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A busy November saw all the trades coming good, albeit some were cutting it fine for the moving in day – 30th November – However, we have moved in with all the services up and running. Having said that, BT and Openreach have missed the deadlines and as a result we are without any internet, phone line or TV for at least a week! Also the master bedroom built in wardrobes are still be fitted. The landscapers have finished their work, providing us with a patio area and a driveway area which will see plenty of activity. Look closely and you should see the hedging that has been planted. 330 separate plants in all. This was a planning condition and the hedges are a mixture of Hawthorn, Beech, Holly and Maple. Locally referred to as native hedging. The turf will be laid next Spring. Our Air Tightness test was conducted by a guy from Perth - a good couple of hours away. We never set out to achieve such low levels because we didn’t want the capital outlay of such a system as well as the infrastructure it requires. Our score was 4.9 which in our eyes is very good. There are a number of minor jobs which I need to do such as touching up the paint work here and there; re-oiling some wood in places but all that can wait until we have given the whole place a deep clean. The main external jobs outstanding are the erection of the oak framed porch and the downpipes. Both of which should be completed within the next 10 days or so. Anyway, this was not a self build in the true sense of the words but it was project managed by myself and built using a main contractor and sub contractors after the TF had been erected. I hope you have not only enjoyed reading about our project but have found some useful bits of information within the blogs in order to assist yourselves with your projects, whatever that may be. Overall my experience has been a good one. It hasn’t been without its difficulties, such as additional unforeseen expenditure and additional expenditure as a result of our mistakes, or due to us changing our minds! Such examples include ordering the wrong door frame - we failed to realise we hadn't ordered a threshold suitable for level access - a mistake that cost us £1k. Changing our minds over the 3 toilets we had ordered. They simply looked lost in their respective environments so 3 new ones were ordered at an additional cost of £850. A failure to get a full grip of the scaffolding cost an additional £1k and a failure to budget correctly for the foundations and dwarf wall for the carport cost an additional £4k. Final facts and figures - Build schedule – 6 months from the day the TF arrived. Cost per sq metre - £1850 – includes everything, and I mean everything - from the scaffolding through to the landscaping and it includes the car port and porch [ still to be erected] but not the land or fees. Only two skips were used throughout the build – everything else was removed by us to the local dump or burnt on site – best investment was a £25 oil drum which we used as an incinerator. Thanks for reading - Paul.

Just looking at the product range, it seems that there has been a gradual shift away from a focus on making more effective use of energy from domestic scale renewable generation and towards becoming a competitor for conventional hot water storage systems. I'll freely admit that I hadn't noticed this shift in emphasis in the time since we first fitted the Sunamp PV. I think that one issue may be that product R&D may be being spread a bit thin as a result of the many different variants being brought to market at the same time. Just from my personal observations, the old Sunamp PV was a better engineered and finished product than the newer UniQ; just a glance at the unit when it was first unpacked highlighted this. The eHW may well be able to be fine tuned to overcome the shortcoming in it not being able to utilise excess PV generation charging very effectively, I don't know. I hope that some further development of the Qontroller is able to overcome the present inability to accept charge until the unit is ~50% discharged. I have wondered if the designers may have just missed the need to be able to store charge for use further ahead than the next 12 hours. In winter, it's important to be able to store energy whenever it's available, so that it can be used 24 to 48 hours later, avoiding the need to use grid energy. Unless you've lived with PV for a while, and seen the high degree of generation variability during the winter months, then you may not realise how important this ability to maximise energy storage for later use is, if, say, the next day is cloudy.

An oldie but a goodie!

When we did our pp application and had to do the advert in the local paper the only house within the need to notify area was ours so we duly received a letter from the council informing us that we had made an application!

looks like you (your installer) need to follow the MCS planning standards, which basically does the noise calculation to decide if its permitted development or not MCS planning standards can be found here https://www.microgenerationcertification.org/images/MCS_020_Planning_Standards_Issue_1.2.pdf i am currently waiting for quotes to install an ASHP to a property that i am refurbishing although no measurements were taken of how far away the neighbours are but there is an extension and a nissen hut between my ASHP location and the neighbours

You, me (and many others) all. Slowly though, I'm finding the more issues I face - often after @Onoff levels of procrastination - the more confident I get at sorting them out. Progress is slow however. For me, it's about persistence: consistent persistence. A good few days each month find me mooning around in avoidance mode. Tired, irritable, grizzly. For me BH is a life-saver. Without it, we'd be in a complete mess, and broke. The worst thing is the lack of control. Many of us are (or recently were) professionally at the top of our games. We know (knew) our stuff. And then we decided to build a house. Knowingly threw ourselves into a whirlpool. How many people would have the balls to do that?

just a little something to keep @Onoff going. The result of my grouting yesterday - still a lot to do but it looks a lot better now.

So we had planning approved and were feeling good about being able to link up our engineer & architect to get started on the details....and then.... had a re-think. We started out planning a re-model and changed our minds as the compromises were too many and the costs were getting high so a rebuild (esp with VAT bonus) was making more sense. But, we didn't really go completely back to the drawing board - we should have. Post-planning we had a good look at the plot, house position and neighbour's new house and realised we were losing an opportunity to improve the view, the plot usage and potentially aesthetics. Turning the back of the house ~15 degrees would open up the views and make the house run more parallel to the plot's rectangular shape which will mean a new planning app - based on feedback from the drop in session with the planning dept. So, to avoid wasting too much time we're now linking up the architect and engineer so they can work together on the modified plans and also on detailed design/structural plan so we can move forward quickly post the next approval (fingers crossed). But we have made progress of sorts - had the ground investigation holes today. It always seemed a shame to pay for holes and a report when you know (based on the house 7m away) what the ground is. Today proved that the ground is surprise surprise..... compacted sand which the drillers could only get 3.5m deep into despite a lot of machine noises! I'm hoping this bodes well for a concrete raft without needing too serious strip foundations. The trial pits and smaller sampling rig also uncovered the same ground across the site. Probably not a lot to see happening the rest of this year ?

If the CIL has been implemented in your area be aware that the 100sqm rule is applied in a strange way... Suppose you knock down a 200sqm house and build one 250sqm. The new build is 250sqm which is over 100sqm so the CIL applies. However they then deduct the demolished area leaving 50sqm chargeable.

Ive used lots like that in Nepal, India etc - normally without the cone or seat though. Good aim is soon developed.

Good that you are in. Always seems a bit of a rush at the end.

But then a Russian, who has been assiduously watching my online activity, will pop up and claim the "nobody road" and then where will I be?

Nothing that would affect us paltry selfbuilders. It’s required for national significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs)...

Stick it on Facebook...

Didn’t you buy the plot with PP already, ergo this has already been done or clarified as not needed?

Just be grateful that the planning laws and costs don't have a quantum entanglement with a parallel universe that has even worse regulation. On the other hand, that could go some way towards explaining them.

Yes, I think the lawmakers understood quantum uncertainty and made provision in case, through the collapse of a wave function, an owner might wink into existence at an inconvenient moment. I may be at the start of my build journey but I am already sufficiently jaded that even that would not surprise me

I am neither a lawyer nor an expert just a mere clueless first-time builder. I am having to issue an "Ownership Certificate C" because the planners asked that the "nobody road" be included within the red delineated area of the area plan for my build (don't know why but I assume its because the red zone always needs to show a link to a public road). The next step in the logical thread is that I have to notify all the owners of any land within the red-delineated zone. And because nobody knows who owns the "nobody road", I have to advertise so that nobody can respond to say they own the "nobody road". Does that make sense? Is that Article 13, I think so?

@Gav_P if a neighbour owns vacant land beside you but you don't know their home address, an ad is then required to serve the pp. it's up to them to keep an eye out for planning applications next to their land.

While I don't know anything about the technicality of TPOs, I do know something about the difference between developers and self-builders. Here's not the place for the backstory. Now (four years after starting) I'd just bloody well get on with it. Every other builder round here would..... Understandably you are keen to keep it legal honest and truthful, (to plagiarise a phrase). And any LPA functionary, on finding some form of breach or error, has to (I think is actually required to) give you advice as to how to proceed. Pending that advice, or a response from the LPA, get on with it. Buy a Brino time lapse camera, set it up and evidence the fact that the trees are not suffering. Just Bloody Do It. A thicker skin is the norm for self-building after a while.

Superb, well done @Redoctober I've enjoyed reading your blog, hopefully your do one more entry once the last few jobs are done.

Better to get it right than compromise and live with years of niggles about it as a result. In theory you will only qualify for zero VAT rating for the prep work (so soil investigation for example) when the PP is approved but given that you already have a PP approved on the plot I doubt any contractor will ask too many questions about that so I imagine you are getting zero rating anyway. Will a CIL be added to the PP? If so you will need to apply to remove it BEFORE starting any work.

Even I make mistakes... ? The errors seem to vary a bit between joists... Roughly 20 - 30 mm generally This photo was taken with the other end hard up against the joist on the other wall, so here the error is 15 or 16 mm. Thanks for watching my back.

@recoveringacademic as the wall plate at the bottom isn’t supporting any weight, it’s just for compression purposes, you could ask the BCO if just adding a lower piece - bolted to the wall and screwed up into the wall plate above - would satisfy the request.

Legal definition of a tree is where measured at 1.5m above ground level - anything less than 75mm radius doesn’t have to be in a tree survey and cannot be protected by a TPO however they are covered by Hedgerow regulations and potentially by a conservation area. BS5387:2012 has the definitions and rules for RPA too.

in scotland they quite often put a tag on a tree that has aTPO on it if its in a build site so no excuses for builder to say he didn,t know

Congratulations, looks great and feels so solid.

The council have an implied right of access under common law, the same right of access that allows the postman, delivery people etc to walk on to your property. Back when I caught a council snooper on CCTV climbing over our security fencing, walking around the site with no PPE on etc, I looked into this in detail. What I found is that you can remove the implied right of access for everyone except the utility companies and emergency services if you wish, just by giving notice. In my case I wrote to the council, recorded delivery, withdrawing the implied right of access for all council staff, contractors etc, until further notice. I backed this up with signs on the fencing: Notice removal of implied rights - blanked.pdf I removed my prohibition on access when we'd finished the build, so that bin men etc could do their job. I also specifically granted a right of access to LABC, for building inspections.

As I said before I love the traditional look with the underlying modern build techniques. Any chance you can clad that ASHP with matching brick slips?

Lovely. Many congratulations. Gives me something more to aspire to...

Looks fantastic! Time to relax and enjoy what you have build.

Saw something similar to that and they built a pair of slide out shelves below them for the basket to stand on. Brilliant idea ..!

Back on the subject of washing...... Consider mounting your washer and dryer higher up if you have the room. Makes it so much easier on the back! You need to design the carcass/units well as it’s subject to a fair amount of vibration if you’ve got your big pants on a 1400 spin Heres mine and I don’t think I could go back to ground mounted.....

The HA won't care. "Renewables" Check, box ticked, job done.,

Please tell me you swung your leg up onto the conveyer whilst wielding your Swiss thus revealing your red soles. Or did you just high kick the said security tag into the veg isle thus thawting the person who bought a lowly security enabled cucumber? That will learn those closet Hendrix drinkers

+1. There's some proper weirdos on here...

My understanding is they are working on a new controller which has an integrated solar diverter. However, there is no release date. But, I’ve had no information that suggests this controller will deal with the 50/90% issue. Which if it doesn’t they've not really solved the fundamental problem. I do think though we need need to remind ourselves again (as as been said a number of times in this thread) that the contributors of this forum don’t necessarily represent the ‘mass market’.

My understanding is that the council has the power to decide your address. They can accept, reject or change your address under legislation summarised here. https://www.geoplace.co.uk/addresses/street-naming-and-numbering/existing-legislation They can charge for this service under section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003. The above is different from getting the details onto the PAF file.

I half buried an old bucket in one trench that we had to keep pumping out. I drilled holes around the top edge, just about the depth it was buried to, and added some lumps of crushed concrete in the bottom to hold it down. The pump sat on that, and effectively drained all the water from the trench. The only slight snag I found was that the float switch would sometimes get caught by the side of the bucket and not drop down enough to turn the pump off. Not really a problem if you keep an eye on it.

One plus out of all this and I'm really struggling to find any is the missus's attitude to the stable block has changed. Whenever she complains of my tools lying about I get "You've got a double garage, a shed and the stable!" I've been saying for years stable is unfit structurally imo to store/work in & needs to be demolished and rebuilt. Her most recent idea was to put all the kids toys and keepsakes in lidded plastic boxes and store in the stable. When I said the (bowed, asbestos) roof leaks so badly and there's running water on the floor she said we could put a tarp over it. I gently suggested yesterday that had she stored everything there this wall would have come down on it all! As an aside she ventured into the bathroom the other day and remarked how quiet and draught free it was in comparison to the other rooms. I said "That's because I try and do it right!"

I used to grow mint at my last house and that is very invasive so I buried a plastic barrel In the ground which stopped any spread into the surrounding ground.

Worth remembering that thermostatic showers need a temperature differential between incoming DHW temp and your selected output temp to work/mix properly. For most I believe that differential is around 6 - 10C. I costed out using an ASHP to satisfy all DHW provision, and the preheat to 40C then top up with immersion alternative. Heating to 50C and based on 300litres, and an ASHP COP of 2.4, I found the cost to be the same. Sure the ASHP electricity cost for preheat was less due to higher COP, but this was offset by the immersion top up cost. If it costs the same, is there really any benefit to complicating your DHW system / operation? I concluded there wasn't. I should point out that I don't have any PV (diversion) to DHW.

Timber frame every time if you want an airtight, well insulated house. Goes up (and can be weathertight) quickly, dimensionally more accurate than brick and block, easier to get better than BR u values and I think you get lower noise levels (if you add sound insulation in the studwork and floors) than b&b. The outer skin can also go up anytime so you're not driven by brickies' timescales. The only thing I wish we had done was use SIPs for the roof - easier to make airtight and insulate than a traditional timber roof.

Tonight we have moved in to the house, it’s not what my idea of moving in would be there’s stuff everywhere and still no staircase as we await it’s arrival sometime in the next few days, but we have a bed a sofa and a fully functioning kitchen and toilets hopefully I’ll get sorted out before Xmas! The move today had to happen as we spent a sleepless night last night in the caravan with minus whatever degrees and the gas stopped functioning properly, I’m told it doesn’t freeze but stops doing what it’s meant to so the decision was made to just move in. our other problem just now is the pellet stove, that’s a fortnight it’s been on and has used half a ton of pellets, the installer having been very good at the beginning suddenly more or less left us to it in terms of how to operate it most economically and didn’t install the controller saying we’d need to get our spark to put it in and we’ve not been able to pin him down as he’s so busy, I’m hoping @Declan52 is going to read this and come back to me with some advice on operating, we had the stove set at 70 degrees which was what the installer left it at but it just kept on burning up more and more pellets very rarely going off, we decided to lower it to 60 but although this saved on pellets the water wasn’t hot enough for a bath. We haven’t been heating the house to a great heat only 16 degrees with the ufh but tonight we had to up it and turn the radiators on upstairs as there seemed to be cold coming down into the ground floor from the mezz, don’t get me wrong I’m warm enough but I’m worrying about the cost of the pellets as we could end up using a ton a month at this rate! Any advise gratefully received!

Yes I did. But I am now going back to planning with a design that is similar but sufficiently different to require a whole new planning application. This whole dance about the "nobody road" was indeed done last time but frustratingly the law requires that the (pricey) local newspaper ad be at most 21 days before the date of submission of my new application.

Something else: to have anything like reliable power you'll need a mix of sources, storage and some way to control what power is used when. This is not terribly difficult but not the sort of thing that typical electricians, etc, have any clue about. Individual suppliers of PV, wind turbines, batteries, inverters and so on will tell you about their individual bits but none of those will have the “big picture” of how your system operates. You'll need one person who does have that big picture and also understands the details of how to set up each of the parts so they work together properly. There are very few people with a suitable track record to qualify them for that job so your best bet is for that person to be you. I'm thinking here of a chap in Aberdeenshire who built a very nice wooden house which was off-grid for very much the same sort of connection-cost reasons. He had a mix of sources of information with different people commissioning different parts and giving conflicting advice. For reasons which aren't clear to me he was advised by one supplier to remove one of the diversion dump loads on his battery and for other reasons which are also unclear this resulted in a fire in his utility room. Luckily it was contained and the damage was fairly limited. But it was evident from his description that he didn't really understand quite basic aspects of the system so was easily mislead.

Absolutely right. Although strangely enough, I am already starting to get used to it. No, you are right. In my case, access from the public highway to my plot is along an unadopted road owned (as all the neighbours agree) by nobody. Hence I have to advertise so that nobody can come forward and say they own that road.