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I appreciate very few will have read, let alone remembered, my original post in this thread (hence I've quoted it for context), but i thought some may be interested in an update, 8 years on. Just before we moved in in October 2017, my wife had a spirometry test on her lung function. It showed, despite having nebulised antibiotics for 18 months, that her lungs had worsened, with capacity having deteriorated to 50% (from 65% three years earlier). She stopped using the nebuliser around three weeks after moving in, and has only used it for a few days in total in the 8 years since. In late December, as part of a pre-assessment for surgery for an unrelated condition, the anaesthetist requested a new spirometry test. Remarkably, it shows that her lungs have not measurably deteriorated since 2017. I can't say for certain that the house can be credited entirely for this result, but it has certainly played a massive part, and this is one bubble that refuses to burst.

One of the things we paid someone to do for us. Spines are powder coated. Cabling for lights runs inside the spines. Steps made from walnut kitchen worktops. Spindles are solid walnut. Glass is 10mm toughened from Cornwall Glass. Why walnut? It goes with the breakfast bar made from the walnut tree we cut down, also made by same person (Principle Constructions based in Cornwall).

Quite a sobering thread this tbf. I was not aware that this grinds folk down quite as much as it seems to, the old "self-build" malarkey....... I use BH to shed my brain of the excess energy floating around between my ears, quite bad ADHD etc, and an interest shared here and on eBuild, our home before Buildhub, where it's just nice to see and hear people ask questions and then have us lot intervene so they then don't have things go "tits-up". I'ts nice to have a hand in the prevention of such events. For any folk who are a bit befuddled or overwhelmed and want to get off the starting blocks with their projects, if this helps, I'm happy to do so some 30 mins Teams / phone chats FOC. I can offer advice for groundworks / substructures / superstructures, insulation and airtightness, right through to fenestration, roof and solar etc, or ask me which ASHP or MVHR is the best one to go for etc. 60 min chats not a prob, with maybe members then offering up a small donation to the Buildhub coffers for our annual running costs or whatever. Buildhub is a free-to-join forum that is completely volunteer run and operated, and is not for profit btw. Without donations, it would not exist. I cover pretty much A-Z, so quite comprehensive, and if anyone is interested just ping me a PM and I'll slot you in when I'm between doing other stuff I imagine it'll be like a really coarse, Welsh AI lol. The caveat is, it'll be offered to contributing members only, so no piss-takers need apply IIRC @ETC offers up a bit of selfless support here and there, so it's not uncommon for good folk on here to give up their time to give struggling members an occasional leg-up. I'm sure a few other regulars help, such as @craig, other maybe going unsung so sorry if I missed anyone also deserving of a mention here. "Long live the Hub".

I was drawn to this thread as I was badly struggling for motivation in the couple of months before Christmas, especially trying to undertake tasks single handedly that really required someone with 8 arms, and a lot more height and strength than I have. I eventually got to the point where I was barely achieving anything, and getting more and more self-critical and fed up. Constantly tired, frustrated, and aching. I decided to speak to my GP and started taking anti-depressant medication, which has made a tremendous difference already. In addition, I decided to take up the offers of help that people have given me, and aimed to structure activities around that help in a way that makes it feel the most effective, eg. getting some large boards up on the wall with a few screws so that when I'm back to working alone I can do the simple task of filling in the remaining screws. It isn't even slightly surprising that the pressures of undertaking a self building project can have a negative impact on mental wellbeing. Even the most optimistic of us can get worn down by the feeling of it being relentless and interminable. Asking for help can be transformative.

This time of the year gets to me - sometimes. And in the context of self-building, its dark for longer, wet for longer, cold for longer, windy for longer than I'd like. Optimists say that some of that can be sorted by proper clothing, and decent site lighting. But wetness can make a site misery quicker than anything, cold can stop concrete and mortar dead. Wind is a bastard on a scaffold. Self building's a character test. The push to complete never lets up despite all of the above. I suspect that a few of us are having to 'dig-deeper-than-normal' these days. Got any ways of picking yourself up when things are more than merely gloomy?

Hi everyone. It’s been four weeks since the last blog instalment and despite the Christmas and New Year break, quite a lot has happened. Apologies for a somewhat scattergun approach but I wanted to try to cover all the progress. Kitchen units and appliances Last time, just before Christmas, carpenter Chris was halfway through fitting our kitchen units. That work was completed during the first week of January in readiness for… Kitchen worktops Martin from Langford Stone came out to template the kitchen/pantry/utility units for our worktops. While he was at it, we also asked him to template for several granite surfaces for our master ensuite. A week later Langford’s team of four fitters arrived with some very large slabs of granite, which they duly fitted without issue and to a high standard. We’re very pleased with the results: Internal doors Chris and Alan fitted the four pocket doors to the sliding gear installed back in September, before plastering. They then fitted the oak door linings for the 8 conventional doors and hung those doors. The door linings required some thinking about because we originally opted for rebated linings but these have had to be reinforced with ply backing to give enough meat to confidently screw in hinges that can take the weight of the (44 kg!) doors. We hope still to get the rebated look by fixing full width door jams, which we’ve now ordered. The doors themselves are 33” Avon Oak fire doors from Todd doors. We opted to buy them unfinished because the factory finish doors felt a bit ‘plasticky’. Mrs P. has done a brilliant job with sealing them with Osmo Door oil and we are very pleased with the results - they have a lovely look and feel to them . The doors supplied were really good quality - no need for further sanding before oiling and no complaints from the carpenters (except about the weight!) Troy Pointer supervising operations: 2nd fix electrics After a pause at the beginning of January, Darren is now back with us and making good progress on the second fix electric. Skirtings Steve, our tiler came in to fix the porcelain skirting tiles and was able to make a start, but the rethink needed for the door linings meant we are not ready to fix all the architraves just yet. So he has promised to come in on a future Saturday to finish those off. The skirting tiles themselves are 900 mm long and have more of a bow in than we were expecting (well I was expecting them to be flat to be honest!). Steve was worried that they would not look great but in reality unless you look along the line of the wall you can’t really notice the bowing and we are happy to live with it (especially since we can’t think of any sensible alternative at this stage). Once grouted or caulked to the same colour as the walls we don’t think it will be an issue. Ensuite boxing-in I’ve been whiling away the odd hour here and there preparing the ensuite for final fix by my brother next week. There’s quite a lot of pipework which needs to be hidden - given the way the house design squeezes three bathrooms into a small space, the stud walls are just not wide enough to take it all. So my idea was to create some boxing-in using spare 4x2s to hide the pipes, provide some built-in cupboard space, and form a framework for timber cladding on the lower walls. Sure, I could have asked the chippies to do this and they’d have done a great job in no time... but where’s the fun in that? For the timber cladding itself we’re going be using some of the left over Brimstone heat treated ash we have used to clad the outside of the house. This time of course we'll seal it with Osmo oil. The quality of that Brimstone Ash is too good to waste solely on the outside. You will hopefully be able to see from future blogs whether this bathroom design idea has been successful or not but for now here's some 'boxing-in'. Moving in next month! I mentioned in the previous blog that we had brought forward our target moving in date to the end of February. We now have a removal date booked of 23rd February. - so only five weeks away! We should be fine, we could probably move in and camp now if needed. The main things we really need sorting are a fully working bathroom, electrics, and ideally smooth and solid access to the front of the property. Hopefully we can get all that done in the next five weeks. Council tax Mrs P. and I were wondering about bin collection and also how soon the council would want to start charging council tax, when lo and behold the man from the council turned up. He explained the process, gave us a form, and told us we could request bins (for which we have to pay a £81 one off charge - of course we do). Since we will be ceasing the council tax liability on our rented house, we are happy to start paying council tax on the new house. The council man said it could take three or four months to get a council tax valuation but they will backdate the charge to our move in date. Address After seven months(!) Royal Mail have finally got round to adding our address to their postcode checker database. They say on their website that they will only add it when you move in but as anyone who has self-built will know it’s really very difficult to arrange deliveries, service installs, etc. if your postcode is not on that Royal Mail database. My advice for anybody starting a self-build is get that address registered as early as possible. Fibre Another service that’s taken seven months from request to delivery is our full fibre to the house. Many of you will know this is a new build building control requirement for England, so we requested (and paid for it) back in June. It finally arrived last week. Unfortunately we didn’t get added to the Openreach fibre database straight away so no service providers could offer us a fibre service until that was resolved earlier this week. We’re hoping to get the broadband service up and running next week. Focus for the next two weeks: Electrics, still lots to do. We’re hoping to have two sparkies in for most of next week so they should make a lot of headway. Plumbing. My brother Chris is back for 4 days next week and will focus on getting our master ensuite up and running, the kitchen & utility sinks fully plumbed in, and then if there’s time progress on the family bathroom and guest ensuite. Landscaping. Ashley, our garden landscaper is making a start on the front landscaping from Monday. We’re really looking forward to seeing the crushed aggregate disappear under something more wheelchair-friendly. Dashboard: Contractor days on site this past four weeks: 47 Contractor days on site since build start: 495 Budget: No change - over budget but within contingency. Plan: Moving in booked for 23rd February. Issues and worries closed this fortnight: N/A Current top issues and worries: None.

In case anyone is interested, we had some good news today. To recap: the plot is a disused commercial building, in a village centre, in a Conservation Area, and in a National Park. It's directly overlooked by the neighbours who are on higher ground. There were two reasons for refusal - the impact on the Conservation Area and the impact on the neighbours. We'd offered a detailed study of the local area and showed how our design responded to it. The Inspector agreed with us. But the Inspector agreed with the neighbours that there would be a negative impact on them. He weighed it on the opportunity to redevelop a derelict site, the need for housing and the environmental credentials (EPC B in this case). So that's the end of that chapter. Start = 11 July, site visit = 9 October, decision = 5 February. Thanks for the moral and technical support from this group, and I'm happy to share more details if anyone needs them. Now the actual work begins!

That's a good call on both counts. My recommendation is also to have a serious look at the tools out there available - as well as rigs you can knock up with spare timber - that can make your life easier to move and fit materials. One of the things I've noticed is that the trades and builders generally are really bad at thinking things through like this and will scoff at stuff that makes life easier - as a consequence we unconsciously follow those practices. Building on your own takes a very different mentality than a testosterone filled building site with lots of labour available or those who are willing to harm their bodies (I once got laughed at by a builder for putting on some chain saw trousers when I was about to chop down 3 trees). One very small example is atool I bought several years ago was this: https://grabo.com/ It turns lifting plywood, plasterboard, windows, paving slabs, you name it, into a one person job and means you can hold a sheet up to a wall single handedly with putting in a screw with the other. When I first started using it I got giggles from staff in the builders merchants about how I'd just got the vibrator out. Then that turned into how they wished the company would buy a few in for them. I had no idea how much I'd end up using it.

Weeks 56 to 74 The UFH is laid and the screed is providing a lovely wobble free surface for the ladders and makes brushing up so much nicer. Our neighbour kindly lent us his scaffold tower so that we could insulate the vaulted ceiling in the open plan area which is approx 5m high. This has enabled me to finish insulating between the rafters with 140mm of Rockwool and I have PIR sheets to put up under the rafters. For cutting both the Rockwool and the PIR I created a few templates of different angles and had them ready for when my husband came to help pass them up to me. Once the Rockwool was finished we both took it in turns on the scaffold tower fitting the PIR. Having a vaulted ceiling in the openplan area and partially vaulted elsewhere will give us plenty of light and nice high ceilings but for now they are awkward to cut around to insulate and ensure the VCL is tight around the junctions. The time spent doing this will no doubt be forgotten once we move in and it is starting to feel closer. We marked out the kitchen island location and dining room table location to get first fix electic lighting located and measured for the kitchen units. For my birthday treat our daughter came to stay and dog sit our elderly Greyhound so that we could go shopping looking at kitchens. We spent almost 4 hours in Wren Exeter with Harvinder but we think we have ordered a lovely kitchen and pantry. Unfortunately our neighbour needed the scaffold tower back but said we could borrow it again as soon as he had finished with it. We then decided we should book in the plasterer as things were starting to come together, rather luckily for us our plasterer had just had a job cancel on him and when we spoke to him on a Thursday he said he could start next week either Tuesday or Wednesday. As we hadn’t finished insulating one side of the vaulted ceiling we said we couldn’t be ready that quick unless he wanted to quote for fitting the PIR and the VCL, which I had already purchased most of. We then spent the weekend and Monday getting first fix electrics in the kitchen and mocking up where the TV was going to get the electrics and room wall lighting ready. Things have therefore started to move on quicker than we expected, so we are hopeful of moving in by winter this year with a working kitchen, one bathroom and one bedroom finished at least. Kitchen design render. Testing TV and speaker location. Even with the plasterboard lifter its hard with 3 on the scaff and one on the lifter, so glad I'm not doing it. Taking time off the insulation has meant I can tidy the UFH expansion foam up in all the rooms and the trip hazards we kept ignoring at door room openings, whilst being on hand for the plasterers if they need more tape etc or have any questions. Once they have finished with the VCL membrane I might finish the VCL I started before we borrowed the scaffold tower or I could take a rest from the build and catch up on so many other things, even paint schemes maybe. I have caught up on the build paperwork this weekend. The total spend to date including the provisional kitchen figure of £15,000 which includes VAT, units, worktop, tiles and some appliances so not the reclaim amount. Total to date £238917 over 135m2 is £1770 m2 for a 3 bed, 2 bath, bungalow This is broken down as follows. General £4200 Carpentry £500 Kitchen £15100 Roof insulation, inc membrane and tapes etc £4500 First Fix Electrical £1230 First fix plumbing and partial bathroom costs (ongoing) £1430 UFH £900 Drainage and gutering £8540 Floor insulation inc tape and membranes £2670 Screed £2740 Cladding (over ordered but ideas are developing) £5690 Render £3090 Solar 7.5 KWp £8570 Roof £23300 Windows £20870 no front door yet. ICF Construction £119600 Pre build costs and fees etc £15830 The back of envelope guesstimate of future spend is £35k to finish apx £2k per m2

I think what you've done is that brave, put your head above the parapet, admission of human vulnerability in an arena that is still steeped in 'manly toughness' mythology. And what you've done is highlight the experience that probably most, if not all self-builders go through during their build. I come from a psychology background - I began in the engineering field and then gravitated to psychology, so I originally trained to BACP levels in counselling and eventually moved into a field called coaching psychology where I worked with a combination of high level athletes, business leaders and business founders. Now, I can say that every single one of my clients has experienced major ups and downs and a lot of their time is spent grafting in uncomfortable places. But context is everything. In both business and sport there is at least a good proportion of acceptance around psychology and mental health. The most successful ones embrace this as of primary importance for their day to day function and successes, but even in these contects, there is still a long way to go. My experience so far of the construction industry is that it hasn't even begun to accept this. When I go and see construction sites, I don't see pleasant, human environments and people just don't talk about or readily and openly acknowledge their vulnerability. Sometimes I see quite frankly highly unpleasant working environments, with lots of miserable staff - which I see as one of the reasons why we get such shit building and trade quality - it's a UK construction industry cultural context that just doesn't seem anywhere close to shifting. Last summer I spent a couple of weeks in a construction academy training centre and it was one of the most miserable places I've been to in a long time and the trainers wonder why they get such poor engagement, performance, and results from students. This cultural context to me goes a long way to explaining why the construction industry has one of the highest rates of suicide. Here's a quote from the ONS about this: " These are pretty alarming figures. There are obvious exceptions to this. I know a contractor fairly near to me who runs a small company where he treats and pays his staff well. As soon as you go on site you can tell this from the nice, smiley and friendly atmosphere. In another example, a previous client of mine who engaged me when he started up, we spent 18 months to 2 years exploring how he wanted to lead the company and what kind of culture he was looking to foster as he wanted to be very different from his experience in construction with very large construction companies. Most of his contracts are in Europe but his company has now surpassed £1 billion in annual revenue. The context of a self-builder changes things and can make them more complex, especially if you're very hands on. As a self-builder you are completely invested and I know myself that this can make you feel trapped - you can't just walk away like you can from a job because not only have you ploughed loads of money into it, it's your blood, sweat and tears too. It's personal. You're also in the construction industry, but an outsider without necessarily having all the domain knowledge to navigate your way through a different working environment. So it's realy no surprise that self-builders feel down and it's great that this is being discussed so openly here with so much support being offered. I too can offer help and to talk, if someone wants to do so. I'm based just out side of Bath Oh, and to mention a little celebration I had for myself yesterday. My company is now officially MCS certified for design and installation of air source heat pumps - but please don't crucify me for that 😉

Prior to starting our build and when deciding on what and how we would heat the house we were told more than once that separate heating upstairs was not required. Ours is not at Passiv level, it does have a .11 roof, .12 floor and .15 walls. We have UFH downstairs and a total of 6 radiators upstairs. All on a single unmixed heating zone. Radiators were sized for the expected heat loss and flow temperatures. The bedrooms are at about 18.5 - 19 degrees which feels a little chilly to me. Heat does not appear to reach upstairs very effectively. We have a centrally located 180 degree return staircase. There is a noticeable gradient in temperature as you get to the landing, which surprised me. Now, i fully accept that our single zone design with a flow temperature that has not so far ever got above 38 degrees even at minus 5 in December is not best suited to radiators upstairs. But that is not the point. If we had gone without radiators at all upstairs we would be in trouble . For those contemplating going without any heating upstairs i hope this little tale is helpful. keith

Week 36 When I posted the previous blog two weeks ago we were looking ahead to activity on the bathrooms and electrics, and also to making a start on the landscaping. Since then it’s been a fortnight of progress and challenges… Bathrooms My brother Chris made brilliant progress throughout the week he was with us. A toilet, basin and shower screen were fitted to finish the guest ensuite, a basin and shower screen fitted in the family bathroom to finish that room, and the bath, hand shower and basin were fitted in the master ensuite. It was all going really well. Too well. And sure enough disaster struck while fitting the wall-hung shower toilet in the master en-suite. We* were gently tightening the bolts that hold the toilet to the frame when there was a ‘ping’, then a crack appeared around one bolt boss, before replicating itself on the other boss, and then the whole pan came away from the frame in a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly. Which was a bit disappointing, to say the least. (*Yes, I was 'helping' - that could be the true root-cause of the problem to be fair.) That white rectangle on the wall is a foam pad which is meant to cushion the pan against the wall to be trimmed away after fitting. We obviously never got that far. The actual cause proved to be a mismatch between the TECE wall frame instructions and those supplied with the GSI Ceramica WClean toilet. We followed both sets of instructions as closely as you ever can follow these modern 'pictogram', wordless instructions. Sadly, this led to the pan being inadequately supported directly behind the bolt bosses and the pan shattered as the bolts were tightened and the stresses rose in the ceramic. Here's the template the TECE frame instructions encourage you to cut out around. Which leaves you with an unfortunate void around the bolt holes. Of course, as soon as it happened we both kicked ourselves for not spotting the problem beforehand. At that point, I wished I had bought a Geberit frame and toilet as I originally intended rather than being persuaded by the bathroom showroom that these were better products. In fairness to the showroom (Island Bathrooms in Salisbury) they immediately agreed to supply a replacement pan, which arrived this week and we will have another attempt to fit it when my brother is back with us next week - first making sure that those bolt bosses are fully supported! Fingers-crossed! Notwithstanding that disappointment, as well as all the great bathroom progress Chris found time get the kitchen sink and Quooker tap, and the utility sink all plumbed in too! Landscaping Ashley Ralph, our landscaper, made a start on our external landscaping during the wettest January for years! (We had 259mm - over 10” - of rain in the month in our corner of Dorset.) Having temporarily turned our relatively tidy site into a recreation of the Battle of the Somme, he has quickly got a good covering of type 1 packed down and the site looks relatively tidy again. In fact tidier than it did before. To be fair, Ashley does keep things very tidy. Concrete pad for a future potential car port. The plan is to tarmac most of the front to make vehicle and wheelchair access nice and easy. We did consider a layer of hot-rolled grit over the top, which we did in our previous house and which looks attractive but when it’s not being walked into the house the grit collects dirt over time and becomes impossible to keep clean. So tarmac it is. Behind the house is more complicated with a fall of 1.6m over 17m of garden. To make that as wheelchair accessible as possible we have an intricate plan of terraces, ramps, dwarf retaining walls and planting beds which we’re hoping Ashley can install in our relatively compact garden. This mini-project could be running for some time! Cladding Alan, chippie No. 1, came in for a week and all the timber wall cladding is now done! All that remains now on the cladding front is for some of the soffits including those under the front and rear roof canopies, to be clad. The chippies may need to perfect the art of hovering above in-progress landscape works while they do that (!) Electrics Electricians seem to have become a bit scarce, which is a worry. To be fair we had two in the week before last, and a lot of lights were connected up but no significant milestones seem to have been reached. We still have a lot to get through to have a fully wired house before we move in on the 23rd February. And no electricians are planned on site until 9th Feb, so this is becoming a concern. Tiling We’ve also struggled to get our tiler in to finish off the porcelain skirtings - a couple of planned visits cancelled due to illness. Whilst we could move in with the skirtings as they are now it is obviously preferable not to be trying to finish them off with our furniture in the room. A ‘plan B’ is emerging to allow us to get this one over the line without relying on our principal tiler, who although good does not appear to be in great health right now. Internal joinery We have some further oak sections on order to give us enough material to finish the pocket door frames in oak rather than the primed MDF Eclisse supplied. Also since we have decided to opt for full width door stops to give a rebated door frame look, we are waiting for those to arrive so that they can be fitted. The oak door frames and architraves really do set the doors off well - we’re very pleased with them. Focus for the next three weeks: Electrics, still lots to do. Plumbing - that wall hung toilet! Landscaping - onwards and downwards. Packing - it has to be done , because… … we’re going to be moving in in three week’s time! Dashboard: Contractor days on site this past two weeks: 32 Contractor days on site since build start: 527 Budget: No change - over budget but within contingency. Plan: Moving in booked for 23rd February. Issues and worries closed this fortnight: N/A Current top issues and worries: Whether the electrics will be done in tome for our move. Hanging that toilet.

Thanks all for the supportive replies. This forum is one of the best sources of support a self-builder could have. I want to give special thanks to @BotusBuild and @Fallingditch for their generosity with both practical and moral support, and to @Gus Potter, @Nickfromwales, @ProDave, @SteamyTea, @ToughButterCup and others who have responded to threads and direct messages with advice and wisdom that I could not have managed without. Knowing that you guys are here, and willing to show such kindness and generosity with your time and knowledge, is invaluable.

This is the bit that's the toughest for me especially when trying to balance everything else that's important in life. With the build, it's not like going home from the office and switching off. One of the things here is that my boys have grown through their teenage years on a building site, but I've spent a lot of time with them away from the build, which at the moment seems to have been the best thing for them. They're living in a warm, dry house, and have their own bedrooms, a bathroom and a functional kitchen, it's just so many other areas of the house still need a lot of work. Deepest winter does seem to be the worst. I approached it with the mentality of - just do one thing, however small it might be. Rather than looking around and seeing how much needs to be done, it's about seeing what little things can I do here or there, even when the weather or light is against me. It's not the solution, but it can very much help. Sometimes I'm surprised by how much gets done as a result and how even just getting some plasterboard put up, can feel so satisfying. But then, sometimes, it is just a pure grind and I see that as just a temporary phase that'll change in a few short days or weeks.

That's the trouble with this country - lowest standards possible. And a general public that are willing to accept that. So a cheap 30kW combi that only modulates down to 10kW, thermostat in every room, boiler that lasts about 5 years because it cycles so often. That'll do

So took delivery of the 4kW Haier ASHP today. So far first impressions are very good. Consists of an outdoor unit, complete with expansion vessel and pressure relief valve, inside the monobloc. Inside the packaging is also a controller and indoor wiring unit. So can return the one I thought I had to buy. So total cost is £2100 delivered to the door from Wolesely. Photos to follow with full install story

I line them, cures the problem, very little loss in capacity and no more condensation

I wake early every single day, mind racing. Overwhelmed is how I'd describe it. Everywhere I look I've unfinished stuff. Be it practical projects or "sorting pensions out". It's a hole I can't seem to get out of. Money is tighter than it's probably ever been so tricky to justify buying materials. I'm back eating crap as a comfort so the health isn't great. There's stuff I can't discuss on a public forum. Then, though there's a select few I confide in, I worry it's unfair to lay it on them. The Black Dog I think they call it. Shrink, life coach? I feel a bit entitled too. As in I'll help anybody, go the extra mile etc but it seems a bit one way. Just feels like a train I can't get off.

Oh, yeah. Gets me all the time. I'm so glad this thread is here to expose the shared experiences 😄 Here' my two pennies worth which is influenced by my working with people psychologically and teaching my Tai Chi classes, but also from how I'm at ease with my mistakes building (well, apart from one - see below) - I actually appreciate them because of what they represent. 1. Don't try to make it die. The first step here is to embrace the f**k up, and do it in a compassionate way. 2. look at the self-build process as a learning process not at the outcomes. I get this every week in my Tai Chi classes when students tell me they're afraid to practise at home in case they get it wrong and build bad habits. So I first ask them if they intend to build bad habits and they answer 'no.' Great start. Second is that I then explain that there is absolutely no way you can get something right first time if you've never done it before and to get it right you have to do it wrong many times, sometimes 1000s of times, if not more. I never tell my students they got it wrong, I just guide them towards improving. Learning is about getting it wrong. You need to remind yourself about this over and over. I see stuff in my house and then just ask myself if I did my best at the time and have I learned from it. If the answer is yes to both, that's a great help. It sits much nicer for me and is comforting. The only time I can't get over it is when I see some stuff from a disastrous period when I got a couple of people in to help me - paid trades - and they cocked up. I still look at those bits and wish I'd done that myself, because even if I cocked up I did it with my best intentions! But with time they're dissappearing into the unseen background The important thing here is not to be narrow in your consideration of what you learned. This isn't just about learning a technique or build method, it's about whether you learned to make better decisions, learned to ask for help when you needed it, learned to be more self-sufficient, learned to be more self-confident. It can be learning about anything related to your experience. 3. Learn to think about whether what you've done is good enough, not perfect. For me there are some Asian cultures that produce very high quality goods and appear to be perfect in many ways in what they produce. Now we all know they're not. But one thing that they all have inherent in their culture is to never seek perfection, or in some countries seek perfection fully in the knowledge you'll never achieve it. And also they purposefully leave something unfinished (a minor unfinished bit that most people won't see, but the make will!) The reasons they take this approach is because nature is never perfect and it is still unfinished, and why go against nature. Instead look at creating overall harmony. 4. Time is a great healer. Get on with what's next in life and eventually those mistakes will fall away in importance 5. If you're questioning decisions you made that turned out wrong, stop to remind yourself that you were, literally a different person with different information to hand when you made the decision. You're now someone completely different with new knowledge and experience so you have no place to be going back to give the earlier you a hard time for those decisions. Again, go back to reflecting on what you learned and what you got out of the experience. And if you've got some interest, wonder how it will support you going forwards. Maybe some of this helps...

@SimonD Well done, and not just on the MCS stuff. I come from an engineering background, but moved over to education 3 decades ago. Public funded education services have totally lost their appeal to me so ended up in hospitality. May seem a strange 'career' but they all have a lot of similarities. The main ones is dealing with people, attention to detail and cost. I find dealing with people terrifying, but put some self created strategies in place, these help me cope. Building anything, be it a skyscraper or lasagna, is about detail at all stages, usually it is the early stages that make the difference. Cost, as opposed to price, is really about value, while those words are often used interchangeably, they need to be used correctly, with the interactions between them understood. Now none of that is of any help when you are down in the dumps, with the holes filling up with shit, so be careful about digging another hole, it may cause a bigger problem later on. Essence of most building is to keep it simple, that does not mean a basic, just that the processes has to be broken down into achievable tasks. If the task requires an extra pair of hand, ask for that help. Also, when undertaking just about any task, make sure you have room to work. This is usually an area of easily clearable space that you put your tools on, or your tea: your mind needs a similar space. If you feel there is no space left, stop. Making a bit more room is not waste, it is part of the efficiency process. The weather. You can't control that, but you can manage the effects. I do not claim to have any SAD (I actually think, with no knowledge, that it is a combination of things), but I know I hate the cold and getting wet (I grew up in the tropics). it is the rain that causes the biggest problems in my opinion. Hammering in a nail becomes hard work when you are dressed up like fisherman, with hammer that is slippy wet and a nail that has fallen into the mud. Sometimes it is just best to stop. So what are the solutions. For me it is to go out to a cafe and read (usually on the phone these days). It is amazing, if you do it on a regular basis, the people you meet. I now know an electrician, a retired book shop owner, a dog trainer (security not pets), a recent graduate mechanical engineer, a highly intelligent young mother, and a couple that look after their grand children. We are all in the cafe for the same reasons, it gives us a space that has noting to do with our everyday work. There are twats there as well, but we all just tut tut about them. So in conclusion, make things simpler, ask for help, occasionally accept you have to stop for a while and accept that you need a bit of clear space (physical or emotional). Oh, and drink tea.

So you don't want to listen to an argument why net zero is not going to work so instead launch into a shoot the messenger rant. Some people are just not open to reasonable debate.

That's the loneliest place in the world . You (we, I) have been told / made to understand that self-building is a privilege. Given to few. And we should be grateful - stop moaning and "JustBloodyDoIt." Self-building is as big a character test as doing a PhD, or handling a long-term relationship break down, or surviving a major operation. A full-on build's knackering. You're among friends here. Don't ever forget that

Photo showing rear of unit and piping, lagged with primary pro insulation. 2 x antifreeze valves (warranty requirement) and 2x isolation valves, then flex hoses and then 28mm pipe. Final wiring scheme Seasonal switching between heat and cool. Reused light switch, hardwired to UFH controller and ASHP wiring centre, located by UFH controller. Single zone with jumper across zone terminals, so always on. Secondary set point, wired from UFH controller via an EPH TR1-TR2 Two Way Wireless Switch. A call for heat or cool selects Smart Grid SG terminals, and give a demand for 2 degree uplift in heating or a reduced flow temp of 2 degrees in cooling. (Manual had wrong wiring diagram for this, wiring terminals and functions didn't match, so trial and error approach taken). This function uses the humidity sensors within the UFH controller to give a cooling safety shut off. It allows background cooling setting (19 degs flow temp) and then when house increases in temp it steps to 17 Deg flow temp. In heating mode, summer house stabilises at 18 degs with normal WC settings, so boost is used to increase to 21 when we use it. Communication cable to outdoor unit. Pretty simple wiring overall. If I didn't do cooling there would be no additional wires, just a Comms cable. DHW is still being done by immersion. Overall heat pump just seems to run, no on off cycling.

Up for an adventure? Homemade worktops, utility, kitchen and island. Biggest issues were moving from garage to kitchen. More compliments from visitors about the worktops than the rest of the house. Cost was 10% (excluding my time) of the quotes received. It was an enjoyable part of the build.

Would this be a good point to trot out this perennially relevant cartoon?

Trump may keel over tomorrow. But that is to miss the point. The fact that he has been allowed to drive a coach and horses through the old world order, threatening economic and military force to take over Iceland/Greenland with no pushback from the much vaunted "checks and balances" of the US constitution is the problem. He has shown that the institutions that were supposed to keep any madman in check are toothless. The US can no longer be considered a reliable partner. We are just one suoreme court appointment, one special election away from everything being thrown up in the air. I can't remember the source of the quote but "we cannot base our security and prosperity on some voters in Florida every 4 years"

Thank you for proving my point It is a common misconception amongst people such as yourselves that the UK could achive energy independence if only the "greens" would let us drill for more oil and gas. In case you misread my OP the oil and gas industry itself is predicting production will fall even with no restrictions on drilling. Let's take the "Rosebank" field, described as the Uk's largest undeveloped oil and gas field. At it's peak, it's owners predict it will produce in excess of 21 MMSCF of natural gas every day, which sounds impressive until you realise that is about as much as Aberdeen uses per day. That won't make a dent in our imports. There is no way the UK can pull enough oil and gas out of it's territory to satisfy it's current demand for oil and gas That is the considered opinion of all the experts including oil and gas industry. So the only option is to reduce our consumption of oil and gas via things like efficency, reducing journeys by car, electrification of heat and transport. All the "Net zero" things but not for environmental reasons, for purely pragmatic reasons. As for coal, let us assume, for a moment that there are near unlimited coal reserves available to the UK. How do you propose we heat our homes and drive out cars on coal? Go back to coal cellars, and a fire in every room? Rip out out combi boilers for solid fuel boilers? And as for cars.... If you think EV's have too short a range and take too long to charge, wait until you try steam cars! 😁 If you genuinely think the future of UK energy is coal you should be cheering for EVs and pushing for the adoption of Heatpumps alongside the blue haired vegan tree huggers. It's not your fault. The oil and gas companies have a well funded disinformation and lobbying campaign for keeping the UK hooked on oil and gas. After all, drug dealers aren't going to help you kick the habit - not when there are vast profits to be made.

Some of that kit will last 20 years. in 2022, the UK used 1,200,000 barrels of oil a day. So we have to get a new barrel every 14 seconds. A barrel of oil is currently a similar price to 400W PV module, that would produce about 500 kWh/year down where I am (I am quite happy to cover Cornwall in PV). A barrel of oil has about 1700 kWh of energy in it, but we cannot extract much more than about 70% of that. So in just over 2 years, a PV module would produce about the same raw energy as a barrel of oil. Then about 18 years for nothing.

Posted this in the off topic forum but am also posting here.... To cut along story short I've not included links but can provide if anyone is interested. The UK urgently needs to reduce of consumption of fossil fuels - and it has absolutely nothing to do with the climate. The UK is highly dependant of fossil fuels for 2 areas: - Transport (petrol & diesel) - Domestic heating (mainly gas) For the above uses we currently import 50% of what we use. This leaves us vulnerable to price shifts in the global market and outright coersion should someone sanction/embargo/blockade our supplies and the majority of the suppliers of those vital resources are not friendly states and have to travel via long sea routes. By 2035 - just 10 years away - we are predicted to need to import 75% of oil and gas (if demand stays the same). At this point someone usually says "ah! That is why we must drop this net zero nonsense and drill for oil and gas to become self sufficient!" The problem with this argument is that figure of 75% imports is from the oil and gas industry's most optimistic projections. It assumes that: - we are able to extract the maximum predicted amount out of our existing fields - we are able to extract the maximum predicted amount out of all the fields awaiting licences - we are able to extract the maximum predicted amount out of all the fields we know about - we are able to extract the maximum predicted amount out of some fields we haven't yet discovered In short this is like predicting our future income assuming we get promoted, get a bonus, a distant uncle leaves us his fortune and we win the lottery. If we use the more sober assessment then in 10 years time we will need to import 90% of our consumption (assuming it stays the same). In short UK oil and gas production will fall every year even in the most optimistic predictions. In order to avoid this major vulnerability to our economy and sovereignty we need to reduce our demand for fossil fuels. 1) Reducing our demand for gas heating in houses by insulation and moving away from gas boilers would reduce our gas demand - yes, even if we generate the extra elecreicty needed by burning gas. 2) Reducing our demand for oil by (amongst other things) reducing the number of fossil fuel vehicles To support the above we need to increace our electrical generation and distribution capability by building new wind farms, solar farms, rooftop solar, transmission lines etc In short all of the "Net zero" things that usually sit in the "green" forum and regularly get trashed by people saying "ah all this green nomsense! Just woke crap a making us poorer! Bloody Greta etc etc" But really it should sit in the national security and economic forum.

Hello In the early stages of converting a former railway building into a house in the Yorkshire Dales. We will also have a SIP extension. Trying to do as much as I can myself, but I'll pay some people to do some parts. Would love to be in for Christmas 2027, but no promises!

Absolutely fine, i use a neoprene coated yoga mat from sport direct only a few pound. Pattern it dry to get a perfect fit, fix it with sticks like turbo, seal all around the edges and joints, never failed me

Good. Some really interesting and thoughtful contributions. A self-build isn't merely about nuts bolts and how not to cross-thread them. So far, it seems to me to be generally accepted that in the self build context fizz is added to normal build problems by the contexts in which we work if we could damp down the fizz - or at least some of it - we'd be more able to focus on the build sharing problems online is easier when we ask technical questions about nuts bolts and crossed threads we're more reticent about the wider contexts Unless members take courage in both hands, they usually don't post about those wider issues. Buildhub is the one space (OK, online space) where you (every single BH member)knows they're among friends ; understanding friends. People who are likely to have very similar issues to those you're facing. A suggested format for some next steps. Read loads of posts and imagine the author of those posts that somehow click with you. Those that add a little more than just: Do-this=then=that=then=this . Drop that author a PM. Waste a bit of time chatting. Smell the coffee. Suggest a WhatsApp (or whatever) maybe. Listen - read between the lines. Get to know and trust a bit more. Share some hard issues perhaps? Meet at a neutral venue? Visit And all's not going to be happily ever after. But it'll have been shared. And you will have taken an appropriate risk and -who knows- maybe won.

They can't, almost no country can, it's a global market. It's what I mentioned previously, it shouldn't be a binary gate, each fuel, renewable or hydrocarbon has a part to play. Trouble is the environmental activists, demonstrate, with their plastic tents, plastic drinks bottles, fleece jackets, nylon ropes, and don't understand all that vanishes with no oil. The point should be what mix of fuel and energy sources leads to best self reliance. A grown up discussion needs to be had, but British politics, the press and the money, will never let that happen. You need people power to revolt and standup, but most couldn't give a stuff or cannot or not interested enough to understand the issues or possibly solutions. In the round renewables is the way forward, but for a long time hydrocarbons will have a big part to play, especially in England, Scotland way less so.

Those who don't make mistakes never made anything.

Here’s the longer version of the argument. It’s interesting to watch and both make good points. A quarter of my family is Arab Muslim and my mum was born in Baghdad and only came here when she was 7 years old. So what does she tick on the form? Probably whatever she feels comfortable with. Is she ‘English’? My friend was born in Kenya to white British parents. He lived there for the first 15 years of his life. Can he call himself ‘Kenyan’? It’s a grey area really and it people can obviously describe themselves as whatever they want, but other people are probably going to judge for themselves. Rishi Sunak is clearly not ethnically English, but if he wants to call himself English I have no problem with that. What this really seems to be about is that Kisin has a different view to you on net zero so you smear him as racist/sexist or some other ‘ist’. It’s been going on for so long now and it doesn’t really work anymore. Play the ball, not the man.

This Winter has been a real struggle for me aswell. Moved in November and felt I've done little since. It's the little wins and even tidying up and moving stuff around, searching for that specific box of screws and keep chipping away. I've just finished the living room and will head over to my sisters to get my couch, kitchen table and chairs out of storage soon. Was hoping to put a push in this weekend but other family priorities have crept up. Vitamin D3 1000ug daily throughout the year (helps my immunity and fighting SAD), weekly Pilates and a bed to lie down on when I'm tired and watch a bit of YouTube/Netflix has helped but the hours can easily flow by and another day is over. Doing small things as others have said really helps. I've been trying to sell some tools but having mixed success but even 1 sold is money back in the pot. Also treat yourself to something you like doing not building related! I get a massage once in a while, haven't been out cycling or hiking since I started though but even a walk around the area can breath some fresh air into old heads and tired backs!! I'm lucky I usually work from home so I can sneak in some small jobs / planning during the day too when it's quiet. I've 10 years left though and the job scene is also a worry but what can you do?! I booked a holiday for two weeks in May, my first since I started building two years ago so there's a goal to aim for!

We don't need more funds. When we run low, we ask for donations, and generally that gets us what we need to cover costs. All BH staff are unpaid volunteers and that won't change. "New blood" isn't needed imo, but we don't have the advantage of lifelong endeavours like farming, gardening, or photography in terms of keeping members engaged over long periods of time. Many of our members join, hang around until their build is finished, then we never see them again (obviously for some *cough* @Pocster *cough that time could be measured in decades). Over time, there'll occasionally be the need for a new mod or administrator, but we've handled that as needed. Most of the current staff have been here for many years and have no intention of going anywhere. I don't know why you think BH dropping down the rankings suggests we'd be trying to sell it. I can categorically state that there's not even the hint of a glint of an idea to sell. We have no income other than donations. I suppose someone could take over and try to monetise the site, but I don't think there's a lot of money in forums any more, plus any potential buyer would have to know that they'd lose a lot of the membership if they added advertising, sponsorship, or membership fees. I agree that the info in the site is of limited value, especially given it's publicly available to all.

We all struggle, whether building your home, running your business or in life in general. Thanks for the shout @Nickfromwales, I’m going through a lot just now from my own projects, home, life and my mum going through chemo. However, I’m always available and happy to give advice and help where and when I can.

How about a build hub local support network I’ve met a local lad building similar to me, we meet up once a month and drink tea and walk around his build, as I’m a couple of years in front of him I’ve been able to point out some things that worked well and some that didn’t. we have all been able to exchange some left over materials and also lend / borrow some tools. since meeting a couple of years ago we have also been out to the pub a couple of times with the wives. it’s handy to find someone in a similar situation who feels the pain you might be going through. I know it helped his wife to come to ours as she could see that there is actually light at the end of the tunnel, even if it’s just a distant glimmer. im in Cirencester if anybody wants a coffee or wants me to pop in and offer encouragement.

To close this off thought I'd share the frankensteins monster that is my new shower for the next couple of months. Just hoping my custom non standard waste has enough silicone rammed in to stop it leaking.

About 25 away from getting some power. Now imagine if half the money had been spent on grid reinforcement/renewal, a third on new RE generation and the remaining amount on storage (which does NOT have to be batteries). We would have increased installed capacity by about 15GW, and dispatchable power by probably 10GW. Or, in eady to understand terms, about 20% of our needs. But hey, getting to Birmingham, from somewhere near North London is a vote winner.

We are battling the rain as much as possible, but it is difficult. We have a sloping site and dammed the foundations on the main house further up the garden so that I could build a small wall the last week or so round the Pod at the rear of the garden. That's finished now and today we will release the water from the house foundations! We are fortunate that there is a drainage ditch at the back of the garden that clears quickly. After having such a dry summer it is becoming very frustrating the amount of rain that we are having.

If you are still weighing up what floor system to use, then it’s a good job it’s raining as you are not ready yet. you need all of this completely ironed out first. Just as a few examples, before you start you need the numbers of all the local muck away Lorries in your phone, not one bloke you spoke to but 3-4 of them, if the stuff is piling up and the lad you spoke to can’t do today then you just phone the next. the same with a concrete pump, have two lined up, talk to both talk about access and anything else. go to the local concrete company and open up an account. Dumper hire, if a dumper breaks down do you know a company who will drop one off the next morning. all this stuff can turn a simple job into a disaster get very good at disaster management, have a plan for every eventuality.

Yes, John Clauser, paid by the American Petroleum Institute. And you think scientist are corrupt. I studied the very field that he says is the cause. I abandoned it as a long term study as the science, experiments and events, all pointed to it not being the main cause. In the last decade and a half, the subject has been studied intensively and no studies have really shown that it is anything more than a short term weather phenomenon. But all that is a digression. If you are serious about debate on anthropogenic climate change, go get a higher degree in the subject and then rubbish all the research, that will level the playing field for you.

Lots of photos but chosen these started this in April 2025

The UK holds around 90 days of oil and gas reserves. If we stopped receiving supplies tomorrow, we would run out in 3 to 6 months, maybe 9 if we rationed and had a mild winter. That's not enough time to do anything significant. If China stopped shipping solar panels, wind turbines, batteries etc tomorrow - our existing solar panels and inverters would keep producing happily for a decade or two before we needed to replace them. Plenty of time for the issue to be resolved or alternative suppliers be spun up. There is an issue about online networked systems being dependent on remote severs etc (IIRC a major battery brand ceases to function of disconnected from the Internet for more than 90 days) but that is merely an issue about regulation ie allowing products to be sold with that "feature".

Will fully update later but have a guy here now from same company whose first question was "who did the service?" Embarassing when I said same company you work for but different guy! This guy seems to know what he is doing been doing it 27 years. Expansion tanks just needed pumping up which he has done and DO NOT need replacing.... paid 50% deposit on the basis they said they needed replacing and guy is going to sort with office. Is sorting that leak (pic I uploaded with the leak from the bottom of Gledhill tank) which he noticed right away. Will explain other stuff later on....

Get some EPS200 and wedge/hammer it down until it hits something solid. Make sure you don't block any ventilation for the floor. Foam it in place with illbruck FM330. Trim the top of the EPS flush with the top of the joists. Stick the plywood to the top of the EPS with stixall or CT1. Apply masking tape to the door and floor before you do this as the foam and sealant will be hard to clean off.

After living in Australia this is a common thing over there. a large plot of land is divided into a few dozen house plots, the local companies come in and buy and build their design house on that plot, punters then visit at the weekend and walk around all the show houses. you pick a builder you like and commission them to build on a plot you have or they will have other plots on other sites. I really hate the English way of a divided up estate all built by the same contractor in the same boring design to the same poor standard.

I should probably advise a condensation risk analysis for IWI on top of CWI. WUFI is good but Glaser is at least indicative. My reason for insulated stud (in my mind a glued laminate of, say, 12mm OSB, xmm plastic insulation, 12mm OSB) is to reduce thermal bridging. Metal stud leaves a bridge all the way through the sandwich, but is a narrower highly-conductive thing against a fatter less-conductive thing. So the end result may not be so different. I don't know!