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“And?” I prompted, ”that’s it” she said. Thus a corner of a green English field enhanced by some royal snowdrops was destined to become a Welshman’s first self-build. The unexpectedly abbreviated list was a list of life-sustaining features she deemed absolute move-in must-haves for our minimum viable new home. When a woman falls in love with a building plot it is surprising how few luxuries she deems essential to swing the deal with her master builder to be. I have been a reasonably competent master & commander of a middle size 35ft sailing yacht in recent years though beyond that claim I am a jack of zero trades. Early encounters with the good denizens of the BuildHub forum tarred me as a hopelessly naive computer programmer fit for little more than making tea onsite. Some forum luminaries offered encouragement and suggested that with sufficient aptitude my career as a selfbuilder could see promotion to building site chief portaloo cleaner. A period of financial scrutiny followed acceptance of my offer on the plot. The sale of the yacht had released funds to build to about shoulder height and money from a previous house sale would buy a roof, windows and staircase. Beyond that I will need to dispel the notion I am a chinless wonder of a self-builder otherwise this whole project might become a millstone around my neck and by winter 2018/19 it would be a cold unoccupied millstone. Heritage is a double-edged sword for a house builder, some nearby castle ruins come at a cost. Our new conservation officer is reputed to wield a fearsome sword according to local village lore. The build material costs will be loaded with conservation extras such as a slate roof, cute bricks that I suspect were rejects during the building of Hampton Court or Euro Disney and sash windows. At least the royal snowdrops were free. Looking back to the beginning of the year our transition from house hunters to self builders was a spontaneous event triggered by some cheerful rural birds on a cold January Sunday afternoon, back then the “Beast From The East” meant the local conservation officer. Just four months ago we were searching for a regular house complete with a roof and front door key. And now, as I write the first entry in this saga, we own a plot with detailed planning permission for a modest 1500 sq ft house fit for Jane Austen. I should also report that the science behind the butterfly effect is incomplete as it should include birdsong. p.s. Does anyone know what a dormant snowdrop looks like? I need to effect my own conservation before the JCB moves in.

Pile it up and put some petrol in a glass bottle with a rag to act as a wick. Light the wick and lob the bottle and stand back. That's how it's done in NI !!!?? Technically if it hasn't got at least 1000 pallets, a few hundred tyres , dozens of well worn mattresses and a few sofas then it's not really a bonfire.

I am posting this in case it is helpful to anyone on this site now or in the future. We have just had the last bit of asbestos removed from our 1960s bungalow and demolition is now able to commence. If you have asbestos it needs to be removed and disposed of appropriately. Some asbestos is not as bad (chrysotile for example) and can be dampened, double bagged in heavy duty polythene and taken to a tip that accepts asbestos (many don't). But if you have the bad stuff (we had amosite) it has to be put in sealed containers and shipped out properly and the work has to be done by licenced contractors. The Health & Safety Executive needs to be informed 14 days prior to work commencing. Our contractors did that for us. We suspected asbestos so got a couple of samples tested a year ago. One was chrysotile, the other was amosite (asbestos insulating board used on our soffits). At that point our demolition costs went up by a factor of 6 ? You need an asbestos survey before demolition. These are invasive and leave your house with holes everywhere (ceilings / walls). They can repair the damage and allow you back in once it is done but most surveyors we spoke to didn't recommend it. We moved out permanently before getting our survey. Sadly our survey showed up even more asbestos than we knew about. We knew about the soffit boards and the roof edging strips and the artex ceilings. We didn't know that every vertical wall strut in the outer walls of our timber frame 1960s "flat pack from the NEC" would be lined with a strip of asbestos. Our asbestos contractors have been in for a week in April and then again for most of May (had to give an additional 14 days notice to HSE for the newly found asbestos). First a protective plastic "bubble" was fitted around the house, encasing the soffits. Extract fans were placed to filter the air before extracting it to the outside world. An airlock of plastic encased boxes was built to the front of the house. A shower unit was permanently on site for the guys when they de-suited each day. The soffits were removed, then the house was sealed from the inside so the internal asbestos could be removed. At all times, all the guys working wore masks and full protective suits. After all was removed, an asbestos analyst attended to ensure that the air was clean and the asbestos was removed and all areas appropriately cleaned. A certificate of reoccupation was then issued to officially allow people to go back into the house without all the suits and masks. A contractor has done all this for us and we are glad that we haven't attempted any of this ourselves. They finished yesterday (though the chrysotile roof edging is still in place and will be taken off with the tiles). Some photos attached. Hope this is helpful to someone else.

I'm in a panic now. To update this thread we ended up getting a Heritage Expert to produce a Heritage Statement. A Landscape Architect to produce a 'professional' cross section and photomontage (the conservation officer didn't like my 'amature' versions) and the Planning Consultant updated the Planning Statement for our application. We have not changed any detail of the original application just paid people to use some big words and produce some nice graphics. The upshot is that we have heard today that "...the Conservation Officer now has no objection to the proposal... therefore I will be recommending the application for approval..." (annoyingly the Conservation Officer apparently drives past the site, and listed building, twice a day, to and from work, but couldn't reach this conclusion without help - I'm not bitter, just exasperated). So, a few months down the line and several hundreds of pounds less in the kitty and it looks like we're on the starting blocks - yippee! Why am I in a panic? Well, all of a sudden it seems that there are a million things I should have been doing in preparation for this day and didn't. I still know so little. Thanks for everyones help thus far, now, where is the 'demolition' forum ?‍♂️ Russ.

Our landscapers dispatched lots of beech hedge and a few trees in January - roots and all. I was sceptical that it wouldn't burn but they started with a few smashed up pallets and used a leaf blower to keep it going - the roots will smoulder overnight to ash once the main fire has died down. A good hot fire will not generate that much smoke. Declan, you remind me why I can never have any of the old NI gang round to visit - always desperate to get a wee fire going. One mate had to be restrained from burning the garden Jenga ..

Thought I'd update this thread with our experience to date. So far this month we've had 15 virtually cloudless days (out of 21) including a run of 8 consecutive such days. We've left the Sageglass in auto mode and it has worked extremely well in restricting the solar gain and effectively regulating the indoor temperature. Granted, the sun is relatively high in the sky now and approx 25% of the south-facing glass is shaded by our 50cm soffit overhang, but I'm pretty confident the Sageglass would cope even if we'd had such a run of cloudless days earlier in the year. So far, to coin an old Honda marketing strapline, it just works! Edit to add: by the way, the privacy element is fine during daytime when the glass tints as it reflects like a black mirror when viewed from outside, but is far less effective at night when light are on inside. Suffice to say we now have blinds at the bedroom windows!

We had the hedges removed and laid by a tree surgeon and they chipped/shredded as much as they could on site, using their industrial shredder. Much of what is left is scrubby rootball and, quite frankly, if it wouldn't go through their shredder, I very much doubt that it would go through anything I could get my hands on. We currently have one set of near neighbours who know that we will need to burn this stuff and have no issues with it as long as it's done properly. Re. the wildlife, this is why I want to move the heap from its current position in the garden and into the field - it will give a chance for any wildlife to escape in the process.

Getting the supply (DNO): Ours was easy, the pole that fed the original house had 3-phase power on it (4 open conductors) and was fed from underground just in front of our house so our new underground supply was simply spliced from the underground cable and fed to the site box (initially). Replacing the meter(Supplier): More difficult because as soon as you mention 3-phase to suppliers they look at you blankly (on the phone), I ended up with one of the big six, however I will be changing in the near future so I will see how the other suppliers cope now I have a meter. PV: You can fit more before exceeding the G83 limits 3.68kW per phase, I have nearly 10kW of PV all within the G83 limits. G59 has more stringent rules and is not as widely available, however you can get up to 17kW per phase with approved G83 type equipment but that will depend on your DNO and the current loading in your area. PV(Cons): Battery technology is geared, currently, to single phase domestic situations, you can put batteries on your 3-phase system, and they will supply each phase individually however they will not supply 3-phase equipment as each battery-inverter needs to be phase locked with the others, this is not generally available in the domestic market yet, under development. The Tesla Powerwall 3 may be 3-phase, due out this year sometime. Appliances: We have only 2 3phase appliances and a spare feed. The ASHP is 3-phase, allows soft start, if you have ever been to a US home when the AC starts up and everything dims for a second that is what soft start avoids. Also, the bigger ASHP’s are only 3-phase though ours 9kW was available in either. Our lift is also 3-phase, also it is a lot larger than a standard domestic, more resilience than one designed for just a wheelchair. Also rotating machinery (Lift and ASHP) benefit from 3 phase power as bigger motors tend to be designed 3-phase (make sure they are wired up correctly!). I also have a 3-phase supply to the garage with a 32A breaker on it for car charging, terminated at a switch in the garage. This will allow a 22kW charger if required (tesla supercharger not that I can afford one). Electricians: My electrician had no problem with 3-phase as he also does commercial work, however not all domestic electricians will be happy with it. If you put two normal (single phase) lives together normally nothing happens, however if you put two 3-phase lives together you could blow the system if they are from different phases (200V potential between them) so everything has to be labeled and you can’t just poke around in things. Why: The biggest reason was potential power consumption we have 2 x 7kW induction hobs (one at normal height and one at wheelchair height) 3 ovens (up to 4kW each) so if someone (highly unlikely) put the kitchen into full power mode it would kill a normal single phase domestic supply! Ordinarily we don’t draw anywhere near the power to do that but plan for the worst. Living with it: In reality those in the house don’t notice or care about the 3-phase supply, they get 230v out of a socket.

Something that's worth having done is a soil survey or ask if the vendor has had one done. My plot is on highly shrinkable, dedicated clay which, broadly, means an extra £20k for me due to more complicated foundations than we had initially thought. Ours is still within our budget ( for the moment) but if things are tight it's better to know before you purchase in case it makes the whole project unaffordable.

Thanks to all. I got the 2 x UniFi AC Lite's as per @Dreadnaught suggestion and is perfect WiFi throughout. Thanks to all. £151 all in.

When the lads cleared our garden last July, they started by building a modest fire, a few m high, with the hedge cuttings that had been lying around for a year, the old chicken coop, greenhouse frame and I added some tree cuttings that were a few years old plus any old timber still lying on site. They planned to burn it later in the week when rain was forecast but it was blazing hot all week. Finally on the Thursday they lit it with no accelerant whatsoever. Flames went about 15m up and a spruce about 20 m away started to smoulder. After 10 mins intensive blaze, fire collapsed into a heap and was done - virtually no smoke. A few weeks later, the hedge 12m either side of the fire and the spruce started to go brown, showing how big the heat ball was... They tried to hose it but was too hot to get anywhere close. So be careful

This is just one of the issues that this forum has really helped on. I suspect I did get charged VAT on materials - I didn't get to see original invoices. Moving forward, having ditched the builder, I am sure I will pay less for materials.

Plus 1 Although it has to be said the only one's that really took the p was the guy who was my main contractor and that is because his confidence by far outweighed his ability as a project manager and as a man manager as his team totally took the p too. They were getting a day rate and didn't care if they were sat half the day in the garage because it was raining.

You can always double up you know . 2 for 1 as it were .

I started with hope and joy and a few modest must haves......2 years on older, poorer and possibly wiser I was just desperate to get to the end. Of my must haves some are here and some are not. I learnt to my cost that unattended builders take the easy route which does not necessarily facilitate the must haves and then it can be impractical, impossible or just too expensive to undo what has been done. You need a padlock on your wallet and eyes in the back of your head...oh and give up the day job. Its what I ended up having to do as things were clearly going wrong. I have no experience of managing contractors some (most) took advantage of my inexperience and some (very few) were really nice.

That’s true but they don’t all understand the rules sadly so can range from wanting to charge you vat on the whole thing to charging you vat on the materials. And when they are employed on a labour only basis and say they will order in the materials you need sometimes they order in their own name meaning that you can’t reclaim the vat as it’s not your name on the invoice. There are so many different ways you can get caught out with the vat reclaim if you don’t understand all of the rules from the get go.

I once ran out of diesel and used petrol to get a bonfire going. Big mistake. The petrol trickles down through the wood evaporating as it goes. You end up with a mix of fuel and air also known as a fuel-air-bomb or Thermobaric weapon... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon . The blast was quite impressive. My eyebrows have grown back so I look like Dennis Healy. I recommend waiting a few weeks after its been cut for all/any green leaf to dry out. It will burn more easily with less smoke.

Poxy stud on the left wasn't noggined / dwanged properly! I'd like to try and twist it straight but the other side of this pb wall is the tiled shower enclosure. Granted that it will all eventually be redone but it's already twisted away from the pb: It's 350mm between faces of studs but more 355/360 at the front: Luckily I have BEER!

not an artist but I guess this is understandable?

Get it started. Use a blower and Red Diesel (much cheaper). Or wait for a strong wind blowing in an acceptable direction. Get it really hot, and keep it fed with small bits until there's a really hot core. Keep that core as hot as possible. A good fire is no accident, it's hard work.

Sex might be the answer. What size is the duct? Big enough for a ferret: a lady ferret? Get the cable out as @Declan52 says. Get a pair of ferrets. Get one to call the other, attach a new (stronger) bit of para-cord - you know the rest.

I am mate!

Still loving the view. Even a JCB can't make it look bad.

Heard a minister being interviewed on this on Radio 4. They plan to give councils the power to ban the burning certain types of fuel only. Wet wood was mentioned as was a high sulphur coal but not all coal. How they plan to police this god knows. They could ban the sale of unseasoned or wet wood but apparently it will still be legal to sell it. This means trading standards cant just check garage forecourts, wood yards or delivery lorries. It would need a neighbour to complain and then the council EHO would have to come check what you are burning. My dealings with the EHO on other matters suggest they don't have the time or money to take on more work. Do they even have the powers to search your property? Putting this on the council is a standard ploy. It allows the government to claim to be doing something yet at the same time blame the councils if it doesn't work out or lots of people complain.

Burning wood is in large part responsible for the state of sub saharan Africa. No trees lead to soil erosion combined with poor rainfall leads to famine. Plus those of us with compromised lungs are tortured by our neighbours burning wood which impacts on breathing.

Soft, southern shandy drinker me!

They must have done some work experience here.

Would sealing the top and bottom of the cavity not be sufficient? Assumes sides are already sealed by CWI?

I think that's how they do it in France, too, especially when the farmers go on strike.

These snowdrops are hardy critters having survived a three country journey from the Sandringham Estate to the middle of Lincolnshire. A few years ago the seller of the plot shipped some spoil back home following a job on the estate and the bulbs self seeded on my building plot. Anyhow thanks for the horticultural tip, I will ensure the scraped off topsoil is dumped in a shaded corner of the plot.

Get a decent garden shredder, shred it, bag it and take it to the dump. Burning is not really socially acceptable.

Yep, I remember my mother’s ironing board having that too! I suspect it would have mostly contained cement or similar however so I don’t think you should be unduly concerned about it. When I was at secondary school we had asbestos strips at the back of the science benches that were used for anything hot / on fire. It’s something you can’t really stress about TBH. The past is past. All you can do is protect yourself in the future so people need to be aware of the risks and not take risks with asbestos, but we can’t change the fact that we may have been exposed in the past. So many old buildings, schools, hospitals etc etc contain asbestos it’s unavoidable. It’s only when it’s disturbed that it becomes dangerous, and then only in certain people.

Our planning was for a green roof. We went back and got it changed. I have never seen one that looks good long term and you do have to do maintenance and I certainly wasnt getting up on the roof to weed out the wind blown seeds etc. My bro in law commercial roofer also does green roofs, he gave me a very realistic view of them which confirmed my feeling that they were more trouble than worth to me.

Not sure. My proposed house has three chimneys so time perhaps to reduce that to one working and two false chimney stacks. Last week about two tons of firewood fell into my hands through a stroke of luck which I should be able to eek out a few years (but to be used only when climatic conditions won't cause regional respiratory distress promise Lizzie).

@dreadnaught We didn't in the end. We were thinking about it over the single storey garage but as it's north facing and heavily shadowed by the 2 storey house, we didn't take the idea any further, I'm afraid.

In the UK regulations were introduced in 1931 but they only covered the manufacturing of asbestos, not workers subsequently using it. It was the increasing death rates from asbestosis, and mesothelioma that resulted in new regulations in 1969 that protected those working with it too, and there have been a stream of regulations since the 80s when its use started being banned. My hubby died from mesothelioma. It’s a death I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy!

I only visit Devon when the weather is dry

I live in Devon, I don’t think anything gets dry down here ?.

If you use an ultrasonic humidifier, it helps to have a fan beside it to disperse the droplets into the air. I've used these in the past, and if you aren't careful, the area around them (floor, furniture) gets damp. Because there are moisture sources inside the house (eg, people, cooking, showers, plants) that add moisture to the air. The more you ventilate, the more of that moisture is lost to the outside. For example, turning off the MVHR completely would result in nearly all internally generated moisture accumulating in the house over time. Obviously that's not a desirable situation, so it's a balance between fresh air and keeping moisture levels at a reasonable level. When the weather is cold, you also get a larger drop in RH as the (often already relatively dry in winter) incoming air is heated.

Yup, a green roof looks so much better than other coverings if viewed from above. Keeping the neighbours on your side really helps with planning very approvals, IMO -- not so much formally but the odd letter of support helps with comfort factors for the LPA. It can also help during construction, because the build process does inconvenience neighbours and they are far more likely to grin and bare it if they like the outcome.

@NSS very nice job. It's look great. It's creative done.

When it's dry outside, over-ventilation is the main enemy. Can you turn the MVHR down to a lower setting? As an example, we're supposed to run ours at something like 180 m3/hr, but it was on for a year at 50 m3/hr with no issues at all. Another possibility is pollen screens for windows. I have no idea how effective these are, but could you get at least some windows covered with these so you can open them and get some flow-through ventilation overnight and when it's not too hot? Edited to add: large pot plants are also supposed to help. Edited to add: example of pollen screens: https://newblinds.co.uk/pollen-screens

If you've said that already and I missed it then I'll not shout loudly at my iPhone with "thanks for telling us !" as that means you already know you'll be altering it to single radial runs which makes the 15's tees subject obsolete. . Are you drinking in the day or what ? . No, I don't mean pull all that out after you've tiled.....I'd have a bloody contract taken out on me if I suggested that. I thought I'd previously said here that runs that terminate at one outlet can be in 15mm, or 15mm to two outlets where they will never normally be open at the same time, eg the bath taps / shower feed and the basin in that room. One occupant at a time = 15mm feeds no problem. Feeds should be 22mm to the attic / other, and then the ensuite tees off the 22mm in 15mm, or you do a manifold arrangement.

Sounds excellent, wish we could have afforded it.

Thanks for the update. .

I have the same ones as Nick suggested in our kitchen/dining room, a mix of 3 W and 6 W units, with those at the kitchen end being cool white and those at the dining end being warm white. The warm white ones are slightly less bright, but are pretty close to incandescent light in terms of colour. The cool white ones are close to the colour of daylight fluorescent tubes, but with a more diffuse light. The light fittings themselves seem much of a muchness wherever you buy them, but one batch I bought had very electrically noisy AC DC constant current drivers. These drivers had no screening and no form of interference suppression at all, and caused a great deal of noise on any radio when they were turned on, so were clearly non-compliant with the EMC Directive, despite being CE marked. Other drivers have been fine, with no noise at all, but it seems complete pot luck as to what you will get. I even had a noisy driver supplied by a reputable LED lighting company for some of our lights, but they were very good at sending me replacements, so good that I suspect I wasn't the first to complain about them.

@cjackson129 Another thing to consider is building using blocks instead of Timber frame. One of the advantages I see of blocks compared Timber Frame is cashflow. With timer frame you need to pay for the timber frame upfront, but at this stage the lender will have only given you money for the land and maybe foundation/slab. Where as with block you should be able to pay the builder more in arrears, however you would need to confirm this as i don't know if the builder would only want payment once the entire shell has been constructed, some may have sub milestones.

"Damn you decimal place!" Wheres @SteamyTea when you need him. Should have added the disclaimer at the bottom of that post about my shit maths skills. Oh, and the point being......WOW! on the SA lifespan.

At 10am this morning my solicitor emailed to say the plot sale was complete. As a new member of the Conveyancing Cynics Association I emailed back seeking clarification, I tested this concept that ownership of land can be effected in this country by asking "does this mean I can visit the plot right now and erect a site boundary fence?", he got back within 15 minutes and said go ahead. I feel the need to blog, could an appropriate forum authority command that "New Blog" button to appear for me?

There's no definitive answer, and leaving out the internal VCL and relying on decent workmanship to seal the PB is damned risky, unless you know for sure the relative vapour permeability of the whole structure and the quality of the workmanship. 99% of water vapour transmission is usually from outside, provided there is a decent and effective internal VCL, and the golden rule is to maintain a gradient of vapour permeability from inside to out, with the least vapour permeable layer inside and the most vapour permeable layer outside (or adjacent to a ventilated external cavity). As houses are built to better insulation standards, then vapour control becomes far more significant, especially if there are structural layers within the walls and roof that may be subject to damage from interstitial condensation. Some of the big manufacturers have got this detail seriously wrong in the past, and even a year or so ago one of the major SIPs companies was still going up the learning curve with regard to the safety of their floor to wall detail, something that they changed in the light of further analysis (and following a few strong hints from several here, when we were on the other place).