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The positive side is you see the true nature of your neighbors. It took us over 5 years and 3 planning applications and ended up selling our house and plot with full planning and building warrant as we had moved into an other part of our life journey. It was amazing to see and meet so many people who helped us and I always say hello to the people who wanted us to fail. "Wanting to fail" might not be the right words, the house has now been built and every time I pass it a sense of joy comes over me. I was laughed at, I was told to shut up at the first planning hearing, and the end result has given me a reputation and credibility, ok that means nothing to me but has opened many doors without me needing to kick them in to gain entry. What I am trying to say, if you keep to your own moral compass then you have nothing to feel ashamed about, just keep smiling and keep trying to make the world a better place for all. Remember your house will be there long after you are gone, you are gifting a home for future generation.

Hi everyone, I've used this forum a few times for bits and bobs of info and thought I'd better join and contribute something back! We're building our home in Northern Ireland...bit by bit! I'm a total greenhorn and we are currently hiring sub contractors for all the work. Started last April (2017) and its looking like it will hopefully be August or September this year before we get in. Slow moving and hugely stressful but as the rest of you say, we have to just get on with it and it will be worth it in the end! I've attached some pics

Image stolen fair and square from the Guardian and Blaby Council. Here are the words

Oh boy am I getting sick of this bathroom fittings choosing. So, sinks/basins without overflows? Good/Bad? Pro's no dirt trap no need for a fancy cover (i don't like just a hole!) cleaner lines Cons Flooding!! But is that con such an issue in an adult only house? I don't have a habit of leaving taps on and wondering off whilst a sink fills. I think there is more of an argument with a bath where you're likely to leave the room as it fills. Thoughts? Is it time for a G&T yet?

You're OK, as there is a service void between the plasterboard internal finish and the vapour tight panel. Best to try and fix heavy stuff to the battens (which run vertically on 400mm centres) if possible, but if not then use hollow wall anchors like these, like these: They are great, as the threaded part remains firmly in the wall when you remove the screw and cannot drop into the void like the spring loaded ones. I've used loads of them on our MBC frame and found them to be foolproof. Just make sure you only get the short ones for fixing to any outside wall, as the service void is only 45mm deep, and when putting them in you need to get the whole length into the wall before expanding the back out. I used 37mm ones with M5 screws and they will take a heck of a load. I bought the gun to pull these in, as it's cheap and a lot better than the method of using the screw shown in that video. You can get all these and the gun from Screwfix: https://www.screwfix.com/c/screws-nails-fixings/hollow-wall-anchors/cat7280101?brand=rawlplug and: https://www.screwfix.com/p/rawlplug-heavy-duty-setting-tool/8499g

Very true, and some will see your attempts at trying to be as helpful as you can be under the circumstances as a sign of weakness and use it as an opportunity to cause you even more hassle. I speak from experience..................

There's only so much you can do - some people will moan at just about everything and you have to just rise above it

We put out a short newsletter most weeks to all the neighbours that were affected by our build. Some agreed to accept this by email, others we just gave a paper copy to. We tried to forewarn them about major disruptions, like when we had a succession of muck away trucks coming for a few days, and when the borehole drillers were coming, and I think it worked reasonably well as a system. We certainly got to know the neighbours pretty quickly, and that was generally a good thing.

I have a KS tower inside, I think @PeterW suggested putting a batten on the low transoms with some blocks to help steady it, it helps a lot.

If you’ve a two storey building to do you’re going to need so many that it’d be worth hiring a bench saw with the diamond blade & water feed. Your Labourer/bucket carrier/fool will get a lot more done & possibly was born with extra digits so can cope with potential loss of a couple.

A better arrangement might be to fit the float switch that turns the pump off when the rainwater tank is empty in the rainwater tank itself. You can get three wire float switches, like this one: http://www.wiltec.de/float-switch-pump-level-controller-cable-5m.html?currency=GBP that can be wired to turn the pump power off when the rainwater tank is empty.

many mains- LEDs (and not just the cheap ones) have regulators that are rather electrically noisy.

I'm in the process or rewiring an old croft house. Now it is stripped bare, it has revealed that originally the bedroom walls were only paneled on one side of the framing. On the inside it was wallpapered, with the paper going over the wall framing.

Unfortunately that won't work with the MBC system, as there is a 45mm deep void between the plasterboard and the vapour tight membrane and that service void is open to the ceiling void. To be safe, it's best to use a drill stop to make sure holes for hollow anchors aren't drilled too deep and hit the vapour tight board. I use bits of scrap plastic pipe pushed over the drill bit up to the chuck, so there's only about 30mm of drill bit exposed, and that works OK.

Screws are 99.9% airtight when they are done up tight. I wouldn’t be worrying ..! Do you know the stud layout or do you have the OSB lining on your build ..?

Lizzie, quite a few of use have been caught by this: quite good initial terms but huge price hikes for extensions. As you say, it would have been a lot cheaper to buy the insurance upfront, but it's now too late to beat yourself up about it. The point is that a build insurance has to cover a lot of risks that you don't face in a completed house. We just transferred our standard house insurance to the new house when we moved in, because the build was finished by then. A year's standard insurance was about the same price as a 3-month extension to the self-build insurance. But don't do this before you've finished the building work or moved in because you might find that your insurer is unwilling to meet a claim in these circumstances. Have a trawl of the site. There's been lots of past threads on this.

Not sure if you've seen the manufacturing video on YouTube but might give you some idea of the quality.... Looks like they have made significant investment in manufacturing plant... Edit.... At about 2mins 40, there's a box of Blum fittings being poured in so looks like reasonable quality there...

@ProDave makes good points, particularly regarding the hot water tank. Space management is a critical factor when you are designing a house and this needs to carefully considered alongside the layout and requirements of all the various systems that are required at the earliest stage of deisgn.. I have developed my layouts around a plant room, which is accessed via the garage. The plant room is located so that it close to all of the main users, except the Master Ensuite. It is a very comfortable size of 3450 x 1800 approx and was always a part of the house design. It has space for adding future equipment as required, such as buffer or acccumulator tanks - in fact they were part of the orIginal sizing requirement together with a thermal store but not fitted as the heating/HW design evolved. The plant room contains the main electrical distribution and including meters, MVHR, condensing gas boiler and controls, UVC, water softener and an old belfast sink (the only item saved from the demolition of the original house). The MVHR plenums are located in a separate service cupboard above the plant room and more central to the house. These are the services for a 336m2 house, excludIng garage.

I did the same - got Cottage reclaim blend from TP at £465/Thou and got my bricky on them at £500/thou laid. They were a bit of a mare as it was +/-15mm on pretty much every dimension but they look good now they are done. We reckon we nearly broke the hiab on the wagon as they could barely pick them up - guessing they were 3lb each on some of them !

Love this...

They need 3-4” around them and 6” over the top and if you fill them to the brim then they can easily take the weight. A tank riser for a 300mm IC over the cap will give you plenty of access.

I'm pretty sure that is what has happened which is why I am no longer doing any more than I have to, whilst remaining polite and pleasant

They are a total rip off... The tanks can be had direct from Balmoral or others for 1/3 price of the specialists. The pumps are Polish, the only clever bit is the electronics but tbh @JSHarris could knock something up with a PIC in an hour to do the same..... you need an airgap for your filler - just use a Hotun tundish - and a valve.... Its not rocket science ! Contrary to popular belief you can bury IBCs, but they need to be encased in concrete. The wire frame acts like reinforcing and you just fill them with water before you cast the concrete and they are good for life.

I prefer the look without as well - there is only me, and I have never had a problem where the overflow has been necessary . However, I am getting older and I do walk out of rooms to fetch something and forget to go back. I haven't got quite to the stage of choosing yet but I am looking and I feel your pain.

Glyphosate has the big advantage that it is only toxic when inside the target plant, and any that accidentally gets on the ground will break down naturally into harmless products within a few days, due to the action of natural soil bacteria. Once it's done it's job, the soil won't be contaminated with anything from it, and so can be dug over and other stuff planted after a week or two. The bad name that glyphosate is getting from some environmental groups is due to farmers using it to "dry" crops. Essentially they spray cereals, rape etc with it as soon as the seeds/grain heads have fully formed, which kills the plants and makes the seed/grain dryer. They can then harvest it with less chance that they will need to put the grain through a grain dryer to get the moisture level down to a level where there is no risk of mould growth. The major issue with this practice is that the seed/grain may well end up containing glyphosate, that then goes pretty much directly into the food chain. My personal view (as a farmers son) is that the practice of spraying crops pre-harvest with glyphosate should be banned, as it's a misuse of the product. Used as originally intended, and paying heed to the need to make sure that over-spray does not go near a watercourse, glyphosate is probably the safest and least environmentally harmful herbicide we have.

I did send letters to each of the neighbours at the beginning and asked for mobiles or emails, none responded but one still kicked off because I said it would be morning and it didn't come til late. Since then I have sent letters out for any deliveries that would take longer than a few minutes but of course I cannot say exactly what time they will be there. With a brick delivery the neighbours son (in his 20s) came out swearing at the to 'move that effing thing' which of course did not get a good response from the driver. As, with each letter, I have requested contact details and they have chosen not to give me them, and despite being as considerate and reasonable as I can I am still getting grief they are now going to get letters when there will be a real problem. The utilities will let them know themselves so I think the only big one I have left is when the roof comes. Thanks everyone for your support.

If you have a digger you can push it down, or perhaps there is some clean stuff you can burn? Sometimes repair is much more than replace. Always need to run the numbers.

@Vision Of Heaven 1 - Woodworm .. woodwormed stuff ends up feeling very rough inside and as dry as dust and crumbles to a pile of dust. But we really need a close up photo. 2 - Lath and plaster. If the plaster is sagging or loose it means that the nibs have broken off, where it is supported by plaster pushed between the laths. The answer is plasterboard over, or take it down and patch or start again. You need a plaster that binds together as if it had horsehair in it. 100g of horsehair will do about 4 sqm according to suppliers. You need to think what you are doing with your cornices ... quite cheap to replace but you may have views about original features. I would replace with something as close as possible, 3 - I am assuming it is not listed. Ferdinand

Reminds me of the time I had to replace a hand dryer. I went to the board, turned off the breaker labelled "gents toilet hand dryer" A groan came from an adjacent office as I had killed a dozen pc's. And the hand dryer was still on.

If you have more lightweight rubbish get a 12yd skip better price ratio than more 8yd ones.

To add, you need BR involvement and sign-off to give the work any recognisable value too. Any new works may be questioned by a potential future buyer, and if they catch a whiff of you DIY'ing the works they'll either ask for it to be discounted from the valuation or covered by indemnity. Start as you mean to go on.

I have a single sample point for sodium acetate in a hand warming pack. I came across this during our pre-move major clearout around Christmas time. I can pretty much pinpoint when it was last used, which was November 2004. I had charged it after use and put it in a drawer, where it sat at room temperature, in it's liquid phase, for over 12 years. When I initiated the phase change it worked normally, turning into a solid and releasing the same amount of heat as it always used to, as far as I can tell. The interesting thing for me was that it had stayed in it's higher energy state for that period of time. Looking at the basic chemistry, but not knowing the exact composition that Sunamp use, I would doubt if there are any purely age related degradation effects, as long as the seals are good on the heat battery containers. Be interesting to find out more, but I'm leaning towards the view that the thing will outlive me.

If you’re going down this route I would advise getting some test panels built in the different bonds by your brickie & having a good look. What Ive found with certain metric bricks is that the relative proportions of a stretcher (full brick) to a header (half brick) can give an unsatisfactory effect in Flemish bond,compared to imperials.

EcoPlugs are granular glyphosate with a moisture cap - we’ve used these and also use straight granular glyph in vertical holes in the stumps. Only downside about plugs are they only come in boxes of 100..! Figs have a fairly thick cambium layer - take a Stanley knife and cut round the stem about knee height and cut a 4” section from the bark all the way round. Get a decent 10mm wood spur bit and drill a deep hole at 45 degrees into the trunk, to about half way. Fill it with glyphosate granules or concentrate half way up and then just run duct tape over the hole and all round the cut band. That will sort the root and slow down the regrowth at the top. And then start pruning...!!! Hard ..!

I fully agree with you on this but you don’t want to do it with the tree still there in leaf, trying to kill off that lot when it still has its leaf area, you will be on a loser. The amount of vigour that fig will have come the spring will be amazing, trying to kill it whilst it is still up will be hard you will need to find the cambium layer to a lot of the stems to allow sufficient herbicide to be drawn down into the root system. I personally would cut it down and use a product called an ECO-PLUG we install thousands of these a year and we provide a no quibble guarantee that if they don’t work we will come back and do it again, for free we have never in the last 4-5 years of using these had a call back, whereas all previous methods only provided hit and miss results. They are not cheap but good products never are. As for diesel i think you will find it is not systemic so will only kill localised tissue and not be drawn down into the root system.

The diesel will only kill the tree as its being absorbed by just the tree. You only get maybe 50ml in each hole and just top this up. You don't just pour a Jerry can full round the roots as that just won't work. It will take a month or maybe more depending on how big the tree is and how vast its roots are but it will work. Once it's killed then the digger will pull it out very easily.

+1

Have a read of the link i posted. If you cut it down, the roots grow even quicker, the stump is the access route for herbicide, so don't cut it straight out, make good use of it! Any form of cutting, and it will simply strengthen whats left. So the last thing to do is cut it down, when it is truly dead.

Normally the cavity between the timber frame and any external weather skin such as your brickwork should be ventilated top & bottom of the wall so I don't see the point in paying for thermally efficient wall ties. The standard SS ones will do.

That is a VERY interesting price list. To buy this 8KW mitsubishi air source heat pump and the pre plumbed cylinder would cost £3715 from that price list (presumably plus VAT which on a new build you would get back.) I know for a fact, in this case, the owner has paid in the region of £16K for a local renewable heating contractor to install it. Some of this he will get back via the Renewable Heat Initiative (I will attempt to find out how much) It has so far taken 3 man days to install it, one man yesterday, and two today. I believe he is coming back again tomorrow to plumb in the solar thermal bit, so lets say 4 man days total to install. So lets work on a Plumber in the Highlands charging about £200 per man day, that should be about £800 in installation costs. bringing the total to about £4515. Lets say £5000 total to allow for some pipe and fittings and to make the sums simple. No lets round that up to £6K in case I have under estimated just how much a plumber charges. So (me being very cynical) thinks they are charging something like a £10K "RHI premium" to install this system. So the big question has to be, will you get £10K back in RHI payments? If the answer is no, then I would personally say, avoid getting a packaged, installed system at RHI prices. This confirms my rather cyincal view, that the only people that benefit from the RHI scheme, is the installers who can bump up their prices and charge a premium. This also confirms the view of a poster on ebuild who had concluded much the same thing that it was a lot cheaper to self install and forget the RHI altogether. When the time comes for my own system, I am tempted to get the same renewables company to quote, then look up the component prices and an estimate of reasonable installation costs, and ask them to justify their premium price.

I'll just mention we had a bath tap fail and turn itself on full flow in the middle of the night. How would that have ended if the plug was in, there was no overflow, and you were not there?

Think you might struggle to get it all in a cupboard(s) if mine is anything to by! Will get a pic when I go to site. Its rammed full of stuff that I have no idea how to work....yet!