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So, after a flurry of initial blog posts back in March and April, I went quiet. Real life (home and work) got a bit mental and I just didn't have the time to post more. And, my wife and I have also done a fair bit of reflection on the way forward. I'd gotten about 2/3 of the way through the journey to where we are today. I've covered finding the plot, and the decision whether to buy it, initial view on wayleaves and servitudes, tweaking the design that came with the plot, clearing tons of mud from the site, issues with the design and selecting a new architect, changing the design to correct the flaws with the previous one and the consequences of that and finally, changing the internal floor plan with the new design. I was hoping to have more time to fully bring us up to date - as I said in my original post, I'm finding this post-documentation of the process quite cathartic - but that is looking unlikely, so thought I'd do a few summary posts covering the major events not yet covered (in no particular order): It was found out the 3 foot diameter high pressure oil and gas pipeline that ran through the border of our plot and the neighbouring plot (with a 3.5m No Build zone either side of the centre line) did not actually run through the border of our plot and the neighbouring plot as per the drawings provided by the builder - it turned out that it actually ran more through our neighbours plot, much to their obvious displeasure and to our obvious relief. It still don't understand how this was not identified during the purchases process for either of us. The fun of working with planning and their seemingly arbitrary ability to change their minds and make decisions based on what seems to be purely subjective opinions A restructuring at the company I worked for meant that my role was no longer required in the UK - I had the option of either moving to a similar role in the US or taking redundancy. My wife cares for her seriously ill mother so the former was not an option... The builder we had lined up to perform the build (and who had been contracted by our neighbour to complete their build) went into liquidation, with a significant number of creditors We had (and are still having) great challenges in getting agreement on a foundation design that works for a build on the sloping site, that does not put undue load onto the pipeline and that is not prohibitively expensive. eg. £40K for a proposed sheet piling solution - that was in addition to the costs of foundations The need (or not) for a Principal Designer (this took place before the excellent thread on the subject on this forum) Understanding our responsibilities and, perhaps more importantly, our rights, under the Deed of Servitude that exists over the plot in favour of the pipeline owner And finally, and most pertinently, that we're seriously considering just sitting on the plot for now, and coming back to it in a number of years when life is a little less complex (is it ever?) I'll look to cover the above in the next few days. But before I go, I have had small snatches of time where I've been able to read sections of the forum, and I'd like to reiterate what others have said: this place is a brilliant resource and is frequented by an immense number of people who are willing to help others by sharing their knowledge and experience. I have already learned so much, and for that I thank you.

Since the last update, the interior of the cottage has come on leaps and bounds. The rather unusual partitions and ceilings were all framed up and then plasterboarded. I was sensible enough to enlist help with some vaulted ceilings, having learnt the hard way that a 9.5mm board balanced on your head is quite liable to snap in half. I had originally planned to simply tape and fill, but at short notice heard that a plasterer was up on the island and available for work (his original contract had been delayed). So it was a mad rush to finish all those fiddly little window reveals etc and then watch the amazing transformation as the whole interior received a full plaster skim. It's made an enormous difference to the feel of the building, turning it from the untidy patchwork of plasterboard to a lovely smooth dusky pink uniformity. You can now truly get a feel for how the space works- and the feeling is good! My electrician was a little less pleased than I was, because we hadn't quite finished all of the wiring yet, but it was nothing that some educated guesswork and some poking around with a bit of bent fencewire couldn't resolve. I did put one hole in the wrong place, and was pleasantly surprised to find that polyfilla does actually work, creating a perfect seamless repair. I'd only ever used it on plasterboard surfaces previously, and you just can't quite hide the edge between filler and paper. Next step was to get on with painting- it seems to make sense to do this before installing flooring, kitchen, doors etc. The new plaster is fairly gobbling up my contract white paint, but I'm sure it'll only take a few more coats before I can switch to the final finish. The worst part so far has been the section of wall which will have the woodburner flue running in front of it. This is boarded with cement fibre board and the plaster has taken on a noticeably darker tone, which the paint has not entirely managed to hide. It feels as though the end is very much in sight, but of course the remaining interior work- paint, tiles, floor, skirting, doors, kitchen, bathroom, plumbing- is a huge amount of work, and then there is the outside jobs that have yet to be completed. One last piece of progress has been my electrical connection. Originally I had been quoted around £2000 for this, and the work had proceeded up to the point where the cable would enter the house, but no final connection was made. A few months later I was told that my quote had expired, and I received a partial refund to reflect the outstanding work. Fast forward a few more months, and when I tried to get the remaining work done, I was once again quoted the full £2000. It turned out that they hadn't updated their records and thought that no work had been carried out yet. There followed several emails and phonecalls to various different people, but this morning I received a revised quote which, in their words, had 'come down quite a bit'. Indeed it had- it was now for under £300, as expected. So, that was time well spent. If in doubt, always query the bill!

What staggers me, is (according to someone from BRE that they interviewed on the news) they are just testing the outer rain screen on buildings for flamability and condemning the cladding on that test. NOBODY seems to be testing the "system" i.e insulation, air gaps, fire stops and cladding to see if the system is safe or not. Surely that is fundamentally what needs to be tested? Or am I way off the mark? If I was investigating I would want a mock up of the exact EWI and cladding system set up on a multi storey test building and set fire to. then repeat the tests with different claddings, different fire stops and different insulation.

Don't mess with ProDave!!

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!

I have just burnt my mouth eating a cheese omelette (had 3 of them really). This got me think about the latent heat of fusion and what it was for Cheddar. So a quick google and I found out it is 123 kJ/kg [0.0341667 kWh/kg], water is 334 kJ/kJ. Now it is always best to use a material that can store the most energy, but water fuses at 0°C, so is of little use. But the melting point of Cheddar is about 65°C. It would be fun to make a thermal store out of cheese as it would store a decent amount of energy, smells nice at first and you can eat it if you get hungry. Anyone have any other favourite foods that they would like to try out?

Yep... different weather conditions too.

They ferment lava and dye it green. Near lost the family alliance when the filling hit my lap a while back.

My approach would be: Priority 1: mitigate the issues ("fabric-first") Shutters are a tried-and-tested solution to reducing solar gain, so if you have East / West glazing consider these. Insulation to a high standard - roof, walls, floor Double or triple glazing Attention to air-tightness in all fabric elements, including well sealing external doors and windows. I suspect light-coloured external walls will reduce the heat gain as well. Once the mitigation is in place, then consider how to reduce heat and humidity. You should be able to model the heat gain using some of the spreadsheets available - e.g. @JSHarris has one, I believe (have not tried it myself, we did a PHPP calculation). This will give you an indication of the power you need - say 10kW with external temperature of 50C and internal of 25C. Don't forget to add heat generated internally to the equation - people, cooking, showers etc. In Northern hemisphere these are a good thing, in your case the heat added needs to be removed. You now need to provide a cooling power to match that - 10kW (plus some extra for safety). Say 15kW. This becomes the size of your heat pump(s). I would be inclined to go with A2A split air conditioners - these are readily available and cheap in most hot countries, spares and repairs will be easy vs importing a GSHP that no one can support and spares have to be imported. E.g. a large heat pump (or 2) outside and internally have small fan units in all the rooms. These cool and remove humidity - both are essential for comfort. Use of the aircon for extended periods (e.g. 12 hrs per day) will cool the room as well as the fabric inside of the insulation - so it should cool the floors and internal wall, plus furniture and so on. These store the coolth and release it into the building when you switch off the aircon. Then comes the question of powering the aircon - Solar PV is the obvious option, drive the aircon during the day and switch off at night. You will need to factor in DHW - perhaps Solar PV as well? insulate your DHW tank and pipework well else you are increasing the heat load in the house. And finally, think about air-changes. Your aircon will remove humidity but will not provide fresh air, so potentially a MVHR. I suggest you speak to the MVHR suppliers about this - most on this forum use it to warm the outside cold air before it comes into the house, you want to do the reverse, not sure what this means to e.g. condensation at the heat exchanger.

Thanks for taking the time to keep us updated. It's the sharing of each others' trials and tribulations that really makes BuildHub such a valuable resource- a problems shared being, hopefully, a problem halved. I know what you mean about choosing a non stressful time to build... self building itself must be one of the most stressful things that anybody can voluntarily go through with their family! We did the apparently obligatory 'have a baby just after you've broken ground' bit. There's never going to be a perfect time to build, so just get on and try to enjoy it

If you have good insulation and airtightness, I think you'd be fine not running the cooling overnight. If the slab and air temp is kept in the high teens or low 20s during the day (or whatever temperature is needed to keep condensation at bay), it shouldn't get that much hotter overnight. In that sort of climate I'd also definitely consider underfloor cooling upstairs (and maybe even cooling of some internal walls). That will tend to keep the temperature more stable throughout the house. You're right to try and control solar gain. Basically your scenario is about as extreme as it gets, so I'd be using every available technique to keep the heat out, and the cool in. By definition, the Passivhaus standard requires high levels of insulation. Bear in mind, though, that where you have several months during which temperatures are permanently well above comfort levels, no amount of insulation will keep you cool forever - serious active cooling is absolutely going to be a requirement. My preference in this situation would be slab cooling, with aircon to keep humidity levels down. (Actually, my preference would be to move somewhere cold, as I can't stand the heat. I'd never, ever leave the house if I lived somewhere that regularly topped 40 C!)

I had a lovely view out my front window and then some b*gger came along and built a little house there. Fortunately it was me so no point losing sleep over it!

I know what you mean, it doesn't slap on like a mist coat, my understanding is that your first coat is just that, a mist and first coat in one. So you have to put it on as if you were "decorating" the wall. I don't know to be honest, as I said the wife used to work for them so swears by it, I'm tempted to give the Leyland slap it on quick method a go - but she's chief painter and I hate decorating so really it's whatever makes her happy ?

Interesting '....eg a view over fields...' I occasionally employ a teenager whose dad is one of the biggest estate agents in the North West. I was discussing this topic (he reads BH as a guest he tells me) with him the other day. "Biggest mistake people make on buying a property is to think they have also bought the view. If they want to protect view, they need to buy it." Made me think, did that. He's right.

Presumably the person selling the tiles ... . My last job was a fixed price including the kitchen. My one before that was ideal ... import a good with detail relative who is a good tiler and stand there handing out tiles and cups of tea.

Oh no never again Nick........we said that 30 years ago with the last one too but we were young and foolish then now we are old and have not learned the lessons but at least life isnt boring. Who needs a pension fund anyway!

You'll know for the next build

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

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

Yes, we have a TF house that's roughly square (11.5m x 10.5m) and decided to have a full basement under the house which acts as the foundations. Planning didn't blink so we got an additional 107m2 internal floor area, nearly 50% extra on the above ground element, which in the SE is worth quite a bit. Architect was very wary (had no experience) but it was no problem to build and is one of the best features of the house. All the plant is down there in a dedicated room and we have four large (4mx5m) rooms each with light well for leisure use. Nice bright spaces, really pleased we went with it. Cost wise, structure was £120k but that included the demo, clearance and plot services, so probably closer to £100k just for the basement - you could probably subtract a good chunk from that had we used a traditional raft slab. Fit out was about another £15k, kind of got lost in the overall electrics / plastering / joinery / flooring budget. Aside from plant, there are no wet services and no heating required (we have 300mm insulation under the slab and 200mm outside the walls. We used warrantied waterproof concrete (Sika) and no other internal tanking or external membrane as the water table is fairly low (6m). I see that you're near water so the situation may be different. There are 3 recognised forms of waterproofing - best practice is to use two but we got by with one (B). A is external membrane - needs very careful application and extreme care on backfilling, otherwise it can be compromised B is waterproof concrete - we used a Sika system of admix and waterbars in the joins - was all recorded, inspected and signed off on site by a Sika rep who then issued the warranty. C is internal membrane - applied to the internal walls and drains to a sump with a submerged pump (or two for redundancy). Quite common in London basements but has an ongoing maintenance cost wrt the pump. About 30% of basement cost is muck away and a tight site with poor access will increase costs further. A good chunk of the remaining build cost is formwork labour (took 2-3 days to prep for each pour) so complicate designs will cost more to form, the actual concrete is not that significant a cost. We were lucky with our design, location and conditions. Many 'basement specialists' are focused on the conversion market (London dominant) so are not suitable for a new build. There are specialists (Glatthar) who are high quality but fairly expensive. Most competent ground workers can build a decent basement, especially if they sub out the concrete works to an experienced team who can work with a warrantied product. These people build carparks and the like all day long so this is small beer. You could even chance an experienced general builder if they use a warrantied waterproofing product.

@lovo, one comment that I will make is that architects seem to love having walls of glass in a house. Yes, you need glass for passive light into the house. Yes, glass opens out a room into a view, but I've also seen designs with houses with huge openings onto a row of neighbours' back fences and run-down backs of houses. So yes, have windows where they work for you and provide positive views, but don't have them just because some architect wants to make a statement. Just remember: Glass loses typically 8x the heat as the same area of wall. When the sun shines full-on into a window there's ~1kW/m2 of heat incident on the glass surface and may 50% will find its way into your house. Most passive-class house have more design problems dumping this excess heat than maintaining warmth in the deep winter months. If you can see out then your neighbours can usually see in, so maintaining privacy can become a real problem. Many of us have realised that once you start down the route of building your own house, that it's more an issue of attention to detail and thinking through the design issues to achieve this ~1kW base heating in the depths of winter and have therefore chosen to go down this route. You have to think of the house as a system and balance the components and losses -- for example there's no point in spending a fortune on super U values if you have a house that leaks like a sieve. Read some of the testimony / blog examples here and use a typical set as a starting point and vary the costs in a balanced way to seek the optimum that you want. The sorts of issues that you might need to factor in are that you might end up spending £50-80K on architects / project manager and other professional fees, and £100K on other trades + materials on top of the core structure. You need to decide your pace of build and how much are are able / willing to commit, and where you need to spend your hard cash. For example we chose to split our work between a specialist timber-frame (TF) supplier who supplied the slab, TF, insulation and contractually guaranteed air tightness, a reputable local builder who did all of the groundworks, drainage, stone skin and slating, a reputable specialist window supplier. We used the builder's preferred contractors to do the specialist work such as electrics and the slate flooring. We decided to do most of the planning submission, all the architectural work, the overall project management, most of the procurement, and most of the internal works ourselves. This gave us the best value and exactly the house we wanted, but we are both retired and have the time to devote to the build. This split would have been impossible for us 15 years ago (when we both had work commitments). Mark Brinkley's House Builder's bible is quite a good intro to some of these trade-offs.