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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.

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.

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?

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.

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

Ufh pipes will cost a grand to buy, if you don’t put them in you need a serious word with yourself. I don’t understand the figures like some on here, but I know I’m sitting in the most comfortable house I’ve been in for a long time, just a gentle warmth in the tiles emits to every point of the house. it’s just an absolute pleasure.

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 😉

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

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.

As above. All the best for another year of staring at one tiny problem for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. And then realising it didn't REALLY matter that much after all. Adios 2025, here we go for 2026. Get your house built asap, or it'll be 2027 and I'll be telling you off again

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Hi all. I've been on here a while on and off and posted about 3½ years ago for advice on potential plots. We ended up getting a lovely plot in a nice village in Norfolk not long after that but was held up for 3 years because of neutrient neutrality and natural England stopping all new planning permissions being granted. We got full planning 4 months ago and have made a start, in the winter🫣. Foundation blocks are nearly laid to ground level. Me and my husband with a little help from others are running and building ourselves. My husband's a carpenter and was a site/contracts manager for a building company. We are building a single storey timber frame home with a brick skin up to window height then black cladding. A slightly unusual roof will top it off. We're both really excited and frightened especially regarding budget. We will have to stop the build throughout to earn more money to finish it but will be determined to get there in the end. If anyone has any words of wisdom or suggestions regarding internal layout we'd welcome your input. Also we're stuck with our heating and hot water system in terms of best and most efficient way to do it. It will just be 2 adults+a dog living in the house. We have no gas here and don't want oil so will be all electric. We'd love to have solar and batteries one day but it'll have to wait a while. The back of the house is south facing so will need to organise some shading but again budget may determine what we have. Thank you all in advance and I look forward to being part of your amazing community

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.

@Mattg4321 Not quoting what you said because I'm not directly replying to your points but this is in response. Firstly, this I find this topic difficult to discuss, both because it is an emotive one with lots of strongly held views which means I want to be careful not to be misunderstood and also it's one where I have more casual knowledge. With some topics I dive into the detail and can feel relatively confident talking about them (I have a reasonable idea of what I know and what I don't). Here I don't. I've had to look up the definition of 'racist' and 'ethnicity' and neither precisely aligns with the common usage of the terms in my experience. Frankly from my perspective the precise definition doesn't matter but it's difficult to have the discussion without that. Looking at the definitions I still don't feel I can talk confidently about what an ethnic group is (the word is often used linked to race but the definitions focus far more on culture). My statement on english ethnicity doesn't necessarily stand up and should be read as a statement that there is no defining genetic/biological grouping for 'English'. Because I can't talk confidently about the topic I can only talk from my personal perspective. From that perspective Rishi Sunak was born in England and has a British passport, therefore he is English (and also British). Someone who says that because he has brown skin he is not English is being racist. I know KK is talking ethnicity and could argue that my definition above is about nationality but that doesn't hold up if you deny someone the ability to call themselves English or claim English nationality because of the colour of their skin which KK is effectively doing by saying Sunak can only be British. In my book, you can say Rishi Sunak is not 'White English' as per that form but you can't say he is not English. This is also quite off-topic and I've gone beyond my comfort level talking about this subject so this will be my last contribution here. It's debatable whether this adds anything of value and I almost didn't post but I didn't want to leave my previous statement without further explanation.

Some simple science Your floor even on a dull day will not be much hotter than the room, maybe 1 to 3 degs at the surface depending on outside temperature. Let's assume room is 20 degrees, floor surface 23, sun comes out room increases to 23. Now as floor is 23 and room also 23 the floor no longer transfers heat to room. Sun goes away room temp drops, floor starts giving heat to room. With a thick screed (think you have this) the floor just acts as a huge buffer for energy. Thick screed doesn't act like a radiator due to its thermal capacity, think more a swimming pool, once up to heat it isn't cooling quickly. Once you allow to cool it takes an age to heat up. Setting up WC is pretty easy for UFH, start with a gradient of 0.5. so every degree outside temperature drops you increase the flow temp 0.5 degs. Start with a flow temp of around 20 or 22 at 10 degs and 28 to 30 at -5. Ideally let it run for 24 to 48 hrs. Adjust curve up down to suit. Small changes have a big change. System doesn't need to know internal temperature. You set the curve to balance heat loss and heat input. You better starting cool rather than hot. WC is completely open loop.

We had a delivery of sopping wet timber and sent it back. From asking around it seems that all suppliers round here keep tanalised (and other treatments) timber in the yard, uncovered. They think that is ok because it won't rot, and they regard it as 'outdoors' timber. Few have enough shelter, and seem to me to have far too much stock, perhaps as an investment. Their own trade specifies that all wood should be protected and ventilated. But they don't much care as long as it is selling. They don't invest in tarpaulins. The brochures may say kiln dried, but then forget to mention ' and then left outdoors in the rain until somebody accepts it.' The thing is, that we are using treated timber for the shell and are investing in the long term with no worries about dampness , woodworm etc. I know from experience that wasps can find their way into tiny gaps and like to chew wood for their nests, Treated wood won't be chewed twice. Plus as we are building in the open, it was bound to get a bit wet for a while. An earlier delivery was also wet, and it bent by up to 50mm over a 6m length, making it unsuitable for structure. Half of these were also sent back, without argument. So the moral is to tell your supplier that the timber must be dry in accordance with their industry guidelines. They might decline, but they can also set some aside under cover, or buy it in new from the docks. This probably does not apply to CLS which presumably is regarded as internal timber. We are ordering some so will see. Structural timber must be dry so that it keeps shape, especially in the vertical. And I dread to think what happens to a floor when the joists twist. Do the floor screws reach? Plus you don't want it twisting after construction. The timber industry body agrees, except that the merchants dont seem to know that.

Ugh ughhhhhh...ferkkkin'urgh... How many hours have I wasted looking for a tool - not finding it - but really needing it - NOW - pop down the BM, buy another - 3 days later find I've got 2. Now a TOOL FINDER.... that'd cheer me up proper...

Well, it's gone very well. On Wednesday the system was commissioned with no issues so the MCS cert and the G cert will be issued. When I get a bit of time I will write up the whole thing for a blog as its been a very interesting mission but we got there. It was great to see the heat coursing through the slab pipes. I have not calibrated the Camera for emissivity.

Nimbyism is a massive issue. Near me there is a proposal for a fairly large solar farm. People are losing their minds over "the damage to the view from the AONB". The park will barely visible as a sliver of dark blue/black from the AONB in question. The biggest impact will be the brief periods in the morning where there may be some chance of glare reflecting off the panels for anyone standing on higher ground. Of course you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the glare from the solar panels and the glare from the big river and numerous lakes and ponds (not to mention flooded fields at various times if the year) that already make up the landscape. The local pressure group has made all sorts of noises about the "10ft high security fence" (in an area defined by 10 ft high hedgerows and tree lines even higher. They are also incensed by the "giant substation" needed. Turns out it's about the size of a shipping container.

Exxon scientists reported on climate change effects in the 70s. There are press reports on the impact on carbon on the climate from the 1920s maybe even earlier. A frog in slowly warming water doesn't notice the difference and gets cooked. Plenty of bad things have been happening. Once in 100 year events now happen much more frequently. Insurance companies are taking hit after hit pushing up insurance costs massively and causing them to refuse to insure many properties without government backstops (more in other countries than here, it's a global phenomenon). Biodiversity is crashing and we've lost vast quantities of species to extinction (though admittedly only some of that is due to climate, but many are directly linked to it). Crop failures, droughts, more hurricanes, heat waves, floods, all have increased. All have been predicted in the 1990s as results of climate change. Some of the tabloid headlines of the past were overcooked, but equally many more recent headlines undersell the risks we face at this point. (potential AMOC collapse as an example) There are lobbyists around for every subject under the sun. The amount of money spend on lobbying by the 'climate skeptic' side outweighs lobbying from green groups by orders of magnitude. In any case, we shouldn't be paying attention to lobbyists, we should be looking at the last 50 years of scientific research, which has consistently backed CO2 emissions as the cause of the warming climate. I'd argue that widespread scientific consensus is more than mere opinion. Is it 100% fact? No, but it's not just an opinion. It's rigorous data backed analysis which has been picked apart by every interested party. It's the closest science can ever come to fact. Such as?

Why do you think The Orange Clown is so against climate change arguments. He wants everyone to be dependent on oil and gas, which he is trying to control as much as possible - i present Venezuela and Greenland as examples M'Lud. We need to get the nuclear and renewables online ASAP. Then use the time it gives us to make sure we retrain our own workforce to maintain, invent and manufacture this and the next technologies, to regain our independence. It's a long term plan that needs an autocratic regime, not a democratic parliament.

What could the same unit do to an oil refinery or storage depot? Remember Buncefield? Strangely, the distributed, relatively low density nature of renewables males them more resilient. Many smaller generation units spread over a wide geographical area are harder to disable than fewer larger units. Truck bomb at a nuclear plant - knprobbaky cause a precautionary shutdown and knock out mutliple GW of production. Blow up a solar farm, maybe lose a field, which would be a few MW tops. It feels like you really are grasping for reasons against, whilst not addressing the fundamental issue of our current dependence on oil and gas rapidly becoming unsustainable. How would you approach the coming increace in our reliance on imported fuel?