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Those that know of our build will know it's been going on, slowly, for 5 years now. It's had it's fair share of obstacles along the way, mostly caused by financial issues which means for much of the time it has been a slow "build as you earn" with the savings pot running on vapour. And 2020 threw it's share of obstacles at us, delayed supply of materials (I am just about calming down about Jewsons holding our multipanel hostage for 12 weeks) as well as difficulty getting trades etc. But the good news is, all bar sticking the last few bits of skirting board on (SWMBO is oiling them as i type) the main part of the house is FINISHED. And the icing on the cake is building control recently issued a Certificate of Temporary Habitation. So where from here? The next project is the sun room, the single storey room at the back of the house that has been a boarded up shell for several years, though it does have a proper roof on it. No 1 job in the new year is the VAT reclaim. Assuming they are not totally shut down and we can at least get a proportion of that (as they seem to be doing) then that, and the remaining dregs in the savings pot should give us enough to order the windows. Ordering and getting the windows is another unknown of course which may throw up it's own issues in the current climate. Then there is the Landing window. The plan had been to have a stained glass window here. This is proving extraordinarily difficult and complicated. So when we order the sun room windows we will be ordering a plain glass 3G glass unit for this window, and if we do push ahead with the stained glass idea later on, it will be as a stand alone unit to go inside the window rather than as the middle of a 3G pane. With those done, only one thing will hold up completion and that is the balcony. We are minded to "abandon" the balcony and BC have indicated they will accept that as long as there is a barrier across the door. So by fitting that barrier we could get completion sign off and still leave the option of building the balcony later when the finances have recovered a bit. There will still be post completion jobs like a car port and more work on the garden so I will still be working on this for another couple of years......

I've finally got around to starting this blog. I'm hoping that it'll be easily updated and I'll provide lots of good pictures and info...we'll see how that goes. I'm at the point now where we have just taken our first big delivery, which is our insulated foundation system from Kore, this morning. So albeit, this process of building a house has been ongoing for some time, it has just become real that we are at the beginning of the build phase, which is very exciting. Some light background info - I've always wanted to build a house for the last 5-10 years, but it was a distant dream and wasn't quite sure how feasible it would be. I grew up in a rural house, my parents bought in 1983, modernised and updated over the years. It was a great childhood and spent many hours in the fields and in our garden, even just cutting the grass was fun (1 acre and a ride on mower). We sold that when I was 21 and ever since I've wanted to return to that life. I have two young kids of my own now and hence the want to return to the countryside to give them what I had was strong. I was always keen on building, swmbo, wasn't as such. So we searched and searched, but mostly the houses we could find that suited our needs were out of league (price!) and even if they were to be in our league there were things we would change or in the end it would be expensive to run. And hence that search helped my other half make the realisation that self build was our only option. My dad died in 2017 after a long illness with Dementia, a relief for him and for everyone else involved. We were very close and I took care of him day in and out, until he was in care. He was an engineer and had owned his own business since I was a child, albeit he lived a pretty simple life and was happy being at home in the garden he made and house he had renovated. Riding around on the ride on mower enjoying a quiet life...and now I guess that's exactly where I want to be. His passing left us with a little inheritance which has allowed this dream of self building to become a reality, I'm very thankful for this. I know it is something he would have been very excited to be part of and watch us do. So after messing around since 2017 and not being able to negotiate a plot or find one that was suitable (there's a lengthy thread on this!) I'd finally identified 4 acres in July 2019. It took a bit of time ( I had to confirm services and remove an Agricultural tie) but completed purchase in Jan 2020. I'll not cover the planning process in detail, but the plot had legacy planning permission which was 24 years old, but at that time the development had commenced and hence it was a straightforward change and submission of our designs. Building warrant was granted a week ago, with very little hassle really. I joined Buildhub in September 2019 or thereabouts. It's been a wealth of information that has helped me shape the design of the house and provided no end of guidance which I am very thankful for. It has allowed me to validate my opinions and approaches and learn from others to ensure i am following the right path. I started out prior to buildhub wanting a SIPS house, in fact googling that may have made me find my way here. Quickly I decided I wanted an insulated foundation too, I went around in circles a little bit with both of these decisions and reading others opinions on here. I even thought at one point they would both be too expensive for me , however I sit here writing this first post having taken delivery of my insulated foundation today and my SIPS kit is on order and due sometime in February. I don't actually need the insulated foundation till mid-late January but made a decision to get it in the country before Brexit issues occur and tariffs are possibly applied in January (rumoured at 6%). I'm very glad I made that decision as today our new strain of COVID has caused everyone to close the doors to us here in the UK, another couple of days and god knows when I would have gotten it. There is lots of other decisions and stuff has gone on in the background with planning and mortgages and budgets to get here, but that is mostly done and hence I feel this is the end of the beginning and now we can enter the start of the middle.... I'm very pleased and excited for the road ahead. I like pictures in blogs....here's a few of the Insulated foundation delivery today. Stored at a friends farm for the time being. It's being stored outside, has a few tractor tyres on it now to stop it blowing away and the main pallets are all strapped down. That's me standing on top.......

Over the last four years or so, we have had our fair share of ups and downs. But this is an up. And now, GCNs are very welcome. From a twinkle in our eyes in the little local-stone built cottage (to the left of the photo) to a contemporary orange (coloured) box... which will be silvery grey in a while. Like my receding hair. Lots more to do, but hey! SWMBO reminds me we started when POTUS was being sworn-in , and just moved in by the time he had been sworn at long enough to be kicked out. Is there a lesson there? Probably not.?

a wee winner i think spoke to my friendly hire co given me a 6month old takeuchi tb290 9ton digger -- charges will be time on the clock @£12/50 per hour from now till 11th of jan and no delivery or pickup charges who says christmas spirit is not real thats a winner

Here is the tap installation video https://youtu.be/_SaOlYI8rJo The black and silver hose from the bulb that @ProDave mentions need to be able to rise and fall without snagging. Both of the attached hoses don't looked routed without obstruction. The black one appears to be close to the copper pipework/regulator at the back of the cupboard and the silver braided one would perhaps be better routed over the top of the other plumbing pipes so it can come up without getting caught under the other pipes.

The path we trod to get here was somewhat different to what we had planned. All because we could not sell the old house a few years back. This shows you have to be flexible with your plans, and against all the odds we found a way through and money appeared, in dribs and drabs and we got there. The result of the slow build with more work done ourselves, is of course a cheaper build. And the payback for all the hard work, we still have the old house so when that eventually sells, the proceeds from that is now entirely for the retirement pot. Yes of course the word "finished" does not mean we will not do any more to the house. There are already some changes to make post completion, and everything is just painted white so the final decorating is to be done. And I didn't mention we don't have curtains or blinds, or even carpets upstairs, they are expenses that can wait until we know where we are with our final small pot of money. A big thank you to all the buildhubbers for helping to keep us going through thick and thin.

MVHR isn't very good at moving around bulk heat. Cooling one room will have some impact, but isn't as effective as cooling a central air where the "coolth" will be distributed more widely as a result of air currents. You don't want summer bypass on when you're trying to cool the house on a hot day. The effect of summer bypass is to take the heat exchanger out of the MVHR circuit. If you have an air conditioner running inside the house, you'll just be ejecting any cool air you generate. Summer bypass is only useful when the air temperature outside is closer to your desired internal temperature than the current internal temperature. Think cool night following a hot day, when the inside of the house is 24 deg and it's 16 deg outside - in that situation, you want to encourage the (cool) outside air to replace the (warm) inside air. This is achieved by turning on summer bypass, which stops the incoming (cool) air being heated by the outgoing (warm) air via the heat exchanger. During the day, however, if it's 28 deg outside and 21 deg inside (where due to aircon or insulation), you definitely don't want summer bypass on.

Planning Officers have thick skins: have to have. Rollo's dad (yes, Rollo of this Parish) - very large local land owner (and estate agent) took me aside one evening in the pub and said "The biggest mistake almost everyone makes is to assume that they have rights over the land they can see, as well as the land they own" Its building use that matters, nothing else. And what of Rollo? Working as a builder's mate. Top lad. Starting at the bottom.

Anybody got any any good makes, complete crap, ones that fall apart vaulted ceilings with only a service void to install lights into, I think a track system could answer a lot of problems.

Thanks. Its funny actually out of all the plots I found, the 4 acre plot was the cheapest (less than a third of others). It was by chance a owned by a previous self builder who built a passivhaus, who sold it to me for the very reason he wanted a self builder to have it, could have went for 3 times the price. A very nice man.

Just start with a couple of days of low heat and then start to ramp it up. Will take time but will be fine.

Pressure washer. The actual channel can also be rodded if you provide access at the end.

@Pete turn the MVHR off ... It will not be helping and it will be cooling the house not warming it as you’re pulling in 5°C air that will be being warmed to 8°C or so by the air leaving at 10°C from the rooms. UFH flow needs to be up toward 28°C to get a slab to give you anything like a 17-18°C room temperature. I would set the flow temp on the ASHP to 35°C and run it for 48 hours constant and then see where it is at.

Milestone reached today: all the Mains dimming circuits are terminated to the panel. Slight frustration of the Weidmuller terminal blocks is the Live core is hidden under the neutral wire, so if you have a few circuits not yet terminated at the fixture end it's tricky to make them safe on the panel. In theory the spring clips should make it easy to disconnect unused cores. The WhiteWorks dimmers are very nice. The built in test modes very handy indeed.

Not the case. Your body temp is fooling you so ignore it. If the UFH manifold loops feel warm or even ‘slightly hot’ it’s too hot. You need to set the ASHP as said to ~35oC and the UFH manifold blending valve to 22-24oC and bugger off out fir 48 hrs. Until then, nowt will change significantly. You’re ridding the house of a HUGE amount of ‘cold’ stored energy so patience is required and results will follow

Yes, in the data table it will show how much irradiance is available, by square metre. Better off burning gas, for so many reasons. Don't waste your time and money, just fit some PV, it works out best.

Good luck! He sounds like a complete plank! ??

what ever his reason it works for me maybe with this lockdown coming he thinks something is better than nothing ,if the builders stop like at the start when we had full lockdown

Or the yard is full up maybe

Not knowing anything about this kind of thing, there would be 3 key points that I can see that I don’t like... here is my high text graphic to show where I’m taking about 1. These flexis should be in copper. Just lazy. Or if they need to be flexis then fit ones the right length. 2. The white pipe I assume is to the drinking water? Why is the pipe not cut to length? 3. I guess this is the pipe to the tap. It needs planning and re-routing.

I’d assumed that was the case... can’t believe £12 per 50 hrs... that’s mental!

Looking great Pocster. Dink your wine with pride. I kin hate tiling.

Might even be less likely to get nicked from your site than his yard?

Work it out from damp course down, if you have blocks below dpc you don’t want to be cutting them.

We have shut for 17 days, like most small places down here. That will learn them. I was having my daily coffee, and this 'Northerner of some flavour' was asking, rather loudly, the woman on the next table, where he could get some presents for a baby. That behaviour will be the end of out Tier 1 status.

That’s a cracking deal! ... if you actually need a digger that is!

I know a stained glass person. Though you could have a crack at it yourself.

Thanks everyone. Sorry for labouring the point, but I understand now. Andrew

Yes I think this is what I will do, with the information/comparisons that you guys have given me at least I’m giving him/her something to go off. I will see what I can, given the timing etc isn’t great. I’ll keep you guys posted as to what happens. Any more information in the mean time is gladly welcomed.... Thanks guys

Increasing the diameter of the MVHR ducting can greatly increase the ACH figures. That may be enough to have some useful contribution from the AC or heating system. Pi x r2 It is the 2 bit that makes a huge difference.

Very interesting.....yes trying to piece it all together step by step and it seems to becoming clearer. Is there any way of checking for the gas pressure? Or you would you advise trying to get hold of an engineer with the findings? Seems to make sense then especially if @joe90 is only slightly warm. Mine is very very hot. If this is to become too hot, I’m guessing the thermal cut off will engage and shut everything down? Thanks for all the comments, very much appreciated

Mine has been running for a bit and I whipped the cover off, that black cover you mentioned is slightly warm only. Mine also makes less noise than yours judging from your last video.

Compressor sounds iffy - wonder if it’s lost gas pressure so running hot.

try this https://www.engineering.com/calculators/airflow.htm Just watch for the units - ducts are sold as internal diameter and this calculator uses radius

At the moment it's a case of documenting exactly what happens when and in what order. So when cold, and after a power off reset, you have the circulating pump and fan running but no sound of the compressor running? Are there any lights in the inverter board? EDIT: Is that meant to be a video clip? I am just getting audio but it sounds like it might be the compressor running. I wonder if it's lost it's Fgas pressure? I would have thought it would throw a different error if it had, but a compressor running but not making heat would tie with loss of Fgas. But you would need an Fgas heat pump engineer to check it and re gas it if that were the case.

It was a real pain getting the broadband connected. I can't even remember what we did as it had loads of steps and lots of delays. I paid the fee to the Highland Council for that Royal Mail database after we had been connected.

I look forward to following this blog. good luck with it all.

We did (and are still doing some of it) the following: some groundworks - putting ducts in for utilities Internal walls insulation and ply where needed internal ceiling insulation MVHR fit painting wallpapering fitting pocket doors fitting utility room cabinets and sink internal joinery including some stud walls, box outs, hanging doors, fitting stairs and balustrade and all skirting and window boards Tidying up site and lots of other little bits of labour (insect mesh to the roof, aluminium trim on the outside, varnishing all oak finishes) we left the big stuff (foundations, timber frame, roof, windows, plumbing, electrics and tiling) to the professionals. we were novices too but we are both ex-engineers with a positive attitude to problem solving, and both pretty handy in our own domains. Him doing all the joinery, for example, me doing almost all the sourcing and research and paperwork. And all the bloody painting. it has been brilliant fun and also very stressful. We lived on site so time not so critical as for you paying rent. Definitely a consideration.

They will be OK to quote with the planning drawings. Best in PDF or DWG format. Whoever you chose may point you to someone for Building Regs.

Well done John, if you enjoy your build half as much as I did you will love it, yes problems will arise but try to treat them as challenges, looking forward to your pictures and questions ?

Good to see it went ok for you bud. 4 acres is nice, I only have half of one? Its funny how self building can skew your perspective, I've never lived in a big house or had a big garden and they all seemed fine. Now I'm in the countryside with loads of space, big garden, big house, everything else just feels small and claustrophobic now. Its great for the kids to have so much space available to run around in.

The best objection I've ever had to one of my projects was that the extension should be refused because the water pipes were only 12mm and wouldn't be able to support the new en suite... (Objection from the previous owners son) ?

Welcome to the forum! Yes. The new planning grant will come with a new CIL liability. The CIL liability only takes effect when you start implementing the Planning Grant. So there is no liability for the old one UNLESS the current owner has already started implementing it. You might suggest your solicitor ask the seller to confirm that it hasn't in writing. I mention it because "starting" is sometimes done to preserve an old Planning Grant that is about to expire. Once you have started a Planning Grant normally lasts forever. How long has it got left? Ideally you want at least a year to give time to get your new application approved before the old one expires. If you are building the house to live in yourself you can apply for an exemption from the CIL however it is extremely important to follow the process for claiming the exemption to the letter using the right forms because if you don't you can find yourself liable for it with no way back. Do not start any work on site untill you have confirmation that the exemption application has been processed. Some people have been caught out by letters from the council saying that as self builders they will be exempt. That's true but ONLY if you formally claim the exemption. The process is detailed at the top of Form 7 here (in the arrows). https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200136/policy_and_legislation/70/community_infrastructure_levy/5 Note that you must live there as your principle residence for 3 years after completion as well.

The hot water pipe goes to the tap, but also has a T close by, this feeds a thermostatic mixer, the output from the mixer (30c) goes to the toilet. When you flush the toilet, it fills with tempered water and purges the hot pipe to the tap. Agreed, if you don't use the toilet then you still have a bit of a wait. But my current bathroom needs to clear about 3litres before the hot comes through which takes around 30secs or more. with the set-up as above its about 5 secs, and the water isn't wasted.

As a similarly inexperienced first time self builder, my advice is to get the most turnkey frame erection service you can afford as an experienced crew will have your building up and ready to receive windows, roofing, cladding etc (which you pre-schedule) to get you to weather tight an a matter of weeks. If you're building to a low energy standard (good airtightness and insulation) then get that as part of the package also. We found that our time was best spent planning ahead and sourcing materials and trades, making timely decisions etc. You can also save money by having trades properly scheduled with a clear understanding of what you need them to do. I did self install the MVHR, quite enjoyed it, but it took ages. As we had a lull in the build at that stage (plumber and electrician were delayed on other jobs) I wasn't holding anyone up.

I agree with @PeterStarck, but things like insulation etc is not taxing. It also depends on your time, I was retired during my build so could spend everyday on site, if your working as well it’s a different ball game . I find offering to help, clearing up or shifting stuff will give you a better relationship with the trades and help the build.

As a novice, every job you do will take a LOT longer than a professional. That isn't to say that you couldn't do it better, it depends on who you get, but it will take longer. If you're spending a lot on rent then you need to weigh up what is more important to you.

Why does anyone want to buy that? Or Danish butter, Or New Zealand Lamb? We "make" all of those here. I don't buy them because I object to the food miles.

Hi Jilly, thank you for the welcome. I’m literally doing a single car garage ? I’ve been looking about and some great information on here.

sounds scary! can't recommend anyone but I'd be getting multiple quotes and references and visits to past clients. doesn't sound like something you want to be cutting corners on. good luck.