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That's fair enough. I must admit I have taken the BBA and the manufacturers word on the composition of the products. Hopefully your testing can confirm otherwise and give us all invaluable knowledge. I do appreciate you guidance. I guess when you believe your views to be well informed and without doubt correct, there is a tendency to become a little too passionate and precious about things. You are right - stuff just got real! Looking forward to @JSHarris findings...

@najem-icf Ill just give you a little nudge here All the members here will take nothing as a given, and usually with merit. The feedback you get here will always be impartial, and given freely, and a lot of it is from people who have bought, and installed such products, for better or for worse, and are willing to share their findings with the members and guests who frequent here, for their benefit. Its not a battle, it's a constructive volley everyone benefits from, so take the replies with a pinch, and take any criticism or indifferences as constructive only, as I assure you they're meant to be . Most folk here will tell you how it is, not how they think it is, ( apart from me where I usually only open my mouth to change feet ). Stay tuned, it's about to get interesting

It's so much better when all the kids play nicely together. .

I'm enjoying this thread...nothing wrong with an alternative view @jamiehamy and a bit of debate. To me ICF was a gang of hooligan so called football fans who liked a rumble at away games...no good for hut building so I'm out?

I was going to read all @najem-icf posts to see the reason but I was being lazy so just asked the question. No disrespect was intended, but from reading this thread it does read like build with icf because everything else is shit. By the way I intend using icf, but have previously built timberframe,and I'm also a bricklayer, but won't be building using brick or block. Work that out.

@Ed_MK - Others on this site are far more knowedgable than I on the subject so you will no doubt get great advice. However, I can speak with some experience after having received planning permission in a very difficult village not far from and in a borough adjacent to MK. This was for an ultra contemporary dwelling in a hamlet where half the houses are listed or in a conservation area and the potential for every resident to raise objections was very high. I believe that a very well written D&A statement not only help make the case for planning to be granted, but also made it an absolute breeze. On the basis of this experience, I would urge you to seriously consider spending money on a professional to make a reasoned case. In the event that your application gets refused, the refusal becomes part of the planning history. Since you are in MK, if you want contact details for a very reasonably priced architect, PM me.

Both, but we only preheat the DHW with the heat pump, then boost it a bit, using either a charged Sunamp PV thermal battery, or a 12 kW thermostatic instant water heater, to get the 35 to 40 deg C preheated hot water up to 42 deg C minimum, typically around 50 to 55 deg C when the system is fully charged. The underfloor heating only needs water at around 25 deg C maximum, so the ASHP output is mixed down with a thermostatic mixer valve to lower the temperature a bit.

I bet Caligula did ...the swine!

Those documents were VERY informative, and to be honest (from others I have read online) are very clear and detailed. Its no wonder they gave it to you !

Remember if you do buy a controller and it doesn't work out, remember your friends here??

Gawd dad, you're so embarrassing. I'll be in my room.

The main problem is that the usual default setting may have the heat pump trying to deliver flow temperatures in excess of 50 deg C, and they will frost up a lot at this sort of flow temperature when the weather hits the critical temperature and humidity region for icing, around 4 deg C or so in damp or misty weather. I found, by doing a lot of experiments, that setting the weather compensation curve such that the flow temperature never exceeds 40 deg C ensures that there is virtually no defrosting at all, and this gives a much better COP, as well as reducing wear and tear on the compressor and 4 way valve. I have mine set for a flat compensation curve, using the custom settings that the Command Unit allows. My unit is set to deliver 40 deg C flow temperature no matter what the outside air temperature is, and that seems to work extremely well for our installation.

I've done one additional test since the original, and the permeability had reduced a by about a third from the original test figure, but that improvement was largely down to me adjusting the French windows and squirting some thick silicone into the centre of the lock barrels, as all three were leaking air through the keyhole like mad on the negative pressure test. MBC guarantee that every build will meet or exceed 0.6 ACH, and there's a hefty final payment (20% in our case) that isn't paid until the air test result comes in under this figure. AFAIK, every build passes first time, as they've got an inherently good build system, in terms of airtightness, high decrement delay insulation and absence of thermal bridging. The combination of their passive slab and modified Larsen truss "twin wall" structure pretty much guarantees no thermal bridging, as long as there are no unusual design features that get in the way of this. The airtightness won't degrade, I'm sure, as 99% of the fabric airtightness comes from the thick layer of highly compressed cellulose insulation, blown in under pressure, which pretty much guarantees the long term airtightness of the frame, as well as having a pretty good decrement delay factor. The "airtightness" tape used to seal the joins in the internal vapour control skin isn't there to enhance the airtightness, it's just there to ensure that the internal vapour permeability is very much lower than that on the OSB outer skin (the inner skin is a vapour impermeable board). The only significant cause for airtightness degradation is likely to be from the doors and windows, where some adjustments are bound to be required through life to endure the seals remain tight after a period of use.

@Russell griffiths a friend of mine is a carpet fitter - yet has no carpets in his own house - so I totally get that... When I was in IT, last thing I wanted to do was fix my own computer issues...

Im a chippie that decided to put a brick skin on my timber frame. I think the short answer is that were all idiots and thought it might be nice to change it up a bit.....

Ties every course at reveals. You can cut a neat slot for it in the insulation board by using your trowel 225mm up & the correct distance in. The insulation should be clipped back against the frame with discs (commonly referred to as 'buttons.)

Take the sugars and proteins out of the wood and coat it with cement. I cannot evidence that process, nor verify it. I just use the stuff. Other ICF systems are available, and are probably more interesting.

Some one bet me to it. I am always holding out for finding a cheap one on eBay but no luck yet.

My Durisol blocks have been out in the rain for a minimum of two months on site and one month outside before delivery. Some blocks have been on site here for nine months. So I used it.

Cavity boards will all be pre cut to suit 2 course high of block, 450mm. The length doesn't really matter. You would put 2 in along each sheet so you have 2 holding the bottom and 2 holding the top of each sheet. Don't skimp on them, it's one of them things that it's more the better. Some boards have a t&g groove some don't depends on what you buy. You put extra in beside reveals and corners for added strength but not every course or you will need to punch a hole in the board. You can do every course if you are blowing beads in as the distances from tie to tie don't matter. Word of warning though you bedding needs to be 100% or your block heights won't match the size of the boards and then you will be cutting holes in them which ain't good.

Ties should be every 2 courses for blocks. And every course around reveals.

Aluminium tape works fine. I ran lengths of it behind all our plastic pipe runs in the service void, so they show up on a pipe detector, and it seems to work OK when I've tested it with my el cheapo pipe/cable/stud locator.

'Keep yer mind on yer driving Keep yer hands on the wheel, And keep yer snoopy eyes on the road ahead, We're having fun Pumping all the concrete And kissin' and a huggin with Fred' Apologies are in order, not sure to whom though

FWIW, my logic was that if an earth fault tripped out the whole workshop, then it wasn't going to be a significant problem, unlike in the house, where having half the house go out because of a single appliance earth leakage fault would be annoying. I could have gone for RCBOs instead of MCBs, but at the time I already had a box of MCBs available, so just used them. By chance they all match, too, and they match the 40 A DP RCBO. It's just the contactors that don't match, so might offend those who like to see a perfectly matching row of DIN rail devices in a box.......................

Hi agaiin @oldkettle You asked me to look at this thread again. I didn't dive in first time round because I found it tricky getting my head around the diagrams (see further post I will make next) and spent the forum time elsewhere. Here are my comments: Space efficiency and staircase: I think the basic problem with the plans in the post is that space is not used efficiently - you have lost an entire reception room downstairs to be a staircase lobby, and another entire room upstairs as dead space in a 20sqm landing. Just space lost in those 2 rooms are perhaps 12% of the entire house as you propose to build it in options 1 and 2. Fix that and you get 2 extra not-ungenerous double bedrooms for free. I think the issue is that you have gone for an overly shallow staircase, and made larger compromises in order to satisfy that smaller detail. I love generous staircases, and we had a whole thread about it last year (with lots of personal experiences). Normal domestic staircases are 42 degrees, and something like 34-37 degrees is relaxed. Your rising/going could be something more like 170-180 and 260-270mm, which is relaxed, and could save you about 1.2m on the length if you start the bottom in a circulation space and a straight run. Then theree is no need for complicated wall and floor structures: As @jack put it then: I make your angle 30 degrees, which seem to me to have made it long enough that it does not fit in a normal sized room, so you have ended up with the need to knock holes in walls and put raised areas into floors, and do that strange both-sides-of-the-wall thing in Option 1, which will all make everything else more complicated and more expensive. Not an efficient way to allocate your money. If you *must* have the 30 degree staircase I think you need to design a big enough room (hall or other) such that the staircase fits without compromising your walls and space efficiency so much. That would be option 3, or possibly something with a double height longitudinal open-plan lounge (would potentially give top light which would help with the lack of side windows) with the staircase as a feature running parallel with the ridge. No of Storeys: Do you actually *need* two and a half stories once you gain the extra rooms downstairs and upstairs? If you do need extra space over that footprint it may be easier to extend back slightly more,as that may reduce your need to survey or upgrade foundations quite so much. Or plan more efficient space use. You might be surprised how little extra you need to extend backwards to gain the necessary space. I am living in a converted bungalow which is not dissimilar to your project in size etc done by the prevous people, and I have nearly 1900sqft (plus a 3m x 3.5m conservatory) from two stories, which gives me five bedrooms plus one reception (or 4+2 etc). One bedroom is huge, and only one is a single - and the rest are generous. And my roofs are partly hipped. Will PM you links. Way Ahead: 1 - I think you perhaps actually gave yourself too much freedom with that huge square empty box, and dived straight into details rather than resolving the more general questions first. Most of us aren't including me aren't architects and haven't got the background to instinctively know how to get the coordination of different underlying elements right when starting with a blank piece of paper. We tend to focus on the surface things that we see when visiting a house eg Pinterest and Houzz are full of sexy materials and gimmicks rather than kitchen work triangles, how not to compromise future maintenance of drains by not building over them, and how to live in it in a wheelchair after a bus-running-over experience. I think you need more constraints (architects will tell you that great architecture often happens in the most difficult situations and constrained spaces). Perhaps one could be to try and keep circulation space (halls and lobbies) down to 10-12% of the overall plan rather than 20%+. 2 - I would say start a list what you need, and then develop your house shape around it. That list also needs to be contsrained - a summary in one paragraph, and the whole thing in one page. I think that at that stage it may be worth spending £300-500 on an architect for some rough proposals - for which you would need to write a concise brief of your requirements (a good exercise even if just to focus your own thoughts). 3 - I think you need convincing on the staircase. I would go out and find some staircases you would be happy with, and measure them. People owning the staircases will not mind and will love the conversation with an eccentric doing their own real research. Do not forget that you can increase the perceived front-to-back dimension of a step by using a bullnose front edge. I would combine this with looking into what works in converted bungalows. Go and view 10-15 with an estate agent as 'potential alternatives to developing our own', and study them carefully. 4 - In mine they did a creative arrangement where the staircase runs up over the bath (pic below). The whole staircase and landing and downstairs bathroom fit into a space 4.5m by 2m - 9 sqm, which is about 75-80% smaller than yours and works beautifully, including enough space for a desk at the top of the stairs. Make that space say 5m or so and you can have your 34-36 degree straight staircase with no kite-steps, which lets it go sideways Pic attached. The only thing wrong is that it should be a shower - no point in having the easy-for-old-people option upstairs where they cannot get to it. 5 - Make sure whatever you build works when the children have gone. The people who built ours moved before they finished because the kids had settled down and were not visiting so much. They moved into one that was about the size that this one was before they threw £100k (or whatever) at it, and are now knocking that one about. Like yours, this was reduced to three walls and a hole in the ground, and was beautifully done for us to move into with minimal further work. 5 - DO NOT RUSH. Spend the time to be sure you are right now, even if it takes another 6 months. Ferdinand

My data network totals around 45 points. Difficult to estimate the time for running the cables as it was done at the same time as the rest of the first fix, but I'd be surprised if it took the Spark and his lad more than 2 days (I have some long runs), so around £750. Second fix, terminating them in the rooms, at the patch panels, and into cameras etc, probably ran to about 3 days, so another £1100. So mine was close to £2K for the labour, and probably £300 - £400 on cable. Can't break out the cost of the face plates in the rooms as they are all integrated in the power sockets. I'd had separate quotes for the same work which came in between £5K and £6K

Double runs can be handy if you want to shift a VGA or HDMI signal around without a specific cable being pulled.

Worth considering running a PoE switch too - you can then run single cables to locations for cameras, APs and other stuff without having to use a power cable too

Along with all above which I agree with another thing is you've only a fraction of your internal heat gains currently which all add up to a huge amount. No cooking, no hot water or hot water pipes giving out heat, no showers and steam, nobody living in the house full time giving out heat, no fridge or freezer giving out heat, no TV or computer even in standby, no hairdryer in the mornings, no lights late into the night until bedtime, no washing machine or dryer. This and loads more will probably add up to about half your overall heating requirements so until these are all in you need to input additional heat.

Here is the MK Council guidance on the subject in case you have not found it. https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/assets/attach/5039/design_and_access_statements1.pdf

I'm another one of the view that the D&A Statement is probably one of the most useful documents you can provide with a planning application. Many people seem to have a problem visualising things from plans, for example, so a D&A gives the opportunity to include details that might not be that clear otherwise. There's a copy of ours, together with all our other planning application drawings etc, here, if it's of any help: http://unidoc.wiltshire.gov.uk/UniDoc/Document/Search/DSA,500894 The D&A is listed there as the last pdf file in the "plans" section, for some reason.

Here is our Design and Access Statement. Its the reduced resolution version off the planners website because the original is a rather large file. Design_and_Access.pdf

In your access statement language is everything so if you use the word 'Ancient' you are likely to trigger every archaeological planning requirement in the hemisphere. PS did the Romans have access to rubber I wonder?

The cheapest I have found the control unit is on mytub.co.uk

That's good news. Having a mole turn a valve off has to be a first, though!

@Ed_MK, PM me your email address and I'll send you ours. Also agree with looking on the planning portal for your council - the D&A statement is published with all the other documents. @Ferdinand is right that they're no longer compulsory, but it usually makes sense to submit one, especially if there's anything at all unusual or challenging in what you're trying to do.

I don't believe that a Design and Access - now usually called a Planning Statement - is compulsory in law, though Councils may customarily expect one. It is where you: a - Explain your vision, what you are trying to do, and any other things to give the Planning Officer a nice warm feeling. b - Explain how your proposal complies with all the local and national polices in force this month, and is justified in Planning Terms. c - Disarm in advance all the reasons which might lead the Planning Department to say no. There may be something on the Planning Aid website:http://www.rtpi.org.uk/planning-aid/ If your proposal is contentious, then it is probably the most important document of all, and in those circumstances where a Planning Consultant (if you had one) would spend most of their time. To find some, I suggest reading the relevant posts of all the build blogs on here, and finding where they all link to their Planning Applications - then go there to find the relevant documents to see what they said. There are quite good blog-only search options in the search box. There may be some further ones on EBuild that have not come across. If you are concerned it may be worth looking at something like The Self-Build Bible by Mark Brinkley to see if there is anything in there. There should be. Ferdinand