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Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone from Ebuild and Here, the carpets went down yesterday and we spent the first night (on camp beds) in the house last night. The furniture and cooker still needs to be delivered but the caravan went this morning so we are officially living in the new house, there is still some finishing off to do mainly painting internally and the landscaping externally which starts Monday mow the caravan has gone but the end is in sight, 12 months of planning and 7 months of building are nearly at end but it wouldn't if been possible without eveyone help advise and guidance, a special mention to Jeremy as well for taking the time to show us around and talk to us at length about his project and giving us the confidence to become self builders. Here is what it presently looks like and what it looked like at start.

This is the bit that i would be very pissed off about. Did you give them permission to forward your details onto a 3rd Party? Is it even legal for them to do that? Now you are open to unwanted sales calls based on the actions of these Building Merchants. I don't really care about the insulation companies that much. There are plenty of firms selling less than advertised products, its buyer beware, which is why i find this forum and its members invaluable. For example there are loads of cheap ASHPs on ebay quoting a COP of 5, these are around 1K for a 16kw (non inverter) ASHP, but thanks to the information and advice given here i know there is no way this could be true so i should take everything else this person says with a pinch of salt. Trust is a big thing to a self builder, you are literally putting your entire self into something and if you are put in a position where your trust is lost, then its gone and you are passionate about trying to inform other people. Its the same reason you are passionate about the product you have chosen, and why you feel compelled to defend it. Thats all great, everyone here just wants everyone else to be able to learn from their experiences and benefit from their passions.

Just bought this McAlpine one. A very good unit, finishes flush, chrome plated solid brass and a huge top access bucket ( hair trap ) for easy full cleaning. Most other 90mm wastes have a sort of mushroom cover which is elevated, sitting on plastic prongs. They don't last long if you inadvertently step on them. I'll be buying the above from now on, and bin / sell the crap ones that usually get supplied with the trays. I'll take some pics tomorrow.

Hi everyone, joining the ranks again having taken a bit of time out. Our build hasn't covered a lot of ground since the ebuild forum went down, but the pace is picking up again and hopefully in time I'll get my blog moved over along with some more up to date content. I hope all your projects, builds and planning battles are making positive progress and look forward to catching up with your stories soon. Best regards Michael

Ah, heart-in-mouth stuff this. The phone goes - new number - no half second when you can adjust to the person you know is on the other end because the name flashes up on the screen. Starting a phone conversation with a technical expert, but hoping for an emotionally literate, customer-focused, technically easy to understand response is not a pleasant feeling. Add to that a mobile phone with a hiccup and a slightly distracting tomcat (Sid) who fastens himself to my leg in mid-sentence, a recipe for miscommunication. Semi-Undaunted because I've done a bit of homework. I prepared a Briefing Pack for the Piling Contractors. They've got all the information I have got in front of them and I've asked for an initial chat. Important this: first impressions and all that. Imagine then my delight when I hear a man's voice says, you don't need [This Company X] because .............. and it would be better for you to use a different piling system because............ Customer Focus. Yippee! (PM me for the details of who and which company). And he proceeds to give me the low down on why screw piles are likely not the best system. Our Soil Investigation makes it clear that our land is not suitable for piling with screw piles. He's just saved me a lot of money. A lot. And I'm grateful. And they do MVHR and this and that and the other for new-builds. Who am I going to contact and ask for a quote for MVHR, this that and the other? Right. No brainer. Interesting then that another company [ Company Y] has already submitted a quote '... based on the information [ I ] have provided...' (which was exactly the same as to the former company) amounting to £23,000. Company Y manufacture the piles and licence an installer to do the work for them. In this case I would need to be really sure who takes appropriate professional responsibility for using screw piles - and be able to explain why they were not using another system instead. And in dealing with one quote which involves two companies, I'm asking myself where's the potential for conflict of interest? This sentence in their quote set my teeth on edge... '...As you are no doubt aware, some piling schemes are installed to a ‘set’. This means that the actual works and final costs can invariably increase on the day of installation...' 'Can' and 'invariably increase' written next to one another. The best I can say is that the sentence wasn't drafted with care. The Plot Thickens One contractor (PM for details) rings up and says. " Your piling requirement is for about 200Kn, so it can't be done with a mini piling system. So for the spec you have it'll need CFA (Continuous Flight Auger) piles - or some other system. Mind if we pop round to have a look at the site? I've had a look at the briefing pack you sent us, looked at Street View on Google Earth and I'm a bit concerned about access to your site. I just need to have a quick look. Will Wednesday morning be OK?" Customer focus writ large. Before the guy arrives (this is written on Tuesday, the day before he comes) I am well disposed to his company approach. He's told me that the two quotes I already have need to be re-read in the light of the access issue - and that one of them - the company that wants to use mini piles - probably hasn't read my briefing pack well enough. So that's why I changed the title of this post to [...], not so clueless of Lancaster So now I'm wondering whether the TAF (Temporary Amphibian Fence) forced on us by our blessed newts (I love them really) have screwed up access to the site. And in any case, this exercise has taught me that access needs to be considered for every large delivery. That is bigger than a 7.5 tonner. Hmm, how to do that efficiently? Ideas on a postcard please..... (06:00) Tuesday 08:10: See this comment by CalvinMiddle, and his further reference to this document...... (here). Bottom line; do your basic research. Interesting day ahead. Oh dear another over-long day ahead. Fun this retirement lark!

Yes it's been a long time coming, but finally I can use the toilet in the static caravan. That's because today was the day I finally connected the last bit of drain piope to connect the house and caravan to the treatment plant. More on the blog at www.willowburn.net look for the entry "last bit of drainage"

yeah its a common thing. PIR Thermal conductivity - 0.022 PUR Thermal conductivity - 0.021 So if you do the calculations you might be lucky to get a 5% improvement and it will be double the price for PUR over PIR.

I found the Soudal low expansion foam to be pretty good and easy to control when filling narrow gaps, better than a couple of others I tried. I used the cheap Screwfix guns and they've lasted for the build, but are on their last legs now, as the teflon coating has worn off the valve and they tend to now gum up and jam if left. They were OK for a couple of years, though, so that may well be the realistic lifespan of a fairly cheap-ish gun (IIRC they were around £20 each).

Thank you, yes it was getting a bit cramped with a 3 and 5 year old, although when the guy picked up our caravan today he said he once dropped one off to a couple when the lady was 6 months pregnant and the child was 3 when he went back to collect it.

I just appreciate the impartial advice from here, id be stuck without it first build a lot to,learn and its great to hear peoples opinions, i dont get to worried hard sell just makes me more determined to get as much info as i can prior to making a decision everyones opinion here is valuable, lifes too short for arguments and stress god knows we all have enough of that if we are in the self build game. thanks guys i hope you look forward to my next questions!!!!

You and Terry are welcome any time Jan - give is a call

+1 to the Johnstones stuff - we use it for toilet floors at an activity centre and we use cheap £3 brooms from Wilko and a washing up bowl. One person goes round the edges (and first two brick courses) with the floor paint, the other paints the floor with the big brush. We do a whole building in a couple of hours at most and that's a lot of edges to cut in !!

The cistern has had it, sadly, and it's a close coupled one, which means that the toilet may well be no use without it. The small washbasin might come away from the wall cleanly, I'm not sure how it's fixed (seems to be just screwed to the wall without brackets). The green is what I think was popularly called "avocado" in the early 1980's when it was installed. The bathroom was the same, but I ripped that out years ago and got rid of it. There's some "nice" green cushioned vinyl flooring in there too, along with floor to ceiling pale green wall tiles on every wall. Whoever built this house liked green a lot.....................

It's what I would do, and have done on just about every stack I've ever connected to. No issues yet, and I'd assume that if shitty black and grey waste water had been leaking anywhere, particularly inside the envelope of a customers home, I'd be the first to know .

Yes, your spot on. The TS and the boiler 'talk' to each other via the cylinder stat and that heats the tank according to time / demand. The room thermostats talk to the actuators on the Ufh manifolds, and the call for heat from any room / zone ONLY needs to turn the pump on the respective manifold via the dedicated terminal in the Ufh control / wiring center ( UH2 ). There is no need for an external pump to circulate between the TS and the manifolds as long as the run isn't ridiculously adverse, eg 2 floors away at the other end of the building with 20 high points etc. These do pull through incredibly well all by themselves. Quote "The Heatmiser guy was insistent that I should use the hot water valve signal because I will need to trigger the external pump at my TS." Did they mean trigger the manifold pump? Or do you already have that connected? Is this in and working, then failed, or are you installing all new from scratch?

Cheers Declan, 2 -3 months was the sort of timescales I was thinking. Will need to enquire how much it costs to erect. Cheers for the number Kev. I'll give them a shout early next week.