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thanks @markc my builder will have his teleporter on site throughout the build and thinks this will be fine to get them up , as he is the one with building knowledge i will bow to his experience and advice on this matter, but he might change his mind when i send these over to him. i am all for saving a bit of money here and there but not at the expense of safety, would rather spend the 1k and sleep at night.

Quick update - we have planning permission! The approved elevations are: Unfortunately we lost one of our favourite features - the arched covered entrance - in reducing the width of the gable but must admit that the elevation does look better proportioned this way. We still need to get actual stonework and render colour approved before building can commence so anticipate that our next battle will be over that -- particularly the definition of the colour "cream" which was demanded by the planner. We're not big fans of "cream" with a heavy proportion of yellow/orange so here's hoping we can convince him that the RAL colour chart "Cream" is acceptable: https://www.ralcolorchart.com/ral-classic/ral-9001-cream

Fair play Adsibob. There are always worse things going on in the world. I'm glad that between us we managed to get a smile out of you. Now, i'm off to bed. I need to be up in the morning to catch the news, and Etc's appointment by Boris being announced. Try and sit down with your builder. Go for the disarm. tell him that spending all your money is making you worry, and that your sure he will understand. He does this stuff everyday, but you don't , and you just want to try and get it to be as good as possible. Also, be the bigger man and apologise for your engineer taking so bloody long to sort out a simple drawing....... You might just be able to sort it out. About 25 years ago, i had to blow up at a contractor on site. He tried to throw the race card at me saying i was picking on him because he was Black. I told him that i had no problem or interest in what colour he was, just a problem with his shite work. 25 years later, and i can actually call him one of my pals.

This actually made me smile, which goes to show that getting all of this off my chest has helped me (as has half a bottle of Malbec).

I do agree on the architect / SE problem though. Whether the foundations were up to the job prior to work getting underway was surely something they should have addressed.

Adisbob. Only you can decide if you want to keep your existing builder or not. You will, i have no doubt be aware that you may have to delay, will have to pay more (builders hate taking on other peoples unfinished work) It is very busy out there, and you may even stuggle to get a decent builder to quote you. I'm sure you will be aware, that if they can start "in the morning" they will prob be shite. Your call. Your engineer however needs a massive kick in the arse.

We seem to have a bit of discussion about contracts and adhering to the strict instructions, and I agreed in principle... but the reality is, at this level of construction you’re not going to be operation NEC3 or 4 contracts, so the likelihood of either party getting involved with delay claims or any such conflict isn’t high. It will result in a sour relationship. But it does drive home the point that you as the client need to be on site everyday to make sure someone isn’t doing something stupid / wrong / erroneous/ out of sequence, or exactly to plan that is also any one of the above. Which is the joy of self building and having high standards, given the time and effort you have put into the design of your home.

The drop in temperature from flow to return occurs because the heat input coil has transferred the heat into the stored hot water. It is not a function of heat losses in the short or long flow and return pipes. An ASHP usually has a temperature probe inserted in a pocket in the HW tank. If this senses the tank is up to the set temperature the ASHP will stop heating it. Typically the flow temperature would be about 5 degrees above the tank temperature. I suspect your salesman might not be the best system designer.

It seems we have people arguing both extremes. But the reality is a lot of trades in the small building industry, whilst technically highly capable are not great at managing clients or following drawing... drawing are used as a guide, but not adhered to rigidly. Some are magnificent at overcoming issues or poor quality architects drawings... others just think they know better. My builder was great figuring it out and finding solutions to my crap drawing which I produced... they were terrible at managing change and cost.

@Faz Im about 10 mins drive from March , not that far away , and a fully paid up member of the fenland mountain rescue .

No, your not going mad Adsibob. You are just trying to get your building work done so that you can move on with your life, and you are finding the process stressful. That is understandable. Sometime however, you do need to take a step back. Your builder might be great or poor. A great guy, or a pain in the butt. But the people who i would be super pissed off with is the architect, and the engineer. Jeez, if you are going to do alterations to a building that is going to put more stress on the existing foundations, You check out if the existing foundations will be man enough to take the new stress and loadings. That really is basic stuff i'm afraid. If neither of them flagged that, then i would be putting both of their business cards in the filing cabinet in the "Shite, don't use again" You should be sending a couple of right arsey emails to those two chancers.

Multipanel External corner profile ..?? https://www.wholesaledomestic.com/multipanel-economy-10mm-wall-panel-external-corner

Sitting here bored tonight I thought I would do some research for you @pocster after a couple of hours of thought I think I have sorted out your problem. I did consult @Nickfromwales on his views but he was a bit drunk, so not much help. Hope this is of help, if not pease contact customer service on 1-800 couldn’t give a shit dot com. Your welcome.

Have to admit, I'm with Adsibob and would be mightily pissed at a builder that went ahead with something critical, after being told to wait until something was checked out. The bottom line here is that the person paying is the boss, and if they're requesting the builder hold off on a particular piece of work, the minimum they deserve is to be informed of the fact the builder isnt intending to listen.

Isn’t making a profit the reason for being in business? the structural engineer and architect should be coming to see him not the other way around.

I would expect he has several jobs promised to start at certain times... much like yours. He had to finished the previous one before committing to your contract.

Griggs timber, Gloucestershire.

You're in a minority then as I know sites that can’t get decent ones for 6-9 months and as @nod says, order books are maxed currently. Been told we may get another block shortage again, not due to no raw material but due to increase in construction ..! Ask him for his advice - he’s the professional in this relationship.

I’m going to stick up for the builder, as he will be criticised for being late delivering the project due to delays that are not his fault. he will submit extra costs for the the delay due to having to hire in equipment for longer, site set up costs etc you will be angry at this. the engineers will submit an invoice for extra work for the invoice and get paid no hassle. the architect will submit an invoice for extra work due to the underpinning and get paid no problem. easy to see why the builder gets upset?

I haven’t used them but I did get a quote of pasquil and it was 25% dearer than the company I used.

I have worked as a site manager, on several expensive new builds of £2 million +...... It's difficult. One the One hand you need to keep things moving along, and i'm telling you now, you can have all the drawings in the world (I've had over 400 for a 4000sq ft house). At some point, on a practical level the drawings just won't work with the actual building taking place. The skill is the speed at getting it sorted quickly. Hold-ups cost money. I did Two houses in 2014. If i had had to refer back to the Client, Architect, Engineer everytime somebody waved a bit of paper at me, and said this don't work, I'd still bloody be there. I looked at a job for the Saudi Royal Family, and just at the quote stage i realised that every single time there was the slightest issue,it would have to be held untill the weekly site meeting, so that everybody could sit around and debate it. I knew that this would end up costing the client money, and me money. I'm not saying you are wrong, but wanting to discuss everything with the whole team, builder, architect, engineeer, interior designer, etc, etc, will be costing your builder money, because it's all a delay to his schedule. If he tells his guys not to come in for a few days, he still has to pay them. If he is organising any sub contractors, he will have to advise them that the site won't be ready for when he has them booked. There is then the risk that when he wants them they won't be available. From the sound of your post, you are having to get some underpining done. Get your engineer to get his butt to site pronto and talk it through with the builder. What is the architect going to bring to the party ? Another nice bill for you, that's all. builders build and engineers make sure it won't fall down. When your builder says to you, that detail, in that corner, don't work, but i can do it like this is that ok ? Be ready to make an instant decision, so that he can get on, and you can get your project finished. Listen, i'm not saying your builder is perfect. I'm just saying that it doubt it is all his fault

In my experience, it’s only going to get harder and more challenging as the build progresses... if the builder is difficult now whilst doing the big easy stuff, it’s going to be a world of pain when it comes to all the finer details later. Also... in my experience... they don’t like customers with high standards. For example, in my area there are a lot of aerospace engineers - they expect builders to achieve the same level of tolerance as in aircraft.. so a lot of the builders round here won’t work for them ?

Never had or fitted treated trusses

Right. Have lunch taken. There are a number of potential ways to skin this cat. You will also need comments from others on the individual merits, but I can lay out some approaches. Feel free to ask any questions. As it is such a big question I have not defined everything to a T. First, however: 1 - You are likely to need to reconsider partially the aesthetic of your house, if you want it to look like your changes were "intended". 2 - This could swallow a decent chunk of your contingency. To do it well you are going to be looking at up to £30-60 per sqm of wall. But you save on the render ?. 3 - Inexpensive is possible, but to get it to look (as I say) intended, it will be a fair amount of work. 4 - In my opinion, you are going to want some design advice from a pro of some sort on this. 5 - You may want different approaches on the 2 facades - the one photographed looks easier than the other. 6 - Consider alternative shapes of drainpipes eg 61mm square or alu or copper. 7 - You will need to do some careful thinking and sketching, perhaps samples. 8 - I think you want a mix, and you need to do some really careful playing with piccies and models to get it right. 9 - You may need to reconsider your roof thresholds and window surrounds. Now get some gin. If you are sitting comfortably, let us begin with the problem statement: House designed and built to ready-for-external-finish stage with a number of mansard windows in 2 facades, which contain a side-to-side "through gutter" in the framework of each window. The problem is that a design for the overall guttering has not been considered, and now appears to require drainpipes between each pair of windows, which will disturb the desired appearance. How can water drainage from roof to ground be implemented without so many obvious downpipes? There are different approaches - eg you could camouflage your downpipes, cover them, make them look intended, or find another route for the water. It is an advantage that your wall finish is not .. er .. finished. 1 - The simplest of all - make the downpipes the same colour as the render. Will be better, but not much imo. 2 - Cancel the downpipes. a - Let the water run down the surface of the wall. I have never seen this, though it is perhaps possible eg if you clad with a vertically textured material such as black corrugated oriented up and down. Equally you could try and detail an appropriate render eg with vertical channels for your water. It is quite common to do details where water will concentrate on concrete surfaces - eg vertical striations down from the end of windowsills on a concrete wall, which will disguise staining. b - Do a traditional "secret" or "hidden" gutter joining up all the built in gutters across the windows, and a drainpipe at the end. That is a gutter on top of the wall with flashing underneath, or behind a slightly taller wall, with some adjustment to the bottom one or two rows of tiles and the structure. May be possible to retrofit, but to me looks a tough project to do and a long-term nightmare to maintain. 3 - Hide the downpipes a - Clad the wall with a suitable material say 3-4 inches out, so the pipes can go behind it. That could be wood cladding (vertical or horizontal orientation), tile hung, or any other. Even brick slips. b - Put them in and grow evergreen climbers, with over the whole wall or over sections. c - Create some feature sections on the wall to hide them or make them look OK. (Example of cladding - dimensions right and the drainpipes can be behind). 4 - Make the downpipes look intended. a - Can be done with cladding, eg vertical format edge-on-then-flat 4x2s (that will give a "finned" feel with gaps between fins where your piped can go), perhaps black or metal pipes with scorched larch (https://shousugiban.co.uk/range/charred-larch-cladding/) or similar. Or an artificial material. The texture / pattern will disguise downpipes. b - Decorative as ButterCup says above. Or you could try that simply with bold copper etc pipes and lay them out to look attractive. c - You could even go for metal slats at right angles to the wall, as used on offices sometimes as sun-shades. 5 - Veranda / brieze soleil a - Put in a one or two storey veranda to hide most of the run. Perhaps something you can sit under. Would be a nice addition to those French Doors. b - Make one of those wooden brieze soleil things and hide them behind it. 6 - Put PV or solar thermal panels on it and put the pipes behind them. My take. Ferdinand

As a rule a brand isnt moved upmarket. Its a retailer positioning a brand higher than it ought to be. I wont do any positioning on a public forum as it is a matter of opinion and it can open a can of worms. Poggenpohl is a very strong brand and they have invested very heavily in the branding. Siematic is probably the better of the two products but if you have a good budget then Zeyko or Bulthaup are probably the pinnacle. Leicht will give you an alternative to Poggelpohl or Siematic for a lower price point. The quality and spec is comparable. As for discounts, they are all made up. If a factory gives you a net buying price, you are free to make up your retail price by determining your markup and then a totally ficticious discount depending on how gullible your customer is. Its better to deal with a retailer who gives you an honest price upfront with a sustainable markup.

Hope you’ve got a crane booked !!!

Oooooofff. ? There isn't much wiggle room on this one is there? I suspect the idea isn't popular, but if you cant work the problem through, work with its weakness. Make rainwater disposal visual fun.

So charging point mounted onto backboard, along with single socket.

Anchor is just showing you the more you lift the less you can pump horizontal. You need to read the install guide for the unit that you want to install as they are very clear about number of bends, number of valves etc and how that impacts the flow.

Cheers gang members. I did think so due to the size, but was not 100% sure.

Granite is free draining while limestone holds water. The load bearing capacities are not important with a driveway. Granite should be more expensive but they may have railway ballast available.

Limestone can go claggy in rain then rock hard when it dries which causes run off issues. Granite doesn’t bind as tight so is more free draining.

Hi Here is a phot of one of the elevations. It is a new build and the black line will be roughly where the gutter will be but not running past the windows. The whole roof will need to be drained by the gutter and the windows have a hidden gutter in them that drains into the main gutter. The walls will be a mix of render in bit and sections of stone.

Sorry in advance, i know it won't help but, Slop bucket will be your friend.

I've not checked through any of the above U-values but remember the calculation will be different between England & Scotland. Timber frame in Scotland requires a ventilated cavity behind the brick/block cladding which means anything external to the breather membrane is ignored in the U-value calculation (but external resistance is altered). In England this airspace is vented so the cavity and external masonry can be included - particularly important when using reflective breather membranes.

@Ian I found the post I was referring to, although no one actually responded as to the difference as that's probably as I'd answered it myself. @A_L and @ADLIan are both wizards at U-value calculations and they've helped me loads on various posts, but I still find it hard to get my head around all the nuances. I think I need to re-read all my previous threads on this subject for a recap.

Can i just point out that, "The access to neighbouring land act" has nothing to do with somebody being allowed to dig up your path...Sorry Timedout, but that is giving the poster the wrong impression. The "Access" act would allow them to enter your land to re-point there wall, of cut branches of trees etc........NOT dig up your land..... I feel that your post, although in good faith, will now be frightening to poster, and should be corrected....

My advice would be refuse to allow them to work on your side. They may go to court to gain an order under the access to neighbouring land act but I doubt it. You must insist on a party wall agreement. The preliminary costs will be so much they will almost certainly back off. The brickwork in your photos is rubbish anyway, sorry if it is yours. The wind would blow through that never mind water. The neighbours will have to engineer a solution themselves. I had a similar situation a few years ago on a bungalow we bought. In our case we were the downhill property and the uphill neighbour had raised his garden (in clear breach of a covenant to the contrary) that had promoted water ingress through the garage wall. Predecessors to us had tried to collect the water and guide it away by cracking out a channel in the garage floor. I applied a tanking slurry well up the wall and filled in the channel. It held while we lived there and will for a while yet but not indefinitely. Our masonry was much better though.

You are under no obligation to allow your neighbour to come onto your land and dig anything. If you chose you could just tell them to F off. If you do want to be very nice, and would like them to be able to sort it out, then insist on a PWA. They have to pay for the surveyor. If you don't like what the surveyor says, tell them so, and they will have to appoint a second surveyor, which again they have to pay for. If the Two surveyors don't agree, they have have to appoint a Third surveyor, and he will draw up the PWA. He would have to pay for all three of them. If your path is about 1m higher than the bottom of his garage wall, then frankly, no digging out, pea shingle, etc, is going to give him a damp free garage. Don't be bullied......Good luck in your new house. When you start renovating we can be quite a useful bunch, We may have some good ideas for budget improvements. Not everybody on here is building a mansion.....

this is my main concern. Upon initial contact with A, he said he’d be able to do job in a couple of weeks. that would have been July ‘20, which became August ‘20, after using his recommended SE. so two weeks has become a year. With lockdowns etc that would be understandable, if communicated.. but just left hanging.. in the unknown. ....and yeah, Builder A is always on instagram showing their work etc.. so if he’s time to pimp for work, he can answer a simple email asking when he AIMS to do job. I personally think he’s just chasing the £££‘a and my job is small fry and it’s regularly being pushed aside. I will be checking B’s availability, prior to him coming out. glad general consensus is I’m not messing people about.

We have a MBC passive standard build which employs a twin wall (and roof) design pumped with cellulose based insulation. Has a very long decrement delay and is very effective in reducing overheating. Obviously solar gain is the main culprit so we also specced external blinds on east for wall and roof windows where we have no natural shade (and street facing so privacy). Gable ends are north and south so not too much glazing there. West has large sliders but facing a mature garden so evening sun and more shade. Windows are set in 100mm from external wall which helps also. MVHR will not significantly heat or cool your house - by design the air flow is low volume - perfect for ventilation - but not meaningful to move hot or cold air.

Yes mine is very similar , everyone said my conservatory would overheat (south facing) but in the shoulder months I open the bifolds into it and it heats the house, in mid summer they stay shut to keep excess heat out. I did buy a roll of greenhouse shading to hang in it to stop plants (and me) from burning ?.

this much like mine ans was planning pretty much the same. I have just fitted some automatic blinds in some rooms so might see how well they perform at keeping the heat out

Congratulations ..! I’d start at the top of the Weber colour chart ..! https://www.uk.weber/colour-charts/weberpral-m

I am ok with them being all in one length with no joins as I do not want something that looks like this

I take it there is a flat roof above each window? Not sure this is clever: run the gutter across the windows (say the group of three on the RHS) along to the left-most (pair of?) windows and put your downpipe there. This would mean that rainwater disposal drives the window design - not clever. Might a rainwater chain be an idea? Might be clever. If you can't beat it, join it..... make the downpipes fun - interesting The idea is from Germany (sorry you have to get used to that from me ?) Clever but expensive.

I have a few big openings, 5.3m all done in icf with reinforcement in the concrete, I suggested to my engineer about installing a rsj into the core of the icf, he really didn’t like that idea and said you cannot get good consolidation of the concrete around the steel especially in the web. So you would need to make sure the steel is doing the job on its without the concrete assisting it. All mine where 12 and 16mm bars with links every 150mm, very fiddly to tie up as you needed hands like a 5 year old to get in between all the steel.

I'd agree with you on that as there's almost always going to be some level of confirmation bias. I think there's also a skewed demographic here on this forum because most self-builders take an active interest in the tech they're installing and also put some effort into how to use it. Hence they take the time to commission, install and use the technology. They also seem to me to take on the challenge of changing their behaviour to accommodate it. There is also the methodological problem with control - not many self-builders are going to build a copy house to test if natural ventilation provides the same results ?? Reading some of the wider research on natural ventilation and MVHR, I've found there seems to be a pattern between those who choose to install the tech and those that get it as part of a house they've bought. When an occupant gets it ready installed, there's almost always a significant need to change behaviour and halt our natural unconscious reactions to indoor air quality. For example, researchers have found that occupiers unconsciously react to raised CO2 levels by simply opening windows rather than consider alternative action. But likewise in natural ventilation there's been a history of people plugging up vents due to their experience of draughts, but that's largely due to badly designed vents in the first place. It is indeed absolutely not a conclusive study, but does helps to start a discussion about different perspectives which I hope is more constructive than the assumptions often bandied around that suggest natural ventilation doesn't work or is energy wasteful and inefficient and that MVHR is the solution. Unfortunately, there is a deficit of recent high quality research on natural ventilation, but there is increasing research on using intelligent natural ventilation systems in commercial premises, offices in particular and which do test some forms of heat recovery. There are actually some solutions on the market now. The other thing is that the research alludes to is one of the commonly accepted advantages of natural ventilation compared to MVHR in that it can provide better micro control of ventilation through the house. For instance, this is advantageous if you like to have different temperatures in different rooms, and/or zones. And from the perpective of indoor comfort, there are those that propose that contrary to providing uniform and constant indoor climates, wider and varing indoor climates are more healthy environments within which to live, IIRC Susan Roaf is one of those. I'm not trying to be evangelical about any of this, I just think that our understanding of ventilation in houses and its relationship with healthy indoor environments and its occupiers is still in its infancy. From some of the books I've read on the subject that were published back in the 1800s, it doesn't seem a huge amount has moved forwards (as an intresting aside a couple of papers I've read that were published in the late 1800s can tell me the exact maximum airflow through a vent that prevents occupants from percieving a draught!) For me, there's also a final question about any form of ventilation and how it relates to building fabric.Some researcher in Canada and other countries like Finland have found that buildings using hygroscopic materials may need modified ventilation designs and that designs of MVHR are rarely, if ever design with this in mind. Anyway food for thought, if you're so inclined.. or find you nerd out on some things like I clearly have the tendency to do ?

Personally, I think the big glass box detracts from the old farmhouse. Which way is south? You might have sun streaming in and blinding you when trying to eat dinner/breakfast. Is the main entrance into the glass box or the living room? If possible, you could swap the hall and living room, retain the original front door (build a porch as well), but bring the stairs pretty much up the same place. The kitchen units look a bit small, but depends how much you like cooking. You have 5 external doors but not sure there's a logical practical one... although I live on a working farm so priorities a bit different... I have muddy boots off, somewhere to wash hands, hang up coats, then into the kitchen. I also have a 'formal' entrance (the original old house entrance porch) and a side entrance from kitchen to patio. Obviously this is a bigger house so the other gym/side entrance does make sense. It's the glass box and living room entrances next to each other that don't make as much sense to me.

not sure what is driving some of your decisions but either your designer has shares in a door company, or they like lots of little compartments ..!! Quick comments : - is Bed 3 a guest bed ..? Or is it a permanent room..? You don’t need accessible shower provision if you start by making that one accessible from the outset. - utility through pantry means it is at room temperature or worse, may be heated if you are having uFH. Plant is huge - what do you think you are having in there...? - Study is tiny, nearly looks an afterthought. Draw it out on the floor and then take off 650mm all round for the desk etc and it will feel like a cell. You won’t be able to turn a decent chair round, never mind move it back. Steal 600mm from the dining room and you’ll get much better proportions. - Stove - just inside a door..? And where will the TV go..? Why not make it freestanding on the end of the dining / lounge divider wall. Also loses it out of Bed2 where it looks an afterthought. Bed 4 has no wardrobes and nowhere to put them easily. Steal the ends off the linen and store, use it for built in wardrobes. Main bathroom shower is tiny - layout is odd in there, move the door to the right and put the loo in the alcove and you have loads of room then for a decent shower plus bath. if Bed1 has the view to the east, why is the bed facing the wall ..?? Put a semi height stud 1m from the door and then face the bed to the windows - if you’ve got a view you may as well be able to see it ..!