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You had better be, because once MBC turn up on site, it's fast and furious and everything has to fit around them. Things happen at an incredible pace and no matter how much you read about it, how many videos you look at, it doesn't quite prepare you for the reality of that speed, or not in my case. Some surprises are good, and this was one of them. I'll get to the photos shortly, but first a few comments on what else has been happening since the slab was finished on the 9th August, or thereabouts, as some is preparation and others are running in parallel. First off, immediately after the slab was finished, I confirmed that everything was still good to go with the scaffolders and that they would be here the week before the timber frame was due to be certain it was all in place. I understand that scaffolders have quite a negative reputation in general and I can only speak of this, my one experience of dealing with them, but so far the firm I'm using have been professional and polite throughout, from the manager to the guys actually putting the scaffolding up. Long may it continue. You may recall my post about my little problem with the overhead electricity lines and my concern about being able to put sufficient scaffolding up for the MBC team to do their thing. The scaffold guys came around as far as they could with it, but there isn't much around where the garage will be and I will admit to having some qualms over this and whether it would cause massive problems for MBC. It turns out that it didn't. At all, not in the slightest. Nada. Phew. You'll see the detail of it later, but it was a weight off my mind to see the garage actually going up. So what's happening with the electricity thing, then, I hear you cry. Currently, it's a waiting game. There is a viable and acceptable solution in play, which is to replace the poles that support the lines which oversail my property with taller ones, an increase in height of about 3m. This is fine with me, as I don't object to the lines being there, after all, I bought the property with them in situ. The wait is down to planning permission, but not mine. It seems that because the proposed increase in height of the poles is greater than 10% of their current height, the DNO has to apply for planning permission to replace with the new, taller ones, and the DNO is no different from we mere mortals who also have the statutory 8 week wait for the planning decision. So, we wait. Sadly, the DNO are showing no signs of paying for the work so far and the quote for the work, inclusive of VAT, is around £8k. Let me state at the outset, I have no intention of paying £8k for this, particularly as the lines running over my property are then on a voluntary basis, with my consent (the wayleave agreement). I have done some reading around the subject and, in particular, the level of compensation that DNOs typically pay to householders if a wayleave or its more permanent cousin, an easement, is granted to the DNO. In the case of an easement, it's anywhere between 1% and 2% of the value of the property with all the legals at the DNO's expense. I haven't had a chance to talk through this with the wayleave officer, but I suspect and hope that we will reach agreement on the logical course of their doing the work at their own cost and I will grant them an easement. It seems a fair exchange and an efficient way to give a good outcome. Whether they take the same view remains to be seen, but I shall update once I know more. With regards to other tasks, I'm basically thinking ahead to once the structure is weather tight and secure. This stage of the timber frame should be done in a couple of weeks, so let's say 14th September. My solar PV is all booked and ready to go shortly after that but I need to get the velux windows and a roof course of the tiles up so that the PV installation can go ahead. I'm waiting for quotes right now and hope to have this sorted by early next week. Once the solar PV is in, I won't call the roofers back straight away as I need to wait for the glazing installation, which is due on 24th September, so the rest of the roof will get done most likely in early October. What else? Well, my UFH, MVHR and all the kit for that is actually starting to get sorted this week, from tomorrow. MBC are pushing off to another job for a couple of days to give my plumber time to get the UFH stuff sorted for the first floor. What? UFH upstairs? Yes. I'm a girl and I function best at temperatures a couple of degrees higher than you boys. It may be that we don't need it, but it's easier to put it in now than for hubby listen to my teeth chattering for the next 30 years. Okay, okay, I'll get to the action stuff now. So, bright and early the day after the bank holiday, the first enormous flat bed lorry stacked with timber frame arrived. The crane was already on site, as were the MBC crew. Actually, I think I've got 2 crews, a total of 7 guys yesterday, which explains the blistering rate of progress. It was a really tight squeeze getting that lorry up the narrow lane to the site and the drivers really prove their mettle getting in and out of there. This is yesterday's crane. They have an incredible reach and are quite something to see in action. I couldn't get the whole thing in a shot. Before anything happens with the walls, the team go around string marking where the beams are and putting down sole plates for the walls to lock into. The black stuff is the DPM which overlaps the EPS underneath. Space was getting a bit tight on the site, but between the hard standing and the inside of the house, everything found a spot. Once all the marking out was done and sole plates were down in the right places, the crane hauled the walls up and they were guided into position. Here's the view over the field from what will be one of the living room windows. At the end of yesterday afternoon, all the external walls were up and they starting marking out for the internal stud walls. There's more to follow from today, but I'll put that into a separate post. This one's busy enough.

Moving on to day 2 of the timber frame erection, I make no apologies for this photo-heavy post as the pictures speak far more eloquently than I can on the subject matter. Especially as I don't know the right words for much of it. It rained overnight here in Dorset, but nothing disastrous and it was all gone by a couple of hours into the morning. Here's how I left the team yesterday evening: This morning, another day, another crane. This one, I think, was even bigger, but it hurt my neck to keep looking that high, so I can't swear to it. Along with the crane was the next lot of timber frame components, but also the steels for the ground floor ceiling/first floor. There's a lot of steel in my building and whilst being very good for the structural integrity of the building, it's pretty rubbish if you want to stick an MVHR duct through it. At the production stage, my MVHR guy liaised with MBC to request penetrations through the steels for the ducting so that we didn't have to try and deal with this after the event. Here's one such steel with the right holes in the right places. Again, the crane did its thing and shifted all the posi joists into the interior the building and helped position the internal stud walls. All the steels were craned into position as well. The posi joists were man-handled up onto the steels: This is the run of the posi joists, looking from the eastwards from the west facing window. This is looking from the end of the living/dining area towards the kitchen and utility. This is looking back towards the building from the field. The silver box is the attached garage which will not be part of the thermal envelope; we haven't yet decided whether to put any insulation into this, but that can come later. The interior of the garage looking out to the field: A shot taken from the scaffolding. I'm standing at the west side of the living room (where the field is) looking over the lane and the fields beyond. For those of you who know north Dorset, that's Hambledon Hill near Blandford Forum in the distance. And finally, this was resting on the joists upstairs. It pleases me greatly.

In a perfect world yes. The issue is where the nails are not driven completely home and there is insufficient glue at that point. The squeaky floors that folk recount are where the deck board moves up and down the shank of the nail. Thats why where @jack's better half screwed alongside each nail, the boards have pulled down tight to the joist top and the slight movement has been removed, ergo the squeak has gone . Glued and 5 screws per joist for me every single day of every week. The floor im doing now Sistered timbers either side for levelling ( retrofit on a turn of the century house ) then 22mm p5 D4 glued and screwed as stated. Then for tiling over, 6mm plywood laid into a bed of neat PVA ( 3mm notched spreader ) and screws in at 120mm centres on the X & Y axis. Customer says it's like the ground floor room now which is concrete. @vivienz as you will be having aluminium spreader plates for 1stfloor UFH, a mechanical fix will be mandatory as you'll have little to zero timber > glue > deck surface area to allow that method .

So, here we are as of just now... As of last night I had 10 tiles fixed. The garage is now at least bone dry!

@Ferdinand is right, I'm one of the younger self builders at 31. In the south no less. Only reason it has been possible is a combination of factors: - Saving near enough 25% salary since starting my career. Lived in cheap/shared accommodation until last year to make it happen. - left university with no debt, paid via summer jobs, and never taken on any other debt since - always been frugal. For example, cars have always been sub £3k and bougt outright - been super fortunate in my education (aerospace engineering) that has landed me an insanely good career. - inheritance via father-in-law (biggest reason) - lucky break on a few share options - decision to project manage and DIY about £40k worth of labour (else we can't afford it). How we do that with two full time jobs between us will be an interesting challenge I won't deny that the majority of the above is down to privilege and luck. I would definitely consider myself a fortunate outlier, and am very thankful for it. But if I had a choice, I'd rather have my father-in-law around.

We started the roofing last week. We decide to go for CUPA 3 heavy slates, these are a thick spanish slate and designed for the weather we get in the Hebrides. Let's hope they do what they say on the crate. The first job was setting out the the various lines using a line and some red brick dye. Our roofer than graded some of slate pallets into different levels of thickness and any rejections. Now my job was to carry the slates up the ladder. So far three pallets have made there way on the scaffolding. Before the first slates were fitted we attached the dry verge strip. I did some research and asked a post on here, but finally decided on the Klober 'S' strip. We had already attached our barge board so I didn't want a 'T' shaped one that would go over the barge and underneath the slates. The 'S' strip is actually designed for slates and battens rather than slates and sarking boards, but because of the thick slates we have used this fits snugly where it meets three courses. Not the best photo but you can see the black strip above the fascia. The plan was to the front first, but unfortunately we had a mix up with the velux flashings so we can only go so far just now. We are however able to do some slating at the back, but we are waiting for our metal roofing material to be fitted which will hopefully arrive soon. Our joiner has prepared the timber for this to be fitted.

There's no stopping it now. Buckle yourself in tight and keep the pace up and you will be shopping for curtains in no time.

Sorry, but i’ve got serious doubts that tanking the inside of the building will do anything at all. The answer is to find out how the water is penetrating past the external membrane and fix it at that location.

That's coming along at a cracking pace and the tiling is looking great so far. How long until you roof is on, do you think?

@Nickfromwales ok when you're doing a bathroom with 10 boards in. 5 screws on each joist. 35 screws per board might slow the house build down a bit. I use the egger system with ringshank sparingly never had a squeak

Just build the garage and then it can act as your storage area for all the materials you will use. Can also be an office, tea hut and maybe even a toliet area if your putting one in it. Will be a practice run for you to fine tune how your build might go.

I used to have cats - they were the ones that brought mice into the house to play with, often the mouse got away and hid and the cats lost interest. I have a picture somewhere of the cats asleep on the sofa with the mouse sat daintily on their food bowl stuffing its face.

At least it shouldn't blow down...

There's a good reason they are colloquially known as Staffordshire Blues, as that's the colour that they end up when fired to near-ceramic temperatures using Staffordshire clay, which was always the traditional clay they were made from. That's just a hang over from the Industrial Revolution and the way that the technology for firing at controlled high temperatures came out of the Staffordshire potteries industry. The use of "engineering" bricks came about from the need for bricks with a high compressive strength and high resistance to weathering during the Industrial Revolution. for everything from canal locks to the mounts and buildings for things like big steam engines. Traditionally, ordinary "house" bricks were made near to, or on, the actual building site, by itinerant brick makers, who used local clays and fired them in open fires, which is why we have such a wide variation in "heritage" brick colours. If your interested, there is still one itinerant brick maker left in the UK, who has an interesting web site about bricks: http://ajmugridge.co.uk/

Tanking would be a last resort for me. Have you also confirmed that CT1 is suitable for bedding the roof lights as the last one I saw fitted used 2 beads of structural silicon on opposing edges with a zigzag infil between the lines - from memory it was 2 tubes per roof light and they were 600 square. I don’t think you have enough on if you could pull that frame up and I’m not sure CT1 is the correct sealant as your EPDM goes over the upstand and not just up the sides.

We did the in and outer to dpc level and simply lifted the beams in and lowered them onto the inner skin None of the face work was disturbed Two hours and they were all in

Beams are very heavy and not easy to shift about even with a Telehandler. All but the small ones will breach manual handling limits and you will probably need machines to offload as some deliveries don’t use hiab equipped vehicles as beams can exceed the hiab limits.

Although from what I've read designing a PH bungalow is very difficult, although it's something I've yet to try. The ground floor makeup is:- Earth 200mm compacted type1 50mm compacted 4/8 granite fines 300mm EPS300 (Peripor) 200mm RC 30/35 Porcelain tiles There is a 200mm thick EPS300 upstand around the slab. I can't say because it's dependent on the outside temperature and amount of sun. Last winter before we had the electricity connected IIRC it used to be around 16C/17C first thing in the morning but I don't know what the weather was like. I like the idea of the small ASHP being incorporated in the MVHR as it's a neat solution which could be increased in size for larger PH buildings.

I D4 glued and screwed 22mm Caberdek boards down, all of them. The glue is excellent. I used solid timbers at 400 centres with the longest being only 4 metres. I did not use joist hangers as they sit on the ground floor walls. Really solid first floor. No squeaks or bounce.

Doesn't it tend to be the planners who decide whether the scale is 'out of keeping'? Might be worth having a look through the planning portal to see if you can find evidence of other houses in the local area being refused due to size. My house here is pretty large compared to the small listed cottage next door, but about half the size of next door but 1 (that is huge and at least 400 yards up the road).

You can certainly run a temporary, or permanent, supply to an enclosure in a wall, fence or whatever. Several here have done just this (including me). As long as there is a signed off installation on the consumer side, then the supplier will fit a meter. The DNO (or NIE in NI, I believe) will happily install a supply to a company fuse and head in an approved box, even if it's mounted in a fence, as ours is. The consumer side installation doesn't need to be anything grand - mine's a fused isolator switch, a small 4 way (two doubles) consumer unit, that then feeds a caravan site consumer unit that has a 16A Commando socket. That was my temporary site supply that we ran extension leads etc from. I didn't want the meter box in the wall as, and inset box it would have compromised the insulation and created a thermal bridge, and a surface mount box would have looked ugly, hence the reason for mounting it remotely in the fence that eventually became our wheelie bin screen. Doing it this way meant not paying twice for the installation, too. I paid once to have a supply put in and my electrician just switched things over to power the house when we were ready. The only slight oddity is that the DNO insist that the supply use TT earthing whist it was being used as a site supply (as they do for mobile homes) and could only be switched over to TN-C-S once the house was connected and ready for testing. Daft really, as the TN-C-S earth impedance was lower than the TT impedance, and the site supply was being used exactly as if it were an extension lead from the house, but they make the rules so you have no choice but to stick with them. As it happened, I reused the TT earth rod etc in my workshop, anyway, so nothing was wasted.

Most floors are designed to have a maximum 12mm or 0.003 x span (whichever is least) deflection limit. If you specify that you require maximum 8mm or 0.002 x span (whichever is least) deflection there will be no issues with bouncy floors and the cost difference is fairly small.

'Surviving' sounds as though it's a struggle whereas it seems to be a simple and effective solution in my house. The reason we keep the internal temperature high is because that is what Wendy likes. The primary heating is via the electric towel rails in the three bathrooms. In our view the rooms you want warmest are the bathrooms so it's an effective way of achieving that and then extracting from those rooms via the MVHR. The EASHP in the Genvex Combi will increase the supply heat to the other rooms if required. So primary heating is from the towel rails. The problem with quoting PH alone is that it is a maximum requirement for space heating of 15kWh/m2/yr which may result in a whole house heating system being needed but when the specific requirement is significantly less that 15kWh/m2/yr there are novel ways of achieving that without wet UFH. Decrement delay is mentioned a lot but it is not simple to model and how important it is to achieving a comfortable heating/cooling balance is going to be dependent upon the wall and roof construction, shading and weather. What are the effects of ventilated spaced surfaces within the wall construction or having the house shaded by large trees all day or living where it is always windy. Not so simple .

Yes, same for us. I also insisted during the final negotiation on the timberframe price that it must be a 22 mm floor and that it was glued and screwed, not nailed! This was after watching @jack wife ordering boxes of decent screws and carefully screwing down their already installed floor, having decided that there it was too squeaky with just nails.

I don't believe MBC timberframe houses are any more susceptible to noise transmission then any other manufacturer, or even traditionally built houses. It's a key element of design that has to be be carefully managed in all house builds and most of the areas to be addressed are identified in the contributions above. It's an element of the build that requires more attention and a budget. Unfortunately, it's an element of the build that nearly most of us failed to recognise as a potential issue, when we were grappling with all the things that were of a higher priority at the time. I had the advantage of seeing a several timberframe builds and did address some of the design issues, as detailed above, but I could have done more at minimal extra cost and had better performance. Just like @jack and others , we have some minor squeaking of the floor in the master bedroom ( though I think it is not a bouncy floor, but the UFH system I used is a floating system and was not laid, as well as it could have been) and the impact noise transmission is not great ( but luckily, we don't have teenage children, only occasional younger grand kids ).

400mm rather than 600mm joist spacing eliminates the bounce from what I've observed. I've glued and screwed 22mm ply either side of the joists on my longest spans - seems to help.

Hi @Tosh Hello and welcome. Everyone here is keen on photos, so don't be shy with them. This sounds like an interesting scheme. There are lots of members who will happily give valuable advice - just ask away. Some are a bit nerdy but don't let that bother you.

We had a big problem with cluster flies in our first house in Scotland. It was right next to farmland, by the shore of Loch Ryan, and the window frames would be full of the things if you opened a window. They would crawl in though the narrow outside gap and gather in large numbers in the small sheltered space outside the inner seal. I found that the paint-on stuff worked well. Not sure of the name of it, but you just open the windows and paint on a thin layer of the stuff around the hidden areas. It seemed to last for around a year, and either killed, or dissuaded, cluster flies from crawling into these spaces.

I ve got all my Loxone kit in the garage and waiting to be installed imminently - basically controlling blinds, lighting, heating, burglar alarm, solar thermal, music, garage door, entrance gates. I would say all in its going to cost around £7k on the kit, but that includes 18 speakers, 12 music zones, and a shed load of lighting zones. Whilst it is a chunk, its probably saved me a couple of thousand pounds on heating controllers, solar controllers, dimmable light switches, burglar alarms etc. I m hoping I can shut myself away and get my head around programming it myself.

Yes, what a shame we got distracted before she reached our bedroom! The kids' bedrooms are virtually squeal free!