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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.

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

Finished, after a few false starts.

Steico is one of only 5 major international companies that use LVL flanges that I'm aware of. They are also the only I-Joist company to make their own web material (incredibly dense fibreboard) - the rest rely on OSB from 3rd party manufacturers. Most other joist manufacturers, including the majority that import into the UK, use finger jointed softwood - and there is nothing wrong with either method! I’ve used JJI finger jointed I-Joists for my extension and never had any issues with the build quality or dimensional accuracy. The only issues I’ve had have come from bad storage, with joists that have been allowed to soak up water and then not been stacked flat to dry. An OSB web is more prone to issues with dampness and swelling and structural weakening than hardboard, but LVL flanges also more prone to mould than softwood. It’s all horses for courses, - whatever type you use, they should be properly stored -flat - and protected from the damp. However, it is also true to say that it is much harder to obtain softwood of the right quality and strength to make flanges; LVL manufacturing always makes for consistent and controllable structural properties whereas softwood is limited by what nature produces. Hence a lot of softwood is steam treated and pressed for straightness, and there is considerably more wastage of raw timber to produce something suitable. Unfortunately, there is also now a lot of engineered timber products available from 'dubious' sources. I was at a TDUK meeting recently where the OPSS basically admitted that 100% of timber imported into the UK from Turkey was 'not compliant' with UK Timber regulations. If you don't know where the timber comes from, you also cannot guarantee the quality. That’s not to say that all engineered timber using sanctioned Russian Timber produced by Chinese mills and imported into the UK via a Turkish trading company will be poor quality. But there is usually a reason why it is much cheaper…

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.

The Ecotrus system - why I chose it As promised, here's a few more details on the light gauge steel system that I used, and in particular why I chose it. Unlike Gus, this isn't something I'm familiar with - the vast majority of any previous building work that I've done has been with timber, and if I could have done this conversion using wholly timber, I would have happily done so. My key issue was the span, combined with my desire to do as much of the work myself as possible. Our house is essentially a square box, and it's approx 8600mm from wall plate to wall plate. There are no supporting walls at first floor level and so the existing roof was supported entirely by a typical Fink truss structure. I therefore kept going round the loop of how to bridge the span without needing the conventional approach of two RSJs at loft floor level and probably another at the ridge. I realise I'm not a structural engineer and there are probably a lot of possibilities which simply didn't occur to me here, but I did do a fair amount of research and cycled through considerations such as: Posi-joists: theoretically possible with the span, albeit would have been very deep. I also couldn't find any clear details, despite speaking to a few manufacturers, as how they could sit on the wall plates and be tapered on their top chord to fit within the roof slope. Timber I-joists: again, theoretically possible with the span, albeit right at the upper limit. Simpson Strong-Tie used to have a system to allow you to cut the necessary taper on the I-joists to fit within the roof slope, but it appears to have been discontinued now. Regardless, for the span I needed, this wasn't a particularly cost effective option and still didn't resolve what to do at the ridge. Glulams: as above, and much heavier to move as well. RSJs: probably the most conventional and likely the cheapest option overall. However, not something I felt confident managing or directing on my own, and would have required a crane to get them into position. If I'm honest, the main barrier here was probably my fear factor of operating well outside my comfort zone, plus the difficulty of finding a reliable contractor who was willing to take on the structural steel elements only. Telebeam: similar to EcoTrus, but relatively expensive and still didn't resolve what to do at the ridge. Various other combinations of building supporting walls at first floor level (too disruptive to the rest of my family, who I've been desperately trying to keep onside!) and trying to span between them. In summary, the EcoTrus system was the only one I came across which seemed to offer the required span, the freedom for me to install it myself and was backed up with a design service, structural calculations and LABC/NHBC Stage 1 pre-approval and LABC Partner Authority assessment. To be clear, I'm not saying it was the only option or even the right one, but it solved the problem that was front and centre for me. Being able to say 'I did it' has been a big part of this for me. How does it work? I found the system pretty logical. One day, a lot of steel turns up at your front door - in our case, 117 individual pieces of light gauge steel. The main components are the floor joists, rafters, gusset plates, ceiling joists and the dormer faces/cheeks. The latter are the only bits that turn up semi-assembled: we had three panels which made up the front of the dormer and two further panels for the cheeks. In advance of receiving the steel, you're provided with the assembly drawings and some standard guidance as to how put it together, starting with the floor joists. We removed the bottom three rows of tiles on both sides, fixed ropes to both ends of the joists and then lifted both simultaneously (with the back rope being rigged over a higher part of the scaffold) so that the joist ended up suspended mid-air at roughly loft floor height and in line with the relevant truss bay. Each one was then pulled in and slid through the roof until it was resting on the wall plates on both sides (with 45mm packers already in place). This was by far the most physical bit; each joist only weighed approximately 35kg, but the length made them awkward to handle. We managed it with three people and got them all in within four hours. There are two 250mm C-section joists per truss, fixed back to back through the truss at 600mm centres top and bottom with 5.5mm Tek screws. Then came the rafters; again slid into the right place using the same technique and with two 165mm C-sections either side of each truss. They were connected to the floor joists initially with a 16mm bolt, later reinforced with the same Tek screw pattern through the truss. Starting with the rafters at either end, the idea is that you then pivot each rafter on the 16mm bolt to lift them up to the underside of the existing felt until they are a specified distance above the floor joists. Once fixed, you string a line between them and use that as your reference point for all the remaining rafters. This sounded straightforward, but we ran into issues with our trusses not being true - once I had the rafters at either end fixed into place, it was impossible to get some of the intermediary ones pushed up to the same height because their corresponding trusses and/or the roof battens in that area were sitting lower. Ultimately, I had to strip that side of the roof to get them all in plane, which was fine for me as we had a tin roof scaffold and because I was planning to re-roof anyway, but would have caused a lot more issues if I had wanted to keep the existing tiles. Then you add the gusset plates - effectively reinforcing ribs which replace the need for a ridge beam - to the tops of the rafters and in line with your strings. Next comes the dormer face and cheek panels; I had messed up here and not allowed a sufficient gap in the scaffold to pull them through. The largest one was 2200mm by 3000mm and weighed about 120kg. The scaffolder was really helpful and sent a couple of his team round to adjust the scaffold and then help to haul up the panels, which we did with a scaffold hoist and some ropes to stabilise, effectively sliding them up the back of the house. They sit directly on top of the floor joists, more or less directly over the inner leaf of the back wall of the house. Once in position and squared up, you then install the dormer ceiling joists between the gusset plates and an L-bracket which is pre-fixed to the back of the dormer panels. Notwithstanding the issues with the rafters, it was a straightforward process - quite repetitive (driving Tek screws gets boring very quickly), but logical and sequential in its nature. The below photo shows where we had go to after ten days with two people working full-time (and obviously using the system for the first time). I'm conscious of length, so I'll end this post here and I'll cover the roof windows framing and some of the system idiosyncrasies next time.

I-joist packs should always be stored covered (original wrappings, and on edge (flanges) until use. They should never be laid on flat as shown above. It doesn't matter which manufacturer, their handling and storage instructions will always say the same and incorrect storage may void any warranty claims This is especially important for finger jointed softwood flanges as lateral deflection under pressure can cause the joints to open and reduce the structural integrity; since these are likely to have been forklifted into place the risk is greater. Setting on edge not only helps to prevents physical damage to the flanges and web glues, but it also reduces the risk of structural compromise of the web from water sitting inside. (More of an issue for OSB than Fibreboard, but frowned on for both) https://www.jamesjones.co.uk/assets/uploads/files/technical-info/jji-joist-and-glulam-site-storage.pdf https://www.steico.com/uk/products/construction/i-joists/steicojoist https://forestproductsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/Nordic-Installation-Guide.pdf Ditto for metal web joists.

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.

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.

So bulk of the tiles are cut - couldn't find my paddle mixer for the adhesive so opted to cut as much as I could and get the bond right.

I think Nick is thinking health and safety. If you are going to be having big guys carrying a load of concrete blocks and mortar up them day in day out you need to consider the risks. Are you moving them inside before that work starts ? Are they attached to the scaffold & did the scaffolders put them in for you ? There are regs around scaffolding I believe, I think it is supposed to be checked and logged as ok on a very regular basis. Probably very often in breach, but if someone has an accident - it is your site and... they could come for you. If you need to modify or add to scaffolding I suspect you should be going back to the scaffold company. One of our carpenters had a friend that fell through a rooflight and ended up in a wheelchair. Inspection: construction platforms from which a person could fall 2 metres or more require inspection before use and at intervals no longer than 7 days, with further inspection after events liable to affect safety. A competent person must make the required report. Tags: a tag system can communicate inspection status, but tags are not themselves a legal requirement and do not replace inspection reports.

Thanks. I've recognized that my difficulty was primarily from the head of the roofing screw catching back of the gutter. No doubt the gutters and brackets are precisely made. With correct screws I expect no difficulty. Thx, ... P.

Same fault here on a Q350 (firmware 1.7.0, SHT30): front display completely dead, green LED on the main PCB lit, and exactly these ten error codes. After a restart both fans ran for about a minute, then the unit switched off the fan for the supply air. It was the outdoor air sensor (ODA, the "top" sensor), more precisely the corroded capacitor next to the SHT30 on its small board. With that sensor plugged in, the communication with the other sensors and the display was disturbed. Quick check, with the unit unplugged from the mains first: unplug the outdoor air sensor at the main PCB. It is one of the two green connectors, on the side where your outdoor air duct is connected. If the display comes back and only SENSOR_ODA ERROR remains, it is that sensor. I only replaced the capacitor (100 nF, ceramic) and coated the spot with conformal lacquer afterwards. All errors have been gone since, and I did not have to replace or rebuild the sensor itself. A more detailed write-up with photos, fault-finding and the repair: https://kreasteve.de/en/comfoair-q350-display-schwarz/ Steven

Be cautious of biting off more than you can chew. I'm 3/4 through a stud dividing wall through the living room. It's only 3.5m long but I'm into my 3rd week. I'm a shift worker too so I imagine I have much more spare time than most although I do have small kids. I'm enjoying it but it's slow as hell. I got pretty much a full day done yesterday and more or less finished skimming both sides to a standard i'm happy with. I had to give 2hrs today to go to screwfix to get bits. Everything takes forever when you're not a pro with a van full of tools and spares, decades of experience and a full 8hr shift to throw at a task. Looking above at your list of things to achieve I'll take the 15 doors. What takes 20mins on you tube is actually about 3hrs in real life for a DIYer. Realistically you'd be doing well to do 3 a week. That's 5 weeks for doors alone. I would pretty much forget the cosmetic things to begin with. 1. Find the cash to throw at a few big things. A. Fabric of the building. Roof, gutters, pointing. B. Insulation, pumped cavity walls, 400mm in the attic. Get it done straight away. C. Wiring/plumbing if that's in the plan. D. Windows and doors. E. Some mechanical ventilation of some sort. 2. Let the dust settle a little with the kids (congrats on the imminent by the way). I sat and watched the LEGO movie 2 nights ago with my 3. Far more fun than messing with plasterboard and the little cliches grow up so fast. 3. Go room by room. Pick what room is to be done first. Probably a bathroom. A. Get a lock for the door and use it when you're not in there. B. Don't tackle anything else in the house until that is finished 4. Repeat until finished in 2040!

Advice I got from my pal, that saved me a couple £k doing up my old house is to keep an eye on fb marketplace. E.g. Somebody might have put in LVT into a kitchen and is giving away enough spares/offcuts to do your entire bathroom for free. Somebody might stock up on decent laminate just to get it vetoed by the Mrs (the dark oak is not quite dark enough and a little too oak!), so the poor sod ends up selling it on fb half price. Of course, this requires some flexibility from SWMBO re the colour & pattern. Tranche, stage, chapter, step, transition state (if you really want to sound like the cool kids) - all the same concept of breaking down a large project into small manageable chunks. Try to think through all your dependencies so you don't have to re-do any work. For your windows my key Q was why you're hiring somebody instead of fitting them yourself (sounds like you have the skills for it). Especially if you have a lot of windows, even if you have to chuck a couple £k into a scaffold, you should still be able to save thousands and release a quarter of your budget. I've been told you don't need a phd to do this, but ask me again in 4 weeks when I've fitted mine. What you're trying to do now is not planning - it's often called a ROM a (Rough Order of Magnitude cost estimate). Stick a finger in the air and use your previous experience to eyeball the extent of damage to your bank account after all is completed. There's benefit in doing this but don't mix it up with planning software, gantts, etc and I wouldn't overthink it. My advice is to go over the scope with a fine comb. Your current thinking is: I've got 4 bathrooms, bathroom cost me £900 last time and took 1 week -> I'll budget 4x900 with contingency -> call it £4k and a month of work. This is good thinking for a ROM. Now think scope and start planning: - I will not need bathroom #4 at any point in the next 5 years -> I can de-prioritise it and don't have to think about it again. Better to use my time & money on higher priority tasks. - Bathroom #3 seems to have a small leak -> I need to investigate asap, as this could lead to a lot more than £1k + 1 week if there's rot underneath the floorboards. -> Re-assess after further investigation. - Bathroom #2 is a straightforward like-for-like replacement, so fair to assume £1k+week -> Put it on your quick & easy wins list. - Bathroom #1 is large and, with a bit of work, can be re-modelled to fit a bath big enough for both you & mrs to comfortably climb into it at the same time🤩, but this requires more work than a straightforward like-for-like. Likely £2k and 2-3 weeks of work -> keep it as low priority for now, because it's a nice to have but you might run out of time & money to do it in the next 2 years. Maybe better to tackle it in year 3 but do it the way you ultimately want it. You get the idea, hopefully.

Almost all my customers either already have, or choose to move over to induction cookers when the heat pump goes in. Nothing forcing them to get rid of the gas hob when receiving the BUS grant, but it makes very little sense on its own.

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)

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.

You're doing internal doors yourself but budgeting £75k (over a third of your budget!) to pay somebody for externals? Are you planning significant structural work (relocating windows)? Just sayin', £75k is a lot of spondoolicks. Does it really need to be done? I'm not in a too dissimilar position (just moved into a run down, somewhat smaller, house - 135 sq m + garage + half an acre plot with a view of building a workshop or 2), but I'm not doing any budgeting - I'll just tackle 'em as they come because the house keeps throwing up new problems faster than I can deal with them right now. Just have my high-priority hit list and the rest can wait. Instead of trying to eyeball a budget for a massive project with a bucket of unknowns (you'll never get it right - trust me, I've been consulting on massive IT projects for a decade now - never seen an initial budget that didn't make me want to laugh out loud), I would very strongly advise you to do two things: 1) Tranche the works, at least into year 1 and year 2. Maybe into year 1 - summer; Year 1 - winter; Year 2 - summer; Year 2 - winter; Backlog. Good idea to MSCW all your requirements at this stage. After each tranche you, ideally, want to be in a position where you can cancel/long-term pause your works if you get a black swan event (you or Mrs become unemployed, end up in hospital, Mrs gets a bad case of postnatal depression, kids go long term sick, you get into a car or bike crash, Trump decides to invade us just to name a few). Do not plan to start work that you can't exit in an orderly manner. 2) Determine a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for each tranche and each year. The absolute minimum you need to deliver to be able to say that your work during that tranche has been competed and actually improved the house and added value to it (value to you personally or mkt value). In this case if shit hits the fan, you can de-scope the works to the absolute minimum you need to deliver in the given tranche. Also, have you done your full discovery? E.g. Are you 100% confident you wouldn't suddenly need to fork out £40k for removal of lose fill asbestos, crumbling AIB or lagging? Do you have a brand new roof already, 'cause I don't see anything budgeted for roofing works? Boiler's arse is not falling out yet? Another thing to consider is if you have a mortgage or not. If you do, can you spend some of this cash repaying the loan instead and do the works 4-5 years down the line? Otherwise you're essentially paying 5% interest on every pound you spend on your house. We'll probably get hit by a huge inflation over the next 2 years so your 10% padding might even cover the price increases, never mind any unforeseen works. Good luck mate 🤣

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 😂😂

To add a bit. If you use traditional dowels, pegs then there is an old trick that was used in Scotland. We have lots of solid stone walls lined with lathe and plaster on studs on the inside. Timber wedges were driven into the stone work mortar beds. Then they were cut flush using a string line and the studs fixed to them. That is how they got the wall plumb etc. The spelling differs, as a traditional craft, but they are commonly called Dooks. But the secret was that they would dry the Dook's often near a fire thus they had a really low moisture content. Once they were driven into the wall they expanded. A traditional wall never gets below this moisture content and thus the Dooks always hold tight. You can use the same principle if you want to peg / dowel the way you are thinking. The dowels will need to be tapered as standard, but to get them really tight dry them out in an oven first. You could of course use a modern structural glue, but that may be cheating?

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.

Screwfix have a Trade pack of Torx screws on offer at 60% discount. 1400 screws for £19.49. https://www.screwfix.com/p/turbo-tx-tx-double-countersunk-multi-purpose-screw-trade-pack-1400-pieces/771vv I think @ToughButterCup is a fan of Torx.

Insurers starting to listen now - so I think they will send a loss adjuster out which is what I want .

annoyingly i didnt take any photos of that, but it was pretty easy. Im no expert plasterer and i was able to do it. When i had my opening i used CT1 on the tabs above the plasterboard before screwing up from below, then i used plasterboard adhesive around the gap between the boards and the valve itself. Scrim tape over that gap and skim over it all when doing the lot. Mist coat the ceiling, tidy up the edges to make round with some filler if needed and 2 coats of contract. Sand that back to flat then topcoat (Zinsser Permawhite) and its done. There is no bead on it, you just fly over the gap to the inner rim and deal with tidying that up after. It was pretty easy to make round as plaster/filler/contract matt sands back easily compared to the valve material which has more resistance, it wasnt a problem to make it perfectly round by just going round with sandpaper. I have to say it looks perfect and im well impressed, even after a chunk snapped off in screwup i was able to glue that back on and its flawless now once skimmed and painted. The magnet that keeps it on is crazy strong as well, bit tricky to take on and off to access the flow control but i cant see me changing that from fully open. I can recommend these, and im glad i pushed the boat out for it. Ive been looking at it non-stop the last few days, its a thing of beauty.

Hi Everyone, Looking forward to learning, and hopefully in time, contributing to this site. We finally completed on a building plot with Class Q to existing steel barn. Planning submitted for a smaller property and now awaiting outcome. Original planning had unhelpful BNG attached as plot area had been miscalculated. Recently had DNO's come to quote for providing services. Will post cost outcome in relevant section but suffice to say your experience/ advice will be more than welcome as their fees are nothing but extortionate.

It's an Insulated Raft Foundation. The Insulation is structural, 100% of the building's loads are passed through it and spread on to the ground beneath.

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.

@Sparrowhawk is currently on the case ironing out the file size upload wrinkle. Bear with!

Brickwork looks the nuts. DPC / gas membrane anal but in a nice way. I bought sand from Cornwall for the colour. £80 a pallet haulage but the alternative was awful.

Saw this ☝️ Seems to take the vehicle DC output from the fast charge port and use a dc-dc converter to step the voltage down a bit (depending on your battery architecture). Then connect it to the mppt panel inputs on a solar inverter moving a string of solar panels. I can see this as being quite clever - especially if the inverter has spare solar inputs. You could have your panels on 1 and 2 and your car on 3. If the box can talk to your inverter to get the house demand it could then set it's "solar panel string" to provide the appropriate output either to just match the homemload or provide enough for export.

I've paid £195 for a heat loss analysis with a hefty report. £295 for the UFH layout and for that he's going to route the manifold supply and returns too. Honestly, I think he'll pay for himself in what he's looking like he'll save us on kit already.