Leaderboard

I've demolished my old house and in doing so collected a few piles of scrap metal, lead, copper, electric cable, cast iron and other mild steel. it got to the stage where I needed to get rid of the scrap, so a mate suggested ringing one of the Northwests largest scrap merchants for a price, they process around ten million tonnes of scrap per year. This would give me a price bench mark. I then phoned three local and one not so local scrap merchants for their price of each of the following type of scrap. My bench mark for lead was £1.53, the best price locally was £1.26 and the not so local price, £1.49. My bench mark for copper was £4.34, the best price locally was ££3.02 and the not so local price, £4.02. My bench mark price for cable was £1.50, the bst price locally was £0.77 and the not so local price, £1.43. So I took my scrap to the not so local scrap merchant and weighed in 27 kilos of copper and 213 kilos of lead, so my shopping around put an extra £62 in my pocket.

I would start will all ducts/valves about half way open. There is a lot of interaction when adjusting rates - as you close one valve to reduce the rate the flow rate at all other terminals on that run will start to increase. This makes the process a bit of a pain, as you end up adjusting every room several times. I started with the kitchen, as that had the highest flow rate requirement, and so would tend to cause the least upset to other rooms. I also did all the extract rooms first, as building regs only really stipulates extract rates for individual rooms. The individual room extract rates in the regs are actually the maximum figures the system needs to provide, not the background figures, so turn the MVHR up to boost for these initial room settings. Once you have at least 13l/s from the kitchen, next move to the bathrooms and utility room, and adjust those to get at least 8l/s. Then do the WCs, and adjust for 6l/s. After doing this, go around again and check that you still have at least these rates from each of the extracts - some will have changed because of the adjustments throwing off the main plenum pressure. You will probably have too high a flow rate everywhere, so I would advice opening up the valve to increase the flow rates whilst keeping them in proportion with the regs requirement for each designated extract room (kitchen, bathrooms, utility room, WCs). If you have fitted the toilet smell extractor system I came up with, then just ignore the flow from that - it isn't officially part of the ventilation requirement. Once you have the system extract rates looking in proportion at boost (and bear in mind that they will probably be way over the requirement at this stage) then start measuring the fresh air inlets, also on boost (doing it this way will highlight the main duct loss differences). Adjust these to achieve two objectives. You want the sum of the fresh air flow to be as close as possible to the sum of the extract air flow, plus you want to adjust the fresh air flow so that the most frequently used rooms have the higher flow rates. There is nothing in the regs about fresh air flow rates, so use your own judgement here. For example, you will want the largest and most often used rooms to have the highest flow rates, the smallest and least often used rooms to have the lowest flow rates. The main thing is to adjust the fresh air total flow to match, as closely as possible to the extract total flow. After doing this, go around again and check all the extract flow rates. The chances are they may have changed, and if so then adjust them to make sure they all exceed the building regs limit and match the fresh air feeds. Then go back and double check the fresh air feeds, these may need slight adjustment to get the system balanced at boost. The chances are that you will find at this stage that the system is pretty close to being balanced. Next, reduce the MVHR to the background ventilation rate setting (this is specified as speed 2 on our system, but see my note later). Go around as before and measure the flow rate on all the extract terminals and note the total extract flow rate (the sum of the flow rates from all the terminals). Do the same for the fresh air feed terminals. The total figures for each should match. If they don't, then adjust only the fresh air feed flow rates to get them to match, do not adjust the extract rates. Note the total extract flow rate with the MVHR system on the background ventilation setting and make sure that it exceeds the continuous ventilation rate requirement in Part F, which is calculated from the house total floor area (the total must exceed 0.3l/s per m² of net internal floor area for the whole house). With luck you should find that the ventilation rate exceeds this figure with ease. If it doesn't, then go back to the start, turn the MVHR to boost and go around opening up all the extract ducts, starting with the kitchen, (this is why I said at the start it was a good idea to open up all the extract ducts to maintain the ratio and exceed the building regs extract figure), then go though the process again. Once you have the system so that it meets the building regs Part F Table 5.1a max extract rates from the specified rooms, and is in balance at the background ventilation rate of 0.3l/s/m² of floor area, the job is done. However, you may well find that the background ventilation rate is too high in practice, and that as a consequence the MVHR is using more power than it needs to in order to keep the air in the house fresh. Our experience is that turning down the background ventilation rate has had no detrimental impact at all, so I now run ours at speed 1, with the fan speeds around 25% of full speed. It's worth noting that some MVHR units have the option of being able to individually adjust the extract and fresh air fan speeds independently in the set up menu. This is useful for fine tuning, but is detrimental to efficiency if used as a shortcut way to try and balance the system. I have our system set to 28% extract and 25% fresh air fan speeds, to fine tune it, but would suggest that anything more than a 5% difference really needs to be adjusted out in the ducting/terminals if possible.

Started external wall insulation, 240sqm in total to fix. Its Pavatherm combi, 40mm. Fixed a 40mm (cut down from 50mm) batten on the outside edge of soleplate and rested boards on top and off you go. Takes a while to then fit dpm and horizontal battens which I now need to remove and fix vertical battens first......Nearly finished the house frame except the flat roof, Seems a little odd to start covering walls after so long, I need to contact window suppliers again for more accurate quotes.

Here's the experiment; the aim is to reduce the risk of the threaded bar being stuck in the concrete - and thus eliminate the cold bridges that would have been formed by the bar being stuck. This is how I set the experiment up As simple box with a few threaded bars, each exposed to the same size gap as the one in the Durisol blocks Each bar except one was coated with a 'release agent' illustrated; except one (as a control) I used a standard 1:3:3 concrete mix and after mixing appropriately, filled the box After 4 hours (when back from the pub) it was easy with @JSHarris set up (see earlier post) to withdraw (unscrew) the bars: the one with no release agent was noticeably more 'sticky' And the same effect was obvious just now (0920 the following day) This isn't anything like a scientific test: more a 'quick and dirty indication' I'm encouraged that there is at least the likelihood of being able to withdraw the bars, and so to eliminate the cold bridges. The job now is to get the release agent into the bars that have already been fitted. A job for tomorrow. Today's our wedding anniversary, so we're off to St Annes Kite Festival, and fish and chips on the sea front. I know how to treat a girl right!

I've just found this forum online and what a good resource it's going to be for me as I embark on my self-build journey. Briefly, I'm looking to set up a group self-build scheme on my land in Bristol (9 houses with outline permission) - I've had some custom build companies sniffing around already but I'd rather offer it to 8 other individuals and let them make equity/profit from building their house rather than a developer. My current plan is to recruit 8 members (8 + me) and form the group into a self-build co-operative so that they are a legal entity enabling to borrow sufficient funds to buy the land, put in the road/infrastructure and obtain mortgages (if needed) to fund their self-build. Has any other members of the forum ever had experience of doing this sort of thing? Your thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Now for something different from across the pond this Friday night! Thought the collective might like to see how they do things there. At it's simplest my mate lives in Sunol CA, His shed burnt down (leccy fault) and he's built a new one. The twist is this very shed was where a certain Mr Clint Eastwood spent a lot of time as a youngster (as in slept in there). Gary's place was owned by Clint's nan and he had to stay with her during some tough times at home . And yes, he's been back to visit! Gary writes: "And sure, the shed pics are up for grabs - I expect there will be some minor differences at least. We did standard framing as code for a house, 16" centers for the wall studs. We expect if an earthquake did rattle them off their pier bases, they could be lifted again and reset. (The one built as a workshop has almost double the number of piers, would take an industrial pounding.)"

I done a similar thing in my kitchen. It was just a sheet of 18mm MDF with a bit of stud to make a frame. Plenty of big screws to hold the studs to the underneath of the joists. I put some down lights in it to shine light on the island and a colour changing led strip around the edge. The extractor fan is just a normal type you would put in any built over type unit. All in including the fan it was approx £250. I have the fan wired into a switch on the wall so just gets turned on here.

Most of the decent ones do it automatically - immersun has a secondary load terminal.

Personally, Regardless of registration, I'd want to see examples of their previous work or ideas. It all depends why you think you want an architect! Yes, there are some chancers out there, but surly it's the inspiring ideas your after. It is true that RIBA is unimportant...just a club, whereas ARB is indeed the guarantee of professionalism, but is no guarantee of interesting thinking...sadly. I am poised to publish a book, 'self build home....the last thing you want is an architect'...An exercise in getting you to think about what you want before the fee counter starts clicking. I'm sure I'm not allowed to advertise on here so I will say no more...just a thought.

That seems pretty typical, I think. Almost all the objections in the chequered planning history of our plot were invalid. They ranged from expressions of concern that the someone's pumped sewerage system would become less reliable (when we were over 100m away and proposing to fit a treatment plant, and that had always been the case, right from the very first application) to overlooking someone's back garden around 60m away and across the other side of a lane. There were lots of objections relating to the site being developed purely for profit, which may have been the case for the original land owner, but isn't a valid planning concern. I think people get very emotive when it comes to objecting to nearby developments, and the majority of objectors don't take the time to read up on planning policy and what might be valid reasons for objection. The only valid objection regarding our plot was concern about the highways safety of the originally proposed entrance. It was a daft idea for whoever put in the first proposal to place the entrance in a potentially dangerous, and impractical, location, but that was sorted out during the consultation phase by the highways officer, so by the time we bought the plot the highways issue had been resolved.

We went to committee and I spoke for three minutes. I also asked my local councillor to support my application and he spoke on my behalf as well. I hand delivered a document outlining what I was trying to achieve to each of the Planning Committee a week before the hearing. The only objectors I had were the Planning Dept. My application was passed unanimously much to the annoyance of the Head of Planning. I was not allowed to address the Planning Committee at the site meeting but I had a scale model on show and lots of photographs showing the affect my build would have on the surrounding area. At the site meeting members of the Committee asked me questions which I had to answer concisely.

It varies a bit from one LA to another, although the basic guidance to all LAs is the same, as to whether a group will be allowed to speak in a meeting, and there may be some discretion from the chairperson. Here they are not allowed to at all - I've been in a meeting where a group was physically expelled for trying to do so. As for addressing any committee member about the application AFTER it has been notified as going to the committee, then it is not allowed, and may well be considered to be a serious failure to comply with the rules of impartiality. The general principle is that any constituent can approach a councillor about a planning matter, before the application is formally referred to the planning committee. Once that has happened, any constituent can still approach a councillor who is not a member of the planning committee to discuss the matter, but they must not approach a councillor who is actively considering the application except under controlled conditions where impartiality can be assured. Failure to observe this protocol is grounds for appeal on the basis of a failure of process, and does happen. The rules are in place to try to ensure that, once the planning committee are notified of an application that is going before them, they are duty bound to ensure that they allot exactly the same amount of time to hearing arguments in support of the application as they do to hearing arguments against the application. This is all defined in legislation, although there are often cases where elected councillors ride roughshod over the law, for a host of reasons, ranging from ignorance to personal interest. I can give an example where the regulations were breached for our own application, albeit at the pre-decision stage, where the application was still out for consultation. Our plot had a chequered planning history, several refusals and an approval that was only obtained after appeal, with strict conditions. There were many objections locally. We didn't want to build what had been approved, so submitted a new application, anticipating a great deal of hassle. The first hurdle was the Parish Council, that had raised 14 points of objection to the previous application that got through at appeal. I spoke to the Parish Clerk, who warned me in words of one syllable that I was not permitted to utter a single word at the Parish Council meeting, as I was not a resident of the Parish and had no right to speak at all. When our application came up, we were the only members of the public in the village hall. I had prepared a scale model of our proposal, and was allowed to place it on the committee table. The hearing of our application started with the chairman reading out the five previous applications, their reasons for refusal, and the last application where they Parish Council had raised 14 objections. He read out each of these objections in turn. At this point he was interrupted by a rather forceful lady councillor, who asked if the model on the table was the proposal. The Parish Clerk confirmed it was, whereupon the lady looked closely at it, then looked out at us and asked if we were the applicants. I said that I was afraid I was not permitted to talk to her, as it was against the rules. The Parish Clerk read out the bit of regulation that confirmed this. The lady councillor then made some sort of exclamation, said she thought this was ridiculous and was going to ask us some questions anyway, and how dare anyone try to stop her. There followed an interesting discussion, which ended with the lady saying she could see no reason to object and she asked the chairman to record a recommendation that there were no objections. Another councillor tried to speak, and the lady then said something like "Well, none of you object, do you?". whereupon there was a quick vote resulting in a unanimous decision that there would be no objection. It was one of the funniest things I've seen happen, and was completely against the rules, but as none of the potential objectors in the village were present to see it they got away with it!

Yes, you're quite right - but it's my understanding that you're allowed to address the committee as a group but once you've had your say then you have to keep quiet and say no more. This is exactly what I did when my application went to committee. In addition you're also allowed to "follow" the committee back to the place place where they have their post site visit meeting and are allowed to address them once again. (This is little known and not widely advertised by your council but once again it's an opportunity to have your say) Badger - I'd suggest you talk to the committee's admin person and ask him exactly what opportunities you're going to have to speak.

Normally, both objectors and supporters (you?) will a have a certain number of mins (often as low as 5mins but check with your council) to state their case then the planning officer will say their piece (no restriction on how many mins!) and then the committee will discuss in depth. Any questions that they have will be directed to the planning officer and you will not have any further chance to speak I'm afraid. They will then take a vote. My advice is to speak yourself (rather than your agent) and to write down your speech and try to counter any of the objections that have been raised so far - practice reading it over and over again and time yourself to ensure that it doesn't over run because it has been known for them to cut you short if you take too long. If you do intend to speak register your intent with the committee's admin officer in advance of the day.

I guess you may know some of this stuff, but the basic rule is that you, and anyone that you can persuade to stand and speak on behalf of your development, will each get EXACTLY three minutes to state your case to the committee (and my experience is that they time it with a stop watch and just turn your mic off at the 3 minute point). The decision is supposed to be wholly based around showing that the proposal does not contravene any planning policy or guidance, and, in theory, there is a presumption that all applications should be approved unless they can be proved to contravene policy or guidance. However, as you can imagine, 99% of objectors know little about this, and so will waffle on about stuff that has no bearing at all on planning................ If you feel up to speaking on your own behalf, then I would very strongly suggest that you do, rather than get someone else to do it for you, and practice to get as much into your three minutes as possible. Stressing that you wish to build your own home, that you are not a developer and then going on to show how the proposal complies with all planning policies and guidance, together with some little emotive points (in our case promising to plant some cherry trees to replace old ones that were planted as a part of the Coronation celebrations in the village, and were at the end of their life) may well get the committee on side. Avoid trying to address negative comments made by objectors that are not valid planning considerations - they are a waste of your time, and the planning officer should pick those up when briefing the committee, anyway. It helps if you can get a copy of the planning officers report to the committee well in advance. If he/she is recommending refusal, then look at the reasons and consider withdrawing the application, addressing the reasons and resubmitting - it's free. Finally, check how many supporters you can ask to speak on your behalf, and get hold of some, brief them carefully and make sure they are registered as speakers - this is important, as the committee will have a tight timetable and will often only allow registered speakers to present an argument. If you feel that you may be on dodgy ground with regard to complying with planning policy or guidance, consider getting a planning consultant as one of the speakers. They are often very good at making a case, but be aware that this is a double edged sword. The committee may well have seen this particular planning officer many times before, and so may take less heed of what they say!

Nice writeup. I have a timer on ours and humidity sensor in bathrooms. At night it slows to approx 0.2 ACH. At daytime we have it at 0.25 to 0.3 ACH. The humidity sensor will boost to up to 0.6 ACH, which is close to regs for our house. So far so good, not sure if those rates will be OK in the cold when condensation becomes a bigger factor, so awaiting winter to assess this.

I have a copy of the report I did on my other PC, that I can upload later, but there is a lot of useful info in this guidance note: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/456656/domestic_ventilation_compliance_guide_2010.pdf