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Jeff, from Haldane Fisher, Garstang did his best, his very best, but.... He got the beam to within a meter of it's seating , but just couldn't manage the last bit. Know the feeling? Me too. ( @Onoff, shut up) So there it rests for the night, a meter or so from it's sweet spot. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Here's the twist. "If ya 'adn'ta put that stoopid scaffold in't way lad, that'd a got it reet. " Said the HIAB driver. That'll teach me to prepare for the worst and put a scaffold up just in case we couldn't find a handy crane. Just exactly where Jeff didn't want me to put it. Foxtrot. Hats off to you Jeff, from Haldane Fisher! You did your best

Nothing at all wrong with the premise, but you really don't want a room that's 6 or 7 times longer than it is wide. Why do you have a particular square meterage in mind? One way to think of this is to look at your budget for the building itself, and divide it by the anticipated cost per square metre. You might hope to get this down to below, say £1800 per sqm, but depending on where you are in the country, even that might be optimistic if you aren't doing some of the work yourself.

CARRERA PAINTED Lamproom Grey Classic White quartz 30mm Worktop and upstand Yes, designed and ordered by me Units £2,900 + VAT Worktop £2,900 + VAT

Hello all I recently paid a deposit on 0.2 acres of land to build my families forever home. What happens next is anyone's guess. I'm not afraid to say I'm naive and suitably ignorant when it comes to building property, but my wife and I are incredibly excited nonetheless. I'm looking forward to reading all the help topics in this forum and getting to know all you lovely people. I've bought the homebuilders bible 12 from Amazon, but i'd appreciate any help and guidance you can provide me. Thank you all. J

Coming on:

Where is the nearest B&M to you? There's several near me. I can get stuff for you and get a price from Hebrides Haulage if that works?

I hope we don't come across as too negative- everyone is sincerely trying to help. Building your own home is usually the biggest and most expensive project that anyone ever undertakes, and it's vital to get it right. I went through eight different layout variations before I was happy, and half way through the build changed it for the ninth and final version. This was because I had been spending a lot of time in the shell of the build and had come to appreciate how the space and the light actually worked. If you are at such an early stage that there is no plot, no known planning conditions, and no other factors to work with, it's almost impossible to design a good house, because you are guessing at too many variables. However it could be worth sketching out a hypothetical design for budget purposes, and it's certainly worth thinking about construction methods and other technical aspects. Edit to add: sorry I missed that you do have the plot already. So your next step needs to be spending several evenings wading through your local council planning website to see what they are likely to approve in your area. You can get sone great ideas this way, it becomes a bit addictive!

If I can fill the bath up that still works for me . Half full not half empty .

At least there was a tiny little bit of positive amongst all the crap bits then .

+1 for Trojan - have just specified one of those and it’s very heavy and the base is heavy encapsulated GRP and the acrylic layer is very thick. Wasn’t too expensive either.

Steel with anti slip? kaldewei amongst others

If I’m honest as an architect I’m a bit worried looking at them plans. It could be better in so many ways. Why not get an architect? Yes you can get bad architects but look around, get recommendations and meet a few in your area before making a decision. You’re going to need someone to do planning and construction drawings and sign off on stuff for you so why not look for an architect now rather than later? If you go to far down the wrong route you could end up with planning refusal having wasted thousands. If you’re spending several thousand on a house then its a small investment that will pay for itself over the build. In addition the architect will know about local planning regulations (number of stories, accessible toilets) as well as getting the optimum room sizes, light, views, etc for your budget.

I would also look for one that has a relatively flat bottom. Some are quite curved which can make them dangerous to stand in.

But over two floors 10x20 x2 = 400 m2????

I'm assuming the 8m and 12m indicators aren't related to the underlying drawing, as that would suggest a house much larger than the 200m2 (100 up and and 100 down, I assume) you mention. The long, skinny utility and storage rooms won't work, and the kitchen/diner aspect ratio also seems wrong. Another way you can approach this is to think of rooms as blobs, and just draw out where each blob is relative to the other blobs/rooms - this sort of thing. This will focus you on function. Once you have that, you can start thinking about room dimensions and relative positions. Also important is where the sun is, and where views (and things you don't want to look at) are located.

You might find this useful: https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/room-sizes/ I used https://www.roomsketcher.com/ to design my house, might be more basic that Sketchup but i found it easier to use. It''s worth letting us know the orientation (where is North, South, East and West) of the house and also what the plot is like, as you may have views you would like to erm... view, or you may have neighboring houses that need to be taken into consideration. Something else I did when trying to decide room sizes was visit showhomes to visualise different sized spaces. I also looked at various architect websites and FB pages for houses that I liked, then tracked down the plans on the council planning websites. Houzz.com is also very useful for inspiration. From the design it looks like the living room is 12m deep and the kitchen is 8m, if that is correct that would make the ground floor dimensions about 20m x 35m which is 700 sqm.

Hi Two suggestions if you're at the very early stages of design: - Read Calliwag's free ebook about house design - Learn to use Sketchup It's maybe also worth looking up the standard drawing symbols for e.g. Doors, windows- this will make it easier for others to interpret your designs.

@Sjk Can you tell me where you got your design software from please? I'm looking to do something similar.

Check out this post to see the pressure reducing valve and capillary probe operated quench valve that ran through a 12kw coil in that TS. The company Dedicated Pressure Systems have the patent ( or did have maybe ) for that concept / design. We binned it as there was no need for it, the PRedV had failed, and the dry pocket for the capillary probe was rotted through and about to dump a few 1000 litres of water into the house whilst M'lady was out at work none the wiser Could easily be implemented in a solid fuel arrangement and tbh its a far better arrangement imo, to quench rather than dump, or to have a combination of the two. IIRC the quench valve operated at 95oC, so you could easily have a dump to a second thermal store ( what id do ) or to a heat loss rad in the attic. Theres no way id ever have a heat dump radiator inside my house as it would be lethal at those temps. Heat dump rads go in attics or garages, and should be caged even if in the garage. You'd have no choice or it would be continuously dumping heat by convection when you didn't want it to. +1 on the energise to close type, aka stored energy, and its the same as fire dampers which close using the stored energy that was used to open then eg by charging a powerful spring ( hence they're always low geared motors which take an age to open ). As Peter says, if I was ever looking at this as a solution id have the 3000L TS and use that as a buffer / dump. From there you'd be able to do 24 / 48 hrs of timed space heating and have DHW, but id also fit ufh pipes into a 200-250mm thick concrete slab too as a secondary storage / buffer and to regulate heat output into the rest of the house in a far more comfortable and manageable way. UFH pipe is just too cheap to not do that, its a no brainer. With the thicker slab and the huge TS you'd be able to become far less reliant on the stove actually being lit and burning so often, and instead just relax a bit and live Other than that you may find yourselves slaves to the WBS and thats not cricket. It would be nice to go out, and still have a nice warm house to come back to with oodles of DHW available whenever you wanted it, and then just lighting the stove for a few hours of an evening when it suited you best. A Solar thermal or solar Pv system would compliment this arrangement beautifully. Sun shines on the roof and charges your heat battery ( TS and slab ) and away to go. Even a small array of either to offset losses would be a massive benefit.

You could use a 22mm Normally Open 2 port zone valve which is energized to close with the valve connected to the NC terminals on the thermostat. When the stat opens at high temp then the valve would open. If the power was lost it would do the same making it fail safe. I’m not keen on any valves in a dump circuit but it’s a possibility.

Check out Strathbond Adhesives https://www.bonnymans.co.uk/products/product.php?categoryID=1391&productID=6139 £18.50 for 5ltr?

There is a lesson to be learnt here and not just for windows. A few things spring to mind.. Check ALL deliveries carefully before and after it is lifted off the transport, if possible. That is not only obvious damage against but all the parameters against the order/invoice - quantity, specification, colour , everything. ......Our front door assembly was delivered with the wrong external RAL Colour and the wrong internal wood finish - I spotted this on the lorry but kept quiet and made the fitters install it because i needed to get the house secure, weathertight and progress towards the blower door test. In the event, there was little argument as it was quickly proven to be a supplier error, but the replacement door took another 12 weeks or so and caused delays with internal completion and also external rendering. Also watch the BM's - they often will deliver what they consider to be an equivalent product instead of what you ordered - insulation, plasterboard, etc without contacting you to get you approval. Reject deliveries and do not accept, if they are clearly damaged or incorrect We had a few problems - we had a all the glass balustrades for our stairs/landing delivered to our site and it was clear that some of then panels it had never been packed correctly, as there were glass shards on the lorry as we started to unload. We took pictures on the lorry, and then every piece of glass, which basically we unloaded piece by piece. The delivery was a day or so later than scheduled and it transpired the load had been quarantined by the delivery company at their marshalling centre, because the load was unsafe and they had repacked it, as best they could, before delivery. Again, we had to have about six panels replaced, which delayed completion of the stairs. Report any problems to the supplier / responsible contractor immediately with photos evidence. Be firm and reject anything before it is incorporated in the works. Contracts normally state a period for reporting damage - make sure you understand your contract in this respect.. Know your specification and orders in detail. Sometimes, the mistake may be yours. it saves a lot time to understand this quickly, accept it and move forward with a quick resolution/replacement as necessary.

An emergency generator and fan heater is pretty cheap in the scheme of things too

I'm sourcing mine separately as I have a 3.7m run which they don't do and a 1200 sq island. which they also don't do. Better to source separately than have unnecessary joins.

+1 but could be fine for the bondage den

Thats an unusual gym floor material ..! I would be pretty cautious using rubber flooring if it’s going anywhere near free weights as they can tear flooring very easily and it needs to be replaceable.

4kg tubs are cheapest: https://www.sealantsandtoolsdirect.co.uk/manufacturers/everbuild/everbuild_adhesive/wood_flooring_adhesive/stixall_multi_purpose_wall_and_floor_adhesive_white_4kg_stixwfwe4_P29656.html they have tubes too if you want to do a test. S&T Direct have proved a good supplier for me.

Welcome to the 'club. We are building our forever home too. We are about 4 years in to the process; we recently needed to remind ourselves of the level of enthusiasm you have. Hang on to it. A self-build is a marathon. Nobody on BH knows everything. And I think it's fair to say that the less you know, the more help you get here. Just ask away, the more targeted the question, the easier it is for us respond. Good luck ian

I took our fig tree branches to the local council recycling centre and put them in the green waste bin.

The technique is probably to do it on bonfire night if there may be neighbour complications and you have to wait for it to dry. Just don’t let it get rained on in the autumn . Ferdinand

All ours were Internorm so don't know about Kastrup but I would not accept that glass. I have to get magic man in at the end, have scrapes and dings inside and out. Not installers just building site dings. Thankfully all our sliders are now watertight after more than 6 months of leaks and being given the run around by installers.. Rubbish installers ........when I eventually contacted them direct Internorm were very helpful in getting it sorted out. As PeterW says check them all over for water and air tight too.. I would not pay your installers the full balance, make a retention otherwise you will have a really hard time trying to get them to pay magic man or for anything else needed. Thankfully I made a retention on mine and in the end I used that to pay for the install rectification work specified by Internorm.

It depends a lot on whether the trees have really started to "come alive" from winter, with the sap rising up from the root system. From your description there seems to be a lot of sap, which suggests that they have and could take some months to dry enough to give a relatively smoke-free bonfire. How quickly the cut branches dry out really depends on how thick they are.

Bloody Hell! That new Sunamp goes on the wall and looks like a telly!

Yeh it’s probably a 200 litre tank in a 400 litre shell..