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I looked at a plot of land where the neighbour's had to give approval for the plans. They said they would not approve anything that overlooked their house and garden. They sent me previous plans of a house they had approved with numerous windows overlooking their garden. Most people can't read plans. From the day my house was designed their were pillars in the hall holding up the cantilvered landing. I had discussed these with my wife and shown them to her. We were disappointed as we didn't want pillars. When the stair designer created a 3D model of the hall with pillars in it she lost it due to the unexpected pillars. The pillars are now gone. Most people can't read plans. Most people don't listen. Your wife is always right.

If had a quid for every time I was asked this, I wouldn't have needed a mortgage.

Theres a house that backs onto ours that's in planning for a big refurb, this is the main comment from all the objectors "The rooms are too big, it must be a potential guesthouse etc..." Goes both ways though, which people never seem to consider when making the original complaint! There's two old dears that I always meet when doing work at the front, just like Mrs Brown and her mate off the TV. Maybe it's the Irish connection but I did laugh when they once said 'Feck the rest of them, we think its lovely'.

Best one I've had so far is .... "Well we were never consulted by the council ..! I've a mind to ring the MP and complain ..." Didn't have chance to say it's had PP since 2002, renewed twice, altered twice and we are building iteration number 4, approved in 2014.....

Hi Everyone I have to confess to coming on here largely in the hope I can help others steer clear of some of the issues we faced, we delivered a build (well we are at the later stages) very similar to the Medic House by AR Design though we used some different products in the build, most worked out well but some proved to be a real money pit. Sharing some of the highs and lows of our 8 month build I hope may offer some help to others who find themselves in the same boat. Catch up soon Mark.

Our situation was a bit bizarre in the end. We started off with around 14 people (neighbours) who had all very strongly objected to the previous planning applications for our site, and as a consequence it had gone to committee and been rejected (twice) before it was finally granted approval. We needed to submit a new application, and I knew that it was going to be an uphill struggle, just because of the pretty unpleasant comments that had been made about the previous applications. My concerns were made greater when we went to the Parish Council meeting, where the chairman started off consideration of our application by reading out the entire planning history of the plot, and reminding councillors of all the reasons they had given for recommending refusal in the past. We were saved by one lady on the PC, who had been looking at the scale model I'd made, and started things off by saying that the new application looked nothing like the previous ones and that they should recommend approval. She seemed to pretty much railroad the rest of them! So, we got PP with no objections from anyone, and when we started building we only had two sorts of comments. The first comments were about the speed they house went up (4 1/2 days), which seemed to amaze a lot of people. The second comments were when we were putting the cladding on, when pretty much everyone was complimentary about the way it looked, with only a couple who asked how I thought the larch would weather down. After that, our house has become a bit of a village feature, with me being asked to give a talk in the village hall about it, as lots of people seem interested in the idea of a house with no energy bills.

I suppose I'm quite fortunate in that my very small build, using simple materials, has received nothing but positive comments from neighbours and passers by. We received no objections at the planning stage either, and almost every person who lives on the road has in some way helped with the build, whether that be by helping lift the frame, or lending me a scaffold tower, or spending a day on the roof helping me install the membrane (not a one man job). I've actually got to know some of my neighbours much better thanks to the project. It's been great to have everybody on-side. I did speak to the nearest neighbour when drawing up the plans, and the house is sited so as to preserve his view of the Outer Hebrides from his studio.

Well, things, as I suspected might be the case, have gone from slow, slow, slower, to a sudden rate of knots overnight. After an initial bump where we discovered that the architect had drawn the SIPs to start at the beam and block floor level, (but with 2 weeks to go the SIPs designer pointed out that the soleplate must be 150mm minimum above that), we quickly got the builder to some blocks laid to give us the 100mm insulation, 75mm screed + stone floor height needed. Building regs guy arrived and unfortunately our first one who I had found seemed very practical has left the firm and this one seems very, very keen. I was a little disconcerted to hear him asking me if Kingspan SIPs have certification - I'd really have expected him to have heard of Kingspan! He quizzed the builders doing the blocks as to their experience and queried if the pipes have gravel around them (already inspected and passed by his predecessor prior to filling in), and also wants to see the engineers reports (already submitted to his firm at the very beginning of the process). He seems a nice guy though and hopefully once he is assured everyone knows what they are doing he will be less concerned, though the firm is doing both our BR work and our building warranty, and there seems to be confusion over whether they want to do separate inspections or will let one inspector do it (which would seem logical to me, but hey ho)... On Saturday the scaffolders came, preceeded by a delivery of brand new scaffolding which must have cost a fortune, so we have a very very shiny set of scaffold. They finished off on the Sunday, and on Monday the SIPs folks arrived. 07:30 and I was on site ready before them when the telehandler (which turned out to be brand new!) I had to hire for them turned up - the driver couldn't get the wagon up our road (he'd certainly had some fun negotiating his way here and almost got jammed between 2 farm buildings, having to reverse out and try another way) so he took the machine off ...and handed me the key of this brand new 14mettre reach telehandler ..... so I tried very hard not to grin like a small boy as I fired it up and drove it up to our place . Anyone else remember Tonka toys? Next was the first of 2 artics with our house in them - fortunately the SIPs guys arrived and the one with his telehandler ticket unloaded the wagon. The three of them are camped in a (nice) caravan and the estimate is 2 weeks, which is longer than I expected, but it really doesn't matter either way. It is interesting to see the care they take in getting the panels firmly attached. Low expansion foam into the joint, then a device which pulls the two panels together very firmly indeed before about 50+ annular nails each side are fired in. These things aren't coming apart in a hurry!

Just had a venerable member of the local Mafia (the 'NdrahangetaInMyBackYard group) walk past our build..... No prompting, no previous, no altercation, no nothing and then this "What are you putting on your roof?" "Oak shakes as explained on the planning application" "Well, I could forgive you if you were putting slates on like everyone else" "Well If I pay the pizzo, would you forgive me? After all we're only a thousand miles or so from Corleone" Is what I wish I'd said. As it was, she got away with a simple tight-lipped stare from me. What gratuitous nonsense have you had to put up with from random passers-by?

Never had any derogatory comments per se although I thi k it's the height of bad manners when showing someone a potential tile or piece of cladding or whatever and people blurt out 'oh I really don't like that'. Like others I don't even pause before replying that they probably shouldn't buy them for their house then. However being asked -'Are you going on Grand Designs' ad nauseum is certainly abuse. I just say 'No' and move on now... :-)

And how the conversation would have gone with me ........ "What are you putting on your roof?" "Oak shakes as explained on the planning application" "Well, I could forgive you if you were putting slates on like everyone else" "well guess what my love, your in luck today!" "why? Are you actually putting slates on instead of the oak shingles?" "no. Your in luck because I'm not asking for your forgiveness, now piss off before I gas nail a pork chop to you and release my hungry dogs. Have a nice day Y'all" ✌️️ Why develop a thick skin when your confronted by rude arseholes? A better saying than your line manager came up with is "if you've got nothing good to say, keep your trap shut" ? Word.

Actually I've been surprised how many passers by have randomly complimented me on our house. Given it's a big white box with cantilevered bits, it does challenge the street scene somewhat. Neighbours are a different story.

Its been a while since the last blog and lots has happened. We'd been busy with other things and planned to crack on with the house but while on the way to our house a couple of weeks ago, the OH was hit by a car which failed to give way at a junction. He was riding his cycle, got thrown up and across the road, landing on his head. Luckily, nothing was coming the other way, and he was wearing a helmet which took a lot of the impact and somehow, apart from lots of scrapes, his main limbs were fine, it was just his head that was badly hurt. He suffered a fractured cheek and eye socket but luckily, his eye appears okay. There were no fractures of the head or neck so after a night at the hospital he was sent home. A week later he had an op to fix the cheek and is now recovering from that. His good looks have returned with only a small scar around the eye. Another week and I'll be sending him back to work - he can do the painting at least! And in case you are wondering; the car driver was reported for careless driving and has admitted liability. Back to the house and a few pictures of the plastered bedrooms. What a transformation from their origonal state. The old windows had plasterboard added right up to the glass so I did take it all off and redid the reveals. It looks so much better now. The new cupboard on the landing and door to the front bedroom. and the back bedroom; This is the wall in the last blog which was my first plasterboarding attempt - it looks much better now. We are looking to start on the bathroom downstairs next. I have been busy sourcing everything and once the OH is back to normal, it should leap forward. The stud wall is in place, the bath is sitting in the bedroom and I am waiting for Nicholls to give me a good price on the rest of the furniture. More to follow...............

Hello all Can anyone give me any idea for floor tiling labour only. I have 180sqm of 600x600 porcelain tiles to go down and have had scary quote of £50 a metre labour only to lay. Many thanks Liz sorry forgot to say Im near Stratford upon Avon

Too late now guys!

Get Feckin Aff Maland Foxtrot Off Away Dear Go Shag A Soldier....? Ferdie is this how you speak to old ladies?

I've never seen such shiny scaffold!

As the youngest inhabitants on our road by about 20 years, this is my long term strategy for awkward neighbours. Outlive them all!!!

Don't mess with ProDave!!

I'd certainly never by a new house "off plan". Best thing we can do is teach our kids how to value quality and hope it goes viral.

He was only a young guy but a real grafter and a perfectionist too which was great to see. I'd be happy to recommend him to anyone else with a build in north Wales.

I am currently paying £35 per metre

I paid £22/sqm for labour only. That included installing Ditra matting as well as the porcelain floor tiles. Area was 65sqm

The argument is sound. Quite how you would, im not sure. If you did, and they were independant, and assuming they dont adopt a "council" type approach of just making life difficult for the sake of it, house building in this country will slow right down as there simply isn't the skill and resource to make it happen. Or to find enough people of knowledge to inspect. The standard of work is so poor you will have more inspectors than workers! Absolutely agree. I have had the discussion numerous times that its the next PPi waiting to happen, though i thought it would become an issue off the back of poor modern houses, and the slowly growing news on the subject. This incident just supercharged the whole issue.

Bringing this thread back down to my "Luddite" level ............ Does the number of bends in the ducting have any impact on performance? In my revised plan (I think I've revised it 4 times already!) I'm going to have 3 90 degree bends in the air intake and outlet. 2 of them within 500mm of each other. By the way the reason for the design change is that the bloody thing is HUGE and seriously heavy. I've got to rig up a block and tackle to get it upstairs. Its almost too heavy for two people to carry along the flat!

I hate to say this, but how long have I been banging on about inadequate building inspection standards? This has been going on for decades, and the bigger construction companies have now got very adept at bending the system to save money. I've raised it here, and on ebuild before, I know, and I even went so far as to raise it with my MP just over two years ago. Despite me having evidence that a large development in his constituency was being built with major failures to comply with the building regulations, and asking him if he would look in to it, he insisted that the government did not want to add to the regulatory burden of industry and he was sure that the construction industry was able to police itself. I wish I had recorded that conversation, and could play it back to him now. I was concerned enough about the clear and obvious inspection failings that I asked a LABC building inspector what he thought. His reply was that he thought that around 60% of work failed to comply with the building regulations, and that this view was shared by many of his colleagues, but that they were powerless to do anything about it.

The info was shared and a report published in 2000. The recommendations https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmenvtra/109/10908.htm I wonder if Tony Blair's government acted on it?

I see John McDonnell made a helpful pronouncement from Glastonbury that the deaths were murder. For a variety of reasons that man is a moron.

http://www.vatcalculator.co.uk/

If the frame gaps are consistent, why would these all be (badly) hand cut? Surely you'd set a table saw up, or even a circular saw and straight-edge, and spend some time up-front banging out what you need at consistent widths with straight edges? It's difficult to know with this one. "Acceptable" probably means something different to us compared to the average British builder. One trick I did use once or twice where we weren't happy with trades was to go back to the manufacturer's instructions. If they say things like "cut with a straight edge", "leave no gaps" and "interference fit is important", then you have some objective evidence to beat the builder with.

There's a good free calculator here: http://www.changeplan.co.uk/u_value_calculator.php Click on the drop down menu for Element Type to show "Ground Floor (floating)" for the bit of the calculator you need. Ian

Alex, I think that you've mentioned this before. At the end of the day, your contract was with Ecohause Internorm and non-performance or damage of work carried out by the subcontractors was their responsibility, not yours. I think that their T&Cs absolutely suck, but because that are non-negotiable, your rights under the Consumer Rights Act et al still apply: EI must supply product which is fit-for-purpose and to specification; this includes installation (and the consequences of failures in this). You have right to insist on this. You should put an honest value on the consequences of any installation failures and try to resolve this with EI. The next step is a solicitors letter and the smalls claims court, so if you get no joy with EI then its time to have a chat with your solicitor. In our case the Ecohause Internorm SW installation team did a pretty good job, and the installation leader mentioned that the installation was particularly trouble-free -- they'd costed for 3 days for 3 guys but in the end it took them just of over 1½! @jack, as a result of my IT PM experience I always get paranoid where subcontractors have an interface and in this case of fitting the windows we had 3: MBC for the frame; EI for the windows and my builder for the external stone skin, so I spent a lot of time tying down the exact details of the framing and how the windows were to be supported. I left nothing to an assumption that any one subcontractor would "do the right thing". It is a bit late in your case but I am bloody glad that I did and I've seem quite a few other self builders fall into this bear-trap.

Buy a refrigerated container or a secondhand Portakabin, then you don't need to Line it as it is already insulated, and in the case of the site office will already have electric wiring and other facilities. Ferdinand