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@NSS thank you. Yes whole point of this build was air quality. Feeling a benefit even in short time we have been in.....until the weather went crazy LOL @newhome house is now stable at 22. Suppliers came out calibrate mvhr today so its all now properly up and running and I can control from phone/ipad. Waiting for installer to come and do the dhw and hot water set up then I can control via app. It would appear that the low settings he left it running on (pending internet connection and finishing work by electrician) have been messed up somehow (electrician perhaps) which is why everything was boiling up in the plant room. Have it under control until he comes now. Very grateful to @Nickfromwales for his help.

@Nickfromwales has seen my set up and it’s pretty “homebrew” for MVHR. Vents are Toolstation - nice white metal variable flow ones that have an inner which we have fixed and then plastered in. Cost about £7 each. Plenums are made from various uPVC solvent weld parts - cost about £8 per room. Duct is standard 63mm black electrical duct. It’s nigh on the same as the expensive stuff and I used 3 rolls. So that’s £160 for duct. I have a Mitusbishi Lossnay MVHR from an auction that was brand new - this was the one rebadged by Kingspan as their own and if cost me £60 - the controller was £80..! Plenum is £20 of MDF, and I need about 4ft of 150mm duct to finish. So all in I’m at £500 inc the Vat for a full house system. It can be done, and at double that for an eBay MVHR you can make a massive difference. I’ve seen some of the DCV valves and they are very nice but surprisingly expensive for what they are - it was a 5v stepper motor, driving the vane, a PIC and a stepper chip with a CO2 and DHT11 on a stalk in the airflow to do the monitoring and it was basically adjusting up and down the flow every 15 seconds. It was also noisy as the vane only closed to 95% which caused a whistling at the terminal. From memory they were about £90 + Vat each and needed a transformer too. I’m all for leading edge stuff but I don’t want to be someone’s guinea pig for a ventilation system that if it went wrong would need me to rip parts of my house down to replace ..!

Ah, I forgot, thanks for the reminder. Still, all the more reason to try and get solar gain under control. Also, these threads will likely be read by others in the future who don't have these limitations, so hopefully these thoughts will be of use to someone, some day!

@Ferdinand @jack forgive me for butting in but @lizzie will not want to be opening windows for the same reason that we don't, air quality. Ours is not an MBC build but some would say our multifoil insulation (due to relatively poor decrement delay) would more likely overheat in a spell such as that we've had for the last week (hardly seen a cloud before this afternoon), but we've actually managed quite well. The Sageglass has been busy managing the solar gain while the MVHR (once I realised the summer bypass had been set not to open until the extract temperature exceeded 24.5C) has been doing the rest. No windows have been opened and we haven't felt the need to put the heat pump into cooling mode. It's been interesting looking at all the houses around us, including the equally new (but developer built) two virtually next to ours, opening all their windows in an effort to keep cool at night, while we've been very comfortable.

I suppose because it reassures them that more knowledgeable people have taken that route? I will be using MVHR myself. i was just making the point that things outside the usual don’t get a big response on here sometimes. I was put off sips due to valid foundation concerns raised on ebuild. After doing a bit of research, for me they are better than a timber-frame. i appreciate there have been problems, just like there have been with timber frame. I’d never use OSB skinned sips but cement fibre board or mgo make a lot of sense to me. Waterproof, no need for membranes, can be rendered or plastered on to directly. The one approach I don’t understand is a 140mm standard timber frame. By the time it’s insulated, lined and clad they’re expensive. I like the mbc closed panel system but I find it expensive for what it is. Im on a tight budget as I’m doing this without a mortgage. 250mm thick mgo or cement fibreboard sips make a lot of sense for me. I appreciate others have a different take. I’ve learnt a lot from this forum and had good advice which I appreciate. It wasn’t a criticism.

The beggings of three stable doors, tenons cut and window frames made now time to cut all the mortises and then see how well it all fits together, no major problems so far except when i was cleaning the tenons i got distracted my my young boy and then slamed a very shart chisel into my finger.... luckily no tendon damage but a deep cut to the bone. Rest it they said...... the windows are all slightly different sizes as they are all free bees from one of my benefactors !

Marry me, please, if it's that easy.

Is it a viable option to batten it and fit timber plank? Or composite cladding panels? Or laser cut rusted steel art?

installing an mvhr really is simple, especially if using the radial ducting system from BPC. It took me a weekend It starts as 2 manifolds next to the mvhr And 2 ducts in parallel run to each vent terminal Posi joists do make it somewhat easier. If you have quotes for £3K or more to install it, that will be your best "paid" weekends work ever.

This forum made me aware of MBC and also Touchwood Homes then I met two other self builders independently of this forum who were very happy with choosing MBC. All ticks in the right box but not enough for the final sway. Sat down with the final three contending quotes, MBC, JML (SIPs) and Bentley (SIPs) all pretty much the same price. Came down to thinness of external walls (our plot is not that big) and craneage included in the price or not.

This is a really good forum, but I find many people take the same approach as many of the main contributors have finished their builds. If it’s timber frame it’s usuall Mbc, with a insulated slab, underfloor heating and MVHR. I’m taking the sip route and that isn’t so popular on here. So there is not so much information regarding them on this forum. MVHR doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s quite simple in principle. My house will have a industrial feel with exposed ducting, conduit etc and concrete walls. This has the added benefit of making things easier to DIY.

... but you know a man that...

I’ve seen those. They are called bottom up blinds IIRC. Could be appropriate for a bedroom

Worth checking how high above floor level is the horizontal as you need to consider safety when opening / cleaning. I don't see that the windows either side of the double height need to match it, but they will probably look better matching each other.

@newhome the hall will be a community hall, so shouldn't be used that often. I have seen the blinds that you can get that come up from the floor. I am thinking we could have floor and ceiling roller blinds for that window, we can decide exactly how much of the bedroom is visible from the outside at any given time of the day.

+1 but if you go for the bigger windows separate with render to match that whole section as per pic 3. And wear boxers when standing to admire the view

Need a red light above the bedroom window then, but seriously, in 10 years or so will you want the (presumably human by then) neighbours seeing all your 10 year older wrinkly bits?

Either works for me, the smaller window variant says trad design updated with a degree of modern large aperture glazing and is safer from a resale perspective. Although I am new to the selfbuild scene I already sense that self builders get carried away and incorporate an excess of glazed acreage in their designs.

This version works for me. But I hope you're not going to be giving your neighbours too much of an eyefull!

@newhome The middle window is a double height space, so there is no first floor there

Is that south facing ..? Looks better on the right but... middle panel needs to match the rest ..!

Attic Truss the roof now for 'adaptation' later on. If you cant get a recognisable room you can always have 'very posh', carpeted & heated storage space. I store my 11 year old in mine

No! He'll trip over them when pissed and break them.....

@lizzie May help - superinsulated houses keep cool in as well as warm, so if you cool it down overnight then reduce the ventilation during the day that may help. Here I crack our windows open overnight including roof windows it is a warm period, and then close them again before the day warms the air up too much. We are not super insulated but it does purge some of the warmth that has built up. This morning I had an early start so I opened our north side shaded door to get a draught going to the upstairs open windows while I was having my breakfast. Not perfect but it all helps. Ferdinand

I wish you every bit of luck with that plot ..!!! Fence sounds the least of your worries ...!!

Oh they’re rocks are they. Must be me being half asleep looking and not following the thread (it is about the length of the bible and still not finished). I thought it was another experiment - the second picture being a Pitta bread with some left over chips on, and the first what happens to it if you leave it to go mouldy! On closet inspection I can in fact see they are rocks.

A little bird tells me to expect a positive outcome on Planning in the next week or so. Getting exciting now. Does anybody want some tadpoles btw? We appear to have hundreds of the wee buggers as well as tiny (thumbnail-sized) froggies hopping around the place.

Originally our house was supposed to be banked into the earth wall. I didn't want that and so condition of the purchase was that we got an extra 50cm from vendor and we moved the house over a tiny bit (tight plot in that direction) we have ended up with 1200 between house and retaining wall because we took our 50cm and then built wall in the other side of that giving us the full 50 (and maybe a tiny bit more - whats a cm or twoLOL). 1200 is OK for scaff, pipes etc. I wouldn't want any narrower. I have a back door there which is handy for nipping out to the bin etc This is mine at night (low level lighting) - we gravelled floor rather than paved because there are lot of manholes and all the services running down there so easier if ever we need to get at anything.

Should have hijacked it and left it sideways across a roundabout on fire.

@Bitpipecan you get any close ups of them? Could be Mason bees or carder bees looking for somewhere to rear queens - they won't stay there forever but maybe a couple of months. I administer the Facebook page for our local Beekeepers association and had lots of enquiries like this last year - they are completely harmless, I usually suggest just leave them - if in a porch or garage, make sure they can get in and out (otherwise you will get problems), if in the grass, put a table of chair over the nest until they are gone - they can come and go and no-one will step on them. You can sit pretty much next to them and watch all the comings and goings! Or you could get rid of them which would be a shame! However you're on your own - few pest companies or local authorities will destroy bees nests.

Could you attach some sort of tube to where they've dug their own tunnel and fill in around it to give them access whilst the next is there? The tube could be removed and filled in at the end of the season.

Spoken like a true Norn Iron man Declan Seemed to be the solution to most things in Derry in the 70s & 80s ...

But bees are nice

One final push today saw all the furniture and curtains put in place- a big group effort with much input from the in-laws. I'm very fortunate to have a MiL who is an ace seamstress and who has a bit of a thing about Harris Tweed. To say I'm chuffed is a bit of an understatement. It's been over four years since the concept of this project first appeared, and three years since work began in earnest. Today we finally saw the culmination of all that effort as the building site was transformed into a home. It's exactly what I imagined: cosy, welcoming, stylish. We'll be listing it on the booking websites tomorrow (most likely a combination of AirBnB and Booking.com) so that will give me the impetus needed to tackle the lengthy snagging list and major outstanding jobs, most of which are on the outside. Some of the cladding details (corners and window reveals) aren't finished yet, the soffets need to be completed, and the biggest job of all is the decking. There's also the creature comforts of WiFi and TV to sort out. I know people come to Skye to get away from it all, but I bet the first thing they will ask for is a WiFi password Once again, huge thanks to everyone in the BuildHub community who has held my hand throughout this whole project. It's a lot smaller than many other builds, but it's been exceptionally hands on with me personally tackling almost every trade, from drafting the plans to building the kit; I even got an excuse to do some digger driving a couple of weeks ago.

Flint work finished on the back

Three door frames all made from wood on its third tour of duty, will need to cut a few blocks to fill the holes from its previous lives. Next doors.....

Or a no. Our planner said that he gets so many applications with little supporting information against the planning criteria or local plan. In his case if they were difficult or marginal and they ran out of time, they usually were refused - they went with a start point of yes, buy if they were hard to justify and they didn't have time they were justified in refusing. Our design statement went into all the various criteria and the local plan - which the planner said made his job much easier as we had interpreted it properly and fairly. So if there is a big queue of work, you can do a lot to make a planners life easier. Could be worth reviewing the application to make sure it covers what the planners need and adding if needed?

He was right to do so. Anyone who's fitting such conduit / ducting for gas needs to have the GSR'd fitter come out and see / inspect it all before its buried. They simply won't take any chances with gas, I would have got the duct in, and then got the GSR'd fitter to come and pull a length of trac pipe in and cap it both ends, ready for connecting later in the build. You must get them involved sooner or itll be back to the drawing board when they are finally called to connect and commission.

Petrol and a match.