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Hi all, I would love your feedback on a concept I'm developing to make self-build and custom builds more accessible and easier. I'm a chartered surveyor and project manager, and noticed that there's a real gap in the market for the average person to choose a custom build over the boring generic new build developments churned out by the big housebuilders. As such, I am thinking of developing a platform to digitise land and building into a fully immersive digital environment, allowing people to visualise and customise their dream home pre-development. I would then project manage all the necessary disciplines to deliver their dream home! My intention is not to market or advertise this, simply to gather some valuable feedback from self and custom-build enthusiasts like your good selves 🙂 Many thanks in advance, Matt

We're in a blue tongue temporary movement restriction area. You are slap bang in middle of the the D&G cases. I don't think you can move goats onto or off your property at the moment, but you may be granted a licence. https://www.farmersguardian.com/news/4361142/bluetongue-updates

There is one kind of exception to to this is; MVHR, as if it's not certified you have to deduct 12% efficiency. Correct on other components though, it's the overal peeformance of the house, not compliance of any given component. U-value of our was 1.02 (vs. passive version 0.72), but it all comes out in the wash when you have good insulation and windows elsewhere, Also door blanks (with no glass) with such low u-value can be a bit too thick and a bit of a pain to handle. And to @JohnMo point, if you are using PHPP the garage can be configured with it's own temperatue zone, making the impact of u-value on this door even less important.

You need to fence goats in. And they don't eat anything, they will be quite picky if there's plenty of food. You need to pull any Ragwart out, that's in the area they have access to. If it's growing they should leave it alone if they have plenty of alternative foliage to eat, but if it's dead/dried they'll eat it and it's highly poisonous to them. I wouldn't suggest it, but you can put a collar and chain/line on them and stake them to the ground so they eat a 4m or 5m circle, but you need to move them a couple of times a day, make sure they have access to water and shade.

I likd the crab simile, albeit 3 legged. I called them triffids. That is what the first guy (steading) did and must be best practise I'd say. I would do that. Given that the latest people didn't have them and didn't have a decoiler or fixing gun ( they used ours which i had bought with the ufh kit), I suspect they are one of these sudden experts, seeing a market and not knowing how much they don't know. Not everything was poor.. they set out and fixed the ufh pipes very well.

any ideas on how to train goats not to wander off the property I got 6 acres of trees and scrub ,brambles ,nettles etc i know goats will eat anything any one have experience of training goats not just keep on wandering and coming back if called at night other than staking them down or becoming a goat herder

my screed contractor had little crab type things with adjustable pointers they put all over the floor - checked and adjusted with laser then started at one end levelled and removed them as they went all done in about 6hrs and last hour was spent cleaning out their equipment

Thanks for the heads up. Could members please use the Report function for anything dodgy, as we mods then get an alert. I will now put this account on ice, thanks.

you think the wood and plaster board + joiners will be any better

flat as a pancake-- no swirl marks no dips they just did it the right way and used a proper floor grinder and over that length any undulations would show i did ask about non glued at the beginning and even wood flooring and they said with all the heat coming through the big windows would move and warp and fade over time due to the size 8m wide and 15m long

Was it an MCB that tripped, or an earth fault device such as an RCD or RCBO? May be a good idea to take an MCB to a single socket and have the freezer running off that, to avoid future nuisance tripping. PS, if it’s tripped once, it’s likely that it’s a slow developing fault condition and it may be on borrowed time. With a freezer for bulk food stuff, I’d seriously consider a new freezer, if this one’s into double digits of old age.

🤣 He’s defo as mad as a box of frogs, but you’ve decided to enter this 4th dimension, and now you’ll never leave…... we’re trapped here forever. ”Send help!” Lol.

But have you gone back to designer and asked what is the minimum spec you need and still comply with what heat loss loss that applies - it's not black and white. The door by definition is protected and in a different environment to an external door. Nothing in a Passivhaus has to be Passivhaus certified just perform to a defined standard (which is variable dependant on form factor and many others). If you can only get a £7k door that is a stupid way to build a house (and doubt that is true).

They are expensive, but you shouldn't need to pay anywhere neer 7k or 8k. Other threads have details of much more modeatly priced Moralt ones. Also, remember you don't need the ones marketed "passiv" as long as u-value is good, and it is airtight and FD30 rated. We paid £1685.00 a couple of years ago for full doorset. The "passiv" version was £2206.00 for minor improvement in u-value.

Yes they have 'feathering compound' which they used in a few places. I think the youngster laying mine should probably have used some feathering compound on the grinding marks but didn't. I didn't see the grinder/sander being used but the machine was substantial and with vacuum extraction; I get tired of all the bullshit, salesmanship and and attempts at asserting authority over customers because - 'I have measured floors for 25 years and I can tell you this one is excellent'. I still think someone should make something like a robot vacuum that could crawl around a floor measuring and marking contour lines.

Looks excellent. Did you put a spirit level across it checking it yourself ? How flat do you reckon it is ?

Let's come back to the subject in 2 or 3 years.

If you cannot afford to loose a bit of space inside the i would sort the exterior walls first and let it dry out on inside the permagaurd is breathable to a degree--how much I cannot quantify but the moisture can evaporate from the inside it would have originally been done with lathe and plaster --which does leave small gap between stone and plaster you may have seen older houses with wooden panelling "wainscotting" from floor up to about 3 ft --that was to stop the rising damp from wetting the plaster --you can buy them but easy to make with t+g floor boarding --and a handy shelf on the top old house with suspended floors did not need it as much if outside ground level was low enough outside

all skirtings were fitted after cement board and self leveling -but before LVT-- so the grinder did not damage the skirtings i ma guessing there is too much of a gap inthe poly/pipe boards and that why they are moving -- all guess work

if you can afford to use 100mm +on inside of each exterior wall then build a 4"stud system --leave all the old plaster etc where it is and have a 50mm gap from studs to walls just make sure you have ventilation from below floor into your roof space -- job done If not then you will need to make sure outside of walls are lower than floor lv house will have no DPC --so you will always have some rising damp from ground -- If you can dig down round the house and make a gravel channel ideally top to be 6" below floor level and about a foot deep fit a french drain in bottom under the gravel --that should stop any rising damp as well then do what you like with choice of insulation and new PB - this air gap will also give you space for rewiring and plumbing etc

I'd also be reluctant to do anything drastic and expensive, hopefully the whole floor will float but stay flat and you'll get used to the creaks. One possible explanation might be a lack of expansion gaps around the edges of the room, so if you do ever need to investigate further I'd start by taking all the skirting off before doing anything to the floor itself

treat exterior walls once old render is removed with permagaurdmicro shield ultra or other similar product as long as pointing is ok then it will definatly work and stop an ingress through the stone work check it out will seal up to 2mm gaps worked a treat on my old house -- do not even bother with thompsons or similar cheaper type products do it once and do it right goes on like wallpaper paste and gets sucked in and drys clear and does not change colour noticably of the stone in about 2-3 hours job done for next 20uyears +

That works, but save some money and just use Thermolites. They are in a nice dry area, so will.work well.

his problem is poor preparation nothing else it needs to be flat like a slate bed from a snooker table -absolutely dust free before you start laying -- then it easy any imperfections in floor slab will show through using a hand held 9£ grinder will never work --needs to be the unit that looks like the old school floor polisher with extraction --big and heavy

Hmm yes I think you are right, we were going to go for tiles but now my lovely partner has pointed out that vinyl will be easier to clean!