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Pretty much, i used white cement and lime instead of dye. Also i cast it in situ so i had to polish the top afterwards. Came out ok but definately not perfect. Looks pretty good though.

I always tile floor first, so wall tile comes down onto floor tile. Less chance of a leak and looks correct. But then i always tile up from the floor, cutting the bottom edge if needed to get the top of the first row level. But I don't tile much. Multipanel is SO much easier for walls. So you start your strip in this case just as any other row, a little but up from the floor?

I made some concrete worktops for the kitchen and utility, 40mm depth, two with under mount sink. Kitchen sink worktop is 3.6m, utility 2.4m and the island 1.2m x2m with hob. Major challenge was the weight but they are in. Tiles are temporary. I had a quote for 5.4K so thought I would give it a go.

Hi, I'm doing some research into building contracts for small scale projects (single new build home, domestic extensions, conversions,refurbishment) and was wondering if you had to employ a builder for your self build project would you have a contract in place with them, if so who will put one together for you?

Hello everyone, first post and just wanted to introduce myself as you all seem like an extremely informative and helpful bunch - I hope one day to provide the same level of contribution and advice when we finally get to build our dream! We are hoping to build a 4 bed Passivhaus in North Somerset, about 8 miles south of Bristol. We are still in the very early stages of planning, as in, not sure if the plot in question has any potential for planning as yet, so have been spending a considerable amount of time reading about the Local Plans, NPFF and what the implications are of trying to build a village washed over with the Green Belt and is outside of a settlement boundary. The plot is part of a large garden, so might be considered a windfall plot but the two issues I mentioned are obviously very difficult to overcome, if at all. We do not have the sort of budget for a Paragraph 79 house but nevertheless given the location, we felt it was an avenue worth exploring further. In any case the research we have been undertaking generally won't be a wasted effort, since I feel it is helping us understand the build process and makes us better informed clients. In terms of build systems we are very keen on ICF, and going through the process now of trying to understand what the pros and cons are of the various systems - of which this site has proven very helpful already! We have also started to try and make a short list of architects that meet the following criteria: have demonstrable Passivhaus experience, have ICF experience, and can provide a Passivhaus design beyond just a box (yes I know that it is the most efficient design in terms of energy efficiency, but hey, its our dream :). this has proven difficult to say the least, the vast majority of architects who are local who have Passivhaus experience seem to only have experience with timber frame or seem so fanatical about the concept of eco design that I wondered whether we would be chased away with pitch forks if we even broached the idea of a monolothic concrete house. :). The other type of architects we found with lots of Passivhaus experience seem to be based in London, and frankly I wonder whether they would be so fancy that our fairly modest budget just wouldn't be of interest to them. If anyone can recommend an architect who meets the above criteria that would be great. So anyway, that's a brief synopsis of where we are, I sincerely hope to be able to contribute further to this site with updates!

Ok - title slightly mis leading ! SWMBO inspected my ensuite effort so far , I was given the thumbs up ! ????? Unfortunately she is now delusional that my tiling skills are not finite ! And so forms her vision ..... The grey stripped mosaic tiles will run in a vertical strip floor to ceiling ( 2 strips in the bathroom somewhere ) . The pale tiles also run vertical but joints staggered ? So ! My assumption this is more tricky and therefore more prone to f up’s . For starters tiling ‘conventially’ i.e horizontally you start half a course up to allow for the bottom tiles to be cut to suit the floor level . No floor tiles are going down until walls done as that feels like a big job full of fun in itself . Therefore how do I start my strips ? I should of done a sh*t tiling job in the ensuite then SWMBO would of expected less ?

we will behaving discussions on this very soon with him , lack of cleaning out of the burn -dead tree in it etc

Oh, I don't know... ?

Didn't know you were Scottish...

So a compromise in this case: Tile the floor before you fill in the missing bottom half row of tiles?

You can go either way Plenty do Walls first You don’t want to damage or stain those nearly laid floor tiles

My experience was that people who weren't familiar with the scheme (and us self builders are still quite rare) thought I was chancing my arm and I know businesses are very wary of fiddling VAT more so than any other tax. When I presented it as a formal note with PP, HMRC weblink and relevant excerpts attached, it went much more smoothly and they usually sent it to their accounts dept to get the once over. I was blissfully unaware when I paid for my ground investigation though and failed to get them to retrospectively refund & reclaim the VAT - that one is a bit grey but the guidance does say that any work done with tools (vs walk over or desk based surveys) that is intimately connected with the construction and after PP is granted is eligible for zero rating. Had I known, I'd have made them zero rate a good chunk of the fees before agreeing to the SOW, live and learn etc.

Most 50mm wide stainless mesh will do. If the cladding laps down a bit you could have a bit wider. Fix to the batten with stainless staples.

What is on the back of your house and what are you proposing for the front in terms of tile names and colours? Do they look near enough the same? I was under the impression that you would end up with a Frankenstein roof.

Hi I bought my ecodan from Plumbstop, very competitive price, compared to some others

I will put something up on my self build blog and let you know.

To add: Whilst a bit late now, but maybe useful for the archives and others, I bought these from BPC which are half the price of the Airflow plenums and simply require a standard 125mm pipe (~£10/2m) to bridge the gap to the ceiling and vent: Is it too late to return yours? For £12 saving per plenum - not to mention a simpler life (got a 3rd old myself so I understand the need for that!) - I'd recommend doing so if you can...

You may be able to get away in asking Building Control to advise on the additional load implications. They may however ask for you to seek advice from a structural engineer.

For what it's worth, our architect - who also did the structural calcs for other parts of the project - specified 47x170 C24 joists at 400mm centres for our 3.2m extension span and tripled them up either side of a 220kg(?) lantern. I don't know if there were any calcs behind this - could well have just been experience / rule of thumb. Building Control were happy, but that doesn't mean it wasn't over-specified.

It is

I work in engineering, occasionally with a QS. I've also recently almost finished building my house. There may be scope for the service you provide, but I'd second the comments above. In my opinion, there is a big difference between commercial development (i.e. housebuilding or industrial) and self-build on many aspects, from the size of the contracting companies used, the approach to cost management, detailing of the final development and knowledge of the client. I didn't use a QS and the closest I had to a contract were a couple of accepted quotes with no T&C's. I think the approach to managing construction in industry is vastly different to a large number of self builds, to the extent that in many cases I don't believe applying an approach of developing detailed costs, QS estimates and watertight contracts would work for most self-builders. One interesting aspect to understand would be what proportion of self-builds are those where the self-builder hands over responsibility to one or more parties for the build. That's your market, so answer that question and you might begin to understand how viable a business is.

Prior to my current project I was considering a more complex project involving a steading conversion. In trying to price the project my architect told me that the problem with Quantity Surveyors is that to protect themselves from litigation from the clients, if the project goes over budget, they over estimate all build costs. Not sure if that’s true but that’s what I was told. In terms of self build projects I may be wrong here but I don’t see many people on this forum embarking on a literal self build (as opposed to fixed price turn key type builds / main contractors), whereby they are totally clueless on costing etc. Seems to me that the majority of literal self builders have relevant experience or actively research costs including via this forum. I suppose your proposed business would be targeting those Self builders without any knowledge or savvy but also without a contract nor an architect, or project manager. And presumably in your locality. Not sure if there would be many of them, and if there were good luck working with them. I think that most self builders have spent years thinking about self building, watching tv shows, doing their research etc etc. Funnily enough just earlier today I was in conversation with someone at the very start of their self build journey. It was pretty easy for me to give them a decent steer on expected costings and risks. And that’s based upon what I’ve learned on this forum and through my own self build journey. Maybes there is scope to act a a self build consultant in some way though. Would be just a case of advertising what you can offer and see if there is any interest. In the same respects people offer VAT reclaim services. A stand at one of the self build shows might be a good shout. Would suggest though doing a fixed price service so pricing it transparent. Eg for £x I’ll check your build contracts, check your budget spreadsheet that sort of thing just to make sure you’re not getting ripped off etc. In fact now I’ve said that I’ve just thought about a business opportunity for myself.

Architects do not write or produce building contracts, that level of legal involvement isn't part of the job - even people I know who are expert witnesses in contract law don't write their own contracts for clients, surely a QS knows this?!

Hi Gus, I do have a general interest in this subject because I want to get a feel for how many homeowners/selfbuilders use contracts on their projects to protect themselves and how people go about it. I'm a Quantity Surveyor by profession who works for a Tier 1 main contractor and one of my duties is to put together detailed contracts for subcontractors which is job specific and not just a form filling exercise to ensure the entire scope of works is captured and eliminate any unforeseen costs. I read stories everyday from people shelling out ££££s of pounds on renovations and extensions only to end in disaster for the following reasons: a) Employing a Cowboy Builder - Most likely cause : Not carrying out due diligence on a builder b) Builder going bust - Most Likely Cause: Not carrying out thorougher financial checks c) Project exceeding budget - Most Likely Cause: Scope gaps in contract, design development, no contract in place Their are measure people can take which mitigates all these risks so I was thinking of creating an affordable online service where I can try and help people with no experience with how the construction industry operates by drafting up detailed contracts on their behalf including vetting builders to ensure they have the skills and financial stability to carry out the works at hand. I do this day in day out at and it does work so I was thinking of creating similar service to consumers via online platform which is affordable. If people are spending ££££s of pounds on a project wouldn't they want some sort of peace of mind the builder they are about to appoint is capable of carrying out the works and will not scarper into the sunset half way through a project. I know their are many free contracts available online but most of the free versions I've read are either out of date, doesn't have enough room to capture the entire scope of works or written in legal jargon which is difficult to understand and us a Surveyor I also find it difficult to understand some of the legal terms. I haven't actually seen a contract written by an architect but would love to know the following as I always thought architects are good at designing buildings and giving professional advice. A)The contract produced by architects are they detailed enough or is it simply just a form filling exercise for them? b)Do they liaise with the builder on your behalf when drafting a contract for you? c)Apart from drawings,specifications & reports are their any other documents they incorporate into the contract or do they simply just fill out the blanks in a contract? d) Do they include marked up drawings and a detailed scope of works document to ensure everything is captured? e) Have you experienced issues with contracts drafted by an Architect? I know some builders will shy away from a project when it comes to contracts but then at least the client is fully aware of the risks they are taking if they still decide to go ahead with someone. Obviously if you are building a house for example I hope people will have a professional team on board such as Architects QS,engineers etc, who will ensure you have house built to the required standards and someone that manages the budget for you I.E QS. I want to try offer my services to homeowners, or self builders who are employing individual trades for their projects. I'm not promoting a business but just toying with the idea and want to find out if their is an interest for such service. If people need any commercial advice on a project please get in touch and I will be more then happy to answer any questions.

After demolition was completed in March, nothing happened again until late June. If you want a good worker, you have to wait. And that's my friend of 10 year plus, Noel. So I was happy to wait a few months to get him to do the extensive ground works, an experienced plant operator with a team of solid workers at his disposal. As we're building a basement, we knew excavation would be extensive. Once we'd leveled the site, dug out the founds, the drainage and main basement excavation works could start. As you can see, we've ended up with a rather large pile of bricks... A sense of scale, this is 1/2 depth of 1/2 of the main building footprint... the clay was already building up at this point! We knew then we'd have to shift a few loads away as there wouldn't be room on site. All started well... until, well, I got a knock on the office door and was greeted to Noel looking in with a strange, perplexed, half smile reminiscent of a child that's done something wrong and is straining to hide their obvious pride in their achievement. "Conor, I've found a well" "What do you mean, a well?" "A well". A few moments of silence passed. Then he showed me this: Somebody, back in 1920 or so, in their unfathomable wisdom, decided to build their house directly over a 5m deep, sandstone walled well. DONT PANIC!!! A few phone calls and a bit of head scratching later, we found a solution. 5m3 of lean mix concrete was quickly ordered! The well was pretty much at the back inner corner of the house so had to be dealt with. Luckily, the well was dry (apart from a little sludge at the bottom) and not apparently hydraulically linked to anything of importance... so engineer said fill it up! A shame, but a relatively cheap outcome for what could have been a disaster. We kept going, the clay started to be trucked away at a painful £150 a load. I lost count after a week. Another 'sitting at my office chair' moment happened just as we were seeing the end of the dig. What's the smell? Don't tell me Noel's spilled a load of diesel!!! Nope, we'd hit a large patch of soil contaminated with home heating oil. It was flagged as an issue when buying the house, but the survey indicated that it was localised and not at toxic levels. OK. So, it would appear that the oil had seeped down from the oil tank to about 2m deep in to a slight gravel strata and stuck there. The smell was incredible. Another panicked phone call to the oil contamination expert. Came out a few days later and took samples. We carefully stockpiled the contaminated soil to another part of the site on a sheet of polythene. Good job too, came back as hazardous and we would have been in trouble if we'd taken it to landfill. It's still there. And will be there for a long time in the hope that nature will take it's course and clean it.... In the end, we finished after almost three weeks (up from the one week estimate) and trucked out 51 loads of soil (816 tonnes) and imported 225 tonnes of stone. Bonus tho, we now had somewhere to put our "day" caravan and awning and finally have a spot to have a BBQ and beer after work.... and quality time with family. Ended up 50% over budget.... well, at least we're out of the ground now....

You want a standard form of contract, if you're using an architect or a qs as a contract administrator then they would help you chose the appropriate contract, and if you're just going direct to contractor there are other standard contracts available. No one should be writing their own contract or entering verbal contracts in this day and age, I would say that a detailed set of contract information and a formal contract are even more important if you're operating in England

The thing is, even if the contract is in place, nothing prevents your builders botch the project and disappear into thin air, leaving you with unfinished carcass, a nicely done contract and tons of weekly minutes, and a fortune to pay in legal fees trying to prosecute them for this

Definitely something in writing Your builder should give you a very detailed quote saying what is included within the price You will need to add payment terms and timescale and also rates of pay for any extras

For any significant work especially a big extension or a new home I would never consider not having a written contract, or something in writing.

Oh and I remember that despite living only 90 miles from Newcastle the poxy thing went to Edinburgh first, then across to Carlisle and finally to Newcastle. If there was one parcel I wanted to see take a direct route it was that one!

I sent mine ‘next day delivery before noon’ and that cost a reasonable amount. I couldn’t insure it for the amount needed (circa 25k) and even a fraction of that was £££. I assume that they may accept copies if the whole thing goes missing. Might be worth doing a decent scan of all the documents so that pretty decent colour copies can be printed if needed. Same here! The courier system took a while to update and I was getting peed off that I couldn’t see that it had arrived for several hours after it had been delivered. I would aim to have it delivered on a working day rather than the weekend.

Yes I sent recorded delivery and they were sent back recorded delivery too.

I was the same absolutely wrecked with worry that my claim pack would be lost. I scanned every thing that was in the pack and double saved it on two separate devices. Sent the claim pack recorded delivery and followed it's every move till it got to its final destination when I could then finally relax.

Yep, they don’t. They just need to be in the same order as you entered them on the form and with a unique reference number.

I'm sure others have suggested that they don't need to be in date order.

Don’t forget to make copies of all invoices My wife and myself spent a full weekend getting the vat refund ready Most of that spent copying Like you we had all the info on a spreadsheet

You probably already know but.. They will let you use a spreadsheet to add it all up provided you keep the headings the same as the forms. But as above they want a printed copy with the original receipts sorted in date order. I numbered mine to match a column I added to the spreadsheet.

That isn't correct. Oil boilers hold this buffer as it takes time for the burner to come up to full temperature and they do not respond as quickly as gas. The buffer allows small amounts of hot water to be drawn off without firing the boiler and short cycling which causes issues with the burners. Once up to full power, an oil boiler will keep the hot water flow at full temperature as long as their is oil in the tank.

The other point that have conventional tanks a bad reputation was poor hot water pressure/flow especially on a shower. With a mains pressure (unvented) cylinder that issue goes away. Personally I have a cylinder and wouldn't have it any other way. You also have the back up emersion heater if the primary heat source fails.

Probably goes without saying, and with a 'traditional' design you may not intend to have a lot of glass, but worth considering what effect solar gain may have. A well insulated near airtight home can easily overheat.

Is the principle not that you ignore everything we say and do it your own way that we all tell you that it will be a disaster, and it takes 3 times as long? As evidenced by the sprayed ceiling? That way fups are reduced by 67% per unit time because you have only done the other 33% of the project? Ferdinand PS No abusive, prejudiced, anti-@pocster assumptions or unwarranted and unjustified floccinaucinihilipilifications have been made in this post. PPS /lie PPPS Have a Fogcutter and you will not remember any of it anyway. PPPPS Before you do, where does one find that sort of delusional optimistic SWMBO? I just got clearance from the medics for a sort-of social life.

I stand corrected (but that's ok, I'm used to it, I'm married).