Leaderboard

Building a house is easy. It's like riding a bike. Except the bike is on fire and you're on fire and everything is on fire and you're in hell.

And the builder and architect and other nasty trades are all throwing petrol at you ....

Yep ..! Huge but very comfy and well made ... Pardon the pun..! https://www.made.com/monterosso-right-hand-facing-corner-sofa-storm-blue-1

I’m sure she wouldnt regret it. I have Island 5.2m long and Bora is set into honed granite.....its a defininte WOW as well being brilliant piece of kit

Good god man. Dont encourage him.

yes. And it's on fire.

I can't wait for the nice holiday!!

Buy a digger, learn to drive it and dig your own foundations. Go on, you know you want to......

Welcome! I hope you do too, although I think the general feeling is that self-build is more or less a series of reinforcement learning episodes punctuated by brief periods where things appear (deceptively) to be going right.

The kind of skill that a person can learn in 3 months is EG how to build a wall - on a flat surface with no pressure; or how to plaster a square wall with a reasonable level of accuracy. This person would have no idea what to do if eg the weather is against you; there are retaining issues; the SE specifies a particular bond; the BI asks you 'why have you xxx?'. Building a house isn't like building a raised bed or even a garage. FOR SURE if (if) you have life experience; friends in the know; access to building know how etc etc you can build. But in no way will 3 months experience in anything qualify you to the necessary level to independently approach any level of house building. This is purely the opinion of someone with no qualifications at all in this area but with lots of life experience and training experience WHO has very much learned that knowing how to do something and being able to do it to a good level without external input in less than perfect conditions and facing unexpected challenges is a very different issue. Unless you are a very unusual individual

So the man came round....from Think Green Energy. Didn't have any brochures or even leave a card. Seemingly they felt an ASHP was the wrong thing as quite expensive so he tried to sell them a "pv optimiser that limits the voltage going to the inverter". British made in Sheffield. He showed them a photo of a burnt out time clock that was running on 240V instead of 230V! This makes them overheat and give up. AND it would prolong the life of the inverter. £2500 in the sale that ends today funnily enough! If he doesn't take his commission he could do it for £2100! The bloke was there 3 hours! Amazingly my mate didn't go for it!

Any idiot could do that. It takes a really special sort of idiot to do what I'm proposing...

This from another forum and a bit of a guru for all things solar imho: I'll keep it simple - GARBAGE. Unless he has a very old inverter then the Euro-efficiency rating is 95% for an older Sunny Boy. (unless he has a very old model which isn't 'transformerless' ). Optimisers can only add 25% if there are serious shading issues. Even then Sunny Boys have a feature called 'Global Optitracking' which is a shade compensation algorithm. I did have a report on optimisers versus a standard inverter from an independent tester called Photon International (German trade magazine) They can impove output when shading is an issue, but the report used a Grade B inveter, SMAs are 'Triple A' rated, and even then the gain wasn't as high as 25%.. Now optimisers are around £30each, a solaraedge inverter around £800, so that's about £1040. Scaffold, say £600, so that's £1640 - you can pay me £1k to fit it if you like - think that will cover my diesel A new SB is around £750 if you want the latest spec which runs at 96-98% efficiency at all but the lowest light levels. There's also nothing to stop you doing this work yourself anyway. Somethig like a Chinese Solis inverter is about £600 fitted - doesn't have shade compensation, and won't last as long, but efficiency is on par with SMA (more or less). I'm guesiing tht he has about 2kW of panels,, which should output around 2000kWh per year, so assuing the high original tariff of around 50p, then even if he did get 25% more that's worth about £250 per year, so even at £2.5k, that's 10 year payback. I've attached a Photon Report - it wasn't the one I was looking for and it's annoying as it doesn't say what the base inverter was. NB where there is no shading or even if the panels are dirty there can be small performance increases as the system doesn't have to compensate for differences in the panels themselves. I do fit Solaredge where shading is notable, btu other than that the additional cost does not merit the outputs gained. solaredge-case-study-photon-power-optimizers-1473941071.pdf

I think you're right, Versapanel looks like a very similar concept

Thanks, good to get a second opinion. A Dutch friend of mine has been raving about them but not enough for her to bite the bullet yet!

I'd disagree that there are not useful things you can learn in 3 months. Take a look at your local FE college, ours does 10 nights of beginners bricklaying, plastering, decorating skills and so on - each course is just £50 an absolute bargain working out at £5 for 1.5 hours teaching! Whilst you won't be building the house, you may like me end up building garden retaining walls, (plus my blockwork garage), doing lots of joinery, and so on, on jobs where you can take time over, whereas on the house build proper, time is of the essence so best left to the pros. Plus, a better understanding of any trade allows you to talk more knowledgably with the experts - it's surprising how a few key phrases gets you a bit of respect and can help you in other ways - it also can go a long way in the builders/plumbers/electrical merchants I have found, and I have no doubt at all I've had better service for being able to "talk the talk" (don't go in neatly dressed! I even got trade price at one electrical wholesalers despite paying cash by wearing a very worn and scruffy "Mira Showers" sweatshirt which had belonged to my electrician father before he retired - complete blagging that I'm a professional electrician without actually saying it - I'd noticed previously that they give the cash cowboys trade prices even though they (for obvious reasons) don't have a proper trade account). Having said that, I tried to get onto our local FE college night classes in bricklaying for 3 years in a row but they were so undersubscribed they never ran them . There is also another thing to consider - perhaps you can be too practical. During this process I've found various trades asking me to do bits of prep or saying they need this or that done before they can proceed/continue, which I don't think can happen in most builds they do as most people these days probably don't even own a screwdriver - I was commenting on this and both my wife and my father think it's because they know I'm very practical and see me plumbing, wiring, building and so on and try an exploit it a bit. Youtube is also your friend. There are some amazingly detailed instructive courses put on there by people for free. I learned to lay blocks, lay my dry screed floors in the smallest rooms, and am currently plastering! All learned from several hours on YouTube. As regards the comment about tidying the site up - that's great advice, because believe me no one else is going to do it! If you can and are in a place that's allowed, burn waste wood etc. and look for creative uses for waste - it's surprising what people will take if you offer it for free to get rid of it. We have the whole house up and so far I've not had to pay for a single skip.

Well we drove up to Manchester and stayed overnight then went to the English Sofa Company factory / showroom the following morning. Jan and I were far from impressed with styles and even more so with the (lack of) quality: the leather seaming was crude and untidy; leather on the display items was sometimes pulled / strained and the designs were uncomfortable to sit in. So after 30 mins in the showroom, we took our leave and headed south. On the way back I had a look on Google maps at where the sofa shops were in Birmingham and Coventry, but we decided that they were just too dispersed to make a "shotgun in the dark" stop-overs worthwhile. I then checked MK and discovered that all of the main sofa shops are in one mall square. So back to MK, and after a few tries we ended up in a shop in the square that isn't even listed on Google: Natuzzi: Italian and extremely high quality in terms of comfort, style and attention to detail in the finishing -- albeit expensive. However after the ESC and the other showrooms, both Jan and I felt that the Natuzzi stuff was just in a different league so we decided to bite the bullet and pay for the quality.

I wholeheartedly agree with all the advice so far. A clean tidy site is not only better for working and health and safety but does much for morale and puts a marker down for how you see your build and your house, pride in the job etc. I think opening a trade account with a decent monthly credit limit (mine is £7.5k) at a good local builders merchants can be very beneficial. Essentially I get 30 days credit as I settle all on statement issued in the month following delivery so for example my December deliveries i am only paying by the end of January, also free delivery to site as and when you need it, plus makes vat invoice collecting much easier and mine will usually match internet prices and source specialist stuff not usually stocked if I give them the detail. Don’t do a trade account wih big boys - Jewsons, Travis Perkins etc they are generally more expensive. If you use a groundworks company for your dig out try and get your site toilet hire via them, it will be a cheaper rate and you will not pay vat (which is not reclaimable if you hire direct and pay plus vat) and arrange with them that you keep it for the duration - I pay £25 for my site toilet ex vat and including weekly clean the extra £5 vat would have added a fair bit as we have had a toilet on site for 9 months now. I managed to do a cash deal on my scaff too, much cheaper. A few hundred here and a few hundred there soon adds up ..... I think general labouring and very good organisational skills are the two most important things. Men on site with no materials is bad news, men not paid on time is even worse news. As soon as our garage shell was up and roofed (before house started) and we got power to it I got a cheap fridge and kettle and a load of mugs, spoons etc left industrial quantities of tea bags and coffee and sugar to start them off, I often take cake on a Friday. Good luck!

+1 sometimes beer on Fridays

Realistically there is no skill you will learn in 3 months. Don't under estimate keeping the site clean and tidy and having everything that's needed arrive on time and in full. It's all about organising every step of the build and making sure you think 3 steps ahead.

And cake occasionally .... Just one thought on laboring for any trade - make sure you aren’t slowing them down ..! My plasterer prefers to mix his own muck - it’s a Labourers job but by the time he’s corrected it as you have made it too thick/thin/lumpy then your time saving actually becomes a cost. The one skill every self builder needs to learn is to pay on time for the agreed work.... agree payment milestones for main contractors in advance in writing, with agreed acceptance criteria. For day rate trades, agree when an invoice will be paid (Friday for following Thursday etc) and stick to it. If there is a problem, challenge there and then and don’t just not pay the invoice or deduct something with no reason.

AFAIK it is the former - just one claim and within 3 months of the Completion Certificate, Like you I don't think occupation makes a difference. As I'm paying a builder the only things I am buying direct are the kitchen and bathroom fittings so it shouldn't be too onerous a task I hope

I like to think of it as the end of the Crystal Maze when you're in the big perspex box frantically trying to catch money spinning around you.

Resin with a mesh sock? http://www.fixfirm.com/category/fixings-screws-nails-anchors-chemical-anchors-resin-injection-anchor-sleeves

And everyone else is jealous of you being on fire, and watch your every move for signs of your bum being on fire too.

PMSL. Some wee just came out

Ah yes, I believe you've talked about this guy before. Never met a door to door salesman he didn't like!

Er pair of steps.

It is also one of the ,most creative and worthwhile things you will ever do, of course. Seriously, there is something remarkable about living in the house that you built.

Budget.........I can just about remember all the talk of budgets in the heady days we were starting out, 2 years later its how can we juggle the finances to get it finished and still keep some pension funds. Being in our 60’s that is very close to our hearts. The mantra now is just get it finished so we can get in and save the rent. Months of heartache later lights are showing in tunnels (as well as in the house) and smiles are appearing. No kids to leave it to so plan B get it finished take some equity out and have a good retirement in the new house. Ask me in 6 months or so was it worth it!

It looks like there was a problem with the quote in your previous post. I've just fixed it. Looks like you have the hang of it now

I would just notch that back bar, in reality is is serving very little purpose other than to tie the sides together at the back and stop them flapping in the wind. Now the cabinet is installed they are almost redundant. If you were worried you could remove the section to allow the pipes to clear comfortably, then screw a batten of real wood to the back plate to reinforce it. I doubt the chipboard being damaged by moisture is much of an issue (from seeing it survive well in a bathroom on the back of a damaged cabinet), if concerned check it then apply some paint/varnish/silicone to the exposed chipboard.

As an aside....the flexible tap hoses shouldn't go directly onto the ballofix valves either. They should screw onto These flat faced copper to irons first, and then have a short section of copper going between the ballofix and the aforementioned fitting. The ballofix has a sharp edge to the conical part that the olive seats against, and that can chew into the rubber seal in the tap flexi and cause the fitting to leak over time. I know that from my early days after working for a penis that did this to save £3 on every job.

The second picture in your first post shows the cam locks on the rear cross bar holding the cross bar tight to the side panels. In the third picture it doesn't look as though the cam locks are doing their job, it could just be the angle of the picture or smears of silicone, but it looks odd to me. Also if it's not sitting on the pipe boxing, as it should, how is it level front to back?

Are those like Dilithium crystals captain?

My 1972 Landrover was rebuilt a few years ago on a new galvanised chassis. As far as I know everything else is original though I expect the bulkhead will have been repaired and probably new floor pans in the process. A friend of mine has a similarly rebuilt early LR90, that pre dates the "defender" name. He even went as far as a galvanised bulkhead. If you are so inclined these vehicles can be repaired and rebuilt much easier than most other classic cars. And the best bit, if they still look a bit tatty, well nobody ever expected a Landrover to look all nice and shiny. This present LR of mine I am sure is worth more now than when I bought it. No "ordinary" car can do that, and I don't have the money for a true classic.

Yes, preheat is via a "44kW" rated PHE, but that's pretty much the same rating as the coil in the indirect buffer tank. The rating is very highly dependent on the actual temperature differential - halve the temperature differential and you halve the heat transfer rating. What I was thinking of, as a good solution for combined ASHP buffer tank and DHW preheat system, was a direct TS of around 70 litres or so, and with a standard DHW coil in the top section. There's no point in having more than about 100 litres, as the buffer only has to provide preheat to the DHW, so the power needed is around half that needed if the buffer/TS was running at a higher temperature. The ASHP will provide constant top up to the TS when it cools a bit, too, acting as an additional "instant heat" source, in effect. I would hazard a guess that the Telford guys were thinking in terms of "normal" DHW temperature, rather than just preheating to maybe 30 deg C or so. It makes a big difference just dropping the temperature requirement a bit. This only makes sense if you're running an ASHP, want to keep the COP high and have another means of boosting the water temperature up to normal DHW temperature. With a single Sunamp PV, the effective combined capacity with a 70 litre preheat buffer plus a 6kW ASHP is close to double the capacity of the Sunamp PV on its own, plus the buffer/TS could still do it's normal job of providing a direct buffer store for the ASHP when it's running the UFH.

Nah, just what I say when I start the day in 'clean' clothes, and then have to go back home to chuck the boots and combats back on Well, before this got to a point where we assumed anything, and then you acted upon it, I thought it best to chat briefly with the tech guys at Telford to see what can actually be extracted from a X sized buffer tank with regards to DHW uplift via an instantaneous coil of X size. Bigger of both = more and vice versa. So....after a chat and a brew....deep breath...."options" :- On the assumption that, You already will have an ashp installed and working. You already will have a buffer of whatever size installed, according to majority advice and positive feedback here ( against running a HP to Ufh directly in a 'low' energy home ). You will have a reasonably sized Pv array. I have arrived at the following :- The costs of the larger buffer tank, having it fitted with a 4.5m2 DHW uplift coil ( the minimum size that would offer any meaningful yield at low temp but also physically too big to go into any less than a 300L cylinder ), accepting a reduced max flow rate of 18litres per min, ( you may well only have 18litres per min coming in so case specific for that point ), and the additional volume of antifreeze ( plus replacment of the antifreeze every 5 years as it has a limited working life ), make the TS and coil option for DHW uplift very tight, if not plain uneconomical for your expected DHW needs. So, after more head scratching, further tea drinking and procrastinating..... The figures do stack up quite well in favour of going for a small buffer and copying @JSHarris with a plate heat exchanger, but as your expected DHW consumption and flow rates may well be double his, I'd suggest going for a pair of 30kw versions running in parallel to get a combined pipe size input & output of 22mm ( to match the UVC accordingly ). PHE example only PHE's are far better at transferring heat from a wet source than coils, especially when being used at lower temps. I've had to adjust my thinking accordingly for this case, and even so, I still think it's a worthwhile endeavour. Less long term labour of the ASHP = longer life expectancy. Far fewer defrost cycles compared to driving DHW directly from the ASHP at high temp range. Majority of the DHW getting produced at the better CoP rate, ( DHW will be your biggest energy requirement as its needed year round eg also when you have little or no Pv gain ). Smaller buffer tank ( circa 100 litres ) with less loss, size, and reduced antifreeze required. ( thanks @Alphonsox for the example costs, makes it a game changer tbh ). So, to summarise, I'm still thinking of DHW uplift from the ASHP via a buffer, but a smaller buffer and PHE's instead of the coil. That will require a pump and flow switch, ( any PHE will need one ). Still relatively straightforward tbh, and may just provoke me into getting off my arse and looking for a decent plumbing schematic software so I can translate this babble into a working drawing for a / your plumber to follow. Thats the chat I've just had. These cylinders have very low heat transfer rates at low temp, so that type of cylinder would need to be VERY hot in order to do what is suggested in that image . It would also need to be KEPT very hot to do it too .

So.....what I need then is a rainfall shower head up on the ceiling.....that DESCENDS for cleaning at the touch of a button.....