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Keep in mind that I am building this dwelling primarily for my enjoyment of the process and journey, and as a learning experience. I am therefore optimising for my own involvement, which is close to full-time, not for the usual triad of price, time and quality (although from that triad, I choose price and quality over time). I'm sightly reluctant to name names on this public forum as it may be unfair to those I did not choose. I would be happy to send you a PM with the names. In general terms, my long list was about eight frame-companies. I visited the factories of two and spoke at length with about four. Unusually, I was quite opinionated about the frame build-up that I wanted and so was looking for that flexibility. In the end I chose the company that offered that flexibility and which also happened to be a local company, not halfway across the country. I learnt, with the benefit of hindsight, that it is perfectly possible to take a different approach. Having now also been introduced to an excellent and personable frame designer, next time I might start with them and ask them to recommend a frame-manufacturer in the local area of my next build, wherever in the country that may be (frame manufacturers are the clients of frame designers). I learnt that it is perfectly possible to work with the various parts of the supply chain oneself, such as pile designer, foundation designer, frame designer, roof designer and make it all work, and not resort to using a one-stop shop, with the inevitable constraints that provides. I didn't choose a standard package but invented my own. Its a bungalow: Foundations: a complicated and completely bespoke solution. Screw piles, 240mm heave protection, 230mm PIR insulation (not the more usual EPS), reinforced concrete raft (with UFH pipes and lots of other pipes and ducts embedded within it, including the potable-water distribution pipes). Three embedded recesses in the concrete (two shower-formers and a mat-well for the front door). Frame: 240mm I-beams full-filled with woodfibre insulation (either Wamrcel or woodfibre batts, I am still choosing). No internal walls: I will do those myself in metal framing. A single steel beam. Flat green roof: warm roof, by Bauder for the transferrable warranty and no worries about leaks. Bauder is also installing the extensive green-roof atop. Six windows. Nine roof windows. Passive-house-style front door (the only external door). I chose this as I had read a lot about frames and wanted my chosen balance between thickness (which steals floor space), U-value, decrement delay, acoustic insulation, and greenery (saving the planet). I will be interested to see how this frame preforms. Yes, two of the big national firms did. But that was actually of no interest to me as I want to do the airtightness process myself anyhow to see what sort of results I could achieve. – (By the way, I simply could not have done this without BuildHub!) Hope that's helpful. Of course, it is only one personal view and, as you may have gathered, I am somewhat unusual in my motivations for building. Others, and there are many here who have much greater experience than I, may be able to provide insights that align more closely to your own personal circumstances.

You can’t say you are going to do a good job if you aren’t insulating under the UFH. ?

Biggest thing to help would be a wall plate vs cutting the joist ends into the inner leaf of block. Then, a job you can do yourself, is to parge the entire internal face of the inner leaf with a cement slurry mix, applied by brush in most instances, to seal the pores of the block. Chases for cabling are not necessary if you are dabbing boards on, but the boxes will need to be recessed according to final finish depth of boards. If you do have to chase, then they get fully filled back in to maintain airtightness.

Hi Walls are going up a lot of shifting about as small sight and no space and access for forks so all hand ball. Should be ready for the first pour this coming week. I have the bracing and rebar to cut to be ready. Looks like we may get some dry days can`t believe the rain we have had since we got started.

also bonus points for anyone who can see the last common rafters running out on that picture. The extension is built half a brick longer on one wall than the other. I set out off the front wall. Did realise when marking wall plate but kept with set out off front wall incase it effected bond of tiles when setting out from gable. Complete idiots they are. Cant wait till they fit the garage door and the customer realises...

All done - just need to keep cars off it until we get the entrances paved next week. Then I can render wall, hang gates, plant hedge, turf front etc... I keep telling myself that we’re almost done ?

Hello I had the Viessmann 200w installed recently and, as I wasn't able to find out loads from the forums in advance, thought I'd post a few initial impressions and 'gotchas' here that tripped up the installers a little as part of the installation. This was the most recent version of this boiler with the colour touch-screen (B2HF/B2KF). First gotcha, it doesn't come with a 'fittings pack' - there are several types you can get and whilst it states this clearly on the Veissmann direct website, this seemed to be news to the installers, and also the merchants who supplied the boiler. So our first install left us with a boiler hung on the wall but not connected whilst we waited for the fittings pack to arrive and then be installed. Second gotcha, it doesn't come with opentherm. I thought this was surprising as I believe the 100-w does, and I was hoping to use this with the Drayton Wiser system that we have installed (which I think is excellent, also). Third gothcha, there are three 'modes' of operation that have to be set during the commissioning process, and if you want to change the mode you have to recommission the boiler. However, you can do this fairly easily with the app (ViStart for the installer, and ViCare for the user - you can download both from the Google Play store). The three modes are 'weather compensation' mode, 'continuous operation' mode and 'room temperature dependent' operation. The second and third modes don't seem to make any use of weather compensation - and if you set it up in weather comp mode and then connect a stat, the stat won't talk to the boiler at all (lots of head scratching here from our installer). So, to get this to work with our Drayton Wiser system we currently have it connected on 'continuous operation' mode; there is then a setting to turn off continuous pump operation when there is not a call for heat, though oddly in this mode even if there isn't a call for heat there is a minimum flow temperature setting (default at 20'c). I am going to try and switch it over to room temperature dependent operation at some point to see what this does (my guess is it'll only work with a Viessman stat), but for now it is working fine - the boiler is firing when there is a call for heat and not where there isn't. Fourth gotcha, we've got a fairly large detached house and had previously had an older Baxi boiler which clearly had the pump turned right up to maximum. The Viessman has a variable speed pump, but I found that I had to adjust the minimum pump speed setting upwards somewhat to get the far-out radiators warm at the same time as the rest of the house. Fifth gotcha, Viessmann had apparently specified not to use inhibitor with the boiler at all. Our installer thought it was something to do with rubber hoses perishing. At first I was so surprised at this (as was he) that I checked with Viessman technical who confirmed this was the case. Apart from this, it seems a good boiler so far - it is keeping us warm, seems pretty quiet, and the App has a few nice settings e.g. being able to see exactly how much gas (in cubic metres) you use on any given day. Quite astonishing seeing this over the recent snowy weather we've had over the last couple of weeks. It's also nice seeing the modulation stats, as that was the main draw for us for this boiler, that it modulates very low. An interesting setting seems to allow you to limit the amount of time the hot water runs before cutting off (and then I think set a minimum wait period).... potentially handy for anybody with teenage daughters?!!

I have found during our self build that we have gone against the norm for what you would expect a new self build to contain. One area was how we would heat the house. The main concern I had as we entered the winter was whether we did the right thing in disregarding the need for underfloor heating and radiators. I have found that during the day we do not need to heat the house as having sufficient true south facing glazing provides the solar gains to heat the house during the day time. When you are outside and it's -5c wind chill it's a pleasant feeling to come into a house that is 20c with no heating. At night time the temperature would slowly drop without any form of heating. This is where our centrally placed stove surrounded by dense concrete block is used. Stoves in the self build community are loved by some and loathed by others. I feel if they are used in the right setting they can be a perfect addition to a self build project. For us it was a best choice as having access to wood, space to store and being willing to provide a little bit of hard work results in the heating bills being zero. When we designed the house having a centrally place stove was one of the first items on our list. For our stove we burn a trug load of home grown logs each evening in the winter. I would never have imagined how satisfying it can be to spend an hour on a Saturday morning splitting wood to keep my family warm. It's a great way to keep fit and can be an enjoyable hobby. Recently we cut back some alder and birch trees which will be left to season and will form next year's winter wood. Using coppicing as a woodland management will allow the trees with their established roots to regenerate quickly in the spring and perhaps be cut back again in ten years. It has been an interesting learning curve over the last few months regarding heating our house with wood. I have learnt a lot from my father-in law and also from this book which I would recommend. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wood-Fire-Handbook-complete-perfect/dp/1784726192/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+wood+fire+book&qid=1613167239&sr=8-1 The garden is currently a blank canvas and this will be the focus for the spring. One job that I am working on at the moment is sorting a load of old stone to build a dry stone wall. It's hard work but a perfect remedy after a long week of crunching numbers at a computer. Hope to provide an update in the Spring. Thanks for reading.

Thing is, we all know that mug punters may pay more for UFH because they don't know it has been fitted with insufficient insulation. If you are happy to live with that, so be it, but don't expect a round of applause on here.

Maybe worth adding another loft hatch to get better access to the underside of the roof/ assist with diagnosing problem.

hows is look inside the loft, can you see where the water is getting in ?

does this help? not MBC foundation but designed by Tanners for a Kore system and a level threshold entrance.

?? ? You obviously don't know Jan. We share one car between us, and I am not allowed to collect waifs and strays of any sort. ?

Let me know, I can have our subcontractor attend who is based in Plymouth. He'd charge for the call out but would give honest feedback.

This may sound a bit extreme, but hear me out. Do you actually use your chimney? Or have any intentions of using it? If not, why not remove it completely and tile over the hole. If you are using/planning on using it, then definitely get it all pointed up, and consider changing the cowls.

Sorry to see you are having problems. good luck

Agreed Jack. Just pointing out the wonders of acronyms and the different names we have to put up with deciphering ? (and I thought the IT industry was bad!!)

It’s not the first flat with concrete floors and ceiling to get rewired and new heating system. Post a layout drawings of the flat, showing boiler positions, cupboards etc you can make box skirtings to hide pipes, put radiators back to back etc UFH will be pants in this flat

Hi everyone My name is Gary and from Liverpool, i came across this site when i was browsing cracks in K rend and was really impressed by some of the information and advice . So i thought i would join the forum. I'm just a DIY guy at home and hoping that i can ask for advice from the forum.

In haste .... https://communionarchitects.com/article/how-do-i-get-planning-permission-for-a-barn-conversion/ In brief, in terms of permission, if it were easy to convert a barn to a habitable space, most barns would have disappeared long ago.

On our MBC raft foundation, the DPC goes on top of the lowest 100mm layer (of three) of EPS, and then up and over the upstands.

Without other photos i'm not sure what to suggest as a next step. If the chimney needed pointing you would hope the roofer would have suggested it? Oddly enough I have a very similar leak down the side of the chimney stack at the moment, just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before I venture up onto the roof to have a look, lead flashing is the cause of my leak. How about the chimney pots, are they open at the top or do they have a cover on them? There is also the chimney cap cement to think about too. Does the damp ever clear up? Even a little when its not rained for a while?

The poster is only looking to do up, and flip the flat. The lack of heating will be a problem for the purchaser. Heating on 24 hours a day, and still freezing. One of the reasons i have never bought a property that has been done up. Imagine paying top price for the flat, because it looks the biz, only to find the heating costs a fortune to run, and it's shite.

Sorry i can't help, but feel for you, after spending hard earned for that. The whole think looks dreadful. I'm sure there are a lot of tradespeople on this site, and we all know the tales of woe, about no holidays, sick pay, pensions etc. But, £8k for that ! A lot of so called tradespeople need a good hiding in my opinion. Before i hear the bleat, bleat. Yes, there are some good one's but this person certainly hasn't had One.

Easy enough to knock up a prototype and see what it performs like. Just get a white plastic bag to act as a diffuser.

Get digging!

Have you checked the right ducts are connected to the right ports on the unit? All too easy to make a mistake with the supply/extract/intake/exhaust nomenclature. Even more confusing when symbols are use instead!

Check with your local planning office. You will probably need building regs too.

https://web.stanford.edu/group/cslipublications/cslipublications/bromberger-corpus/On-What-We-Know-We-Dont-Know.pdf

If you don't like it and they won't remedy it, issue proceedings. Not great that you were down to do the internals.

I think that traditional, bitumen based, string reinforced roofing felt under tiles, has a lifespan of approx 30 years?I can't imagine in 2006 they used that though? (I know mine done in 1987 is becoming very brittle). Maybe the company doing the loft extension is dubious of the original work. At least if they renew the lot and it leaks then there's only one company to blame!

It works if done correctly, boards have to be fitted with full strips of adhesive, not dabs, all back boxes need fully sealing, any penetrations sealed. Its all about getting the details right.

You need an independent inspection, it's difficult to be critical or not, without seeing things in person. I'm not 100% familiar with the Rehau window system, but your section detail is wrong from the pictures I'm looking at. It's for an outward opening window and your door is inward opening and the window looks like a fixed window. From what I can gather the highlighted section in yellow on a window should be siliconed in, as the drainage is at the front edge & doesn't cause any issues. What does cause issues, is these cill extensions if they are not sitting on a solid base, if floating in the air and some stands on them the they will flex. The silicon will detach and issues you see in image 1 occur. I don't know the window / door system used but presume S706 - if yes, then here's the door detail. You need a 3rd party visit, you need the installer/supplier to agree to this and to cover the costs of this. They will generate a report for you they will not tell you any findings there and then but will happily chat with you, where are you located?

I thought you wanted to improve the airtightness not destroy it.

Thats me... I brought power from three fields away and had to have my own transformer- £18k. I'm also 400m from mains water. That would have been 30-50k to bring down a B road, so opted for a borehole (getting drilled next month) at a cost of 10-15k all said and done. I have treatment ant too and will discharge into my own burn. These options made the plot viable for me.

I think your best option would be too get a professional to come out do an inspection and a detailed explanation of what they think is at fault. This will then give you the basis of a claim which is realistically how it will more than likely end up. No amount of silicone will fix your issues. It's just a sticking plaster that won't last.

You'd be better off in a consumer rights or diy type forum. I'm sure someone will come along and help but it's quite a long winded post. Sorry to be blunt.

Unfortunately, Obi-Wank-Kenobi, my tiling is of a standard that makes others weep. Mill-ponds wish to be as flat as my work. Strangely, over the years, I have never been tempted to try Tramps-Piss coloured grout. Not sure what it is exactly that's dissuaded me, but may be something in the name...... And now.... time for something to level the playing field........

Congrats on approval! Lesson 1: someone else's common sense is not your common sense. Lesson 2: spend as much time on site as possible and do not let anyone stand between you and your build. Our Builder-1 and PM tried to pull it off, with dire consequences. Lesson 3: you will know your design and your plans by heart. You are the one who knows 100% what does where. Do not expect your builders know it that well, they will sometime consult plans, but often ignore them. Unless you check and make sure this / that outlet/feature etc etc goes in this/that particular place, it won't happen. Lesson 4: confirm everything in writing, no matter how small. If you discuss putting niche recesses in your bathroom with your tiler on site, do not presume that he'll remember what you both have just agreed. I would sneak onto site once the team left for the day and leave A4 size sticky notes in key places with large letters "NICHE 300x400 HERE" etc etc - that was the only way I ended up with the exact thing I wanted. Lesson 5: talk to this Forum, this is an bottomless well of construction wisdom and real-life experience. We'll cheer you up / knock you on the head / give you a magic kick or just have a virtual drink with you - this place is truly blessed :))) Lesson 6: no matter how stressful the process, enjoy it - you'll miss it once you're done!

Interestingly, I just put in an order for some stuff to be delivered from Germany. A quick phone call to HMRC, which was very promptly answered btw, gave me all the info I needed that any duty on what I was ordering would be either 0% up to a max of 2.5% (varies as I didn't have all the codes I needed). VAT is chargable and payable only once, so either on purchase or customs. For me it's got to be down to Covid and related supply/demand issues.

I'm going to try and put a proper pipe in, found a gully in the drive - which means I can take it straight across the back of the garden - hopefully the gully goes into the main sewer as I expect it's a shared grey and waste water situation - I'll have to test with food die and take some levels but should work OK. Thanks everyone for the advice.

Always put them in. Worst job in the game. Boring. Ignore dormer had to alter size after it was built to the drawing.

@Moonshine yes waterproof concrete (BASF - link above). No surface primer needed - well only on the toe of the slab where applying direct to concrete. Also used the underslab concrete membrane. All OTT really as we're on sand and the ground drains well - the old house here had none of this and no leaks.

Perhaps make sure he knows how to do lead work or get someone experienced to do that?

Just a word of warning. If you are thinking of getting a new meter fitted steer the hell away from OVO. They are still branded as SSE despite buying the retail arm of SSE last year. We went with what we thought were SSE (actually OVO) to get our new meter fitted after having the supply cable done by SSE. It has been an absolute nightmare They signed us up with the assurance the we would have the meter installed within a week they just could not confirm the date. Turns out they have furloughed a lot of their engineers as well as getting rid of a lot of the support staff. I'm hearing of some people being told it will be months for a new build meter. Not helped by having to deal with a call center in the Philippines who really so not seem to give a monkey's. Also once they have you signed up and registered it seems like it will take weeks to get you switched over to another supplier. In the end we had help from someone in SSE Connections who still had contacts in what is now OVO. It's an absolute sh*t show and I would advise you to go elsewhere.

Andyh, If you have a decent, thorough SAP assessor, he should be able to demonstrate how little actual realisable benefit you get from extra EPS on mass poured walls. Wind chill is more significant for example. That's why the general rule across all EPS products was, until more recently, 2-3". A lot of EPS blocks have a fixing point which gets further away from the surface if you add EPS. This can impact on any external fitments. Extra EPS on the outside helps maintain steady core temperature but like I said, realisable benefit? To be convinced in a real world situation.

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.

SuDS: Sustainable Urban Drainage System and Off Mains Drainage. Here be Dragons. Call me naive, but here's how I found out that I had responsibilities in this area. That was in July 2014. And since then, I have been working on it sporadically - there has always been a brighter fire burning at my feet. But now that my EPS application has been delayed (please don't ask me for details: my doctor has told me not to talk about it ) I have bitten the SuDS bullet. Part of my strategy in dealing with the issues surrounding SuDS is to listen to interminable discussions at Parish level about local planning applications. For some reason - without rationale or considered argument - almost all housing development is held to be a bad thing. Not exclusively, you understand, but generally it's a bad thing. The Fylde Peninsular (where we live) was the dumping ground in that last Ice Age for a good deal of what became clay - Glacial Till. And that makes drainage difficult. And so soak-aways are a bit of a problem. Not to mention off mains drainage. And so when, at local level, with a good deal of huffing and puffing, opposition to development occurs, most of the opposition focuses on completely irrelevant issues such as this example. SuDS is a standard requirement. Off mains drainage (locally) and SuDS cannot be avoided. And if you can't sort out a soak-away because of the clay you can't have a house. And here's how the trap is set. The details for SuDS and Off Mains drainage are agreed at planning level, but enforced by your BCO. So -stupidly in my opinion- you can commit to all that expenditure and actually build the house but fail to provide the necessary documentary evidence until sign-off looms large. No SuDS, no off mains, no house . Not a lot of people know that. Quite why, I'm not sure.

The chant "Yer wanna get a digger mate!" started in 2014, and I finally got one two years later. The chanters were right. But what I didn't hear was what they were chanting (sniggering) under their breath. "You're gonna get covered in grease". Let's start at the beginning. How much does a digger cost to hire? £70 per day. How much does it cost to transport it to and from your house / plot? £25. All plus VAT. Bang goes £300 / £350 per week. And it rains, or there's a delay, and it sits there leering at you like some hideous demented mechanical giraffe whispering softly in your ear Use Me Use Me If You dare. But you can't because it's hissing down. And suddenly it's Friday, a couple of hundred pounds has flown out of the window, and two of the jobs you had planned haven't been done. And soon you're driving around noting every single digger sitting there idle in a field or on the roadside and NOBODY'S USING IT. It shouldn't be allowed. Diggers are expensive; they should not be left idle. Or rather those ones that are idle should be loaned to you the second the owner decides to have a day off. It's OK, you'll come and fetch it and bring it back when the owner needs it. Anything but let a digger be idle when you haven't got one. And then you do a bit of maths: how many jobs around the site do we need a digger for? And the list gets longer by the week. The children start muttering about dad being on about a digger for Christmas and birthday present all wrapped into one. And then you start noticing things like zero-swing diggers, and that's a 22 tonner, and is that a 2.6 tonne or 2.5 tonne digger? Soon, you know how to tell. The next thing is: JCB or Kubota? Or maybe Volvo? Hmmm. Well Kubota have reliable engines (other companies fit Kubota engines) JCB - well, a bit sloppy round the edges. Looking on Tinternet for prices and maybe the odd trip out -just to look, no more you understand. A budget number bubbles up in your spreadsheet against the Heading Plant and Equipment. Suddenly there's 10K more than planned. But, you can re-sell it at the end of the build. So nett off the cost against the hire cost (minus VAT) and you're in profit (Ha!). The digger duly arrives. And suddenly a whole world opens up. Move that Cherry tree, no problem (that wasn't on the list), shove those steels through your son's windows (after he takes them out) no problem; move two tonnes of stone quickly from one place to then other - well not quite no problem, but you aren't sweating. See a problem, turn the key. Dig your SuDS drainage in less time than you thought. Move that newt hibernacular three meters to the right: done. The dozer blade is awesome (I hate that word: but here it's the right word). And then there's the maintenance schedule. A Kubota has more nipples than a prize sow. And God can they suck grease. And I'm not the best at changing grease cartridges - when I'd finished I knew what the phrase Grease Monkey meant. I will not want to sell it. How on earth am I going to get that past Debbie?

@mrgreen1234, I think I know where you're coming from.....You are deeply disappointed by the standard of work, and your bank balance is hurting too. There's a kind of hidden rule on the Internet; its very simple : brevity before detail. The Internet is associated with speed and speed of response, most people skim read over detail. A long detailed post requires a lot of commitment on the part of the reader. So unless the reader has a very similar problem, you aren't going to get them to commit to a detailed response. Case in point @craig above ... he's forgotten more about windows than most of us will ever know. The detail he will already know very well indeed. (He provided our windows) With us general builders, I think you might have better luck by asking a simple question - and then filling out the detail when asked: yeah but that's why I provided the detail in the first place I hear you say. Its how the information giving on the Internet works : its a pyramid.