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Our planning application was finally approved yesterday! When we bought the plot it already had planning on it, so our application was a variation to change the design. We submitted it in February 2026 and it was finally approved in October 2026. Annoyingly we just had a long series of stupid delays. The planning officer didn't even seem to start looking at our application until May-ish. Then she requested a few changes regarding window symmetry and wanted us to lower the ridge height slightly. We did that. We had to send it back for another round of consultations but she gave us a new deadline of mid-July 2026. That came and went with no contact from her... We then learned our officer was on leave for an unknown amount of time so it was reassigned. It took the new officer so long to look at it that our original one came back from leave and it got reassigned back again! Glad this process is finally over. Next step for us will be to sell our house to fund the build and move into a rental property. At this point we'll be waiting until after Christmas to kick that off.

Finished, after a few false starts.

Courtesy of @craig - 22 windows plus 2 doors and a set of Bifolds going in this week. Windows are aluclad Zyle Fenster (tilt & turn downstairs, outward opening upstairs) and the bifolds are Cortizo Bifold Plus.

Yeah I've done it. I used a block and mallet on the short sides to put that home and an offcut and mallet to bring the long side into the tongue/groove. It's a fairly satisfying project I found. Easy to cut with a straight edge and a Stanley knife, just score it and snap, jobs a good un. With the UFH I often hear the odd click of a length popping out slightly I assume, but it hasn't been a problem so far and I'm 18 months in. Also dropped SWMBO's favourite ceramic ice bucket on it which exploded into a million bits but the LVT was undamaged. What I found a pain, especially in a big room, was trying to keep the pattern random. So a plank with as many individual designs as possible is a bonus, I was always fighting it trying to randomise it. Worked out nice though I thought.

So after 6 months of delay due to one shoddy bricklayer and another one who was shoddy with a massive 'I'm the best' ego, it is finally third time lucky and the two guys we waited 6 weeks to start, take pride in their work and are really approachable when you want to ask a question or raise an issue. Just how it should be. Being behind is a pain though, as it will mean I will be cutting the roof and installing the standing seam roofing most likely in November. But so long as it doesn't get too wet, it might be ok. Here are a few photos. I made a jig up to cut the insulation at the angle of the cavity tray and I was chuffed how it turned out. A rather laborious task though, but I said I would get the trays and insulation all ready for them I also knocked up probably 12 different mixes over the last few months. We tried 5 different sands, grey cement, white cement and lime ...., but non of them really worked and they were either too grey or too yellow, but we kept searching and finally found a local firm in Thatcham who had some sand from a quarry a long distance away. The colour looked like it would work and as soon as I mixed up the 5 sand, 1 white cement and 1 lime mix, we both said "that's it". Sand cost us about £90/ton, which is not cheap, but I didn't want to be looking at the house thinking "I don't like the mortar colour". Here are a few pictures of progress from the last two weeks.

When I was a lad at Uni I met a Mr Dibner at my local pub - he used to live not far from my digs. At that time I'd not heard of him - and he wasn't the sort to point out his fame. After getting on well a few times, he offered to take me on one of his jobs - a quick inspection of a local chimney... just a small one. Lets just say it didn't go well for either of us. I was OK going up, but it took him nearly 3 hours to get me back down. All was well until we got to the bit where you had to go around the Corbeling near the top. The memory of clinging upside down off an ancient wooden ladder miles in the air is something that still gives me nightmares. It wasn't the height that frightened me, it was gravity and the woodworm holes. And the ground - the ground always wins! After that experience, jumping off a building with two decent ropes attached was a doddle... Even HSBC tower where you had to tie a bloody great knot in the end as the ropes as they ended 580 odd feet above the ground and it would be too easy to absentmindedly abseil of the end! I do get vertigo on tube escalators though...

4th October marks the first full year of occupation of our new build. The heat pump has recorded 2650kWh for a cost of £703. This is taken straight from the Vaillant app and yes i know that some believe it to be potentially less than accurate. But ours is a very simple system so i am inclined to go with it unless i discover a reason not to. We have no gas supply so that is all of our heating and hot water. Happy with this. Now i need to try to get an accurate idea of what Octopus recorded for everything.

I decided I had to do something to combat the eventual indoor overheating which didn't involve installing air conditioning, this may be needed at some point if temperatures keep rising but i'd rather keep it as a last resort. I've been using all of the usual tricks in the book, opening everything up when its cooler outside than in, and shutting everything up during the day, which worked as well as it could, the bungalow is pretty well insulated so this strategy worked in the most part, but the prolonged heatwaves we had and tropical nights made it an impossible job to shift the heat. Keeping the internal blinds and curtains shut also helped, but the triple glazed units eventually heat up and then retain that heat for some time. Internally the frames/panes hit around 40C, which all adds to that air temperature over time. I have 6 south facing roof windows, and many years ago decided to get the external awning blinds which made a huge difference to the internal temperature of the windows on a hot day. The 2G ones used to hit well over 70C midday, but with the external blinds that came down to 50C, still hot but a big difference. The newer 3G ones, i currently have one with and one without an external blind, just bought one at the time to see how much difference it made on the newer version of the windows, as you'd expect this is much less of a difference as they are just better overall. Without the external blind the frame/pane hit 55C and with the blind, 47C. This was during the prolonged June heatwave when air temperatures were also very high. I looked into getting some external blinds made for the other windows to bring those internal temperatures down in extreme heat, and maybe just maybe give myself a better nights sleep when it happens, but was shocked at the cost. When I read of the impending El Nino and that chances of more heat next year, I decided that i'd get some external blind material, and make my own. Cue the sewing machine, not something i'm overly familiar with, so with plenty of practice, and all the right bits (as they're for use outside, needed UV stabilised polyester thread, a special needle as its thicker fabric and a special foot for the sewing machine due to the 'stickiness' of the fabric, combined with polyester webbing to strengthen the hems, and finally stainless steel fixings to stop rust), i made some very slow progress but have finally completed my first blind, decided to do the bedroom one first on the back of the bungalow, so its not particularly seen from the street side whilst i get better at the whole process, but on the whole i'm pretty pleased with the outcome. And from the inside the outlook is like this. Very dimmed light inside, but a good view out. Obviously time will tell as to how effective it will be, but im confident it will have a good impact. The two windows on back of bungalow are surrounded by 100mm thick EPS External Wall Insulation, which provided its own unique challenge for fixing. I found these Fischer fixings which I hadn't come across before, and have to say I'm really impressed with them, though they are rather expensive. https://www.fischer.co.uk/en-gb/products/fixation-on-etics-insulation/fixing-in-substrate/thermax-8-and-10/stand-off-installation-thermax-8 So first one down, and concept works, just another 4 to make and fit before next year! Total cost including the Fischer fixings for all the material etc was no more than £300 for all 5 windows. Fabric came from this online shop, in bronze: https://www.fabricuk.com/fabrics/2298-sun-shade-mesh-wide-width.html

Further update on our VAT reclaim journey... HMRC have written to us (actual letter, not email) querying four invoices, covering about £3k VAT. The invoices are for our lights and our flooring tiles (two invoices for each: deposit and balance). They are asking for more information because the invoices don't specify the goods supplied. They have asked for paper copies of the four invoices, and supporting evidence from the suppliers detailing what the invoices cover, so I have sent the matching orders for each. The good news is that they said they will pay the vast majority and just hold back the the £3k for these invoices. And the day I got the letter the money arrived in our account. So, quite happy with that - 14 weeks or so from claim to payment of the bulk of the claim.

I have discovered that SWMBO's shower arrangements are completely different to mine. I very rarely use the side shower and she NEVER uses the overhead. I would suggest (i.e. I have been informed) that the riser bar is a necessity as whatever height you were to choose, either hair or body washing would be sub-optimal and therefore unacceptable I have a Mira digital and it is awesome. This is the arrangement in our downstairs bathroom. You can just see in the bottom right hand corner where the edge of the controls is. I would disagree with ProDave above as there is a delay between pressing the button and the digital shower kicking in, that delay is sufficient to retract an arm without any dampness , also the digital showers retain their heat settings so no twiddling is required Regards Tet

And after another long break, it is finished. I had been too busy doing things and going places to order the roofing until now. I ended up ordering it from Steadmans, part of the SIG group. Their quote was £300 cheaper than Plantex with the bonus they did the facings in long lengths where Plantex only do them in 3 metre lengths which would have meant a join. The roof panels were delivered last Wednesday and today me and a joiner friend fitted them, which took us about 5 hours in total. To lift them up there, we wheeled the mobile scaffold in the pictures out onto the grass, on 2 scaffold boards so stop it sinking into the soft ground, and used that as a staging post, lift them onto that, then both up onto the scaffold for the second lift. It was actually easier than I expected it to be. Tip for anyone doing this sort of job. While the suppliers are happy to make the roofing sheets to any length you want, they only seem to supply them in "1 metre" width. Great I thought, my car port is exactly 6 metres wide, I need 6 sheets. Actually the sheets came 105cm wide. There is a 5cm overlap. So while it is true each sheet adds 1 metre to the width of the roof, with 6 sheets there are only 5 joints, so the finished width of 6 sheets of roofing is 605cm. That is 5cm wider than my car port frame. Quick thinking, by cutting a small piece off the top and bottom corner of the first sheet to clear round the garage roof tile overhang, that end of the roof ended up coming closer to the garage wall than originally planned, leaving the other end finishing mm perfect at the end of the framing. There was also a few sheets of "spare" roof sheets used as packing and protection. I am now scheming what I can use them for. Next phase will be fitting solar panels along the back of the car port.

First, don't panic! I think this is an easy option. The AFT forms are just a way to make the concrete laying easy, producing the same shape with standard (correct spec) XPS should be fine. Maybe reinforce with wooden forms on the outside if not sure of the glue strength. If you look at people in Sweden laying these types of foundations they don't necessarily use preformed XPS anyway, just build up from sheet.

When the client is clever and pragmatic enough to ask them to do so, and to be happy to pay them to do it . Anything else is wishful thinking and short-sightedness on the clients side. Pay people to take time to plan and discuss, and they will, which is why I am flat out busy working for self builders who want something better / more robust than making daft assumptions that “it’s all going to go well”…. . Not aimed at you @Mr Blobby, just a point to consider moving forwards, to help you get what you thought you’d be getting. Half a days wages would have likely mitigated this type of misunderstanding / faux-pas out, but you as the client also need to be present, often, and with some time to invest, if you really want to influence things and bolster the outcome. How many car journeys do you set out on, wearing a blindfold?

Thanks for your reply. I do appreciate they are really busy, and not looking for them to come up with the solutions. We are having issues with the B5 compliance, we had contacted the fire service who said they needed to talk to the building control officer. Our officer said to forward the information over to him which we did immediately. This was 2 weeks ago and he is not replying to any of our attempts to contact him, even though he has mentioned the issue to our structural engineer while disusing a different issue. Its cost us money and time. We are now unsure of how to proceed. Firstly.. Thankyou to everyone that took the time out to respond and apologies for taking so long to say thanks, I Hadn't checked or seen that we had so many responses. I am starting to remember that the admin is one of the reasons I stopped social media. So the update is positive, I think we finally figured out how building control works. We had thought part of their role was in an advisory capacity and no-one, including them would tell us specifically what their role and responsibilities were, who they were accountable too, how the game plays out and what the game rules were, so when they just wouldn't respond to our emails or anyone in the company would answer the phone, and then would make extraordinary demands of us with no other additional information or guidance, we felt like we were being taken on a merry dance. We have since figured out that they are as a general rule NOT working in an advisory capacity, because if you build something they advised on and passed, and something went wrong, they are then liable, which makes perfect sense why they would be reticent to pass on their knowledge. The B5 requirement was a headache because the impression we got was that we HAD to install this HUGE turning area that would dominate our land and involve taking out a lot of trees to produce. This has now been satisfied with a sprinkler system installed in the house, of which a certificate from the company installing is enough and it was this extreme request that was solved with a simple solution that broke the camels back and we figured out the way this particular inspector seems to work. He will throw at us the worst case scenario, we find the simplest solution to solve it and as long as it is reasonable and under someone elses name, he is happy. I know it may sound daft and we are slow learners, but the parameters with which it all operates just isn't written down anywhere and my brain needs to fully understand the system we have to work within, before it can function. Anyhoos...We got there, we submitted our actions and we got the go ahead from building control at the end of last week so WE'RE OFF. Thankyou everyone and I am sure we will be back with more further down the line.

Permission to be outspoken? That's because they don't know much*. Plumbers dont generally know much about it. The ones who do claim to be expert mostly get the designs done via their merchant who in turn go to their supplier. The ones who rightly don't say they are skilled in it.... are too busy plumbing to go on courses. That leaves the ones who fancy the work and the grants, and can still charge a lot in an overheated market. * I have discussed with plenty. Some bluff and perhaps exaggerate the little they do know, but some honestly say what they know and what they don't. But others talk the buzz words without actually understanding. In such discussions they generally assume I am an ignorant punter, and so I let them do their thing for a while. What I want is them to be able to join the pipes up and commission it. A large part of the builder population also think that Engineers, Architects, Building Inspectors ....and so on.... don't know what they are doing and over/ wrongly design. (ditto me being the ignorant client)

But that argument is utter rubbish in reality and has been for a number off years since the grid started to be decarbonised. You can heat any building with a heat pump and it can be the cheapest heating when compared to gas or oil, and emissions lower also. Only things that are important is heat pump is sized correctly and emitters are sized for a low low temperature. Then it's basic science heat out matches heat in. Add a ToU tariff and battery you savings can be huge in cash terms also. In CoP terms a poor performance building can give way better CoP than a high performance one. Example our current average daily temp is around 9 degs, but the heat pump only runs for a 1 to 2 hour stint, gets a CoP of mid 5s while running, but then spends the next 20 odd hours off consuming standby losses, and although small bring the CoP down on a daily basis. A poor performance building would be taking heat all day and keep at a high CoP level all day, as long as the emitters are sized well. A2W need good sizing of heat pump and CH system, A2A needs only the heat pump sized correctly.

It's good to hear that being suggested in a vessel that has been so nerdy on these other matters to beyond what is economic, for so long. It's never that simple of course.... construction, door heights, and such. The reality is that when our oil burner failed during the winter, we could get a new boiler in a week but an ashp would not have been realistic. For a remodelling or upgrade though, I might settle for 50mm of insulation where possible, and ufh or big rads. With solar and batteries. And/or air to air units in some rooms, permeating elsewhere. BUT how many have the knowledge to think it all through? The heat loss is the same whether ashp or boiler so it's well worth considering. We just filled the oil tank. Gulp.

You absolutely technically correct about the space frame! I'll try and reason out my thoughts. I do like your example of the racing car, same applies to certain types of boat construction.. solid timber, ply and plenty glue. You also not wrong and again technically correct. For a bit of context. I was delighted to be invited by @Square Feet to get involved right at the early planning stage of this project. My brief is roughly be the SE. @Square Feet Now referred to as SQ. The brief is fabric first, high levels of thermal performance, eco friendly all on a very tight budget. The house has to be elegant, play to the outstanding views, be functional for example. The budget does not easily allow us to just make the house bigger to solve design issues! Now lots of the materials we are thinking about using are for example hemp, wool based products and internal lime plaster. We need to take cognisance of the fact that some of these don't have the best fire ratings for example. The walls are going to be thick and that introduces structural issues around bracing the building against sideways sway under wind loading. We also have to be very careful to avoid condensation within the walls, could be a disaster if we don't set this up right. SQ and I have had a fair bit of correspondence initially. Then we had a preliminary design meeting for a day, just to meet face to face is very important. Our last meeting was structured so that it included me giving a one to two hour introduction to the basic structural design concepts, call that a "structures lecture". The objective is to allow SQ to see, follow and appreciate the types of things we need to do structurally so we can actually marry up the insulation etc with a structure that is not going to fall down, crack or protest later. The walls are going to be thick. If we want to use say Hemp and achieve as close as we can to passive house standards. The easiest way for me to describe this to SQ was to call it a space frame. It's not entirely correct, technically, but it's probably the easiest way to explain some of the basic concepts to a first time self builder. If I do this it means they have a basic understanding of SE stuff and this enables them to make better informed decisions. It removes some of the uncertainty that self builders encounter, gives them confidence. The house is going to rest on some ground that may have problems. I've plumped for a ground bearing slab at the moment. The slab is thicker than what you may often see. But on balance I feel it will allow me to reinforce locally without complex thickening at the edges or internally where I have point loads. While we use more concrete on the face of it, it makes it more buildable, easier to set out and arguably more carbon efficient, just due to the simplicity. The house is not heavy, single story. The design is very early stage. But I knocked up the detail below, just to explore for myself, not least, how I would fit all the materials together that SQ wants to use. CAUTION! The detail below is a concept to promote discussion, I know it will have flaws in it so do not copy! To explain the above. The inner timbers are vertical load bearing (the roof load). The outer timbers carry the vertical load from the cladding. The cladding vertical load is transferred back to the slab edge as the ply gussets are glue with a structural glue. The inner timbers are clad with structural ply, to resist the in plane wind loads (looking into the page). The glued ply gussets are rigid moment connections, unlike a standard truss used as a wall element. The sheet of more breathable ply on the outside also acts as a stiffening element, but if push comes to shove the ply can act compositely with the vertical timbers. The ply plates turn the wall element into a compound element so the wind suction and internal pressure loads get shared by the inner and outer timbers, then if I need to I can also increase the effective area of the timbers by utilising the ply, the ply turns the timbers into a structural Tee member. But in summary, yes it's not a true space frame, but close. We might say it's a version of the Larsen truss concept.. not really. Most familiar to folk will be the concept of using Posi joists as the vertical wall element or a flat timber truss, like on a flat roof, but as a wall element. But we only have the slab edge so we need to be a bit more crafty. To summarise. Technically you are all correct. I've used loose language. Once SQ and I get into the detailed design then we can come up with a name for this kind of bespoke construction that takes into account the types of materials we want to use and their nuances. But to finish I can tell you all, both SQ and I very much appreciate all your comments, every day is a school day!

Bin fit a new one

I think if nothing else, it serves as a useful tool to validate quotes you receive from a local merchant to make sure that you are not being robbed.

The quote I accepted was < £20 delivery and was nearly a £1000 cheaper than the next merchant quote. It came from a reputable supplier on the South Coast. The quote I received from the local merchant was as follows. Caberdek £12.15 OSB3 £18.55 My aim with all material purchases, is to beat the price specified on my 'Estimators Online' QS. Every time I do that, it hopefully helps in either bringing the build in cheaper or helping to offset those unnecessary costs that you incur along the way. Estimators had flooring at ~ £17 and OSB3 at ~ £27

Thanks everybody. The DNO confirmed that the sloping install inside the meter box is standard for a flush mount. He did say that the installation on the pole would be redone. The ducting is only exposed because we didn't back fill that part of the trench in order for the DNO to gain access to the end of the duct. I think the way they cut the duct we buried and hooked up the hockey stick is poor, as is the connection on the pole. I guess we'll have to finish it off ourselves. I don't really know what we pay for nowadays. I had to pay up front. What is the world coming to? (And other things old people mutter to themselves)

Just thought I'd update. We are using a contractor. The warranty/site insurance providers (Protek/Build Zone) were not keen to say the least for us to take on the demolition, and neither were building control.

I did that in a room about 6x8m. It nearly killed me 😁 To answer OP, no gluing, expansion gap around edges. Used trimmed tile edging to cover the gap.

A follow up on this thread. I bought a fogstar 16kwh DIY kit and Solis 5kw hybrid inverter back in March. Inverter installed and set up fine but the inverter I bought needs a DC supply to operate so without a battery or generating PV it's dead. With a faulty battery that becomes a problem leading me on to..... Fogstar kit went together OK following 3rd party YouTube videos.....the Fogstar documentation isn't the best. I had problems balance charging and after a couple of weeks Fogstar tech agreed I could build and use the battery. Had problems with a couple of cells which Fogstar were reluctant to replace and accounted for the struggle to balance charge them. Not long after I started using the battery there were a couple of instances of the battery collapsing and dropping to 0% charge in front of my eyes. After weeks of back and forth with Fogstar tech and stripping the pack for balance charging a further 2 times, Fogstar took the battery back for 'test and proper set up'. 3 weeks later I got the battery back and 2 days later it collapsed again so went back for a refund. In the months I had the battery Fogstar stopped selling the kits and the cells that go in them so I guess I wasn't the only one with problems. Spoke an installer who sells Fogstar kit on ebay and he convinced me the product is good so I bought a factory assembled battery through him and it's run perfectly for the last 2 months. There's another one on the way to help with the winter load. I'm happy to recommend fogstar kit but just be aware that after sales can be lacking!

These older houses can be built with lime mortar and a bit of movement is expected, stitch something together ridgid and you move the cracks to another part of the property. im no structural engineer but have been removing trees from properties for the last 40 years when the finger gets pointed at the tree, I’ve been on sites where you could shake hands with the neighbours through the cracks in the walls 😂😂

Bit quiet in here recently, so for your viewing pleasure... Still need to paint the lid but these things look the b*ll*cks.

Mixer is on the UFH heating. So in heating it is mixing return water to bring down the flow temp, in cooling mixing return water to make supply water warmer than used by the fan coils. Its just the same as you would do for UFH and radiators. Pumps I would set up a primary and secondary loop, primary loop is just the ASHP circulation pump, for the UFH and fan coils I would have a close coupled tee (CCT) for each circuit, first CCT for the fan coils and second for UFH. Each circuit from the CCT would require a pump. So sort of 2 zones one for UFH (mixer as well) and the other fan coils. Set the two secondary pumps to run fixed speed. Then flow match the primary pump speed to match the combined flow from the 2x secondary. Fan coils output is governed by fan speed (which is controlled via a thermostat), so the flow can be left to circulate the whole loop, so then run both pumps when ever you have a call for heat/cool. Otherwise expect to need a volumiser or a buffer. But personally I really wouldn't bother doing fan coils below dew point, save the complication and you can buy something like Jaga Strada Hybrids to do above dew point cooling, no mixer etc.

Here is a Haier scheme, you just setup as a 2 zone system. Each zone with a different flow temp fixed or WC. The image shows a buffer which is unlikely to be needed

New Tank Fitted over the weekend Grant Tank - 180L 2.7m2 coil surface area couple of errors in pipework configuration that are resulting in increased heat loss but I'll fix them over the next couple of weeks. meantime a quick experiment on boiler efficiency (compared to old tank data) revealed Boiler efficiency Old tank when heating HW - efficiency was 88.97% (condensate volume 157 grams - condensate stopped after 10 mins of a 30 min cycle due to return temp being above 54 deg) New tank when heating HW - efficiency is 93.29% (Condensate volume 332 grams was generating condensate all the way thro the 45 min cycle) Can show workings if required....... Heat Loss Old Hot water tank fully lagged pipework - london loops everywhere (U loops on any hot outlets from tank) best I could get in term of temp decay in the tank was 0.4 deg per hour (most of the time it was 0.5 to 0.6 deg per hour) so heat a tank to 50 deg and 20 hours later it would be down to 40 deg (thats a just bearable shower according to SWMBO) New Tank - no lagging on pipework yet and minimal london loops and the tank losses are down to 0.19 deg per hour - so heat a tank to 50 deg and 24 hours later it's still over 45 deg - I think I need a better hobby!!!! PS Yes I need to fit a tank stat PPS The tank is set up as a vented tank (so no G3 certification is required)

I think you have to change your expectations or nothing will suit. I don't know when I last used a decimal mm in construction. I appreciate it may be a mindset and things like cutlery laid approximately can be an issue. I'd be interested to know what measurement would have been acceptable 1mm? 0.5mm? Measuring tapes aren't even that accurate. pencils get thicker as you draw a line. Saw blades have thicknesses, materials are variable, hands are not machines. There will be many worse discrepancies in your house should you choose to look for them. Nobody else will notice.

It’s what I do / have done, in every single kitchen and bathroom job I’ve ever done. Dulux Diamond for the finish stuff in kitchens for most folk, or appropriate bathroom paint from whoever. 2 coats on brand new plaster in the same day, and customers think I’ve gone the whole 9 yards. Contract stuff is fine to leave on ceilings, but it isn’t very good on walls as it’s quite chalky and doesn’t wipe at all well. I use it sacrificially, for obliteration, and as above for use as a paint-come-filler for the very minor imperfections that you cannot see with the eye (until you pole sand lightly to show any defects). You must leave this to go bone dry before sanding, and I only say to dilute 10% water if spraying; current client is about to go full on Picasso and that’s the instructions for dilution from Wagner. Depends on how fussy you are whether you pole sand ceilings, or not, but my go-to plasterer is on site atm and he is shit hot, so very little needs doing tbh; he’s incredibly fussy in corners etc, and is pretty much the best plasterer I know or have ever met. If the plasterer is of ‘lesser finesse’ then you’ll have it “all to do” downstream and will soon regret not getting someone better. He’s Coventry based, and if anyone needs (wants) an exceptionally good spread then PM me for his contact details. He’s also an excellent external renderer, and does micro-cement and Venetian (etc) plasterwork. He has pics of some of the jobs he’s done and it’ll blow you away! Tres bien It’s all in the finish folks, and you’ll be staring at it in every room for the next couple of decades or more, and if that’s not right then what was the point in getting everything else behind it A1?

1 kg of seasoned hardwood has approximately 4.5 kWh of energy in it, when burnt in ideal conditions. As wood burners are not very efficient devises, you probably need to halves that. So a 5 kW one will, if run properly, will take 2 kg an hour, but probably closer to 3 kg. Burners can be adjusted to moderate thermal output, but that not only hurts efficiency, it also changes the combustion chemistry. Depending on the temperature of combustion, you also get varying amounts of particulates. Then there is the land area needed to grown the timber. A metre² of land in the UK gets around 950 kWh of solar energy on it, trees convert, at best, 0.25% of that to timber. So sub 0.2 kWh/year.m². So to run a 5 kW burner for 1 hour is going to take, at very best, 15 m² of land. Then you got the timber transport, storage, conditioning and waste disposal. Do you really want a wood burner. Most houses got central heating in the 1950s and 60s.

About time too. Handing out free money at £9k a time is insanity given other pressures. Its abundantly clear that the higher the grant goes, the higher the prices go.

Generally, projects have 3 control levers: budget, timelines and scope. People very often focus on the budget and forget about the other 2. For best planning, you need to use all 3 and build in contingencies for all 3. And if you prioritise your requirements well, scope is the easiest one to adjust. Since you're living in the house, have an orderly exit plan from every piece of work that you begin. And follow the 7P principle in everything you do.

No surprises there. Except how long it has taken the industry (passivhaus/passive house) to realise where the quick and cheaper gains are in retrofitting.

I like this approach and for me a most enjoyable part of the build. Myself and help from my Dad, 75 years old stick built my self build. This is half of it.

Have a read of the FIT guidance for generators so you get your set up correct. Adding an AC coupled battery between the generation meter and your consumer unit/incoming supply is likely acceptable. The guidance will also tell you if the change has to be notified to your FIt payer, which lots of things do have to be notified. If your FIL already has a 4kw system he'll need to get consent from his DNO to add any more potential export such as a battery. Don't be put off by the red tape as its all straight forward once you understand the constraints.......no one want to loose early FIT payments:)

Nice project. I'd go down the SE route, but you can keep the fee sensible by giving them a really clear brief. A small timber frame like this isn't a big job for them if the information is all there. What I'd send: a dimensioned plan and section showing the post positions, the 5.25m opening, the 5.75m depth and the 8.7 degree pitch. The full roof build up (ply deck, membrane or Greencoat, any battens) so they can work out the dead load. Your postcode, rough height above ground and how exposed the site is, because the wind and snow loads come from location and terrain. The slab details: thickness, mesh if you know it, any edge thickening, and how far the posts will sit from the slab edge. And your preferred materials, so oak posts plus glulam or LVL, solid or open web rafters. With a shallow mono pitch and two open sides, uplift is usually the governing case rather than the weight of the roof. The critical bits are the connections all the way down: rafter to beam, beam to post and post to slab. Expect the SE to specify raised post shoes so the oak end grain stays off the concrete, fixed with resin anchors or through bolts sized for the uplift, with proper edge distances. Worth getting them to confirm the slab edge can take those anchor loads, not just that the slab is heavy enough. With two open sides you'll also need racking resistance, so knee braces at the posts or a braced back wall. On the beams, it's worth talking to a glulam or LVL supplier in parallel. Many will size a single member for you, but they normally won't design the whole frame or the connections, which is where the real risk sits. A midspan purlin with shorter solid rafters keeps member sizes down. Full span LVL rafters give a cleaner soffit, but deflection over nearly 6m is what will size them. If you do tie the roof into the workshop, I'd keep the carport structurally independent and use a flexible flashing detail at the junction so any differential movement doesn't crack or tear anything.

If you don't mind a flat ceiling in the corridor/study/bathroom area then you could easily create an insulated loft space there and potentially use it as a proper plant room (take back the space allocated at the end of the building). You can get horizontal HW tanks for difficult spaces but I would avoid those if possible as they don't stratify the water as well. Downside is getting things in and out of there but if you plan for that then it's a solvable problem (nice big access hatch with a strong point above to mount a hoist is belt and braces) Using that loft space as plant room would also centralise the MHVR pipework which will make things easier and cheaper.

Without reworking the whole design, the main change I'd make is switching the kitchen to the other side of the room, allowing a larger living room by cutting down on the 'virtual corridor' space on the original: I'd probably use a little of that space gained to make the main bedroom suite a little wider.

I've been arguing we should be moving away from ICE for transport precisely to avoid having these sorts of events. The larger the proportion of our vehicle fleet that is electric and the better our charging infrastructure the less we can be impacted by an incompetent US adminstration flailing about out of it's depth or a murderous Russian president flailing around out of his depth

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere Make these up on site and chillax. 3 bits of EPS won’t ruin the week. Just shutter them well externally, belt & braces, and put some extra pins in to keep bits from floating up / away durning the pour. Using a quality expanding foam to bond these together will make them act as 1 solid piece btw; apply pressure for 1hr until cured, and then you’ll have to break the EPS to get these apart again. Rock solid once foamed together and as bombproof as you’ll ever need.

Agreed make your own. The priority is strength as insulation can be sorted after.

Personally I’d stick to the letter and not have any combustibles even if hidden from sight. Use cement board, mineral wool etc. Agree with @ProDave though - modern stoves are much better made in terms of efficiency, air leaks etc. BTW you know that this is notifiable work and should either be under BC control or by a Hetas person? I did mine under local BC. A carbon monoxide monitor one of the requirements. Might want to look at your liner to check that it’s properly airtight.

TBH that drawing is all a bit wrong delete out the two battens at the bottom they won’t be there lift the facia up to 25mm below the bottom tile add an over facia vent on top of the facia to make up the 25mm height.

China too - in the second quarter of 2026, EVs are up by 1/3, EV charging is up by 60%, and oil consumption is down by 9% (year-on-year). At the end of 2025 54% of their new passenger cars were EVs or hybrids; by 2030 that should reach 70%, with new electric commercial vehicles expected to be at 40%.

With ours, the stone provider did all this. When they came to template the worktops, as well as making their plywood templates, they took the sink with them, so ensure the hole they cut in the worktop fitted the sink correctly. They also fitted their preferred type of fixings to the worktop to secure the sink (not the ones supplied with it) and on fitting the worktop they secured and sealed the sink to the underside of the worktop. In our case, the hole in the worktop is a few mm smaller than the size of the sink, so there is a very small lip around the sink. I don't find this a problem, and it has the advantage that you don't see any of the sealant used unless you put your head down into the sink. I was very glad it was a supply and fit contract. When two strong men walked in carrying a long heavy granite worktop with a sink hole in the middle and the two halves joined by just the strips front and back of the sink hole, it looked very vunerable to damage at that stage, and I was glad it was them fitting it not me.

You ask all bonafide contractors for their RAMS too, before they step foot on site, and you also do inductions (regardless of how “busy” you are). And make the site a safe and organised place to be. Allow a lot of time clearing up, sweeping (M-class vacuum needs to be on site as you’re not supposed to kick up dust these days), festoon lighting, don’t have sharp or ‘stabby’ things poking out of ground (rebar protruding needs to be bent back over itself or a mushroom cap put on it), no unmarked or open pits or trenches or barrier around them, list goes on but not rocket science. Take risks with your own life all you like, they can’t jail you for that, but when you invite any 3rd party there then the onus is on you to make them ‘not expire’ ahead of their predetermined departure from this life.

I may not be explaining this very well. One last comment and then i'll leave this subject. My contention is that it should be me that decides what i build and why. And it is me that judges what is of value to me. There are many things that could be built into the total package of a new home. That i pay for dont forget. Some would potentially be of benefit to a later resident. I dont care, if they want it they can provide it. Simple really.