effective leverage. You need 1mm of movement on each one to get you to 150mm centres, is that correct?

There’s loads available

🤣🤣🤣 Oh yes, I’d forgotten about that.

Good thought, but I think it's all pretty solid. I tried some 25mm Amazon decorative covers/Escutcheon with the 46mm cranked connectors that I have and they were cheap rubbish so didn't run true and were just to short as well. I've ordered yet another set of covers/cranked connectors: Grohe 12984045 dimensions which I hope are the same as these ones on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/GROHE-12662000-Grohe-12662000-S-Connector/dp/B003NA5M1Q I wish I could find these 35mm cranked connectors in stainless or Chrome: https://www.amazon.co.uk/HavenlyCove-S-Connector-Adjustable-140-160mm-Fitting/dp/B0H1BHB9TP

Oh I don't think they'd be pleased to hear from me again..! 😄

I get that, but what's your alternative? It's difficult to see how much leeway you may have and how embedded the fitting is, because the focus is on the rule rather than the fitting. What's going over the top to conceal it? Does that give you enough coverage to enlarge the hole slightly? Could you get a diamond holesaw over the top of the existing fitting to clear a little tile and adhesive/grout? You'd possibly need a template/guide to keep it from moving around, but it might be the best option to give you some play if it really is solid. Cut a hole in a spare tile. Stick that to the wall with something temporary (silicone?) to give you a guide?

2 different scenarios. The structural integrity won't be life threatening in small domestic circumstances but could in large buildings. The smoke is a threat in any size but obv only with combustible materials. In the test, the smoke filled a large sports hall sized shed in, from memory, 30 seconds following the flash-over. Flame climbed up the wall, about 7m, at about half m/s until it hit a critical stage and flashed up and across the 20m ceiling in seconds. That would be deadly. I don't think that test had any fireproofing, just ply or osb, but the principle applies. I once bought about 10 tins of intumescent paint and the merchant gave me a fancy certificate which basically said I had bought ten tins, plus lots of words. Nobody checked it was properly or fully applied. Another time, I instructed painters who claimed to understand the subject,to apply each tin over x metres of wall, thinking that made it easy for them. They proudly told me it had gone much further and I'd lots of spare tins to take back for rebate. From peering at exposed steel i have seen that the top seal coat often isn't applied I'm confident it will be in grand projects, but not on smaller private ones. For those who haven't used or seen the stuff, it usually requires multiple coats and is noticeably thick. It's expensive hence plasterboard is popular. Without a seal coat it can absorb moisture and scuffs easily. When heated it expands as char which protects the substrate. After a fire it rubs off like cigarette ash.

Hi stakes stuff, I'm a bit chicken on this since if something breaks I'm in a world of pain

The question needs to be how long it takes until smoke becomes a problem and how long until structural integrity fails. I suspect that most consumer products would fail a similar test. The Grenville Tower Enquiry Report has just been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, with both company and individuals named. Be interesting to see how fast the CPS act. Took the 18 months to prosecute me over some so minor that I was not even fined.

Reverse a clamp head and use it as a spreader between the two? Couple of pieces of softwood against the threads to protect them? You may need to pick away at any visible adhesive and/or grout if they are really bedded in, but strange if they are.