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@Hecateh & @lizzie Same here. I suspect we will be about 20% over by the time its finished, if it ever is. It was the ground works & drainage that accounts for most of the overspend, but the rest has all been more than expected. Also we have been unable to do much of the work ourselves that we had planned because of a change in personal circumstances. Long past the point of no return so we will just have to soldier on. I have been out of love with the build for some time now. However, just last week I was alone in the house doing some airtightness work. Cutting up little bits of very sticky tape to cover nail & screw heads. I actually realised that I was feeling happy & enjoying myself. I think I must now have tipped over the edge into complete madness.

Some of the longer standing members may remember that I got into a debate about how useless biomass was as a fuel. There is a bloke over an the other places that decided that Dr. David MacKay was talking total rubbish and that the UK could be run from a few grass clippings, and another bloke that claimed that he had fitted a domestic biodigester that could run a house off a few poos, food waste and anything else that could be digested. I was not alone in thinking that all this did not add up, so I planned an experiment. I found a very small sycamore sapling in my garden, put it in a pot and let it grow for a year. Then every year of 5 years I pulled it out the pot, leaned up the roots and weighed it. I also measured the height and diameter. I also did the same with a second sapling starting a year later. So that gives me 3 full years worth of data, but on a small sample and not grown in ideal conditions. I am not worried by this as it would take whatever magic was in Jack's bean to get to a decent mass to be worth burning. So here are the mean masses for 2015, 2016, 2017,2018. 41, 88, 193, 330. They are grams not kilograms. Now at the moment I don't know what the dry mass will be, but if it is 20%, that gives me 66gm to burn. If it has a specific energy content of 5 kWh/kg (quite optimistic that is), then I have grown, in 5 years, 1/3rd of a kWh, and it has taken up a couple of square metres of my garden. So that is about 20,000 kWh of insolation to get a whopping 0.33 kWh back at winter time. That is a conversion rate of 1.65%, which oddly enough, is pretty high for a plant (but I have not included leaf fall, but have included the root). So if anyone thinks that it is best to grow timber for fuel, it just isn't. PV is better by a factor of 10. And if you want to store PV in a battery, you don't need a very large one to store 0.165 kWh.m-2.

Nearly up to roofline. I think 2 lads are coming back in tomorrow to finish off the corners. A whole week of decent weather and full team on site have seen loads done this week

It's this site that has kept me sane and helping me not get too upset about the fact that I will probably have to allow for some adjustment on the quote because his original quote - that came in as expected was under 1k per sq m. I say as expected because I had used an online cost calculator which said that 1k per sqm was doable and I was still basing my thoughts on my original plans which was a bungalow - it's now one storey at the front and 2 at the back to take account of the slope. Without any more extras the build alone minus fittings is costing at about 1100 sqm. Including everything except land (as the build is in my garden) it will be between £1400 and £1500 unless there are any more big shocks. Top one is allowing for some leeway with the quote. The finished build is important to him as well as me as it is first total new build

A timber fire is nice to curl up at around during a cold winter. Wouldn't want to curl up around a burning sh*t

Interesting site -- and almost precisely the same ground conditions as the question in my mock IStructE exam Weight of a house: Masonry clad timber frame, say 10-15kN per m2 according to the structural engineer's pocket book. So for a 100m2 footprint, 1500kN. Piles: Forget about CFA piling or getting a large rig onto the site. Yours is a very small scale project. Noise and vibration could be a bit of a non-issue. If you use bottom driven steel mini-piles, you could perhaps get 50-100 kN per pile, thats 15-30 piles, and the team could quite happily complete the job in two days. All it needs is a compressor and the vibrating "mole" does about 85 decibels. Google "Grundomat" and you'll be amazed. I'm not sure off the top of my head if water table would be an issue for these piles though. Raft If it were me, I'd consider creating a reinforced concrete raft. It would be relatively tolerant to roots. I second what others are saying -- it would be valuable to get the vendor to supply access to services and welfare during the build if it's a reduced access site.

The Quik answer is You can have the render right down I normally trim the dpc flush with the slab set a laser line along the dpc then stick a movement joint bead on top of the dpc In effect your leaving a 15 mil void around the hidden dpc You can normally match the movement bead to your render colour

Looking good I managed to get my slab poured this week, it has been ready since before Christmas!!

I’ve never been in love with this house sadly. I was a very reluctant self builder as it was my hubby’s dream, not mine. After 4 years of weekly commuting to Edinburgh from Kent I was offered a company assisted move but it meant relocating to Scotland. Hubby was reluctant to move here but said that he would do so if he could build his own house. So he bought the first plot he saw, and we had to build the house that had been agreed here apart from some internal changes as the foundations were already here. And later I ended up having to complete the work on my own which I found very difficult given the circumstances and my lack of knowledge. I wish that I’d found this forum back then as the support, advice and camaraderie is amazing. I certainly may have felt less daunted and alone. So now I’m on my own in a house that’s far too large for me, and given the location quite isolating too. And the heating doesn’t bloody work either! As soon as I retire I will sell up and move back down south. It was supposed to be our forever home but it’s anything but for me now. I hope once you’ve moved in that you start to love the house you have created. It sounds like it was completely designed for your needs so I really hope you do. Time heals, but it will take time I’m sure xx

I'm hoping my faith in my builder is justified. He's a great bloke and is always reassuring but I was warned that he was too inexperienced. Working to a fixed quote with only changes to be variations to original plans and agreed in writing. But it doesn't look to me like there is enough money left to finish. I've arranged a meeting for next week to discuss - largely because of the bad weather

As above, it depends entirely on the treatment system that's fitted to the tub. If it is a chlorine based one (as a lot are, especially older, or dare I say it cheaper, ones are) then you cannot put the waste into a treatment plant, as there is a chance that the chlorine will kill off the aerobic bacteria in it for a while. If the water in the tub hasn't been chlorinated recently (as I suspect it may not have been over the winter) then you could probably put it through the treatment plant OK, but it would tend to dilute the contents a fair bit and may slow it down due to lack of nutrients. On the other hand, often (as @SteamyTea has mentioned) these things do tend to accumulate a lot of pretty nasty anaerobic bugs in their pipe work, so it may well be better to empty it via the treatment plant to that the effluent that is finally discharged has a lower biological oxygen demand. I did some work on a tub that had no treatment system at all (not sure how they are allowed to sell them like that, really) that belongs to an acquaintance who had read my exploits with water treatment. I fitted a Mazzei injector and ozone generator in a bypass arm fitted to the main circulation pump and it's worked very well indeed. The water and pipe work stays nice and clean now. I have to say that our first go at cleaning out the mucky pipes before fitting the ozone system was a dreadful job - you really do not want to look at what grows inside those things, it's bloody dire, to say the least. We ended up fitting new pipes throughout, as neither of us could face the idea of cleaning all the pipes, they were that bad.

This is why we can't have one... http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/hot-tub-owners-pretending-its-not-a-nasty-sex-pond-2013042266204

He is/was one of my favourite role models. Fearless, modest and took a real interest in proper stuff. My dad got his box set years ago and ever since they are my go to entertainment if I’m really ill. Died at 66 from cancer. Stick that In your H&S pipe ?

One will be a mid position and the other a diverter. You'll need the diverter, eg heating OR hot water, with the former being able to sit in the mid position and give both simultaneously . An ASHP can't do both together as each has a specific flow temp.

He does demolition work as well!

I can't see it being cost effective in that scenario but I'll be happy to be corrected.

@AliG the picture you found is from the builder I used. Silicone render finished down to a bead, below the bead has been rendered with two coats of the base render then painted (or at least, that's how mine was finished). @Alexphd1 I'll try and post some close up pictures tomorrow for you.

I did but can’t find the post or those pics in my unsorted phot stream. Here are couple that show it but were taken to show other things so a bit sideways on. I can take some better ones on site tomorrow if useful.

What a guy! Cigarette in one hand and climbing down the ladder.

@AndyT was telling me of Sunamps being specifically used to store heat from hot tubs between guests at I think big "Centreparc" type establishments if I recall. Having stayed at CP etc myself a good few times you have to be out by say 10am with new guests coming in at say 3pm or whatever. Arriving you expect the hot tub to be ready for you from the off. In those 5 unoccupied hours you don't really want to waste that heat so they pump it through a Sunamp to grab the heat. I presume the process is reversed and clean water run back through to heat up just before the new guests arrive.

A little bump to this thread. I've been researching kitchens over the last couple of months. I've looked at choices from the standard sheds to kitchen designer shops and DIY-Kitchens, and priced them all up. Although I won't be ordering for a while, I've pretty much decided that I will use DIY-Kitchens - it looks like a very nice product and excellent prices. I will get most of my appliances elsewhere and will need to source my worktop and island surface from another supplier as DIY can't provide the size I need. I'll report back on the outcome later this year.

The subject of cost per m2 is something I have commented on before on here. How is the area calculated, presumably external area, but does it include balconies, verandahs or garages? What about integrated garages? How are costs calculated, do they include all the paperwork, professional fees and testing. If the work has been done by the owner has the cost of tools been included, and has the VAT refund been included? The cost of ours is difficult to calculate in order to compare costs. When we did our budgeting we were naive and just used a costs estimator at the back of a building magazine. We are pretty close to our budget but can't yet work out accurately a cost/m2.

Mine sounds like a bargain bucket compared to others. Without the land (and most of the foundations as they were here already) it cost circa £750 per square metre including fees and services. That’s probably reflective of my husband doing such a lot of the work here to keep costs down however, and maybe there are some economies of scale too as the house is 350 square metres. It’s also a pretty ‘normal’ house in my view. Nothing architecturally inspiring, it looks exactly like the house next door! It’s still very touch and go in terms of being able to recover the cost if I sold it however, and there are still things that need to be done here if I ever manage to get someone out here to do them. It’s a timber frame house with blocks and rendering. We did pay 10k extra for ‘Supawall’ from the timber frame company which meant that we had pre insulated panels delivered and installed. We had some very good trades in and some fairly hopeless ones too. As newbies to the area it was difficult to get the better ones at times.

Mine 100 sqm and standard block and brick

We have a passive slab type reinforced raft over hard clay. The make up is 200mm of crushed clean stone (18-35 no fines) laid over terram in a 200mm deep excavation below ground level, with perimeter perforated drains just outside the edge of the building envelope, grit blinding laid over the stone and very carefully levelled, 300mm of EPS insulation laid directly on the blinding in 100mm layers, with the DPM being between the top layer and the lower two layers. The edge has a 200mm wide upstand that is 400mm above ground level, and creates a 200mm deep reinforced ring beam around the edge of the slab. Most of the slab is 100mm thick RC35, laid on to A142 reinforcement fabric sat on 40mm chairs, the ring beam is 200mm thick. The UFH pipes are tied directly to the 200mm pitch of the fabric. In structural terms it's an absolutely massive overkill, as the bearing load on the ground, allowing for the additional load spreading from the 200mm thick layer of stone underneath, is less than 15% of the max allowable for the actual soil conditions. The main advantage (apart from the main one of being very thermally efficient, with virtually no thermal bridging) is that the whole foundation laying process, from the start to the completed dead flat power floated concrete slab took four days, for three people plus the concrete truck.

Yep the variations are groundwork, drains and foundations

Would @lizzie and @Hecateh like to say how much their projects have come in at per metre, inc fees and services? We are just completing a project which will cost about £2,100 per metre. Obviously as with the rest here I am sorry you had such a bad experience and I really hope you will see things in a more positive light a while down the road.

A few Honeywell 3 ports on fleebay just now.

I am keen on photinia. You could also look at eleagnus gilt edge, ceanothus, viburnum and a taller hebe. A bit of a mix can look good.

Funnily enough, I had half a mind to suggest photinia, but bigg'ish ones around here seem a bit pricey, perhaps the price varies a bit from one area to another. They do look very nice though, in my view, although my other half doesn't like them, which is a shame, as they would be ideal for the screening we need, having been to see some of around the right size.

That all sounds horrific. Luckily there was water here already, no gas in the area anyway, and whilst I thought at the time that £1200 was a lot to run a cable from next door to provide electric I now feel quite fortunate. Things in other areas did cost a lot more however so I was mean and shrunk the budgets elsewhere to accommodate (kitchen and bathrooms mostly), but there are things that I wish I hadn’t economised on as I see them every day. Rock and hard place though!

Ladders More ladders

I would go for Photinia red robin. You can buy biggish ones for not many £’s they grow quickly can be cut easily, can be trained into a shape or left to be hedge, they look nice too.

A hot tub will usually have either a chlorine dosing system, an ozone dosing system or, perhaps, a UV exposure system, built in to the circulating pipework, so where it goes depends on which system your tub uses. If it uses a chlorine-based treatment system, then don't put it in the treatment plant, if it uses an ozone or UV system then it's fine to do down the treatment plant. The same really goes for draining it directly to the local dyke - if it uses a chlorine based system then I'd be inclined to drain it over a wide area of ground that has nothing growing on it to allow the chlorine to evaporate out as it drains away. If the hot tub has no treatment at all, then personally I'd be very wary of using it at all. Apart from the abundance of faecal coliforms that will inevitably colonise it, there's also a fairly significant risk of legionnaires. Adding ozone treatment via a venturi and ozone generator into the pump pipework isn't hard to do, and is probably one of the simplest and lowest maintenance ways of keeping the water safe.

It probably depends how much (ahem) faecal matter is dissolved in the water. Sorry if anyone's having their lunch right now...

Yes, I was thinking, since you said there was reasonably competent granular strata overlying the clay, you could potentially go with scraping the topsoil away, import stone bed and compact, cast RC raft over the top. NHBC allows for that over desiccated clays (see CH4.2 p9) as long as your building is rectangular on plan and the raft is designed (or signed off) by a chartered engineer. I tend to prefer rafts for the simple reason that you have cost certainty, pretty much whatever you find on site and whatever the BCO says, and you can do a final design and get quotes even if the building hasn't been designed yet.

Over on the other place I remember debating the same point with the same person as @SteamyTea, and relating my experience indirectly gained from an experiment that was being conducted at my first place of work (what was then The Radiochemical Centre, and then a part of the UKAEA). I've found some of the posts I wrote years ago about this, and will paste some them here for added interest. These are from September 23rd 2011: I was then questioned on whether I was using the oil yield from the biomass crop (which I was in the context of the debate back then) and gave this reply): I followed up with this: @SteamyTea then asked: and I replied: I was then denounced on the basis that I was a scientist, so "great in theory and the lab but when they get down to the practical application there common sense goes out the window". It's fun debating with those who are so narrow-minded and unwilling to face facts for a time, but it does get tedious after a while. Needless to say, the owner of that forum was a great supporter of burning wood, and convinced it would save the planet, so I was booted off a while later for being a heretic (well, not quite, but not far off!).

Also check what the fire service requirements are. They sometimes insist on being able to turn around on the site, but are not always consulted at the planning stage.

Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya? IANAE but I’d be happy with that as an amateur with no accountability.

You should also ask the seller for an informal water supply, too - for obvious reasons, and perhaps electric. A water sub meter is cheap. Not sure about electric. Ferdinand

Best I have found is called Penwith

They are indeed, in fact the ex-US Ranger bomb disposal guy who is driving much of it (started by printing new limbs for himself) is the best buddy of one of my very good friends.

Erm.....you might find the copper wires show up really well! I assume the cables are already in the ducts?

Thanks again Ferdinand for such a detailed response and apologies for the lateness of this reply. You're help has been invaluable. We have been in contact with a couple of planning consultants and will be meeting with them in the next month. We have used a house design software to come up with layouts and designs we like so we have something to show and engage the consultants with. In terms of the Planning gains contribution .. that needs more digging as new dwellings approved recently seem to have no contributions attached to the planning currently Thanks again, John

I find mine using my friendly Bosch wall radar system. (https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gms120-digital-wall-scanner/76455?tc=AT5&ds_kid=92700022888077067&ds_rl=1249796&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1249484&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIv7ThnM6A2gIVr7_tCh08aQBpEAQYASABEgL5z_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CObfsJ_OgNoCFUkw0wod4rMAng) Of course you can get it from many other suppliers! It won;t be long though before your battery drill will be able to see what it is drilling into and will just beep at you if you pull the trigger while hovering over something it thinks might bite back!

The cables should be vertical or horizontal from each outlet ?

My dogs are walked on the beach every day but I do clean up after them, and they don’t tend to bite anyone. The collies just chase a ball and the sheltie is constantly on the lookout for rancid dead things to scoff (fish, seals, birds - she’s not fussy). I don’t think water meters are common or really encouraged up here as far as I can tell. Rains so much they have to use all that water somehow I guess

If you installed it yourself then take a photo and mark it up with dimensions so you have an accurate record. Of course all cable runs will be in safe zones won't they?

One environmental caution. I believe that some of the granulated hand wash stuff uses plastic granules, and as these end up being washed down the drains they may well contribute to the build up of micro plastics in waterways and the sea. Probably worth checking the labels to b sure, as this seems to be a growing problem, and one that's quite topical at the moment, after the David Attenborough programme about plastics in the sea.

Double Whammy!!! The council have said that the work cannot be done during the week because of access, so only on Sunday So they can't do it the day they planned. It will have to happen over at least 2 weeks and there is of course Sunday rate to pay. The new price hasn't been confirmed yet but he gave me a ballpark of 5 to 6k extra. I really am beginning to wish I had done a simple downsize. I am going to end up in a smaller (albeit modern and energy efficient) house hardly any better off. It would have been easier to get another job for a couple of years.