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Spring cleaning at the hut today The £250 wood burner can chuck out masses of heat, might have to open the window soon? @JSHarris that’s the led lights you gave me sparkling away. The battery didn’t need it’s annual boost this year and is showing 13.8v on the controller.

And the madness continues

Not a practical joker, then, @ProDave? I remember the "cling film over the loo" trick from uni days, where at least one young lady of our acquaintance ended up with a soggy bottom when peeing into a loo that had had the cling film treatment...

Its for precisely this reason that in periods of heavy weather I cling film all the bowls over. #paranoia

It's really hard to be sure, but if the MVHR intake filter is an F7 (the finer pollen filter) then that should filter down to about 1µ, so will remove the majority of the smoke particulates. I suspect that the smell is from trace amounts of volatiles, that most probably aren't particularly harmful, especially in a situation where they are only present for a short period of time. I would guess that these could be reduced using an activated carbon filter, but an activated carbon filter is likely to need more frequent replacement than a normal intake filter.

Instead of getting on with the big flow and return ducts. I decided to have a beer and share the monstrosity that is my mvhr manifolds ?

A few 10% off offers at the Exeter Elexshow: http://elexshow.info/category/news/ http://elexshow.info/register/

Thanks @lizzie, my extractor also has a easily detachable grease filter that I should and will clean more often now we are re-circulating. My MHRV extract is about 1.5m away, so that's good. Hadn't considered a grease filter in there, but will see if BPC can supply something now. Thanks!

I doubt that you'll find a battery system cost effective, TBH. I'm fitting one, but I'd be the first to admit that the cost benefit is at best a bit marginal, but for us, the benefit of having a backup power supply during power cuts makes it worth fitting. I'd get someone to look over your SAP calcs and check to see how much you need in terms of renewables to get to A100. We're A107 with just 6.25 kWp, in an MBC house that's all electric, so getting to zero carbon (effectively A100) shouldn't be that difficult.

Yes it was, but the points awarded for the performance elements were supposed to have been checked by BC for compliance with the CfSH criteria, so there was a crossover between planning and building control, in effect (planning stipulated it, but building control were required to verify performance-related aspects).

I think the building industry is rotten and the so called ‘trades’ the professionals who charge us significantly more than they charge developers are the worst. There are few real tradesmen around these days...I was lucky with my wonderful carpenter who was the saviour of the build. Generally it seems the standards of building in this country have sunk very low. I do know of cases where NHBC have paid out....not easily but they did....I acknowledge that is not usual either. I think the poor standards evident in mass building do transfer to us too.....just look at issues with slabs, timber frames, bricks, blocks,, windows, poor plumbing to name a few that have been discussed on this forum I had my last house built 30 years ago by a builder (now quite a prestigious small developer) who was and is a personal friend. The general house build quality then to now is very different, he still builds to a high quality and charges for it. If we had been going to build a ‘conventional’ house he would have built it but as we wanted tf passiv style he said not for him so we ended up with so called experts who in reality knew probably less in a lot of areas than the more experienced members of this forum. I think there is a little bandwagon of people setting themselves up to ‘help’ selfbuilders(at a cost) and it does the industry no favours. It is not just my own personal experience I refer to I have spoken to others who have been down similar roads. Because they are ‘professionals’ the warranty providers and building inspectors like them.......more than they do Joe Bloggs the self builder doing his own stuff and doing to it an undoubtedly higher standard. Its all a racket......if only we could tell them all to go and put their warranties where the sun don’t shine. Unfortunately we self builds have to stick with the frustrating situation if we ever want to sell or get a mortgage.

He just accepted the data given to him via email. I offered to send the specs of the house from the contract, together with the air test chit and some photos, but in the event he had lodged the certificate before I sent them to him.

I get that on and on but there is a farm behind me so not that surprising. Doesn't happen constantly though as it's just a 'country smell' afaic but wouldn't want it in the house!

Can you please look at the cover the NHBC claim to provide then reconsider this post. Firstly the NHBC claim that builders must comply with their standards to be NHBC registered and that they inspect all new developments. Indeed they give out awards to site managers. This is supposed to give you some comfort that the build of your house has had some oversight over and above building control. The house is then insured with the NHBC from the date of completion, you are also insured against some losses pre completion. In the first two years the warranty is with the builder but the NHBC are supposed to provide a resolution service if you cannot get the builder to fix something, which was exactly the position we were in to begin with. They are also supposed to become liable if the builder does not meet its obligation to fix things. They say that as part of their resolution service they will investigate the defects. In years 3-10 they are supposed to cover problems arising from the house being incorrectly built. The house comes with an NHBC warranty from the day it is completed, it isn't something you buy later. In our case the NHBC simply said there was nothing wrong and that was the end of it. Only surveyors reports and the threat of bad publicity and legal action got anything done. Even after the builder fixed it the NHBC never accepted any wrong doing.

Yes we are in the country where “liquid muck” is spread over the fields but easy to switch the MVHR off for a while, better than living in a town with all the other invisible pollutants in my opinion !

The regulations that apply are those in force on the date that you submit for building regs approval, and cannot be changed if the rules subsequently change, unless by agreement. As an example, we were originally required to meet Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4, but that was scrapped just before we started the build, so I applied to have the CfSh requirement lifted (only because I didn't want to build the stipulated bike shed) and this was agreed.

Welcome if the footings are already in then you need to ascertain what has been done for building regulations, what is paid and what version of the regs the build was started under. I would also check very clearly that there was no CIL liability or exemption registered, as that could be a very expensive finding at the end. Not sure on the VAT position either - @newhome is there any guidance on what could be classed as a golden brick plot..?

Yes 150mm was the size of the hole needed. In the end I did not cut the holes until I had the vents though.

@Moggaman, chuck "mvhr bonfire" in the search box (no quotes) and a few interesting threads will pop up. There's chat in "Why Insulate?", "MVHR Intake", "Carbon Filter" etc.

In the past couple of years we've had maybe three or four occasions when we've had to turn the MVHR off for a couple of hours because of smoke outside, but if we didn't have MVHR then those were days when we'd have had to go around closing windows and vents to keep the smoke out anyway. At least with MVHR just flicking the switch to turn it off fixes the problem until the smoke clears outside.

I thought it was a more realistic portrayal than you normally ever see on grand designs. It did feel a bit uncomfortable watching that poor woman have a melt down but these things happen when you start building. I would have been making the architect or structural engineer pay for the roof. It was designed wrong and failed and could have been a lot worse if it had slid another inch.

Watched it last night. The editorial bias was close to obscene. Doubt we'll watch GD again. I can stand on a bridge over the M6 and watch cars crash any day.

Think I'd fit a smoke detector in the intake if I ever did it. The scare story I love is about the burst pipe in the passive house. It was so well sealed the owners couldn't open the inward opening doors from the outside and could only look through the windows at their possessions floating about! ?

Yes but a lot of those B&Q tiles are absolute terrible quality, whoever is tiling needs to have a good look at them before they start. Eurocladdings Birmingham are my go to place, there is some shocking stuff there too but prices are starting at £5-6 per sq m

All good stuff above, but do remember there are three modes of sound transmission and you need to tackle them all equally. AIR-TO-AIR TRANSMISSION - e.g. through holes and other apertures. This is usually the floor or ceiling junctions - seal these carefully. Also, think about the doors (usually the weakest point) and if you have MVHR and were counting on gaps under the doors you will have to think again. This one is a lot more effort to solve, requiring baffles in the air-flow. VIBRATION - e.g. vibrating drywall. As you mention "daughter singing" this may be less of an issue, vibration becomes more of a problem at lower frequencies. Staggered stud and resilient bar solves this problem. TRANSMISSION THROUGH SOLID MATERIALS - which you can solve with the techniques mentioned above - mass (double plasterboard) and rockwool - no more than 65% of the void. If you decide to go with double-plasterboard, suggest you consider a flexible "glue" (I used Green Glue - probably have some left lying around if interested) between the sandwich and pay attention to sealing all the way round on both layers, plus stagger and seal all joints. Done right this technique will tackle all three modes, above, to some degree.

I find B&Q a bit like the Curate's Egg, good in parts. If you know what you're buying, then they can be very good (were even better when they were still giving a universal 10% discount on Wednesdays). I've been pleasantly surprised at how well a cheap, own brand (really a no-name Chinese make) mitre saw has held up. On the other hand, I've bought some over-priced crap from them in the past, notably some rubbish plumbing fittings. On balance, I tend to go to Wickes now, as they seems to generally be better value, and because of the one-way system around that bit of the A36 in Salisbury means that I pretty much have to pop into Wickes before passing B&Q anyway.

We bought all of our bathroom tiles from them plus my brewshed. No issues, quality is good for the price. It does help that I'm 5min drive from my nearest store

I bought all my floor tiles from B@Q and they were very reasonable and look great.

Bought tiles for two of my ensuites from b&q after getting fed up sourcing from the internet and IIRC they were about £14 per metre look lovely when installed

None of us knew all this “once upon a time”, personally I have thoroughly enjoyed the learning curve ? and this forum is a brilliant way for knowledge to be shared, all hail the forum ?

Get some LayFlat JG or Hepworth and it’s nowhere near as a pita as the generic push fit stuff is. I’ve just put about 400m of 15mm through a 2-storey TF and it was a doddle ( with a pair of helping hands ). The flow rate with 10mm is very low, and you’ll notice a house piped with a mix of 10 & 15 will show just how different they are. If you’re going 22mm backbone to 10mm legs throughout then you’ll be fine, but you should choose one discipline and stick to it. Hepworth ( aka Hep2O ) also uses wafer thin stainless inserts so the internal bore isn’t compromised. The JG ones are terrible by comparison and choke the pipe at every joint / junction ?

Did the fixings for the battens only screw to the Panelvent? I made sure that all our battens were carefully lined up so that they were ring shank nailed through the Panelvent into the underlying studs in the frame. This was made easier as MBC had marked the centreline of the studs with a white chalk line on the breather membrane. IIRC, we used 75mm ring shanks to nail the 50 x 25 battens in place, so allowing 12mm for the Panelvent there should be around 38mm of each nail that went into the underlying stud.

We went MBC timber frame, and arranged our own follow-on trades. I'm mostly happy with the result, but I'd do some things differently if I were to start over. If I had more money, I'd get a decent builder or project manager to run the job under my close supervision. If I had less money and/or more time, I'd consider doing more myself. Either way, I think I'd go with some form of concrete construction. Most likely this would be ICF, possibly with separately-applied external insulation. I'd insist on a screed or concrete flooring upstairs. MVHR would be the first thing I'd immediately spec in any new house. I don't think I could live in a house without it again. I'd definitely shoot for similar levels of insulation and airtightness as I have now (0.6 ACH, U-values of 0.10, 0.11 and 0.12 for the floor, roof and walls respectively). I think the Passivhaus standards in these areas aren't a bad starting point. I'd probably go for cheaper windows (we definitely overspent) and I'd make sure that the window suppliers were responsible for installation. I'd include heating in the bathrooms (one of our biggest oversights) and would provide proper cooling via the MVHR system along with the very effective floor cooling we have at the moment. I might actually move away from carpets in the bedrooms and use rugs that could be taken up in summer. That would allow floor cooling upstairs too. I'd definitely consider a basement if the site were in any way tight. I have external blinds on most windows - doing this again, I'd have even more, and despite living in a safe area, I'd make them security versions in a few key places. I'd add concealed flyscreens to bedroom windows to allow for overnight purge venting without insects coming in. I'd make sure to allow for concealed blackout blinds in all bedrooms. I'd get a lighting designer involved. While we have more than the standard ceiling warts (downlights), I'm sure a decent designer could have provided us with a much nicer result.

I built an mbc timber frame timber clad house and think I would do it the same again. What I would definately do the same having lived in the house now for 2 years now is to build another airtight super insulated house whatever the construction method was. The value added to quality of life by living in a warm dry house with fresh air and constant temperature far outweighs any savings in energy costs.

You can access more Sky content via Sky Store & Now TV Apps. Really like the Roku boxes, got 2x express and one stick, they all 'just work' and support all the on-demand services. Use them more than linear TV these days.

Errr .... ?

On the new model its a lot faster to do everything. YouTube works fine as well using the app.

NHBC were hopeless in my experience. Just kept referring us back to the developer who was also hopeless and completely ignored all snagging issues as they were simply getting on with building more sub standard houses. The whole development covering many different house styles had multiple issues and the developer and NHBC weren't interested in addressing any issues. Never did get my snagging list addressed. In the end we had them all fixed at our expense as it just wasn't worth the time and effort continually fighting them. We decided that life was too short. We used to go most weekends when the house was under construction to see how things were progressing. One day we arrived to see the lintel above the back door not even reaching across the other side. It was a few inches short so completely useless. NHBC would still have been happy to sign that house off as they wouldn't even have known but WTF! Where is the quality control?! We reported it and it did get addressed. We didn't get our cavity wall insulation installed even though we had been handed a guarantee for it. It became evident later on when the OH put a vent for a tumble dryer in and then installed an outside tap on a different wall and there was no evidence of any insulation in the cavity. The developer tried to say that it was 'settled' so there would be areas of voids but we made a huge fuss so they sent a surveyor to appease us in the end. He drilled holes in every wall and looked in with a camera. His face was a picture when he found no evidence of insulation anywhere and they did address that issue and filled with beads. Told our neighbours who checked theirs and it appeared that a whole batch of houses had been missed but the developer maintained it was just our house and they were simply ignored.