Leaderboard

I have had an update from Andrew about the PCM34 cells I have, they have temporally suspended production due to an issue with a different cell (PCM88) that is still in development and as a caution halted the PCM34 cells until that issue is understood. The details are in the attached. SunAmp PCM34 letter.pdf

Yup, two old ladies in a Glasgow post office queue in front of me...bad mouthing neighbour Isa. She's always at the doctor she is...gets everything she does... She must be a nimphomaniac, says one to the other Seemingly Isa had lots of co morbid chronic conditions. Hard of hearing too she was...they say she was a looker in her day and never short of male attention. GP after a full examination and reading his computer screen- well Isa, your test results are back and I think you've got acute angina. That's lovely doctor, but never mind my fanny, can you tell me what's wrong with me love?

Well, where to start! Never employ friends, never pay an hourly rate get a price in writing for the job, double check everything you’re asked to provide- on our first build we were left with boxes of plumbing stuff that we’d been asked to provide, they ask for a dozen but really mean 2! Don’t get too friendly with the workers that’s just an invitation for them to take the Michael, make sure your architect really does pay his visits to check everything is being done to spec,if you’re looking for decent trades be very wary of any that can come right away, the best tradesmen are usually busy, ours for this build have been booked in since November last year,trust no-one until they’ve earned it, make sure you’ve had your quote for utilities so you don’t get any big shocks! The kit firm will have no input after the wind and watertight phase unless any issues arise stemming from the erection and they will supply the roughing and finishing items as needed. Our builders are erecting the scaffold for the kit firm and we have to supply the means of offloading kit and loading roof trusses, fortunately my hubby has all necessary experience on plant and machinery so we’ll hire this when needed.I’m holding the purse strings, I have most things priced up but there’s always something you haven’t accounted for! On our first build I was out barrowing type 1 into the solum but am afraid since I’m now fast approaching 60 I don’t have the stamina for that now, will keep you updated on progress ?

When I was about 13 I'd been tending to a bonfire in that exact spot (but I was braver so no metal bin, direct on the floor!) walked into the kitchen, my dad used to run his business from the back workshop and his worker, Peter was working late and making himself a coffee... Peter: "Peww, you stink!" Me: "Yeah, I'm burning stuff outside, it's sooooooo beautiful" Peter: "You're always burning stuff out there" Me: "I know, I love fires, they look so magical.... actually ... I think I may be a Nymphomaniac" I had NO idea why the guy was almost choking on laughter until Mother walked in wanting to know what the fuss was all about so I told her, she laughed and suggested I go grab a dictionary...

Wonderful as in they come out with ideas that cause other to think I 'wonder' how they think that will work? I 'wonder' how they thing we are going to achieve that? Sometime culminating in I 'wonder' why I paid for that crap? Not knocking all of them .... but ... going on my own experience!!!

It's an unanswerable question because of the quote being made up of mixed disciplines TBH. Ask for a quote for the oddities and the plumbing etc as two separate items and then we can work out what's what. Architects are wonderful folk, but when they put things out to tender it's usually via the straightest route. Not always the best route.

We are planning to start building week on Monday we have ordered a kit to our spec and employed a small building firm to do all the work on a Labour only basis, we will supply all the goods, the kit company will erect to wind and water tight and builders take over from there. With us supplying all the goods we can shop around for the best prices. The builders will give us a scope of works so we can have everything on site as needed.the house will be 260m2 , my husband has taken a 12week lifestyle break to keep an eye on everything, we have 240k to do all this and it makes you shop around a lot more, every penny saved helps a lot and I’m going to make sure I get my hand built kitchen! this is our 3rd self build and we have to get it right this time!

We've got some initial ideas together, image attached. For anyone interested, we've used an architect to help us. The picture roughly shows the situation, the current plan is to take out some of the conifers in the background and place the house there, replanting some other areas with natives. To give the attached a bit of context, this is a house which allow us to work/restore an area of woodland, hence why the main entry is through the utility room. Overall we're looking for a fairly functional house that will cheap to run but will also make the best of the views as we're in a nice spot. The 'bottom' wall of the plan faces roughly SSE (lean-to/kitchen on north side). Windows are sort of nominally placed and sized as we just wanted to get the outline design and room arrangement sorted first so expect them to change. Same for external wall thickness. What's missing/not going to work?

Hi all, What a fantastic forum! Just wanted to say thanks a lot to the original sixteen that started this, I have been interested in self-building for a few years but only found e-build after it had closed down. As my name suggests I am more of a pipe dreamer than self builder at present but I love looking at plots. I have most of the 'bibles' but have come to realise the building and planning books are just the beginning really and there are quite a number of gaps to fill. Ideally I would like to make it happen in the South Coast area but we all know it isn't cheap or easy getting that plot! Anyway I very much look forward to reading through the many topics on here and hopefully making some posts too.

I normally use the bagged stuff Parge coat plus Helps with sound also 5 mil thick about 5 mtrs per bag Bit more of blockwork is neat and pointed Normally takes me about 15 minutes to use a four bag mix

You can get all the advice you need here. Draw it out and study it, or Wunda ( for eg ) will design it for you for.........bugger all. Use the money you save to buy beer. A very important component of any build. Dilly Dilly .

Good suggestions. Already asked another supplier . Ive also asked the ‘current’ manufacturer for new drawings based on the correct measurements. Be interesting too see if the latest drawings show the frames or not ....

You can’t bury wires in insulation unless you rate them correctly. The purpose made foams are pretty Impressive - we got decent levels all round even on some old walls that were far from plumb ..! Once it’s skimmed you never see it anyway ... find a good plasterer ..!

@Christine Walker Plumbers that have quoted us are experienced in UFH. I have thought about doing it myself with help from my dad as he did it in his self build. Only thing that puts me off doing it is if i put some pipe in the wrong place and one of the steels is attached to the floor and goes through a pipe.

at his rates tell him I will put him up in a 5* hotel for the duration of the job

We are doing a 260m2 1.5storey house, 3 ensuites , bathroom and wc, underfloor heating downstairs, radiators upstairs a thermal store tank, oil boiler, u/f heating supply and fit by company 3850, we are supplying everything else, tank boiler radiators all bathroom fittings, kitchen sink and all pipe work plumber on a labour only price £5900. Roofer Will do lead work gutters etc

As DO pointed out If there is anything you feel confident in doing yourself Ask them to knock it off

That throws out my attempt to compare your costs with the HBB's model house. He quotes £4,800 per bathroom comprised of £1,700 labour and £3,100 materials. The HBB also provides a fine grained breakdown of contributory costs which you could use to produce a ground up budget though no doubt @recoveringacademicwill be along in a moment to talk about the wonders of SPONS.

I think they're just referring to normal soldered joints. If it were different it would say push-fit / press-fit / compression, but the method of soldering copper joints uses what we call "end-feed" fittings ( just regular copper joints to you and I ) so that what I believe they are offering. E.g. a pukka job. £20k for that doesn't sound crazy tbh, but very strange for a plumber to quote the guttering. Lead maybe but again a bit odd. Who is actually going to do that work ? The plumber or a sub-contractor ? If the latter then can't you get quotes direct to you instead of via a 3rd party? Ultra mods beat me to it, not in the quote so labour is a LOT of the quote. Where did you get the £45 figure?

I think I am away to start plumbing again!!

If you where to build a single skin block garage (As an example) stand outside with a hose spraying on the wall and see how quick the water penetrates to the inside, couple of minutes if your lucky, I presume this would demonstrate how porous a concrete block actually is.

According to the latest issue of the house builders bible the reference model house of 160 m2 has about £12k of costs covering heting, plumbing and bathroom aspects of the build. Those model house costs do not include guttering, underfloor heating or warranty. Also some plumbing costs are attributed to named rooms so my £12k approximation could be out by +10%. The author of the book takes a no nonsense nothing fancy approach in his model house. Given additional bathrooms and your larger property I reckon your quotes are reasonable. His labour costs are about 35% which could indicate you are being quoted for bargain basement fittings particularly in the bathrooms.

@tonyshouse blog will serve you well with the old heavy / wet build approach. If im ever lucky enough to build, there won't be a brick or block in sight. A decorative stone facade maybe, but no block internal layer that for sure.

You need a bend and then the branch, or the branch then the bend. Don't use the branch to make a 90o turn in the run as it's a stalling point and a big no-no.

It doesn’t sound bad From memory I think it cost me around 5k for materials listed

Could have yes, what with the short days and spare time we had

Most people who have been involved in choosing the process that their Build will take have likely done their research and for whatever reason, they have made that decision based on what is best for them. We chose timber frame, stick built on site, as timber frame is common up here (weather) and we had the skill to do that ourselves (joiner). The brickies laid the base course on top of concrete foundations, and have skinned the build too, it’s what we were comfortable with, as it’s what we know. Thats not to say it’s best. But it was best for us, made financial sense, wasn’t risky. I would speak to others in your area that have just built and ask if happy with decision as you may just get biased, defensive views here. We all like to think we are right ?

Very impressed by Sunamp's open approach and honesty. Let's face it you'd be happy dealing with them just on that.

Good luck Christine! Sounds like you are old hands at this! Might you consider starting a blog on here to put some photos up so that we can all see how you're getting on?

Timber frame can be better for difficult ground as it's lighter than block and brick. It can be an advantage not having to have internal load bearing walls if you like open plan living, which timber frame is suited to. It is also good for tight sights. As long as you can get a crane in, you can avoid the problem of matierals all over the site. I accept TF will cost more but if you don't have hands on building experience you are going to need a gaffer or project manager if say you are building a house that is quite big. I see the advantages of brick and block but can also see why TF, ICF and SIPs are a good choice for the self-builder.

One way to look at is to say 38mm of EPS has the same insulating effect as 23mm of PIR, so not quite twice as good. The proportions hold for other thicknesses

Heh. Touché. ? Have deleted my comments wrt English Law. Apologies to the Op.

You can remove this mods please as I seem to have asked this question already told you my my head was spinning. ?

My mother has a Magnet kitchen. It wasn’t worth the cash in my view. It certainly hasn’t aged well.

Source your granite independently too, there are some great independent suppliers around.

Howdens is bread and butter. Can be made to look nice but there is better about for not bucket loads of cash. Magnet trade will sell you anything that's in the retail showroom at a whopping saving off list ( even though their list price is of course for folk with more money than sense ).

Its sensible to talk about things you'd like to do.You've got to have a dream. If you don't have a dream how are you going to have a dream come true?

Ha ha Brilliant Suggestive text has got me into trouble more than once

DIY Kitchens have a sale on til 10th May now and quality is top notch vs Howdens and price is similar. Worth the day trip - free coffee and cake too...

Seems harsh to burn members at the stake to warm your home just because they have used a couple of suppliers.

That realy is something ! Just love the curve. These are a set i built a few years ago, would go well in your garden.

It'll be the Kent pikey genes we share with Orlando Bloom!

We are finally very close to being finished inside. We have been living in dust for two months. I have been trying really hard to avoid putting up pictures until it’s all done, but the stair is going in and looking beautiful. As there is another stair porn thread re glass balustrades I thought I’d join the party. Give it a few weeks and I’ll do a full photoshoot.

I like fire too!! ???

Fire... @Onoff like fire... Don't all men?

Great progress... keep going girl!

I put pretty much that in (by Bristan I think) when I replaced the NewTeam one that came with the house. A lot to be said for exposed bar mixers.

I'd have built a tre-poo-chet...

Me!

An update - photos speak for themselves........