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Dear forum members, Our house is complete and we have been resident for three months. I thought to post some pictures and I offer to answer any questions people might have. I don't put ourselves on a pedestal as being any better than other projects, only to say that we have done it. Our primary decisions: We chose a RIBA architect given the importance of the initial concept The layout is somewhat novel, having an H footprint with a single storey 'extension' to reduce the mass of the main house for planning purposes and to help project the rear of the house beyond the shade of the ridge line We chose timber frame (we have built with timber frame, brick and block and ICF in the past) because of speed of construction, and thermal performance We selected MBC from a shortlist of three TF suppliers, and chose MBC's insulated slab We are very pleased to have chosen a large solar array (9KW) and Tesla battery. We have used no grid electricity since commissioning. We have a Valliant ASHP with UFH but haven't had need to heat the house yet We have MVHR which works very well with our air tightness of 0.89 We have no fireplace or chimney We project managed ourselves, and were onsite every day and I did a lot of carpentry / general work alongside the proper trades Project timing: groundwork prep Dec 24, slab Jan 25, frame erection February, windows March, resident 4th July, finished end of August.

Two weeks since the last blog and there’s a lot to cover - but lots of pictures too, so persevere! The main issues and concerns two weeks ago were 1. how well the airtightness test would go, and 2. keeping ahead of the plasterers. The good news is: both of those concerns can be consigned to the bin. Airtightness As previously reported, we had engaged Aerobarrier to test, spray their magic mist, then retest the airtightness of our house. Prior to their visit they asked us to send video walkthroughs of the house. Because of concerns we had about how well the airtight membrane had been fitted and taped, which the videos did nothing to dispel, I asked Josh from Aerobarrier to plan some extra time for them to re-tape some of the wall ceiling interfaces, for an agreed price. The Aerobarrier team duly turned up as planned - Josh plus two others. After a few hours taping the house, the initial airtightness test gave a disappointing if not entirely surprising 3.2 ACH - go enough to satisfy Building Regulations but above our target of 1 ACH. But after running the acrylic misters for a couple of hours the airtightness improved to 0.8 ACH - an 80% improvement which we are obviously very pleased with. Aerobarrier left the place quite tidy, they had masked the horizontal surface on window frames, door handles etc. The only weird result was the screed floor was left as sticky as a dodgy Wetherspoons. A week later and the stickiness has more or less gone though. No photos of the process in action I’m afraid, tricky to get inside with all that mist flying around. First fix electrics …is now complete! Power, lighting, PIRs, smoke detectors, data cables, room stats, TV… there are a lot of cables threaded round our walls. We’ve had a great team plugging away at this for a few weeks - Nick, Martin, but especially Darren, who installed the majority of cables and boxes, have done a super job. Carpentry In parallel our two chippies Chris and Alan have been making sure various false walls and ceilings have been put in place ready for the plasterers. They have also fitted three of our four pocket door frames - just one more to install next week. Somebody also needed to run the MVHR ducts and fit the vent plenums to the rooms the plasterers were planning to start with. This seemed like a golden opportunity for Chris and Alan to acquire some new skills. I am not sure it was high on their wish list to be honest but they cracked on with it nonetheless. Regular free breakfast baps still works wonders when you’re asking people to go the extra mile. Acoustic insulation I could see that Mrs P. was itching to get involved with something and fortunately someone needed to push all the Rockwall acoustic insulation in to the internal stud walls. Luckily as it’s Rockwall rather than glasswool no further itching was involved. Anyway, Mrs. P has done a great job, as you can see. Plastering All of the above were things we needed to have done (or at least done enough) for the 8th of October, which is when our plasterers Dan, Sam and Brandon were booked to start. They duly turned up as planned and we had enough of the rooms ready for them to get started. In the plan, all the carpentry work would have been completed before the plasterers started but they seem happy enough to board out then skim one room at a time as the carpenters keep ahead of them. The initial focus has been on the boarding out bedrooms 1 and 2 and the bathrooms and the early progress bodes well for the rest of the task which we aim to complete by the end of October… ready for the floor tiler! In other news… Our timber cladding has been delivered. We’re using Brimstone Ash from Vastern near Swindon https://www.vastern.co.uk/timber-cladding/brimstone-ash/ which we will be having fixed vertically. Once Alan and Chris have finished all the internal work required for the plasterers the plan is for them to move on to the external cladding - assuming they haven’t had enough of us by that stage. More breakfast baps may be required! We have also had a number of trees delivered, which Mrs. P. was strangely much more interested in than she was in the pallets of plasterboard or multi-finish skim! 🤷‍♂️ And finally, I have bought a new toy… a Topdon infrared camera to plug in to the iPhone. Cue quizzical look from Mrs P. “er… and you needed this for what exactly?” Good question Mrs. P, but I have at least been able to check that the UFH loops are all working: During the next two weeks... … we hope to be getting plastered! Dashboard: Contractor days on site this fortnight: 32 Contractor days on site since build start: 311 Budget: No change - still over budget but within contingency. Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026. Issues and worries closed this fortnight: How well the airtightness test will go. Keeping ahead of the plasterers. Current top issues and worries: Nothing too pressing - it'll be something we haven’t thought of, probably.

It's done!! Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone with the advice on this one. After the advice I changed plans and in the end got a sand cement screed laid by a professional company who did an amazing job and finish. Time to move on to the next stage (I'm sure I will gleaming you wisdom again) Thanks again, few pictures before

Just as a, "don't give up hope". Six months and Three days after my planning application was validated. I got my planning application passed. What might be of use to some other people, is that i'm in Greenbelt. I have managed to turn a small bungalow, and a posh shed. which total about 850 square foot. Into Two, Two story houses of about 1700 square foot each. This is despite local objections from Parish Councillors, District Councillors, and Neighbours. I did this by using several people, who worked on my behalf. A local "Face" managed to convince the Parish council to offer a, No comment, to the application. Another local "Face" to convince the district councillor, to not call the application in. Finally, a planning consultant, to respond to the 27 page objection put forward by the neighbour. However, i think what helped more than anything was the Governments, Grey Belt introductiion. This allowed the planning officer to conclude that both houses together, would cause very little additional harm to the Greenbelt. There is obviously a lot more to the whole situatioin with regards my various applications, over the years, But i wanted to bring to the attention of anybody looking to develope within the Greenbelt that "Greybelt" may well turn out to be your friend, when it comes to your application. Best of luck to all, and thanks again for all the help offered by people on this site, over the years. Regards Jim. P.S. I have also retained full permitted developments rights for both houses when built.

We apologise for the interruption in our scheduled programme. Normal service will be resumed shortly. Lots has happened on the build which is great and as it should be and all that, but I just can’t write about that right now. Instead my head is full of leaving Bramble. 34 years ago, over a third of a century, we put flesh on the skeleton of a house and we breathed life into it. And it’s been a constant ever since. Now we finally decided to leave Bramble two years ago when we saw da (run down) bungalow. We had each come to the realisation that we would move somewhere else sometime before then, and not at the same time as each other, but the blue touch paper started slowly smouldering when we told the dumbfounded estate agent who was selling da bungalow we’d have it after only a few minutes of our first viewing. We started building without a sale on Bramble and without a sale we knew we’d run out of money just before the new pad was properly watertight, but we started anyway. Mid May we accepted an offer and carried on with the build, uncharacteristically for us we let the estate agents chase it through. Which is why after 18 weeks we’d still not exchanged. By this point we (meaning J) really was looking at a set of spreadsheets with way too many zero entries. So we started making calls, asking questions, setting deadlines and suddenly we’d exchanged. I thought that would reduce our stress level. I’ll never learn, will I. Part of why it’s so stressful is that there was only 17 days between exchange and completion. We (meaning me, G) gave the 17th of October as an acceptable completion date assuming a very quick exchange, giving four weeks between exchange and completion. But peeps being peeps they latched on to that date regardless of the passage of time. And it worked for us as it meant we could rent a bungalow two doors up from site, which has it’s attractions. Now anyone sensible would pause the build while they move house, or at least cut themselves a little slack and slow things down a bit. It appears we don’t do sensible. So we are running round like loons trying to get packed ready to vacate Friday. Moving from Bramble to the new house (via the rental) is definitely the right thing for us both. But it’s an emotional business, leaving your first build, hence my inability to catch up on me blog like I should.

Best thing is take your time. Get your plans right first. Even if you need to go back to planning to make changes. Step back, write down what you want and what you don't. Look at the following aspects Foundation level how are you going to do it Walls many different ways to build so get that sorted in your head before you go too far. Roof are you having vaulted ceiling, this changes how the roof is built. Insulation and airtightness, this then helps you decide on ventilation and heating system. Layout of house, it's very easy to make a massive house, if you are not careful. Use you current house, what is good and bad, what are room sizes like, ok, too big or small etc. how does the layout work or not? Write stuff down, revisit what you write down, is it still true. Once you know what you are doing don't change.

A couple of years ago I build a spreadsheet for my last MVHR design. I've finally got round to making it more presentable, added some additional checks and - in preparation for a future project - have added a second section so that it calculates using PassivHaus guidelines & English Building Regs in parallel. Since it may be useful there's a copy attached. Mikes_MVHR_calculator_public_v2.xlsx

I grew up in England, but now live in the Netherlands, where my partner and I have a fixer-upper from the 1960s. One big task we recently completed was installing MVHR (previously it only had natural ventilation, which let in sounds in summer and cold in winter). This forum was a great resource during planning and installation, so I would like to thank everyone who has written here on that subject! Although I speak Dutch, and there are some great forums here which cover these same topics, it's much easier for me to quickly read posts in English. And MVHR is one thing that's not so different between countries, as the system we bought is one that's available in the UK too. I joined originally so I could answer a question in a thread which I would have found greatly useful (about compatibility between different brands semi-flex ducting and fittings), but there have also been times when I needed a sanity-check or could add my 2p's worth to a thread. So here I am!

You need to be SURE of the block and beam make up. If it is NOT well insulated then 20mm of insulation with the UFH will NOT be any good. We can't form much of an opinion from the picture as the "blocks" are missing and all that is there is the beams over a presumably cold ventilated void. You need to solve that one before spending any more effort on this, it might not be viable without a LOT of work. You don't fit UFH for "warm feet" the floor temperature will only be a few degrees above room temperature, so barely enough to make a floor feel "warm" You fit it for even temperatures without the hot spots radiators inevitably give you, and not having radiators taking up walls space and limiting your furniture placement.

So the drainage field is now in and the tank went in today. It was a bloody deep hole! Used nearly 20 tons of 10mm shingle to backfill the tank. just need to finish back filling and then I’ll need to create a couple of concrete bases for the electricity kiosk and the kiosk that will house the compressor for the Graf tank.

I have taken two weeks off work to prepare our site for our static caravan / shipping containers and also installation of the drainage field and Graf treatment plant. The digger and dumper arrived on Monday and the Kubota was brand spanking new with < 1hr on the clock. I wanted to tackle this all by myself, but I cannot grade to save my life, so I have enlisted the help of a local ground worker on an hourly rate. He’s been a god send and made easy work of the required excavation and grading tasks. Below are a few pictures of week one.

Week 18 - Progress on many fronts It feels like the build has entered a different phase now that the structure is fundamentally in place and watertight so I am going to drop to fortnightly blogging, hopefully with enough progress to ensure there something to cover in each blog: Since the last blog (week 16) we’ve been busy on a number of fronts, a lot of which is geared to being ready for the plasterers who are due to start on 8th October. First fix electrics I think we must be closing in on a kilometre of cable now installed: power, lights, room stats, data, PIRs… there seems to be a lot more to do than there used to be when we did our last big project. Our electrician Darren has been toiling away every day and making good progress - he’s certainly far enough through that for the plasterers to start. Not very photogenic though, first fix electrics, but here goes anyway: Carpentry We’ve got a surprisingly long list of jobs that need to be done by Alan and Chris our chippies, including wall and ceiling battening, walls and ceiling studwork to create space for ventilation ducts and plumbing, pocket door frames. A bout of covid has put them behind schedule but they still seem (reasonably) confident they can be ready for the plasterers. Double-skinning the wall between the Bed 1 ensuite and Bed 2 - to allow for a bathroom niche and for sound insulation between the rooms: Top part of wall is external, so has extra insulation; lower part is not (it's a complicated roof!) but has extra studwork to avoid a step in the wall: MVHR Mrs P. and I decided to have a go at fitting the MVHR unit (ok, I decided, Mrs P. humoured me). Through the outside wall: Reaching high enough to cut the holes for external ducts is surely what a scissor lift trolley was really invented for: The scissor trolley only gets you so high but never fear, I bought a new toy - a bargain Nano Power Tower for £305 off of eBay! Next project: wheelchair ramp to get onto it. Moving on - remember the zinc roof? Well, so did we. And now the render is dry, Tom from Wessex Metal Roofing came back to fit the down pies and remove the remaining plastic protection. We really like the roof. And the drainpipes: Garden started! Well sort of… the paddock area has been seeded. Before: After: Watching grass grow - far more interesting than watching paint dry. We’ve been shopping We’ve decided upon and ordered all our bathroom fittings from Island Bathrooms in Salisbury. We liked the service from them and the prices seem quite keen. Previously, we’ve used the likes of Victoria whatsitsname but it was quite nice to have someone who was prepared to come and look at our bathroom spaces and advise accordingly. We’ve also ordered our kitchen appliances - nine in total. I created a list and sent it out to eight suppliers, a mix of the big online retailers and some local. In the end it was Knees Electrical who are online and quite local (Trowbridge) who came out best, both in price and helpfulness. So with all that spend, it was nice to receive our £7,500 BUS grant for the ASHP. I was quite impressed at how quickly we got it tbh - thanks once again to Paul Thorney at Air2Heat for getting the application through promptly. Ceiling insulation Week 16’s blog ended with the note that we had had to part company with the contractors who were supposed to fit the additional ceiling insulation. At that point we’d abandoned plan A and were looking at plan B - ask the plasterers to fit insulated plasterboard, or plan C skip the additional roof insulation. In the end we have gone for plan B and will fit 37.5mm insulated plasterboard to all the ceilings to ensure we meet the building regs 0.16 u-value. I had thought that the blown cellulose within the roof would have been enough but there is no heat loss modelling readily available for open web joists filled with blown cellulose so we have to fall back on treating them as solid timber joists, which brings the roof u-value down (or up rather!). The safe solution, which our SAP man is happy with, is the extra 25mm of PIR from insulated plasterboard. So that’s what we are doing. Even with the price of insulated PB, it still works out cheaper including fitting than plan A. Next two weeks: The next two weeks should be exciting if things go to plan. We are due to have our Aerobarrier airtightness test and remediation done on 6th October. I honestly have no idea how it will go. I have doubts about the quality of the work done by the membrane team (the team we parted company with) but I am hoping Aerobarrier themselves will improve any deficiencies. The plasterers are due to start two days later. Before then the first fix electrics should be completed, studwork should progress as will routing the internal MVHR ducts, largely through that studwork. Looks like we will continue to be busy! Dashboard: Contractor days on site this fortnight: 15 (I'm not counting Mrs P!) Contractor days on site since build start: 279 Budget: Slight improvement - still over budget but within contingency. Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026. Issues and worries closed this fortnight: Replanning the approach to ceiling insulation. Current top issues and worries: How well the airtightness test will go. Keeping ahead of the plasterers.

need a brushcutter, not a grass trimmer.

Greetings from South Oxfordshire. We are waiting to exchange on a very tired (actually unliveable), 1960s bungalow. It needs gutting and extending at the very least. We are also considering demolition and building to the Passive House "Classic" standard, especially if we can get planning permission for a 1½ storey home. It's likely to be all-electric, so "Plus" might be achievable. We're not too bothered about certification, except as a means to achieve those ends. I have renovated a couple of Victorian properties and read a lot over the years, including quite a bit on this site, but have never attempted anything of this magnitude. Apologies in advance for stupid questions!

Hello! My partner and I are just starting out on our project after buying a derelict cottage in Ireland. I hope it's ok to post questions about it here, I know the laws/codes can be quite different in Ireland, but there's not many resources like this forum. We're total novices at building, but want to do as much as we can ourselves and to learn while doing it. We've had a little input from architects and a builder who will hopefully be working with us. Obviously we'll be getting an engineer involved eventually. Our starting point is a mostly untouched vernacular 3 room Irish Cottage. With countless layers of lime plaster on the walls and no plumbing of any kind. Sometime in the 70s the outside was concrete rendered, a limited electrical install was added, and the remains of the old thatched roof was covered over with asbestos cement boards. Close to the house is a small traditional stone shed. The whole area is criss crossed with beautiful dry stone walls. Our current plan is to restore the cottage in an authentic traditional way, with breathable lime plaster. But have a new well insulated roof, door, and windows. Then link it to the barn with a flat roof extension. The stone barn will be fully enveloped in a new building which extends out the other side to create a spare bedroom and ensuite bathrooms. Here's a few photos. I'm sure I'll have lots of specific questions as we go!

+1 to most of that: We had power floated the garden room and it worked well we have an acceptable surface in there BUT the main house was not because: 1. It was very hot over 30OC 2. Much bigger roughly 3 times the area of the garden room. 3. Not enough people, we had 5 working all the time, but only two of us had the experience on the garden room. 4. We didn't have a long enough floating bar - our hire people let us down on that, the long bar was not available, so we needed more passes which took more time than we had given the drying rate. In the end about 70% of it was more than acceptable but 100% is the only answer unless you want level changes in your floor areas. It was a disappointing day but we knew the risks and accounted for failure in the plans - eg levels. As an idea of the cost of failure the flooring cost for us is about £18K more than it would have been had we succeeded which might put the £32K somewhat into perspective for you. All in all my advice is not to try it yourself, look at the balance of costs and get a few more quotes.

You will find that the planners will be ambivalent. They will consult highways who will say that this is a private track and as long as the vehicle movements from it do not impact their highway network they will have no comment to make. Environmental health may flag up the refuse situation but will basically say the occupants will have to store their bins within so many metres of the highway for collection otherwise it will not be picked up. Apart from that they are unlikely to be interested. They aren't the problem. It will be Part B of the Building Regulations which sets out access for firefighting that is. Fire appliances only carry so much hose so need to get close to the building in the first instance. They want to get hose access to all parts of the building within 45m of their appliance. It is Building Control therefore that you will need to convince that your fire mitigation proposals will still meet the requirement which is: 1) The building shall be designed and constructed so as to provide reasonable facilities to assist firefighters in the protection of life. 2) Reasonable provision shall be made within the site of the building to enable fire appliances to gain access to the building. The problem these days is that competition between local authorities and the private sector means finding someone to consult with prior to making an application is not easy. Why would a private BC contractor spend time with you going through proposals only for you to engage the local authority and visa versa. I fear you will not get a definitive answer with respect to building control until you are a way down this route (excuse the pun). Have a good look at requirement B5 and see how close you can get to the guidance as you may have to take a calculated risk on gaining BC approval. Finally, remember that post Grenfell and now with the new Building Safety Act there is not much appetite out there for regulators to take risks on interpretation of these sort of life critical matters on your behalf.....

Like this I guess.

For me you are wasting a load of money and effort doing UFH. Block and beam and thin insulation you will be chucking money down the toilet year on year in increased running costs. I read an article the day about radiators and cold feet. The reason people get cold feet - the heating runs an on off strategy with high temperature radiators. Radiators don't really radiate heat they heat air via convection. The convection current is quite strong with high temperatures. The hot air goes the ceiling and cold drops to your feet. Thermostat stops the radiator the room cools, you still have cold feet the cycling repeats. Solution is low temperature heating, so with radiators you can run weather compensation or load compensation. So the heating is lower temperature and more continuous. Your easiest option is to get your boiler to run opentherm and move to priority domestic water, so you can get two flow temps one for DHW heating and a variable temp for heating. You need to share your boiler details also.

We got our final building regs sign off approval today so that’s us technically finished. Yay. Feeling quite relieved. It’s taken just over 4 years from when we first set foot on the land till now. What a ride. 😂 Thanks all. Buildhub has been awesome.

Bought my first house about 2 years ago and have been converting the detached garage into a workshop. I have done a room within a room design for soundproofing, which seems to work well. Most of any of my posts will likely be about noise, noise control and soundproofing, I can only apologise 😂

Had something similar a couple of months back on our Coolenergy unit- one of the three spade connectors on top if the compressor had loosened and burnt. The codes on the Carel unit were for starting fail and overcurrent which had me fearing the worst- shorted windings. Might be worth a peek under the plastic cover atop the compressor...

It's a minefield.. For most of us, we're buying small volumes for our home builds. The professionals who do quotes deal with small margins wouldn't cover their wages by taking the time to deal with our needs and frustrating time windows and questions. That's the way I see it. For my smaller parts of the project I've swallowed the excess and used wickes and toolstation, because I go past them on a weekly/daily basis. For the big build stuff I was lucky enough to have a family member who is branch manager at Travis P... And the prices he got things for were unbelievably cheap compared to anything I found online. I ordered cladding from elsewhere and was screwed around with part deliveries that didn't colour match the rest, and Posi joists from a company that went out of their way to help me with design alterations, and be flexible with unloading by hand on site.. At every stage I've learned that dealing with a company throws a bunch of very different people under one umbrella, so no two experiences are the same for us. At times I paid through the nose, but I know that despite being in the industry, these people are making a living too. I just think of the final project, how happy I am with how it turned out, and how little it cost compared to buying a finished project from someone else.

@Gus Potter, I agree with you in many respects, but also take an opposite view on some. I had just turned 65 when we moved in. Doing a self-build was only feasible for us at this stage in life when we had enough capital and time and effort available to take of some of the trades and jobs ourselves to reduce cost. You mention a 50-60 year objective, but we optimised for about 30 years, as I doubt we'll be around much longer than that. We put a lot of thought into our design and material choices to ensure that the house would be pretty much zero maintenance for that sort of time-frame, but the house should be good for at least another 30-50. If you are talking about a 50 year horizon, then the other key point is that the house has to be electric only -- which it is. The number of UFH loops is just a small design detail that should be matched to the house characteristics. In our case we need to put about 2kW (coldest midwinter) into the slab to keep the entire house at a cosy 22+°C, so 3×95m loops controlled as a single zone works fine for us. The UFH tail length (if long enough) is pretty irrelevant. I feel that your position about automation is about similar to the argument that our predecessors might have had 100 years ago about replacing gas and paraffin heating and lighting by electricity. Technology moves on, so reject it and get stuck in the past or accept and embrace it: this is a personal choice. In my case, our design choices reflect some principles (like all-electric and near zero maintenance), but beyond this they were largely driven by return on investment (RoI) criteria: I have minimised our running costs, and we won't invest in "improvements" unless the discounted savings over a 10-year per period exceed the net investment cost. BTW, I wrote my first computer program 57 years ago and my career was spent in IT so I am very familiar with programming and approaches such as integrated logistic life cycle management. This is why, for example, my CH system is independent of my Home Assistant (HA) stuff; why at a component/module level everything is pretty-standard multi-source commercial off-the-shelf, and i keep enough spares to be able to do cold-swap repair in less that 24 hrs. Putative new buyers could rip out all of the HA system and its IoT devices, but this would leave them a working CH and HW system. They could replace the entire CH / HW control system for under £2K if they stuck with resistive heating, or by then Octopus will probably have a bundled deal to install an ASHP with demand-side managing your CH, HW and EV on some flat-rate tariff.

I have not lost interest, but find it really hard to argue against a group for merely mentioning that I don't want to have an ASHP. I have been following all the comments in the thread and really like the suggestion of getting an oversized boiler - especially the Navien NCB700 which seems to be able to offer 22lpm for 3 simultaneous showers. This would potentially meet our demand - we're unlikely to have 3 bathrooms in use at the same time but it's very likely that 2 showers plus the kitchen tap are being simultaneously used and this fits the bill. The only concern I would have here is the pressure when 2 showers are being used together, so will speak to my builder about putting in a small cylinder plus this combi boiler and see what he recommends. Our use case is more focussed on DHW rather than CH anyway. The property is a new build built to BR standards, triple glazed and UFH all around, so well insulated and shouldn't need too much in terms of CH.

My point is, to get anywhere even close to the performance gas, a luxury we’ve become used to, and to have very high kw ratings on tap (without the need to wait for the energy to ramp up) then the options for heat pumps are non cost effective, impractical, and very much not on the table. BTW, I didn’t pick the biggest one to be obtuse, I picked it because that’s the one that stands any chance of matching the performance of a high kw gas appliance. So basically you need a heat pump that’s exactly the size of a small garden shed!! And you need maintenance / service / repair access as per MI’s. Remembering that this thread is being replied to specifically to answer the OP, for which we need to get a result for that unique enquiry, hence generalising about HP’s isn’t of any real relevance here; plenty of ASHP / GSHP chat on here for every other situation. How to get continuous DHW, not from a heat pump; unless you’ve a very big back garden, a spare bedroom for the UVC, and a massive budget.

Not clear to me what this third party company is you refer to. Building Control can be done by the Local Authority, OR you can pay a private BC company to do this (or I think possibly a licenced individual ?). You choose. I think generally the view is the LA is thorough, but can perhaps sometimes be jobsworth over some aspects, and might take days to turn up on site to inspect things, inconveniencing or delaying build. Private BC typically turn up quickly within 24 hours or so, and can be more pragmatic and less pedantic - many seem to be ex builders. However, it can feel cursory, and they may not look under the rug at all the details. I have the impression builders prefer private BC - Builders are the poachers, BC is the game keeper - so that maybe says something. Architects process is - PP Drawings, then detailed Design & Construction Drawings, then Statement of Work, tender and contract award, then contract administration and oversight/support. You can choose to stop with them at any stage. We went through the full process except contract admin and oversight/support. Architect recommended a structural engineer. Structural engineer specified all the structural things - lintels, joists, beams, foundations, concrete slab spec and calcs in a report to accompany the detailed architect plans as input to BC for plans approval. All quite costly for us. But you get a lot defined clearly. Some builders barely read the SoW, but it becomes part of the contract with the drawings, and SE report. We paid the architect by the hour for support during build, unless it was drawing errors. An awful lot depends on (a) your budget, and (b) your knowledge, time, desire, and abilities both technically and managerially and (c) how much you care about how close the build is to your spec. and (d) how much you are doing yourself, (e) your ability to deal with problems. Tight change management and change management records is ESSENTIAL. Regular meetings and communications is ESSENTIAL. Remember the builder's/contractor's objectives are DIFFERENT, from your objectives. Builder/contractor wants no change, and can charge you what he likes for change. He is trying to make money, get the job done, and get the cash in. He will buy whatever is on the shelf at his favoured local merchant. He likes cheap, light stuff, hates special heavy stuff. Someone has to be gamekeeper. When it goes wrong - as it did for us - it is horrendous and expensive. Once a builder starts smashing up your house, or gets well into the build he has you by the ghoolies. Other builders don't like taking on part built jobs. Other builders will take probably a year to find and start any work. It can take 6-12months to terminate a contract. Your builder knows this. You need a detailed quote - don't accept estimates for electrics and plumbing - builders estimates can be half the actual quote. Keep a written paper daily diary. Who will project manage ? Who will be on site ? Project management is demanding. I have had to do a lot of it because builders may not do any more than the basics. You want some item not in stock at the favoured merchant - you may have to source it and order it. The builder/contractor may potentially, ignore the spec, challenge the spec, change the spec, buy the wrong materials, use out of date materials, not turn up. Best to know and choose what builders or contractors you are going to use before you start. If it doesn't go well, you WILL need support. The builder/contractor may essentially ignore you questioning work - you need someone with all the letters after their name to tell them the same thing you said before they will do it. Be able to call in the SE or the Architect or even a QS - someone authoratative and suitably politely assertive. BC only do BC, they don't care what you specified, only whether it meets minimum regs. Sorry if this sounds bad - our single experience bad. Many good people out there no doubt, and on this forum. In general they are busy and challenging to find. Not trying to tar all with the same brush at all.

We did recirculation, but we hardly ever use it. MVHR does the job 99% of the time. If we have a few pots boiling, I may put MVHR on to boost, but that's a couple of times a year. Good hob extractors aren't cheap. If you go recirculating the charcoal filters need to be the regeneration type.

Just as a comment as a philistine. Why on gods earth are you sticking you ASHP in a recess. It's retarded and I think that is what you have clocked! Do you smell shite? Oh yes your ASHP installer says it's ok! .. how much have they evaluated the wind in the winter (when you need it most) and the geometry of the building and how the wind flows around it locally? As an SE I am interested in local wind loads and often see ASHP insatallers are talking pish. Look ASHP's needs in the winter a bit of fresh air and free flow of air around the building is essential. Next is why are you locating it near a window that let's sound in, more retard. If I was you I would think.. I'm spending a lot on an ASHP so let's think about where the prevailing wind comes from in the winter/ defrosting and see how we can get the best air flow. If you can't get to this level of thinking then you are just chucking your money away and when it gets proper cold your heating won't likely work as well as you expect. Advice.. go back to basics, recognise that if you want an ASHP there might be an Architecutral compromise. So get the thing out the recess and place it where you get some wind in the middle of winter. Or you buy some electric heaters. |I made another post about wind uplift on roofs. But here is a diagram about how how wind work on walls. Ideally you want to place an ASHP where it gets some residual wind even on a cold daydue to the geometry of the house. The best wind flow Zone A is near the corners of the building. Another way, my sister has two tandem ASHP's on the island of Tiree which faces into the prevailing wind. But it is not always mega windy. The ASHP's are placed about 1/3 from the corner walls. When you do a wind analysis you'll find that 90% of the time you get a flow over the ASHP. That is clever design.. understand how the winnd flows around the building and postition your ASHP in the best place. If there are any ASHP designers out there let me know. @Nickfromwales Just to name check you, would welcome your professionall comment, am I being to practical or not? They cost a shit load, so why tie your hands at the outset by putting them in the wrong place? I've given pelters here but it would help a lot if you posted a plan view of your house so we can see the orientation and size of the house with dimensions. My gut feeling is that you may be paying for something thta may not perform as well as you expect.

The drawing does not show the hedge. Can you overlay the topo you had done? It would be useful if it included the kerbs, telegraph poles, inspection chamber covers and any other fixed points, so there is something to reference. Measuring to the middle of a straggly hedge will probably not help much.

If stupid was an Olympic sport This government would win a gold medal

It is very dependant on site conditions, ground permeability, water table, hydraulics etc, so no ‘one shoe fits all’ with a true basement for sure

Normally simple stuff that trips up systems. And old chip oil - that wouldn't have come up after a 1000 questions.

You haven't been on buildhub to know that there is always OP scope creep. Has to be. Whether it's relevant or not it has to happen just in case and because it might just be relevant to someone else reading the thread at some point in the future. It does drive some people a bit crazy but wouldn't be buildhub without it 😁

You have no downstairs loo, other than the en-suite. Are you going to send your guests upstairs, or into the bedroom? Your enormous L-shaped hall is a waste of space. You could re-configure & have an extra room down stairs – a downstairs loo, & perhaps an office & cloak room as well. There’s too much glass in the bed room. A room that’s closer to square, rather than long & thin will always be better IMO. If you move the bedroom door towards the porch, you can make the en-suite twice as big, or make this room a downstairs loo, for everyone. You’d still have room in that big bed room for an en-siute. Which way is North? I wouldn’t worry about the internal configuration too much just now. The planners don’t care about how bad your internal configuration is, so just put in for planning to see if you’re going to be allowed to build a house that’s the size, shape & height you want. You may find they force you to build a smaller house or a house with a lower ridge height than you want. Once you have PP & you know what the constrains are, you can then spend time on the details, knowing you’re not wasting your time. You may need to put in for a non-material amendment, but getting these approved is easy compared to gaining PP.

I used to be involved with injected cavity wall insulation as a system designer. The failure rate, measured by claims on the guarantee scheme was unbelievably low, less than 1%(?) of all installations. There were poor installs/poor surveys many years ago when lots of grants were available but still a very low failure percentage.

Hello all, My husband and I are just in the process of beginning our selfbuild journey (Sorry for the cliche). Feeling a little overwhelmed as just trying to do the initial costings to make sure we are actually able to do it and feel my heads ready to pop. So hopefully looking for advice, reassurance from anyone who's done this recently. Thank you in advance.

No. The building industry has been de-skilling for years. Most people on site are average at best.

I have to say I think this is just one of those very weird threads we get here on Buildhub where sense seems to be thrown out of the window. If it were a heating question, everyone would be posting to say you have to start off with a heat loss calc. Or the very least some design drawings to provide a starting point, but the basic questions about DHW design are completely missing on this one. We don't know anything about pressure/flow rates to the house - regardless of size of main, what are typical static and dynamic pressures where the op is planning to build. Second is whether the requirements for infinite hot water is even really what the op wants or actually needs (I've been here too and the questions were resolved through careful whole system design taking into account flow volume restrictions we have got until I can dig a trench and re-lay our mains supply to the road at least). I realised I didn't need infinite hot water. The assumptions we often make about both hot water and heating lead to over-sizing, which I think is what is going on here. e.g. So first we need to ask more fundamental questions about use and behaviour (and also how transient that behaviour might be and not make long term costly decisions about a temporary, short term problem). And then look at the variety of ways to deal with those, which probably don't need to involve chucking in the biggest pieces of kit that we can find. Again and again I find the mention of flow regulators and system pipework sizing missing in hot water management discussion. For example, plenty of calculations about delivery of hot water at certain temperatures at certain flow rates, e.g. 30lpm, bit this misses that a lot, if not all drench showers, for example, provide about 16lpm. But it's very easy to buy models that have interchangeable flow regulators that massively enhance perceived availability of hot water but actually massively reduce hot water use. I too have teenagers who disappear into the shower with their bluetooth speakers, put on a rave and appear what seems to be like a few days later. Not once have I ever run out of hot water or had a complaint by someone we haven't got sufficient hot water. All we've got is 19kW going into a 210l thermal store.

Bifolds plus any fist fix joinery First fix plumbing first fix Electrical Plasterers to complete everything Mist coat Floor down and protect They will need to self level and use adhesive You don’t want that all over your nice new kitchen Units Second fix joinery Quarts Second fix plumb & Electrical Paint Enjoy

It's been awhile and I thought I'd provide a further update for those interested in the floor milling approach to UFH. We're close to our kitchen installation now, the UFH has been in situ and running for around 4 weeks and so far so good. The house is toasty warm, the pad has heated up nicely and isn't on continuously which is good. Our LVT is due to be laid next week so we'll see how it performs once that is down. Overall I'm really happy. Obviously there are more preferable options, but given our limitations I'm really chuffed with how it has turned out. Thanks for all the comments and advice.

Looks like your architect has your counter battens fixed to the joists on the left and suspended in mid air on the right. Ask your architect what's filling the gap between the joist and roof membrane to the right of Z? And why the square section is needed at all?

I've made jig boxes before to hold tiles:

BC are more likely to want a SE to be involved Architects are not all that technical and tend to defer to a Structural engineer Regarding legal matters I’ve stated on many occasions that it’s essential that you appoint an Architect totally independent of the builder Not one that has been recommended by one or the other For this very reason

This is a good response. I'll come to this later. The following is a bit of a summary, but provide a bit of context and I've included a nugget at the end for those that take the time to read this post all the way though. For folk that are not VAT exempt also see end. I'm an SE that also does Architectural design, oh and I was a Contractor for the first 20 years of my carear. In the round I probably know more than most about what an Architect does, how they behave when under pressure for example. If you pay an experienced Architect a fair rate for a fair days pay then you will benefit. I'm not bad at Architectural Design and I work with Architects that not that bad at SE design! The process is collaborative and after you have done it for a while it's inevitable that a good Architect will have a good feel for the SE stuff. It's not a competition between SE's and Architects and we all love seeing stuff we have had a hand in designing getting built. On the face of it it takes a university degree and a further 3 -4 years to become an Architect.. and then you have a lot more learning to do, experience to gather. During that time you learn the craft of how planning, BC compliance works, get to know builders, when they try and pull the wool over your eyes, we learn a LOT of stuff; could be about heating systems, glazing, tiling @nod.. the nuts an bolts of how you build stuff and make it look good! Ok lets delve a bit deeper. When I was a builder the BC officers used to come out and inspect my work. But now we speak as I'm now the agent gettting planning and BC permissions for my Clients. There is nothing underhand here.. it just I know who to phone, where to to apply pressure and write in a way that sort planning and BC issues. An experienced Architect can do the same. That has value.. you pay for one professional to sort things out with one another. I agree. But in fairness on BH there are also many who will pay you a reasonable rate for a fair days pay. There are indeed some vocal folk on BH who view designers as just a tooL, to abuse to get BC / planning permission. But many will end up paying too much for their build as they were not willing to say.. hey this designer might be able to save me more than their design fee or maybe have somne contact that they can introduce me to. In England you have this building notice system.. it looks like a good deal but is it really? If you cut corners at the deisgn stage then it could come back to bite you big time! BH is by it's nature probably populated by folk that have an element of common sense and experience of the construction industry so what you see on BH is not truly reflective of real life. So @ETC, you can lead a horse to water! Keep your head up! Ok you mention fees! The fundamental problem as I see it is that Architects / desingers/ SE's (probaly the worst communicators) have not got with the programme and explain to Clients what they do, the spin off tacit benefits, contacts, after sale support (phone friend if you build starts to play up and in general that we want to help get stuff built. Over the last few years I've included when I think it will help the Clinet in my design brief the time it take me to complete each element. From the dimensional survey to getting BC approval. For all on BH here is how you can do a designer quote for an extension. Dear xx Thank you for inviting me to xx last week to discuss making alterations to the house. I've partitioned the design brief below based us taking down part or all the wall between the existing kitchen and dining room, installing French type doors in the east gable wall (off the dining room), possibly infilling the existing back door, changing the general arrangement of the kitchen and lastly considering a porch type extension at the front which would include a wc and whb. As discussed the council permissions can be split into two areas, planning and building warrant. For the French doors and altering any of the openings on the rear elevation I recommend that you first apply for a certificate of lawfulness as the gable can be viewed from the road. The same would apply for a front porch type extension. Taking down the wall internally only requires a building warrant. For transparency I've shown my allocated times. Should you accept my brief then the initial consultation fee of £100.00 will be waived. Initial design and planning approvals: Stage 1: Site visit to carry out a dimensional survey, initial structural inspection. I anticipate that this will take me initially 1.5 days. Draw the floor plan of the two floors (this allows me to calculate the structural loads) and two elevation drawings with some ideas based on your initial requirements (3 days). Return to site to pick up other detailed dimensions (that come to light) as necessary when preparing the first set of drawings and meet with you for a concept design discussion. (0.5 day). Stage 2: Revise the drawings to account for stage 1 design meetings and meet with you again. (1.0 day). In terms of the kitchen unit detailed design I would leave the detail to you but would show the basic outline on the drawings necessary to support any council applications. Stage 3: Complete the drawing work up to a stage where we could seek a planning certificate of lawfulness for all or part of the work. Act as your agent and make a certificate of lawfulness application on your behalf. (0.5 days). Currently the council fee for a certificate of lawfulness is £178.50, i.e. 50% of the full planning fee. Any council fees are over and above my design fee. Total time for stages one to three inclusive = 6.5 days. Building warrant application: The above stages provide us with a pretty good set of layout drawings that then get worked up with more detail to support a building warrant application. In terms of structural design. Stage 4: Prepare a set of drawings, structural calculations and structural drawings to support a building warrant application. At this stage we don't know the extent of the works but taking the key elements: (a) Take down the wall between the kitchen and dining room for the calculations and drawings etc (2 days) (b) French doors and external landing, calculations and drawings 2.0 days (c) Front porch 4 days, essentially a small extension. (d) Design meetings, 1 day Act as your agent and make a building warrant application on your behalf, 0.5 days. The above time span would then be either 2.0 + 2.0 + 1 + 0.5 = 5.5 days for items a,b and d or 2.0 + 2.0 + 4.0 + 1 +0.5 = 9.5 days. Time range for stage four 5.5 to 9.5 days. The Council fees for a building warrant application vary depending on the value of the builder work excluding VAT. For example work valued at: £15,001 to £16,000 fee is £558.00 £20,001 to £30,000 fee is £728.00 £30,001 to £40,000 fee is £806.00 £40,001 to £50,000 fee is £884.00 Stage 5: Provide an element of assistance and advice on selection of a building contractor and be available to answer any queries as work progresses on site. My design fees: I would request the following design fees. VAT is not applicable to my fees. For transparency I've taken an average of the Structural design rate and the Architectural design rate as £275.00 per day. Stages 1 to 3 and 5 inclusive 6.5 days x £ 275.00 = £1787.50 Stage 4 and 5 range from 5.5 x 275 = £ 1512.50 to 9.5 x 275 = 2612.50 I would request that payment of stages 1 to 3 inclusive is made within 14 days from the time that this design work is ready for submission to the council. Stages 4 and 5 paid within 14 days from the time that the building warrant application is ready for submission to the council. Design information will be provided in electronic format, usually pdf. Now my lovelies on BH. This works for me. The above is written as I've already spent time with the Clent. But what I have done by being transparent is to make the Client aware what a fair days work entails and what I also bring to the table. Note my terms of payment. But it's not often I lose a job that I want to do. @ETC I don't want to hear you have been trousering a £100.00 five nights a week consulting but not actually doing any jobs! I often charge £100.00 as lots of folk.. like some on BH will milk you and they can f off!

Honestly, the easiest route is to use a certified hybrid system. Then you can use a large inverter that will handle all the likely loads (eg 8kw) and it will throttle down to the 3.6kw the grid will allow you. If the local grid is upgraded and you are granted a bigger export limit it can be changed with a few keystrokes. Get enough batteries up front (they should last a decade or so) by the time they are knackered you'll prob want to upgrade anyway to a new system 2x as good for 1/2 the price. how many people with 10-15yo solar systems (a dozen low efficency panels, a 5kwh battery the size of a fridge and maybe a 3kw inverter) are thinking "if only I could find some compatible batteries"? Thry"ll be thinking "this has paid for itself, let's get a 5kw inverter with 10kwh of battery with emergency power and all the bells and whistles "

You MUST keep moving. You cannot store fitness. It will go away very quickly of you stop doing things. In the "off season" we try and go for a good long walk a few times a week to keep things moving.

I’m 64 next month and getting up for a third build 💪🏻

Probably the same bollox that led two surveyors each spending 3hrs in my house to conclude that my loss is 16kW. My loss is in fact 7kW confirmed by a proper calculation, gas consumption, the successful replacement of a gas boiler with a 7kW ASHP and subsequent measurements. Be suspicious of the use of assumed high ach values, double counting of room to room losses, and ignoring of any fabric components that are better than building regs at the time your house was first built. Don't believe any survey calculation that isn't somehow sanity checked. The MCS 'rules' appear, in many cases, massively to oversize and do the public a massive disservice as a result. Also suspect anyone offering a pre plumbed cylinder. The principal advantage is that they can employ complete rookies to do the onsite work. In case you haven't already been alerted, reject any quote involving a buffer, phe or llh between heat pump and emitters. The sole purpose of these components, in almost all cases, is to avoid call outs at the expense of a significant increase in running costs and material complication of fault diagnosis for the customer. A 2 port volumiser either on flow or return (but not between the two) is ok. Also no external controls other than those specifically designed for heat pumps namely homely, adia or havenwise. Under no circumstances fit 'smart' thermostats. I and others can explain why if necessary.