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Hmmm, the Gospel according to @JSHarris, @Nickfromwales as modified by @Onoff and @ProDave, translated by @Ferdinand, exemplified by @jamiehamy, rendered by @nod, softened at the edges by @lizzie and @Hecateh, and videoed by @Construction Channel is free. Yes, its asynchronous, but you don't need to go back to the Aramaic, nor the Greek (geeks we have in plenty, but not Greeks, except the honorary one called @TerryE) for translation. Asynchrony is solved by the PM system by the way. There are as usual words of encouragement in the real Bible. Trouble is it tries to tell us about poor build practice indeed, the stone the builders rejected became the corner stone (one of Mark's little gems I seem to remember) . Now, work that one out.

Got our first electricity bill the other day for which I'd had to submit the reading because the supplier we are with (Good energy) don't "do" smart meters yet. The bill seemed rather high - we knew it would be because of the current situation we are in with the window company letting us down so we are having to run fan heaters 24/7 , but it seemed even higher. So I added up the monthly totals the meter records and compared this figure to the overall consumption figure it gives - and they don't match. The month-by-month consumption comes out a lot lower than the supposed total. When I queried this our supplier says that this is why they are not yet using smart meters electronically for readings as they think there are a lot of teething issues still to be resolved & they are waiting to see which models work best (but since they themselves don't actually install meters I'm not sure how correct this is), hence why I had to physically read it and call the reading in. Anyway, naturally they want the highest figure to be right and I the lowest, but given that if the meter cannot do simple addition then indeed *both* could be wrong, Ive queried it with them and they insisted they won't check it unless I produce photographic evidence (because naturallly I'd lie over a few quids worth of electricity! Which slightly peeves me tbh ). So instead I videoed it. Currently they are "deciding if it needs to be checked or not". Has anyone else had such basic issues with a smart meter as it being unable to add up properly?

@Hecateh feel for you and you have to live there too! We have/had tolerant neighbours not too many complaints save for the guy we bought the land from. It is his private drive we have to get down and to be fair he was ok first off but our groundworkers were a nightmare chewed up his verges left mud on the drive messed up his field where we had permission to put our spoil, ripped out his hedge ‘in error’ chewed up his newly laid lawn, damaged a beautiful tpo’d yew tree, I could go on. Last year before we realised the true extent and incomptetence we paid thousands to them to clean up and rectify the -as we were told- ‘unavoidable’ mess and then we found they had just made it worse in their attempts to put right their mess at our expense. We now have a somewhat tetchy neighbour and face a bill of many more thousands to get it all sorted.....will we get any money back from groundworks company who knows.... No moral to this story other than we tried our utmost to be good neighbours and it has not worked through no fault of ours, we employed ‘reputable’ local groudworks company had professional project management overseeing but the buck is stopping finally at our door. I find myself dodging our soon to be next door neighbour as I cant face it any more. Its not his fault really I would probably not have been as patient but with all the other many problems with the build the last thing I want to face every day is a griping neighbour. You have done your best and can do no more. They are fortunate to have a considerate builder/neighbour. Probably some deep seated resentment of your build at the bottom of it. Chin up! xx

Unless all the materials that built their houses where helicoptered in then it's just a case of biting your tongue and being civil. As long as the lorries don't do any actual damage there ain't a lot they can do so don't stress too much.

I can't see what else you can do. You've offered, they haven't taken you up. As you say, expecting hand-delivered notes for every delivery is nonsense, so don't play the game.

It’s good to know we can help other people - it can appear pretty lonely as you stand looking at a muddy hole that’s just swallowed £20k of your savings and you think “why did I start this.....?”

Done just so I can bitch at the council planning ....

Good evening everyone, I'm bowled over by the number of response I have received today! It has exceeded my expectations. Obviously would I love to have more so please keep sharing. Thank you for all of your useful feedback and encouragement...I have added the 'm' onto many . Following the advice of @recoveringacademic I have disabled the function that shows the results as it was showing email addresses and phone numbers. I will periodically post updates of the results as I go along, and I will be more than willing to share the end results to anyone who is interested. I am also sending out a questionnaire to Council's across the UK, to get their views and again I will post updates as I go forward. The dissertation is due in in mid-September. I will do my best to be an active member of the forum, and offer what advice I am able to. Please put these requests in a PM. Please also be aware that much depends on the site and the Council's policies, and I may not be in a position to give a full and definitive answer. However it concerns development in Blaby I will have to offer my apologies due to ethical reasons and pass you onto our main number. I must also thank those who have kindly offered to take part in an telephone interview, I will be in touch with you individually, however I do have to just finalise the questions so it may be a while before I am able to conduct them. Thank you all again, and thank you for making me feel welcome here...I know planners are not always afforded such a luxury.

@PeterStarck's house looks that precise it's like the CAD rendering has been superimposed on a plot photograph! I used some of that A1 membrane repairing a bit on my roof...it's the ONLY similarity!

Lovely looking house Peter...cedar clad from the colour variations? Smart brick plinth too. For various reasons we left the brick slip idea behind on ours and used powder coated aluminium to match the windows. Heard lots of horrors about people having issues with install of brick slips and with all our other problems I didnt want another in the mix! We have tiled skirtings in the house and our tiler wanted a day rate not a metre rate for those as more fiddly than laying big tiles, maybe same applies on brick slips. Skirtings cost a fortune to install, think he really took advantage of day rate, so beware on that........he was good tiler but very bad news on everything else, overcharging, not turning up etc, had to sack him and get someone else in to finish and do bathrooms. What is wrong with British Workmen these days, good people are few and far between in my experience.

yes, a lovely house Peter ...probably too contemporary for my wife but i like it a lot (sshhh) Sorry to hear of your woes Peter, but it given me a lot to think about ... Its probably too late for me to change my mind now with PP agreed and building regs going through

I like it, and Yurt I am not sure.

I ended up with a continuous extract fan (dMEV) venting out via a roof tile, not what i was after, but it does the job, and it only cost me £30!

All the details here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

Are you @richi trying to get @Onoff into even more trouble? Good idea.

The lowest price I could get was - EPS 300 at £12.21/m2 EPS 100 at £5.09/m2 The supplier was Varley Insulation, talk to Graham (the owner).

Don't think this one has been covered here and been slipped into AD L1A/B when no one was looking. The Domestic Building Services Compliance Guide has been updated and effective April 2018 promotes the use of more complex control systems and flue gas heat recovery. See the Planning Portal website. Ian Full link below https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200135/approved_documents/74/part_l_-_conservation_of_fuel_and_power/5

I have not read the plans in detail, but one of the advantages of a half-landing staircase is that when you have older people to stay (or you are older yourself because you could never face another self-build after this one), you can put a chair in the corner of the half landing, and have a rest half way.

Dodgy? Us? Perish the thought. At 30mm I think you should probably be fine. Do you need the space to store a sheet of plywood?

[Apologies for those that got a half-complete notification - I somehow submitted without having finished] Thanks everyone for the welcome, and indeed the comments/suggestions. Addressing some of the key points raised: Terminology - Yes, if I've found one thing with MVHR it is the variety of terms in use often interchangeably! I am seeing manifolds and plenums being swapped around; and valves, terminals, grilles, vents (and now 'ceiling holes'! ) all being used. Here am indeed talking about, well, the ceiling holes (that's arguably the least ambiguous term given its uniqueness!) System Type - I am intending on using the HB+ system with the central manifold-based flow restrictors (based on your previous discussions/experiences with them JSHarris) and accept that initial balancing is going to be a bit of pain. Having performed a 20-stage iterative balance of our wet central heating system, taking around 6 hours to complete, I've got the determination (and OCD?!) to see something like this through though! It may well end up something of a hybrid system of different suppliers where possible/compatible and I *might* make my own manifolds to suit my specific needs (and budget). Something worth mentioning is that this will be a retrofit installation and whilst it will be performed alongside a new extension it does mean I can afford to be a bit more focused on some of the arguably less(er) important aspects! As you say, Ian, a complete self-build must mean any available time is highly competed for and so I could well understand that subtleties of vent aesthetics are justifiably low down the list! The fact that I am retrofitting means that wherever possible I shall be wanting to install from the below-ceiling side (just to be clear: the ducting will be in the ceiling void; it is just which side I'll be primarily working from!). For this reason I may well end up fabricating my own plenums that I can fix from beneath using a 63/75mm-to-125mm adaptor and 125mm right-angle rigid bend as all plenums I've seen are very much fit-from-above or at first fix. I think I'll be able to do all this from underneath (I've done similar before with an inline shower extractor fan) given the right terminal type (particularly the ones with a collar that is screwed to the ceiling hole edge. The Conus air valve is not one I'd come across JSHarris but could be just the ticket given how slimline it is and depending on how easily I can attached it to a non-HB+ plenum. Am I right in assuming that there's no distinction between supply/extract with that particular type? The type Lizzie has also sound very interesting, but my desire for (expensive) aesthetics is unfortunately sometimes countered by my thrifty-Northern roots so I might have to avoid looking too much into that option!

Beware the power consumption of motion sensors, could easily be 10W, that is a lot of LED light.

With single sided icf like this I think you'd be in a world of pain trying to modify it to get board marked finish.....you're buying the jointing web structure but would have to deconstruct it totally to get the boards in, and the boards won't substitute the ply, you'll need to fix the boards to the ply. Compared to the pre formed 'decorative' boards people have linked to I don't see you saving money.....just being subject to a more risky hit and miss result. I would say if you skip icf and end up doing shuttered concrete, don't be deterred from board finish on its expensive reputation. Materials are cheap, just rough sawn timber (which will mostly be re-useable), nails and wax. It's labour intensive but totally unskilled. Having witnessed every moment of the process on mine i'd say he absolutely wants a specialist reinforced concrete contractor...there's plenty of them.....i'd certainly recommend mine if he's in range (dorset or bordering). My board finish; My fair faced ply finish;

Several people have built several houses in the time I'm taking to do one room...

Evening all, just had a quote for my scaffolding. Basically for the timber framers to work on and then directly after the roofers ... Its a bitty invoice, all split into sections with various costs. But If I am reading it right it SEEMS to suggest it could cost me (for approx 16 weeks hire) over £7000 !! Am i daft in thinking this is ridiculous ?