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....if the weather man says it's raining! So goes the old song and me, too, by the end of this week. The roof itself has been watertight for a couple of weeks now, but there was still significant water ingress from the gulleys hidden behind the parapets formed at the top of the ground floor. However, my flat roof guys have been back on site this week and are working hard. Today they were finishing off the long, east facing balcony and also moving onto the south facing parapet; they will continue around the building and should have the main part of the house all finished off if not by Friday, then certainly early next week. This is a great relief as even though I know that the building would dry out, there is something deeply distressing about seeing puddles of water lying on the slab after rain, despite the main roof being on, so I shall be very happy to have this part of the build completed. Photos of the gullies and balconies to follow later this week. Stepping back to last week for a moment, some of the window snag list was ticked off, primarily the shattered panes of glass. One was in the south facing ground floor lounge area and the other was a unit in the north east bedroom. Norrsken were back exactly when they said they would be and got the main jobs completed so that things are set for the return of MBC. The remaining snag list are a few adjustments to the windows, for example where one of the lift and slide windows is too tightly fitted against the seal/brush and the frames rub when it's opened or closed, and then a few cosmetic issues such as shallow dents in the frames. We've agreed to complete the rest of the list once we're getting into second fix rather than get in the way of all the frame completion and first fix work. Last week also saw the return of Darren from MBC to fix my wonky wall, for which the solution was low tech but effective. A sleep deprived but determined Irishman with a very, very large hammer who was prepared to beat the crap out of a steel beam, and that's precisely what he did. So the problem wasn't so much the wall above the window, but the section that housed the apex steel that sat above the window and that, it's now been decided, has a kink in it. The wall above the steel section and the one below it are both plumb but the inverted V-section above the window isn't due to the kinked steel inside it. I'm assured that everything is structurally fine and that there's no danger of anything shifting in a detrimental fashion and after Darren did his stuff the top of the triangular window section is now only 3mm out, where it started at 12mm and more further up. I can easily live with 3mm and it will easily be lost in the cladding. There is now a kick on the inside, but Darren will put some packers behind the service battens to make sure that the final internal wall is plumb for boarding out and everything else that comes after. And so back to this week, where the first few days have all been about activity on the roof. As already mentioned, the flat roof guys were back on Monday and also back were the solar PV guys. The solar guys had to start by removing the optimisers from where they'd previously left them on the roof as they are all going into the loft space. The idea behind this is that the solar panels themselves are highly unlikely to fail but if any of the optimisers do, it will be an expensive job to get to them to make any repairs. It would involve dismantling part of the roof as well as expensive scaffolding to gain access. Instead, the cables have come through a penetration in the roof and the optimisers will sit in the loft space along side some MVHR equipment, meaning that things are far more accessible in the future. The inverter will be in the garage and the cable has been run down along the roof, going through the parapet and through the garage ceiling, into the garage where it will live with all the sunamps and other kit. This is the route it's taking, to the side of the roof window and underneath the membrane that will line the parapet gully and, eventually, the garage roof. My velux windows arrived last week, which was another relief. My roofer, Dylan, gave me a call to confirm that they were in and the days that his team would be back. We'd already agreed that they would be on site on the 30th to co-ordinate and work around with the solar guys and they all worked really co-operatively, as they have done all along. I'm biased, of course, but I think that my roof is looking really great and the solar panels are pretty smart looking, too. Here are the panels from the other side of the flat roof over the stairwell. And a closer view of the trays and panels. This is the velux window that's over the shared bathroom. It's very low down coming onto the flat roof, but Terence and the other roofers, Pat and Mike, had already discussed this and decided how to solve the potential issue by using some more membrane and glueing the s*&t out of it all. This is the same window from inside. The light from this will be the only natural light source in the bathroom once all the walls are in place, so it's good to see that it floods in from its west facing orientation. We have another 2 velux windows, one is in the already well-lit south east bedroom, which I'm claiming for my own room to do stuff in, so I'm delighted to have it full of so much light. You can also see the prep on the balcony with the membrane being put down. The other roof window is the north east bedroom which will benefit from the additional light given its aspect. Here's a pic of the guys putting the trays into position on the main south facing roof. The pole that's in the foreground of the picture is the one that until recently carried the electricity supply cable. That has now been buried and back-filled today and Openreach will be around on Friday to remove their equipment so I will be able to dispose of the pole in due course. This is towards the end of the day when most of the panels were on and the slates had been put around them. There's plenty more work to come this week. The flat roof team are continuing and the pitched roof team will be back on Friday and possibly early next week to finish everything up there. My groundworker, Keith, is on site now as well, and we're moving all the shrub and hedge related debris from earlier in the year. I'm currently thinking that bonfire night seems an appropriate time to light up, so I may have to buy some sparklers for the occasion. My fire rated door was delivered today from Enfield Speciality Doors and my neighbour, Drew, will be installing that for me. He works in construction and having seen the tidy work he's done on his own place, he'll be doing a fair bit of internal work for me as well as, possibly, the tier cladding on the outside in due course. It's worth noting that I paid a premium to Enfield Speciality Doors to jump the queue in their production schedule to make sure that I got the door in time for the return of MBC. It's the one to go between the utility and garage so it has to be in before MBC return and I was prepared to pay an additional 10% to make sure this would happen. I was chatting with another BH member recently and it seems that fire rated doors really are tricky things to get hold of, let alone within a reasonable timescale. If you also want one that's insulated and looks good, be prepared to take a few months over this, assuming you find anything. I'm fortunate as mine is only between the garage and utility and doesn't need to be pretty. I may add extra insulation later but, for now, I just needed the fire rated door. Soil pipes and other bits will be sorted out as well before MBC hit, then we can really take the brakes off and go at first fix. Yesterday's buzz of the week was the Hercules.

Water tight I hope

End-of-the-day score? GF framing complete, FF decked out. Snags? Scaffolding needs reset higher as the final design means they're decking out the ceiling from above. and one short interior wall is a block's width out, built on the wrong side of the like we think. But nothing insurmountable. Oh and for various reasons the panels aren't factory insulated. Hey ho, it'll still get done. Loadsa timber, steel, and cavity barriers. kitchen/ snug from the kitchen end. Steels are holed- inline with the joist webs- for cabling and ducting Upstairs deck. Amazing to watch the floor cassettes swinging in (big!) and fit so neatly. Feels pretty stiff already but I think there's some extra sections of strongback to insert between the cassettes? Perimeter of the cassettes is insulated internally with 3" PIR and yes they remembered to set them on a strip of polythene to wrap for airtightness.

Finally got a weather window and the film is going on. For comparison on slider one pane with and one without in pic

That seems a lot better. i was actually thinking the dining area would be part of the kitchen and the lounge separate or maybe with connecting doors. I haven’t checked the dimensions but ideally you’d want an eating and informal sitting area in the kitchen then a separate lounge. It looks like there is probably space for this. Then I’d have a door to the lounge in front of the stairs. The WC would be better accessed off the hall.

Great house, nice drive. Do you put your slippers on before you step on the drive?

When I first joined the site's predecessor I couldn't for the life of me figure why people were using passive infra red detectors in conjunction with insulation! "pir"

Guy from SIG has been Said it’s not the worse he’s seen - Christ knows what he’s witnessed !!! 25 year warranty I like that a lot !!!! He didn’t seem concerned or worried about any element....

I swear to God that was my line! Before filming I asked if we were to read from a script and they said no just talk in general and we'll edit it. First stuttering words out of my mouth were "Well.....it's been compared to.....a giant preying mantis.....or something out of Thunderbirds.....". Next thing we're sitting in a bar getting bladdered that evening and the news comes on the big screen. First words out of John McDermott's mouth were MINE! Then the slow realisation from the rest of the punters it was us Englishmen on the telly!

They work even when the user is blind(ed) OK, I was a bit cack-handed, let my glasses fall off my nose, and then - in - slow - motion, watched my size 10s stand on them. Waraneejit But -the good bit- I found I didn't need to see the screw head for the drill bit to engage and drive the screw. And neither did I need to be able to see the next few screws either. I could do everything by feel. Bless the inventor. Bet Torx was invented by a woman. That's it. Buying Torx only from now on.......

Sensio ones are ok. Just be sure that drilling a big hole in your stone slab is the solution you want before you do it. I know a kitchen manufacturer who grimaces when he sees ours. He puts the sockets in his kitchen on the units under the worktop.

We got our insect mesh from Mesh Direct. Specification and costs below including the very handy staple gun. The mesh was quite mould-able so you could make a sort of inverted u shape. I managed to mould ours pretty well. There were times I wished I had ordered something slightly deeper than the 100mm because once you put the u shape in you don't have alot left to staple. Got some rat mesh from the same website to cover the EPS with at ground level. Not so easy to mould or fix, particularly if on your own trying to do it. So that's a job not done yet. Here's a pic of what we did on the insect mesh. Hope this helps.

Bending the gauze into a U shape, it will try and return to flat so if you bend it and tack it to the wall side with the bend uppermost, the gauze will naturally push outward against the cladding.

This has been a good week, the new joiner started on Monday and he has really gotten through all the odds and ends that have been waiting around forever, the tiler has been on site for two days and I now have a fully tiled bathroom, utility and he has done one of the shower cubicles in an ensuite , I really didn’t think he’d get as much done in the two days, so he’s coming early tomorrow morning to do the grouting and the plumber can now fit the cloakroom, bathroom and one of the showers. The electricity meter was connected today, we should have had power at that point but it’s delayed until tomorrow, the electrician who now has a broken wrist on one side and a broken pinky on the other will be back tomorrow to do some more fitting of lights and switches, the kitchen is all hand painted so it’s ready to go. The only blip is that Scottish Water were meant to be here today for yet another inspection, they’ve been 3 times and last time we hadn’t the boundary box in so another inspection was needed! Of course they never appeared and a phone call at 4 o clock never got me anywhere, they are the worst to deal with, water connection is now holding up the pellet stove and thermal store getting commisioned, my furniture will be back on Tuesday, we had to make a decision on this as it could have gone on forever! The staircase has finally been sorted out but won’t be for a few weeks and we have a new installer for that but the firm won’t send out the glass balustrade until the installer gives all the sizes, he has said he will template it with 1/4” ply but there is a lot of glass and a tight budget now so I don’t fancy having to buy all that ply to be cut up then scrapped any ideas of what else could be used gratefully received

Nope... Wickes are extortionate for this sort of stuff as it’s non-standard ..! Thats a very good price btw - better than I can get (about £26 from memory) but you probably want to buy double that width and make it into an inverted U shape behind the cladding.

two elevations covered in graphite enhanced EPS

loads we could talk about here. I cant give you a cost off hand for my DIY EWI but I recall it was approx 60% of the quotes I was getting which, again from memory, were in the order of £90 - £120 per meter squared all in. reasons I went DIY in addition to cost saving: method statements from suppliers were often behind the times in terms of detailing. for example, I religiously foamed every joint in the EWI boards to ensure thermal continuity, most of suppliers said they didn't do this, one said they filled any gaps with base coat! I used thermally broken fixings which via a special tool are recessed below the EWI surface, these are then capped with a little EPS disc. As well as being better thermally, this also removes the risk of a proud fixing "grinning through" your render. I also used frame seal beads around all the windows, another small detail but one which greatly improves the quality of the reveal render finish and the wind tightness (no need to silicone). I used a PVC starter track, many suppliers quote aluminium which creates a cold bridge should you also go below DPC. So these were all examples of detailing which would have cost me extra or just not been done. Next up, below DPC. Several just weren't prepared to do it, still caught up in trade folklore about the sacred DPC. I think the tide is turning, many system suppliers now have below DPC details, usually called plinth EWI. Most would require the DPC be continuous so break the EWI at the same level. This has been discussed at great length on the other place, and general consensus is that there is no reason to bother breaking at the DPC for reasons of dampness. This means you could just run one pass of EWI from footing to soffit. However, using a starter track does have the benefit of providing a nice level bed for the first course of boards. In my case it also allowed me to break up the work and get the main elevations done. Next year I will install the plinth layer of EPS below the track, slightly recessed, and then go right down to the top of the footings. I fitted the boards myself. It's not too hard once you've done a few, getting the first course plumb and level is key, then it's pretty easy. An 1800mm level and a 2.4m feather edge were hand for checking flatness and plumb. I got whole elevations within a mm or two variation over the 2.4m straight edge, my renderer was very impressed which meant I'd probably gone a bit overboard! I don't much like the texture and finish of the standard thin coat render which most systems use. Avoid, in my opinion, the acrylic and silicone thin coat finishes, go for silicate which is very mineralic and matt and could be painted over in the future with a mineral paint. Another option would be a use a mineral paint over a nicely float finished base coat, that would be lovely I think and very suitable in a period building. I used Baumit render. Very good product and was very happy with the on site and phone tech support. I used their nanopor fine silicate finish which is a very fine grained and very matt, very happy with it. If you are ever over the east side of kent you are welcome to come and have a look and I'll talk you over the whole EWI experience. You can have some fish and chips on the beach afterwards.

Funny - the gate guys left some sawdust on the resin when fitting boards to the external gates - I went out and hoovered it up. You can walk on it in socks as its perfectly flat, weather permitting...

@NSS we bought the view and the private but not isolated location without much thought other than it was exactly what we wanted just about 5 miles outside our preferred area so not too bad. I can see clear to Malvern 40 miles away no buildings in between, on a good day I can pick out the buildings of Malvern town just with eye not binoculars. Swinging round we see all the way to Clee Hill in Shropshire (Ludlow is behind the hill) and that is a long way again no buildings to impede. Going the other way back up the private road which leads down to us (we had to put in 70 metres of tarmac road to get down to the plot) it is about 10 minutes walk to the butchers, post office pub etc. It was a hugely lucky plot find but expensive on groundworks.

Time to reflect on a good job done ?

I bet whoever did it was shattered when they'd finished.

The ONLY thing that would persuade me to do another build would be if we could get a plot with a view. Surrounded by other houses here, though not overlooked so reasonably private at least.

Was it a pane to apply?

Then don't tell your EPC assessor that you have them, tell them the house is so well insulated they are not needed

Well you can get prices for the materials by going to somewhere like EWI Pro, if that's what you mean? Take a look at https://retrofit.support/category/EWI-GL/

From your cupboard out to your TV points I'd certainly recommend a twin feed of WF100 (or equiv) and a pair of cat6a cables. This is what I've done to each Tv point - I've put them in to a quad plate with 1 x SAT, 1 x SAT/TV/FM (using a quadplex outlet) and then two cat6a outlets (cat5e in my case). Quadplexer - https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-tv-fm-2-satellite-quadruplex-grid-module-white/31768 Edit - for some reason I didn't read the earlier replies re tri/quad plexing. so yes, for SkyQ you will need some additional sat only sockets. I guess you may only need to do this to you main TV point as the other SkyQ boxes all link over wifi/powerline/ethernet so don't actually need the sat feeds. You're only going to do it once so perhaps put in more to future proof!

Err, no I don't think we do. In terms of the size, the only extension to the ground floor is out 3.5 metres where the current dining/kitchen area is which will end up being an open plan kitchen and dining area. The rest of the actual plot is as currently is as the rest of the extension is upstairs. We have an half acre plot, probably not easy to see from the pics.

A thread here on the subject:

GF-Plan.pdfGF-Plan.pdfWe have a 150mm reveal in the lounge/kitchen/diner, picture of kitchen from lounge. 2900mm floor to higher parts, 2750mm to lower parts apart from kitchen island which is raised by 50mm to lift the extractors. SO a 150mm drop. I also have a 150mm service void above the ceiling. (here is the build up). 250mm pre-stressed concrete first floor (large span). The lower dropped ceiling is in the hall where the Ground floor MVHR manifolds are. The room is 10m by 8m plus the dining room, see plan. The lighting in the kitchen is 3000K, whilst in the lounge 2700K, giving bright working light in the kitchen and softer light in the lounge.

I have the greatest respect for anyone holding down a full time job and family when doing a self build.

Thanks @Ferdinand. Yes its all a very subjective area, but one of the aspects in all of this I'm more comfortable with (or at least have my eyes open on) as my day job is in conservation too and involves responsibility for a range of Grade1 buildings, SSSIs, SPAs, SACs and the like. It doesn't make it any easier to navigate the vaguaries of what different people's perspectives or interpretations are on aspects of regulations, but I've been around enough conversations of this ilk that I hope if needed I'll be able to navigate through to agree the parameters for some agreed principles and approaches. Another advantage of the day job is that we'll probably already be/or have been working with some of the various officers on other work in the area which will help give us a heads up on their likely viewpoints and stances. Re your earlier note, yes, on skills such at the tree management, walling, I'll be picking these up, and we've got a good generalist to hand. Current plan is a blitz, and designing for a good 25 years plus. Skirt insulation is a good point which I'd not considered. I'll post on the energy aspects separately on here in the topic area as this is a multi-faceted element. Current design is solar/battery combo to give around 5000kwh per annum with a generator back up, and then a gas fired rayburn with backboiler for DHW & CH. There is however potential for a pico hydro but whilst the year round Kw generation on this would be fab, unless I can reduce the capital cost of the install, the initial calcs suggest it's not as good an option (and this would be a whole other area of NRW licences to apply for). I want to model this some more though.

I think this is quite an old fashioned design, especially if you are looking to sell. I cannot remember the last time I saw a house with a long lounge/dining room like that. A lot of the issues are around whether or not the stairs have to be their to allow a room in the roof. Clearly that will need cleared up before you proceed as to maximise value you should either be building that room or not have it impacting the design, so to some extent we have to ignore that issue a bit for the moment. I would look to have a large kitchen/dining room across the back of the house facing south. This would need the stairs a little further forward, but I think would still allow a second stair above them to access the roof. There are a lot of things you could do in terms of turning the stairs etc depending on the final layout. I would then have a lounge on the north side, possibly with doors opening into the dining area that is part of the kitchen. This would then allow a study where the dining table is currently shown as part of the kitchen, or a family area in a large l shaped kitchen/dining/family room. The WC could either cut into this space or go across the hall window at the front. You could get light into the hall from glass doors into the kitchen which would benefit from facing south. This effectively gives the house an extra room, either a study or family area (probably the most sellable option) in the kitchen with a separate lounge. At the moment too much of what is a modestly sized house is given over to eating space, a family would prefer two separate relaxing spaces. Downstairs I would be looking to have an actual separate utility room. It won't need a window, so can be positioned towards the back, maybe where the cupboard is.I would want a larger wardrobe in a master bedroom, you could do a walk in in that awkward space which probably adds value(again stair position dependent). I would look to add wardrobes to the other bedrooms, indeed the house does not have enough storage, you could put wardrobes on the wall between the other two bedrooms and a cupboard next to the utility room at the back. Basically I would move all the doors in the downstairs hall as far forward as possible and utilise the dark area at the back for storage//utility room(I'd check you can get the gas flue out though) Design wise, this is just personal preference, but that style of bay window is very old fashioned. It would also add costs to the build, I would just make the house longer and square it off or do something more contemporary. I would also want a lot less roof if I wasn't using the space under it.

Now I love Quinetic but where on TLC's website does it say that the IP67 switches can be used for dimming? https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/QUWP1.html? Well, HERE: Who knew? Just use the appropriate receiver module. Just trying to grow the balls to plastic prime and spray one with chrome effect paint. QUWP_Instructions.pdf

Wow indeed! I bought the watch (a 1968 Omega Seamaster 300, RN miltary issue) at a surplus sealed bid sale. It had been issued to me in 1973, I handed it back early in 1974 and it was then declared obsolete and sold off, with a load of other stuff. I put in a bid (I think for £20), just because it had been "my" watch at work, and no one else bid so it became mine. Last year we were watching Antiques Roadshow and I spotted a very similar watch, same model, same year, same back markings, being given an auction estimate of £25,000. I took photos of mine, sent them to Bonham's, who agreed to put it in their July sale this year with an auction estimate of £30k. Word got out before the sale, and I was contacted by serious collectors, and I sold it for an undisclosed price that was well over £20k. One thing I learned was that the posh auction houses, like Bonham's, charge really exhorbitant fees, both for the seller and the buyer, plus they have to charge VAT. This means that sellers don't get anything like the hammer price for items like this and buyers pay a lot more than the hammer price, too. I got a fair price for the watch and it's now pride of place in the collection of a private collector. Only around 100 of these watches were made and only a few survive, as they are a divers watch and so inevitably got abused, plus the MOD just scrapped lots of them, only very few were sold. Military watches now fetch daft prices. My everyday watch is the aircrew Seiko 7A28-7120 that I was issued with in 1984, and which was written off when I stopped flying (for work) in 1997, so I got to keep it. That's now worth upwards of £1,000 and rising. Meanwhile, the "fake" Rolex Oysterdate that I bought in Singapore for a few pounds in the early 70's turned out to be genuine, and is now being restored (with some of the proceeds from the sale of the Omega Seamaster 300) and I rather suspect that it will have to be added as a separate item on to the house insurance when I get it back. I've never been one to collect watches, or value them, so it's a bit odd that the past year has seen three old watches of mine become worth a few bob. Just a pity that I never got my hands on my ex-wife's diamond-encrusted Cartier, that was a gift presented to her when we went to a party held by Sheik Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa at his palace whilst on our honeymoon. I bet that's worth a few bob now...

The upstairs rooms will look mean unless they are 4.0m wide. What is the upstairs corridor for? Family bathroom looks wrong. Can you show adjacent ground level on elevations and sections? Lose the extra furniture in the bedrooms as it is distracting (beds, bedside cabinets and built-in cupboards only).

A few little things The two upstairs rooms, put the doors to them opposite each other on the landing, not staggered. Make them double, glass doors so you can open up the space as one when you want to and let light into the landing. Make the upstairs loo slightly larger, to allow you to bring a solar tube down inside it (boxed in) that will come out just in front of the downstairs cupboard to give some light to the back of the hall. A window above the loo door for a bit of borrowed light as well. You might need to push the stairs a bit nearer the front door for some of that. The proportions of the downstairs bathroom and en-suite need some work to properly use that awkward redundant space behind the wardrobe.

Hi all, I thought I'd do a little show and tell of my solar installation - a bit of background first, we're currently in the process of arranging a loft conversion (stalled due to party wall issues, but thats a story for another day). As part of this we thought we'd take the opportunity to get solar panels installed on the house roof. I spoke to a few companies but in the end chose Wagner Renewables - they've been mentioned and recommended a few times on the forum. They identified that my shed/office could also hold some panels as the house roof doesn't have the largest area. So today we had the shed installation done - chaps turned up bright and early, worked well, kept the work area tidy etc. They also identified that we could squeeze another 2 panels on the roof so hopped back in the van and went back to base to grab some more panels. The panels were installed on my shed roof which is EPDM on 18mm OSB. They used a simple bracket system which had neoprene seals and then roofing screws to directly screw in to the OSB - I must admit I'm a little nervous about the water tightness of it but the brackets are all under the panels so hopefully they won't be exposed to too much rain - the system is designed to be used with EPDM. Another chap worked on the interior fit out - installed a Solis 1.5Kw inverter and Tigo gateway and all the cabling. They are due back tomorrow to complete the electrical works but, so far, so good, very happy with the install.. hope it works! Once the loft conversion is underway we've got another 7 panels to get up on the main roof so the final system will be 13 x 300w panels - 3.9kWp Edit - just to add, I'm not connected to these guys in any way, just a normal customer.

Tiling done and then grout - get all the pleasure in one hit!

Ta. Tempted to grout just the "window" and "wc" walls once tiled. Tbh probably a mistake if I do as then I'll be tempted to fit the wc, shower controls, roses, towel rad etc. I'll still have to do tiling adjacent to some of them and risk splattering those elements with adhesive. Best concentrate on the tiling I guess!

Thanks everyone for your comments so far. Based upon this and reading more topics on this forum I think we will only install wet UFH downstairs and fit radiators for the bedroom floors, with electric UFH in bathrooms. My reasoning being the house should be very well insulated and based upon peoples experiences the heating will have minimal use. It seems a lot of money to install something that may not be used that often, I feel we would be better spending this money else where. Plus I believe we will have faster response times with radiators which is a important factor for bedrooms. But there's still time for me to change my mind and as I'm designing and procuring the stuff I can do this without the other half knowing ?.....so watch this space.

All done - just need to keep cars off it until we get the entrances paved next week. Then I can render wall, hang gates, plant hedge, turf front etc... I keep telling myself that we’re almost done ?

Breaking my back ( and heart ) to rip it up but almost there !

CT1 then colour matched silicon over that that can be redone as and when?