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One of the things that modelling cannot get exactly right (I believe) is local topography, we are in a flat location near the Atlantic and (in my opinion) get a lot of windwash that can suck the heat from the outer skin unless there is no wind (rare). @JSHarris is in a hollow and a suntrap which may be why his overheating at times is not quite what the calculations showed. We are yet to have a summer with our south facing conservatory so we are yet to see how it performs but so far (spring) it’s been great. edit to add, I did no modelling at all, just gut reaction on what I felt was right and followed passive house principles. Let’s hope I was right ?

Thanks again chaps. Seems very solid.

Welcome. That ever so slightly reminds of Ricardo Bofill’s cement factory conversion in Barcelona. That is also made from silos, albeit 30 of them with an area of 500 sqm. https://twistedsifter.com/2011/04/cement-factory-conversion-ricardo-bofill-barcelona/ Ferdinand

I actually like the variation in cedar colours and random lengths. We received many samples inc many mentioned above and ended up chosen a supplier through travis perkins. They where one of the cheaper ones which was a unexpected bonus.

Right a brief summary. I bought an old bungalow, 1942, in the greenbelt in hertfordshire Two years ago. I put in a couple of LDC's and a NCS in order to wake up my planners and establish my permitted developement rights. I then put in an application to extend the existing bungalow from about 650 sq ft to aprox 2600sq ft. The planning officer advised that he would not pass it because of the design. I withdrew it, and re-submitted a new design of about 3000sq ft and got it passed. I bullied the planning officer, who has the personality of a plant. One that has'nt been watered for several months. Now i could go ahead and build this, although i don't really like the design. However i do have it as my fall back position. If i were to build it, I would just sell it, because i have no need for a 3000sq ft house. If however i could build Two houses instead, i would be able to sell One, and keep the other to live in. I then drew up Two houses and put it in for planning permission. It rightly got refused for basically "Over developement in the greenbelt". Being on this forum, and reading lots, and lots on the internet, i went back to the drawing board. I believe that i have now got a design for Two houses, and that i have demonstrated that they would be less harmful to the Greenbelt than my Existing permission to extend to 3000sq ft. This is where the people with clever socks come into play. My Design and access statement is 32 pages of A4, and there are 26 pages at A3 of drawings. I am hoping to submit it early next week, and i have gone over it several times. However, i like the idea of a few other people reading it, people that may be able to say, "You missed this or that" etc. I can't put it up here, due to it's size, but if there are any people who fancy wasting an hour of there life, and fancies have a read let me know by P.M. If you give me your email, i can send it directly to you. I know you are all busy, but for anybody who does give it a go, I will donate £10 per person to the Dogs Trust (Where i got my boy from) Regards Jim

We pay about £150 each time we have a 2500L septic tank pumped out every 24 months. It's just 2 years now so will be getting the treatment plant pumped out for the first time soon, and then take guidance from the tanker driver if it was over due or could go longer next time.

That's a bit unfair (about BigJimbo). You (or rather the conveyancer who first registered the land and didn't do it properly) have got into a very difficult situation. No doubt you do own the land in question, but if the Land Registry map is wrong it is up to you to get the Land Registry to fix the error. If you don't the problem is going to recur. (In my experience conveyancers are pretty stupid people who can't deviate from their stupid list of questions and won't help you.) In the first instance I would ask the Land Registry for their view. They are usually very helpful.

Things take a while when you are self building don't they? So, back to this circular rooflight internal finishes joinery. I thought you'd all like an update, particularly @Onoff who I was expecting on site back in November ? Here is what has been done. Firstly, there was a slight thermal bridging issue with the metal frame for the roof light being inside the thermal envelope. Got some drips earlier in the year when plaster was drying out and condensing up there. Not a huge amount we could do easily but I have at least stuck some aerogel (left over and lying around) on those areas. Those are the silver triangle pieces. Hopefully there will be less moisture (than plaster drying out) when we are living in it. Back in Jan the tackers said they would have no problem with that rooflight meaning that HWMBO was left with stud wall construction only. And this week was the week for them to do it. They turned up with a flexi 6mm board (that they also said was moisture resistant). They used some plasterboard to batten out slightly from the square bits of the hexagon, some 25mm battens a little bit further out and then some creative battening across the corners and then they bent the 6mm board into shape and fixed it. Today they did the top bit (no photo, too dark when I got home). But they have left the plasterboard about half an inch short of the glass and made sure that the black edge is covered (in case the finished skim isn't quite circular - otherwise the absolutely circular black edging would show it). I'll post again after the plasterer has been in on Monday - hopefully he'll have no issue with it. But so far so good. Did have to hire a huge tower scaffold though. Ours only goes up about 3m and they needed the platform for this work at over 5m. Its still pretty hairy standing on a step ladder on top of the platform but even I can reach the roof light from the top. Bodes well for painting.

I'm not at all wrong, check the regs. You must not allow suction to occur on the main at any time, and you have no way of knowing, with a directly connected pump set, what the mains pressure is when the pump is running. The flow rate is neither here nor there; it's the dynamic pressure in the main that's critical. If the water company have advised you that direct connection of a pump set to their main is legal, without some form of positive control measure to guarantee that the pressure at the main connection cannot drop below the minimum positive pressure required to ensure that contamination is never drawn into the main, then they are wrong.

I agree with Dave Little bit more exspensive But cleaner and go can go years without being emtiedb We had to replace the vendors tank as part of the build We I staled a treatment plant in ours Neighbour chose to have a septic tank They are regretting there decision now

Just purchased another Geberit wc frame, model, 111.292.00.1, same as the one above to that's 3 I've got now. All because SWMBO wants the 3 wcs the same. Impulse purchase but £108 brand new & delivered.

Without a doubt I would fit a small treatment plant, and without a doubt I would choose one that works on the air blower principle like Graff, Vortex, Biopure or Conder (I chose the Conder) You will get a much cleaner effluent, you can manage with a 20% smaller drainage field, and there is very much less chance of the drainage field blocking. Septic tanks are likely to come under more stringent rules and a lot of people are going to be forced to upgrade very soon.

Best of luck!

Don't have the time to read it, but my story as input: We purchased an old bungalow on about 0.25 acres. Approx 90m2. We got approved for a replacement of 330m2. So far so good, alighned to your experience. However, before we purchased the developer who owned the bungalow attempted 3 times to get planning for 2 houses. He started with large houses and scaled downwards with each iteration, by his last attempt the 2 houses were smaller than our single dwelling. Planners insisted it was "over-development" and then aspects like over-bearing etc came into play. Our single dwelling probably has similar bearing but was not deemed an issue.

I swear my BiL got bought one of these devices one Christmas. We sat having a beer throwing random questions at it. Discussed the whole "listening in" thing with it in ear shot. Neither of us are golfers but as a test we started talking about golf. Within minutes golf related emails in his Inbox.

Reminds me of the castle I built for my daughter...

When the home owners complained and protested this is how they were treated by Taylor Wimpy... What a grotesque corporate culture exists at Taylor Wimpy, customers who complain about their shoddy houses are branded as criminals.

It's the negative attitude that gives me the hump. It seems that as soon as a proposal lands on thier desk, the first thought is "How can i refuse this" If you fancy reading mine, another £10 to the dogs trust ?

Love what you are doing. I do think you should have one of the roofs with a missile coming out the top.

There may be some inspiration for you in one of the houses shortlisted for House of the Year 2018. Made in concrete cylinders cast from corrugated formwork, it is called VEX. https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing-page/awards/riba-regional-awards/riba-london-award-winners/2018/vex https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/riba-house-of-the-year-2018-two-more-homes-added-to-shortlist/10037431.article F

Mine wouldn't have been, at least easily. Water table == ground level or higher on my site most of the year so some care to get the bottom of the EPS out of the ground would have been needed. This was one of the things which made me concerned about a passive slab so @ADLIan's comments are relevant in some cases.

Probably not helpful to you, but a friend had a similar problem. He was thinking of building his 250sqm house and changed the design so he "accidentally" ended up having a wall approx. In the middle and bathroom on each side of the house. Also there was plumbing for kitchen next to each bathroom but only 1 kitchen was put in. The wall in the middle obviously needed a door otherwise would be 2 seperat houses. It was approved by planners. Next thing is just to complete and than do a renovation after where there comes a second kitchen and closing of the doorway. Like I said, not quite on topic as it might be not what you want, just an idea

@JSHarrisJeremy - I would refer you to manufacturers test data on this one. Insulation in floors under the DPM can also experience the same hydrostatic pressure as basement walls (unless very well drained)

I see that Taylor Wimpey are in the news for building houses with weak mortar. Rather a sobering read. Is your mortar up to scratch? Interestingly gagging clauses were used to try and stop the affected families from talking about this experiences. The estate where neighbours began to ‘vanish’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47816530

Morning all, thanks for the warm welcome. Not sure what ICBM's are Onoff, but the floors were perforated, there were ducts in the sides, machinery at the rear and gantries on the top, ladders attached inside and out, a lid on each on the roofs, they hadn't been used as grain silo's for some years I suspect as we have been here 32 of those and the folks before didn't use them. The Farm was a working one in the 50's and then sometime in the late 60's early 70's it was sold at auction which then decided it's fate of being chopped up into many areas and sold off as "amenity" spaces of an acre or so, we bought the house, 300 year old barn, a small stable and sand school and about an acre field. Over the years we have managed to buy another 90 odd acres along with other buildings, but there are still 10 + owners of the original farm. OK....here are your photo's, not finished yet, still to put in the bathrooms and kitchens. Underfloor electric heating in all three, hubby managed to cut off the top of his middle finger, break the one next to it and quite severly damage the little finger mixing the screed with a "mudley" let this be a warning to one an all..(a) don't rush the job (b) don't ask your friend who was a milkman to actually handle this machine (bless him, he's 73 and has NO idea on safety measures) (c) don't lean in too close with the bag because it's windy. 60 odd years of doing this job himself, day in day out and NEVER a problem, now he only has 7 1/2 fingers left! We have an amazing friend who did the wood structure inside, hubby took three weeks to cut all the cedar shingles to fit the corrugated profile. they are 5 metres round. The metal entrance doors are now windows pic 2.

Local Authority Building Inspector has been out 7 times so far. Call prior to 10am & he comes out that day. He would not normally visit that many times but he has been so helpful. He knows I am a novice & said right at the start if I was ever unsure & needed advice to call. My build has just entered its 3rd year so I am not taking up too much of his time.

With the 2019 season now here, I've spent the last couple of weekends doing a bit of tarting up around the outside of the wee house. Little things that you don't think really matter, but the end result looks far more 'finished'. I was never very sure how to complete the gable ends of the house- whether to box them in or not- but eventually decided to kill two birds with one stone and use the space for a log store. I think it looks pretty good, and it's tempting to do the same on every side of the house, although those elevations do see a lot more wind and rain. My current obsession with processing my log pile is all down to a fantastic book I was given: 'Norwegian Wood- chopping, stacking, and drying wood the Scandinavian way'. Highly recommended, and an absorbing read even if you never intend to ever light a fire. The other bit of work has been to create a gravel path around the side of the house, and so properly edge the gravel area underneath the house. The only downside of all this work is that it makes the lumpy lawn look even worse than it did before

I didn't want to scare monger just giving information that is freely available from EPS manufacturers. Your house will not fall down or be ejected into oblivion but the thermal performance of the EPS will be slightly worse. I do not have shares in any DPM or insulation companies. I am aware of Peripor this is one of the enhanced moisture resistance products. If the manufacturers are OK with a free draining sub base then fine.

Just be aware that the slimmer cisterns are more expensive, generally and are not compatible with all the flush plates, so if you're keeping an eye out for a bargain then it narrows your options somewhat. I got good deals on the grohe frames ((duofix), so they are maybe worth a look too - still very solid looking. Some of the air flush plates are £300!! But there are loads on eBay and gumtree, so if you know what range will fit the frame, you can make some savings there.

Our meeting with them was very positive. Really seemed like folk we could work with. Sadly it wasn't to be, legal issues with the title of the plot caused us to cancel the project, and shelve the idea of any build project. Good luck.

My two frames were a bargain £100 the pair. Older models so deeper but work a treat. Geberit instructions are good too. I was lucky in the frame was sited over the old blocked up doorway that ended up 2" lower anyway than the main wall. Over a 3m wide wall not one stud is the same depth range from 90mm to I think 145mm. In part to square the room off and also to allow depth for the pockets as well as wc frame. The studs are concrete screwed to the wall at 5 points minimum. The rears are packed with timber where the screws are then everything foam filled. Geberit instructions are good too. Typical drawings: There'll also likely be a video for whatever frame you get, e.g:

I have suspended beam & block grouted with sand & cement. 1200 dpm lapped up the walls & sealed to the DPM with bitumen tape. I also put butyl grommits over drainage pipes etc coming through the floor & taped them around the edges & the upstands to the pipe 75mm celotex with joints taped. I used duct tape from Lidl. 150mm celotex laid opposite way so joints staggered & then taped. 100mm perimeter celotex 500 gauge dpm foam perimeter expansion strip 50mm calcium sulphate screed. Good idea to take photos & measurements of where UFH pipes run in relation to walls & windows etc. .

So my beam turned up today bloody hell its huge, I hope I haven’t made a massive boo boo as it’s a feature in my front room ??

Oh if that’s the case 10mm drill and a couple of hours work to keep the retard happy.

And from some of the designs we see on here architects do not always have budget at the forefront of their mind. They may be set on creating the perfect vision rather than designing something that might be not that much different, but a whole lot more budget friendly. Not all architects but certainly some so keep a practical head on when looking at draft designs and think to yourself 'how will I build that', or 'how much will that huge steel cost'. If you don't feel qualified to assess this then you may need someone on board who can.

Success, Old Fruit has been located. Having door knocked a number of houses I was finally pointed in the direction of his parents house! So Old Fruit, he’s actually called Chris, is coming on site on Friday to look at the job and give me a price!

You are thinking about the fundamental questions in the right areas here. My comemnts: Assuming you are going for a well insulated house. 1 - Take time to think it through *very* carefully, and visit people who are already in that situation. 2 - The heat from solar in winter is very little compared to summer ... perhaps only 10%, so there will be a potential benefit but it will not be huge. 3 - You need to be thinking about significantly large overhangs (think 2m downstairs or perhaps 3m+ if it is at double height (or you could go for 2 layers with a balcony upstairs). The aim is to keep out the high sun in summer, and let in the low sun in winter. BUT as you would guess ... the difficult case that needs care is the sun in spring and autumn, where there is lowish sun with highish heat. Consider how you can incorporate such overhangs in your design and natural usage for your house, and whether you want to use things that are structurally based off the ground, attached to your houise,or separate (eg pergolas), and consider if you need to design anything in such as powered blinds or solar glass (*), Ferdinand * Of course if you keep all the autumn excess heat out with glass itself you are then buggered for the winter benefit :-). The important thing is to take more time to think than you expect to need.

As I type this, at nearly 6pm, our house has had the cooling on for around 3 hours, due to bright sunshine this afternoon (the cooling is managing to hold the room temperature down to around 23.5°C, we tend to prefer the room temperature to be around 22°C). We don't have a massive amount of glass, but it's more than enough to allow the house to get uncomfortably warm without active cooling. Our heating hasn't been on at all for the past couple of weeks or so, either. It's largely a problem in spring and autumn for us, when the low sun angle allows the sun to penetrate more deeply into the house, but it's still a PITA to deal with. I dearly wish I'd been able to fit external blinds or shutters, and may well try to see how receptive the local planners would be to me adding them now (they weren't happy with the idea of shutter originally).

We've already started some of this feedback on your other thread, so I won't repeat myself here. Correct, large areas of S & W glass will give to U-value losses in the winter and large solar gains Spring - Autumn. You will really need to include your cooling solution for these rooms if you aren't going to cook. As @joe90 suggests having a separate environmental zone external to the main fabric of the house such as a conservatory or atrium might the best of both worlds. If you get the spec of the house correct then you will only need the equivalent of an average 1-2 kW heat input during the winter and UFH on the ground floor is more than enough to provide this. Yes IMO, solar gain can be a net benefit during winter, but localised overheating in the other three months is a pain in the a**e to control.

The ASHP would be located outdoors and are really quiet so noise should not be an issue. We have a south facing sunspace (conservatory) which we have been told will over heat but we have solar glass to cut this somewhat and when it’s warm out there we open bifolds into the kitchen diner and lounge and the heat warms the house quite nicely. As you will see from numerous threads on here MVHR are very poor at moving heat via air (although I know of one that does). To negate solar gain you may need shades of some sort outside the glass on those warm days. We like the outdoors and views hence our South facing sunspace and on cooler winter days a nice place to sit in the sun but out of the cold.

Now spending 3 hrs + a day on the house

Edit: Comments withdrawn. Personal apology being made. Don't ask.

Go on @JSHarris , sort it for them.

As in publicly admitting that their products don't work as advertised? Or a public listing on the stock exchange? I wouldn't think either are likely!