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of course @Nickfromwales. @Luke Salter I have met Andy and he has been to see me. You have PM.

A very very long and difficult history to our self-build that we will compact into as short a space as possible to save readers much of the grief we have been through. We have always lived in (and renovated) old, cold, draughty and character-full houses, and our last house (a Victorian vicarage) had lots of glass and double aspect rooms and was full of light. We wanted to downsize but couldn’t find anything with similar light and space, and some of the new build ones we looked at were really poor quality. So we decided to self-build and started to look for land – and as some of you already know it’s not an easy task. Then we came across a tired 60’s bungalow on a 1/3rd acre plot about 2 miles from where we were living – perfect location. All the other bungalows on our side of the street had been developed to reasonably dense new build developments with a real mix of styles and sizes, and outside the conservation area – perfect for knock down and rebuild. Piece of cake we thought – how hard could it be to get Planning (little did we know!!!! and if only we had known then what we know now ....). So after a small round of bidding, that was won; not on the highest bid, but with our throw away line ‘offer not subject to anything’. We won the day, we were the proud owners of a somewhat tired bungalow, and then the fun started! First problem was selling the Victorian vicarage in a downturning market which took about 3 years. So finally sold, and knowing how much cash we had, we moved in and started on the long winding road to PP and self-build nirvana. We started with the German kit houses – fantastic quality and build process, and after a few trips to Germany we decided we really liked the modern sharp style that typifies much of new European houses today (or, rather, doesn’t in the UK). As a tip if you want to see literally dozens of show homes visit one (or more) of the (19) Fertighauswelt (think this translates approximately to “ready built house world”) sites in Germany (https://www.fertighauswelt.de/ ) – the best 5 Euros you can spend if you want to look for design ideas. Sadly over time and a Pound sinking against the Euro the German kit house was never going to work. And also working with the site and the budget it really started to make sense to build two houses and sell one to subsidise the one we wanted to live in. Unknowingly we had just created the perfect anti-PP scenario:- cutting edge modern design in a street of pastiche estate type houses; being greedy enough to want to want to build two; and being the last bungalow standing and surrounded by FD&H NIMBY neighbours. Rather than taking you through the gruesome blow by blow story here are the statistics:- Total time from first App to final Appeal decision:- 4yrs and 10months 1 Pre-App – which was a total waste of time and money 7 Planning Applications (inc 3 CofL/ PD apps) - 2 Approved 6 (or perhaps 7) different Planning Officers 3 Committee decisions:- 2 Refuse & 1 Approve, all with prior Officer Approval 2 Appeals:- 1 Refuse & 1 Approve (sadly we didn’t win costs) 105 letters of objection & 1 of support (from a London Architect who loved the design – bless him for that ray of sunshine It was a dreadful process and the main reason for the time and grief we suffered seems to be that we are surrounded by vile neighbours who have friends in high places. The public comments generally had very little planning relevance but included phrases like ‘peeping toms’, ‘covert surveillance’ and even likening our design to ‘Grenfell Tower’. We were stoic and kept turning the other cheek but we sent this last one back to the Chief Planning Officer as ‘offensive and defamatory’ – he said it was perfectly acceptable (to quote Joe Walsh ‘You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind’)! If we thought the public comments (sometimes called ‘solicited hate mail’) phase was bad then let’s say the Committee phase was much worse. Firstly it seems that the decision is made before you even walk into the room, and that nothing you say will make any difference, or even be listened to. Then the Committee infringed our copyright, accused us of greed and telling lies, and told us that they didn’t care at all that we were planning to build low energy houses. If we had any faith in local democracy and politics we have much less than none now. We are certain that the only reason we got one through the Committee is that one of the esteemed Councillors really upset/insulted the Chair (we decided we really shouldn’t print the exact comment); at which point the discussion divided on party lines and incidentally we won! As mentioned the Pre App Advice was a complete waste of time and money (for us). We offered the Officer 3 options and he agreed what he thought the ‘best’. He also gave us a lot of ‘advice’ which we incorporated to the letter in the Application. He then proceeded to keep changing his mind and we did 3 major re-designs over 12 months until he ‘approved’. It finally went to Committee and was refused. The subsequent Appeal which we lost was true goldmine as it contained real data on what was acceptable and what wasn’t. We then built the subsequent Apps on this and the Officer(s) really couldn’t disagree with the previous Appeal comments. Also in the second Appeal we seriously questioned some of the proposed Conditions and the Appeal Officer took out most of them. A real win and we saved our Planning Consultants fee in having a really onerous Design and Methods condition removed. Certainly worth a shot if you ever go to Appeal. If any of you have been through this sort of process then you will know how personally depressing and demoralising it can be – and we have heard worse war stories! We had great and very patient designers and a superb planning consultant and some amazingly supportive friends and family. Also after the initial setbacks we did have a very focused plan on how to get to where we wanted to be in incremental steps, with a workable Plan B. However our advice would be: only ever buy a plot that has PP for something you want to build (unless you have lots of time, very deep pockets and skin much much thicker than a rhino). So finally we won at Appeal, and we are staring to build two really interesting low energy houses – more in future posts. We will try and keep up a Blog as best we can, and having got that backstory out of the way everything should be easy from now on!!!!!!

Been a busy few weeks. Following the groundworks, the slab was set out and poured. It was a bit of a warm day, and there was a definite sense of urgency as it went off fairly fast. Now we've got a local joiner putting a frame up for us. It's being built from I-beams on site. I'd planned this all as best as I could, expecting our posi's next week based on what the supplier told us about lead times. It now turns out it will be another 4 weeks. While I'd rather not leave the frame exposed longer than we need to, we can't do much about it now, so we'll have to wrap it up as best we can. At least it's not winter. In the meantime, the tedious business of burying the water pipe continues...

I've been watching prices for a year or two now and they are steadily reducing, but not by enough to make them viable, in terms of paying back the investment through lifetime cost savings. Not far off, though, the 9.6 kWh system I recently had a quote for is within about 10% of break-even, and with the added benefit of providing a backup power supply (for us, we get lots of power cuts) it seems worth investing in. I've no doubt that prices will continue to fall, though, as most of the price is in the battery packs, and the prices of those seems to be falling as a consequence of the increased popularity of electric vehicles. I'm not yet convinced that electric vehicle cells are best suited to home storage, though, because of potential cycle life issues. Redox flow batteries seem to be a promising home storage technology, as they potentially have a long life, if the capacity loss issues that have been seen with electrode degradation can be resolved . The snag is that they aren't suitable for electric vehicles, which seems to be the mass market driver for battery development, and so not a lot of development cash is being spent on them. Redox flow batteries are about at the same stage of development as lithium ion chemistry was around 15 years ago, when they were also suffering from problems related to electrode composition.

This just highlights why I so much dislike tilt and turn windows that open inwards. The place for a window to open is outwards.

This may be of interest to some in the vicinity of Inverness / Ross-Shire. I had the heads up from a joiner I was working with yesterday that a new independant builders merchant has just started up in Alness. So I went there today. They have only been going about 2 weeks, so their stock is a bit basic but they are clearly building up the stock and were very happy to show me around. I ordered some chipboard and plywood from them, total cost was £271, Jewsons had previously quoted me £320. Hopefully this will give us some cheaper material for the rest of the build, and they are closer for us.

Some notes on my blog about programming recent ones: https://edavies.me.uk/2019/07/sonoff/

Flow rate on a heat pump is really low - 3-6 litres per minute at most - and they also only increase the temperature by a small amount each time. You would need a heat pump the size of a combi boiler (24kw upward) to try and do anything like a combi and that could be north of £12-15k plus a 3 phase supply...

As this is only running a single shower or tap, I’d be inclined to do as @JSHarris says and install a pipe between the two buildings. I would go 15mm as that will reduce the flow a little but make the hot water to the workshop a bit quicker to run through. 15mm Hep2O with 25mm of nitrile insulation on it will fit inside a 110mm drainpipe easily and also allow you to chuck something like CAT5 I’m there too rather than the same duct as your power so will help with WiFi or alarms etc. Would expect the whole lot should be change of £100 for the bits and a days digging. Will need to be ideally below 350mm for frost reasons.

Changes to the lighting have near-zero impact on the overall maximum demand, as a 6 A lighting circuit can run nearly 1,400 W of lighting, which is way more than most houses need (the total lighting demand for our 130m² house, with all internal lights turned on, is about 300 W). Running a 6m length of insulated pipe should be fairly easy, and not too costly, especially if it's just a single insulated pipe. Perhaps cheapest to just insulated a length of 22mm plastic pipe yourselves, rather than buy the pre-insulated stuff. This isn't hard to do, I slid insulation over a length of around 4m of 25mm MDPE outside pipe, taped it up then slid it inside a duct to protect the insulation.

Interesting offer. EDF are claiming that the price includes a discount, but over £7k for 8.2 kWh is nearly £3k more than I've been quoted for a 9.6 kWh system, so it's not fantastic value. The 9.6 kWh system I've been quoted has a 10 year warranty, the same as the Powervault.

yes well I have only become aware of drop out on imac today because it automatically defaults to 4g hotspot and as the fault is intermittent I have not been aware of it.... I did check and all signs and tests show router working but clearly it is not working properly because now I have been able to see that despite what it says it is dropping

Friday ? It always brings ? !!!!

Quite a mix ! . I go for z wave or Poe with indigo on Mac . Nice and reliable !

Trestles are banned on most sites now - they don’t have handrails and even a fall from 4ft can be fatal. Buy some Kwikstage and be done with it - it will last you the whole build.

2 bays of Kwikstage would no that nicely.

Perhaps I should of re phrased it 22 mill of chipboard on 100 mill of insulation will feel pretty warm under foot Screed on insulation is pretty standard and ok also Especially for tiling

OK demented.com here........BT WHW arrived..set up eventually, took an age to connect itself......seemed OK then all went down again just the same as the router problem.. Only had 2 items logged onto it one phone, one ipad used for set up. Been onto BT faults again....screaming in frustration by now, locked out of accounts new passwords for the umpteenth time all the usual .......finally after 2 weeks of them denying any problems with my broadband/hub they now say they need to send an engineer as there looks to be a problem somewhere.....engineer booked for Friday. At times like this I wish I drank alcohol and could collapse in a gibbering drunken oblivion never to hear the dreaded words BT Broadband again.

My design goals were: Main lights should always be operable with a standard(ish) wall switch. Important for any visitors or house sitters, or even any regular occupant in a panic! But only add automation for those lights where it's actually useful. Accent lighting doesn't necessarily need a wall switch at all - app/automatic control is fine. No biggie if it doesn't come on, can always be turned off at the CU. Default to off when power comes on. "In-use" detection for main appliances, mainly so that I can get an alert if we both leave the house when they're on. Currently includes washing machine and tumble dryer, still thinking about on cooker/oven detection. Window/door open detection for commonly used windows and doors, again for notification when we leave the house. All avoids that awful "Did you shut the back door?" discussion when you're half-way to Cornwall. Presence detection (linked to the above two). Easiest route is via mobile phone detection on the local WiFi. Camera motion detection, active when we're not home. Everything removable and portable so we can take it with us when we move. Integration with Google Home so that you have hands-free lighting control in the kitchen, and a simple way to turn everything off at night. Key components I've used are: Itead Sonoff devices for simple on/off. This is a WiFi gizmo that you wire inline (requires neutral). Flashed with the far superior open-source Tasmota firmware. I've used these for kitchen accent lighting and patio lighting. Koogeek plug-in WiFi devices for simple on/off and power consumption detection. These are based on Tuya hardware, and again flashed with Tasmota. I used these for the washing machine and dryer. Magichome WiFI RGB LED strip controller for accent lights in utility. Dirt cheap, again flashed with Tasmota. LightwaveRF dimmers. Only one 3-way at present - they're not cheap, but they look damn good and are usable by anyone. Controlled either with the LightwaveRF WiFi Hub (again, not cheap) or with a self-build RFlink Arduino-based RF controller (which is what I'm using now). Will be adding more. Yi Home WiFi webcam, flashed with the Yi-Hack firmware. Raspberry Pi running OpenHAB. This is the main "brains" of the system, communicating with and controlling everything. Provides me a control panel on my phone and remote alerting. I'm planning to add more 433MHz RF devices, such as door/window sensors, door bell, and smoke/heat detectors, and an electricity meter pulse counter.

I prefer tower scaffold, you can build it in 2 ft intervals (height) and side by side which gives more flexibility and allows up to 16ft single tower. Eg, two towers at 6ft, 4ft apart gives you a 4ft wide platform 14ft long. also I have some full length scaffold boards to make that work.

When we were going to build our first house on land belonging to my mother in law and her brother they were going to gift it to us however our solicitor was not happy with this arrangement as he could foresee problems further down the line with my husbands two brothers, so it was agreed that we would buy the land at a nominal fee, as it stood it wasn’t worth a lot without the pp so we paid the nominal fee. Many years later one of the other brothers was gifted a piece of land from them and at the end the remaining brother managed to get the two oldies to leave him everything else, farmhouse, land and another house because of dementia and a bent lawyer we ended up getting nothing else other than the land we’d paid for, where money and property is concerned people change!

The O-rings make some of our covers very tight. You can buy proper Plumbers Lube from places like Toolstation but liquid soap or shampoo should also work.

One of mine broadcasts the SSID "GCHQ"...

Having insulated the visible floor with the expensive stuff to get the minimum floor raise, why not insulate under the cabinets with as much PIR as you can fit in. It doesn't matter if that ends up higher (as long as not higher than the cabinet legs obviously)

Yes, that's true, I'd not really thought about the others as have only really used RAL in recent years. I guess I've made an assumption on cost as I assumed it would be more specialist than just getting B&Q or similar to mix up some emulsion based on standard colour swatches and pre-determined formulas. I've had rattle cans made up before for cars but have always specified the colour code, never asked if they could "match" something. Good point, our units are very matt finish so must be a low gloss % My OCD would go off the scale if they didn't match where they are next to existing. For the most part the bespoke bits, mainly oversize doors to conceal washing machine and dishwasher will be in the utility room so if it's a reasonably close match to the kitchen it should be fine, although it would be nice to get an exact match if possible. At the moment the unit fronts seem to change shade slightly anyway with the varying amount of light coming into the room during the day. I only need a couple of small bits of the "lagoon" but I might be able to do something with a couple of bits of left over plinth if I'm really careful about cutting them.

Check the floor is actually level too - most old garages were laid to a 1:150 slope which can catch you out so need levelling before the PIR goes down

100mm of PIR laid over the concrete, with a floating timber floor on top, and a perimeter/area ratio of 1 gives a total U value, allowing for surface resistance, of about 0.18 W/m.K.

Try undoing in the other direction. Might be opposite thread.

We had our gas meter moved when we built our front extension and went for a box built into the side wall. Much neater and less obtrusive than the ground box we used to have stuck next to the front door! You don't need to get the gas company to install it, our builder did it. Gas pipe was relocated by Southern Gas Networks and then our supplier fitted a new meter in the recessed box ready for the gas engineer to connect to the new boiler. All very simple in the end.

Would be a MicroSoft conspiracy, Linux people are to disorganised to organise one.

I bought some P clips from CPC, and a box of short but fat wood screws that would screw the P clips down to the OSB without the heads bursting through the P clip. Very cheap and worked well.

That may not report correctly if there is a problem with all the Apples. Borrow an Android and see if that behaves the same. This may help in clearing up the IP table: https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-setup-Wi-Fi-network/Removing-Wireless-Device/td-p/1703717

I'd try and find a free WiFi analyser app for iPhone. They will tell you if it's a signal strength issue.

Yes definitely only 2 seals on my Rationel windows. But they do seem to seal very effectively, no obvious leaks in practice or when doing an air tightness test.

As above have just been informed SMART RENEWABLE HEAT have gone into liquidation, had a quote from them for a ground source system. Lucky escape. Hope no one here is effected.

So the maximum lease is 999 years - and you could mortgage The issue is “the other 5...” who could cause you real problems when your father dies. As it stands, the land is let’s say worth £50k, and your father has £250k of additional assets. Easy split, you keep the land, your siblings split the assets and everyone is happy with each getting £50k. Fast forward 5 years, you’ve got PP and built a house on that land. It’s now worth £140k due to the increase in value from PP, and the estate is now worth £390k. In an equal split, each should get £65k, but in reality it looks like you get £140k and the rest get £50k each ... so are you now going to put your hand in your pocket to the tune of £75k to equalize your gain to their loss..?? With a lease, it’s still his asset, and that is where the complications start. He needs to update his will accordingly and make it clear who is getting what and agree that now while everyone is still alive ...

Enjoyed the video, and looked at a couple of others. A couple of comments. My important comment is I think there is (others may differ) a possible tension between you doing: a - A "townies escaped to the country for the sustainable life" or "farmers returning to how we grew up" lifestyle / diary / experience type blog / vlog. b - A "products reviews" type blog. c - A "this is how you do it" verging-on-instructional type blog. All 3 can work well, and the community you grow will respond to your content and change it over time. There are a number of people out there who have done various things such as smallholdings and green-revolution type things and offered services, and they get audiences of either people wanting to do it, people who want some experience without a wholesale change, people who therefore convince themselves not to do it, or those wanting skills and tasters. *But* combining a and c is imo problematic when you are using potentially dangerous tools. If you listen to eg Farming Today you will know that smallholding / farming are dangerous lifestyles. The one that I noticed was I think you were using the big rotary mower in wellingtons - imo they need to be steel toe caps, whether trainers or work boots. Toe chopping is a classic injury, especially with hover-mowers as well as wheeled. It may be that you know the stuff, but the audience may not. In my limited experience, a lot of people from other places are closer to country-living than many here; UKers may not to have the innate knowledge. If the audience is partly beginners, or urban escapers, or dabblers, who might never have seen more gardening than mustard and cress on a windowsill in Clapham, then you need to teach them the safety aspects with a cluebat - which might clash with your own "we are beginners" image. You may also at some point risk get someone turning up on your doorstep with a "we followed your chainsaw demonstration and lost 3 fingers" story. My thought would be to go for option (a), taking care not to look like "instruction" or "demonstration" videos (ie "this is what we did", avoiding 'demonstration' or 'how to' language). But also to include safety notes - which could eg be a 30 second "safety spot" at the start (2nd potential set of vids...), and treat you learning about the safety as part of the lifestyle diary. You could even position it as people from another country being responsible and learning how it is done here. If taking a beginners stance, your positioning needs to be as the animators of a learning community, rather than as any sort of teacher. You could do spots with the supplier, or you going on a course, or have a real expert who is a third character in your programme (in a way how the Countryfile presenters play the idiot to ask questions they already know but know that the audience does not). I am sure you have a local grizzled smallholder or self-employed outdoor worker type who would enjoy the publicity in return for their time and not needing to edit videos. Just thoughts. ATB. Ferdinand

Looking at that for my Howdens utility as it won’t be used much. Got 3 years out of a screwfix watersmiths in the kitchen so far as well.

South Ifrican? ?

I had 3 BT Home Hub 3s die on me. The Home Hub 4 had been far better and lasted touch wood.

Yes, the heating figure is annual. The house was designed to only need a tiny amount of heating, it's a passive house in principle, although it looks pretty traditional in most respects. Over the course of a year we generate more energy from the solar panels on the roof than the house needs, so we don't actually pay anything for energy, as the revenue from electricity exports plus the feed in tariff payments significantly exceeds our annual electricity bill. We don't have gas, oil, solid fuel or whatever, the house is wholly electric. I'm far from being alone, many others here have similar very low energy homes. The problem is that the mass house builders in the UK tend not to build well-insulated, airtight and low energy homes, so it's mainly self-builders, like those on this forum, who are leading the way.

There are two things needed to get a house to be low energy. Insulation, and air tightness. Insulation is relatively easy and even in an older building can be added to some extent. Air tightness is quite easy to get right in a new build, it is mostly a matter of attention to detail, rather than anything particularly expensive. That is very much harder to sort out in an old existing house. Once you get good insulation and good air tightness then you fit an MVHR system (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) and that ventilates the house while removing most of the (otherwise wasted) heat in the exhaust air and puts that back into warming the fresh air going in. Then you can get very low heating bills. And it needn't add much to the overall cost of a new build. Unfortunately the mass market house builders have not caught up and in general they just build what they can scrape through building regs. It is only a minority of self builders that strive to build something better. Ours meets many of the parameters for it being a passive house but we did not even bother trying to get it certified as such. The low running cost is all that matters to me.

looks great well done @Lesgrandepotato

Final shot! House is broadly done, garden under control.

OP: Use whatever system you like but don’t put more on top of a bodge. Start again.

use t+g boards meant for the job--not super cheap OSB --thats what proper grp roofers do+don,t forget to insulate the underside if it is likely to get condensation in the winter and if you must use 18mm osb -then drop a coat of resin on it to water proof it if not doing complete job in one day https://www.aboutroofing.com/18mm-osb3-tongue-and-groove.html read this this boarding has a resin coat already on it

When did our GRP A good friend advised us He works in a boat yard and works with GrP everyday He did say if your boarding gets wet you are stuffed You need to re board He advised a perfectly dry day Start early as we are south facing We started at 5am and finished at 10am just as it was getting hit I was about to start the top coat and he advised to wait til dusk He pointed out that direct sunlight can almost be as bad as the rain

This is another example of so called professionals milking you for every penny they can Joes experience pretty much mirrors ours Our Architect has done a drain layout showing Treatment plant and top water running to a soak away We also where Clay So no go there I did pretty much the same as Joe BC was ok with it But asked if it could be on a proper drawing The Architects assistant spent 20 mins putting it on a drawing and emailed to me o charge The reality is your Groundworks company may well find a better solution and tweak things anyway Or find you may have to add an extra manhole or two and sort this out with BC while the drains and foundations are going in Everyone has to earn a living but theses fees are unreasonably

Here's a list of prices compiled from BH public posting https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10mPQ-4HnTuUbiKmQVn3fPPoVkxDMPgRFNvaji4R8USg/edit?usp=sharing Apologies anyone if I've made a mistake on your prices or missed you out. I wasn't hugely systematic. I'm surprised not to see any Green Building Store ones. As @craig says, a simple m2 hides a lot of detail that affects price e.g. ratio of fixed vs opening windows, doors, cills, coated glass, non-rectangular, airtightness level of the model, etc. I suspect the mysterious discount factor also distorts things. @lizzie I'd previously had you at £390/m2 - was that just for alu UPVC and you went for alu timber at £566/m2 in the end? From https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/1820-alu-clad-timber-or-pvc/?do=findComment&comment=26286

Just for info, Google found the following descriptions of scaffolding types: http://www.rowlandscaffold.co.uk/independent-access-scaffold/