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Still trolling then.

why? put on fake things when nearest neighbour is best part of a mile away I will be resisting very hard on this one

My plans which are now in for my rebuild of the big house I have removed all chimneys as there will be no fires of any kind in the house and am expecting same sort of silly nonsense from planning my first response will be that as I am bringing this house into the 21st century and not burning any fossil fuels or wood then chimneys are pointless and virtual certainty to be a place to have water ingress into the building . a vast expense to pull them down to rebuild with trays in them to stop this happening a cost which could very well be the tipping point of going for a complete new build against a tasteful refurbishment and keeping all exterior granite walls and not keeping any of the original features of the house will just a very bland modern style building we will see what they say

After much deliberation I am removing the solar hot water panels from the roof and replacing the area with PV. I have heard others say on Buildhub that the solar hot water idea is dead and I tend to agree as we have an ASHP. Also it reduces the amount of systems in the house to be maintained.

Not sure what to say, very unusual to be stuck for words. Anyway, I’m Mark. I live in Cornwall and after a recent life changing event I decided to follow the dream (well mine at least) and create an off grid property and workshop to live my life and run my small business (I’m an electrical/mechanical maintenance engineer), to be honest I was toying with the idea of buying a canal boat and running away slowly but I’m a bit big for boats and I’m a hoarder of old machinery and electrical equipment. So this tied in with a good friend of mine sending me a text along the lines of “do you want to buy a bunker”, I’ve been involved with bunkers for almost 40 years so I know a thing or two about them and I went to have a look. Looking at it, meeting the farmer who wanted rid of it was another life changing event and so here I sit in a concrete room with my feet up drinking tea and writing this intro. It’s been quite a journey and there is much further to go so I thought rather than keep making it up as I go along I’d be better joining this forum. All I can say is the off grid bit works well (I don’t slum it) and I have no idea what the weather is doing outside. Cheers

Errr … it doesn’t bring the prices down that much. The difference is between what Joe Public would pay walking off the street and a reasonable price. If builders quoted the Joe Public prices they would be out of business very quickly. Material markups are anywhere between 10-20% tops which isn’t unreasonable. And you’re running at a GP of probably 70-75%, so a 50% increase in material costs will take out 12% of the margin. Work on a GP of 20% based on materials and all of a sudden a 50% increase in timber costs (85% up this week on this time last year for reference) has just swallowed all of your profit and more. I’ve seen a few jobs recently quoted as open book and a 12.5% material handling charge, but a warning to the client that all materials have to be delivered to site within 48 hours of request or wait time may be charged. Not unreasonable but makes those clients who think that buying off eBay / internet sites to get “deals” has the ability to cost rather than save money

Specific heat capacity divided by thermal conductivity.

Those with a F****** crystal ball!?! We are in unprecedented times for this building generation. Horse manure. I'm on the ground, purchasing right now and for the many months since lockdown "ended", and the these "knowns" are drastically worse than anyone anticipated. More to the point, the cost increases have only become really bad, relatively recently. Probably best to stop "contributing" to this thread now me thinks........ This thread cannot survive on such narrow-minded garbage. And no, I've had a perfectly fine day.

Hi, I’m really interested if anyone knows how much this build could be if done in ICF and insulated slab? I know there are many varieties to determine that but if quote was £259k??? How much on top of that??? @Dan1983 did you considering any other type of system? Thanks

What I need to go with tonight's supper by the sea.

Lime is a fascinating subject, and I'm only in the foothills of the knowledge base. The lime cycle is a thing of beauty (to a simpleton like me). You start off with limestone (calcium carbonate). Then you heat it up, which causes carbon dioxide to be released, leaving quicklime. Slaking this with water results in calcium hydroxide and a lot of heat (it can be a violent reaction). But then, slowly, it begins to re-absorb carbon dioxide so the material turns back into calcium carbonate. In other words, you dig a type of rock out of the ground, process it into a workable, sticky substance that you can glue bricks together with, and then, magically, it turns back into the rock that you started off with. And as it re-absorbs the carbon dioxide that was given off when you burnt it, it doesn't do nearly so much damage to the greenhouse that OPC does. But that means it cures over a fairly long time. I've heard that in very thick walls (I guess we're talking castles with 6 feet thick walls), the innermost mortar never gets enough exposure to air and moisture to fully cure. Keeping the mortar moist for a while is an essential part of enabling it to fully carbonate, so you will see walls with hessian sacking over them, keeping them damp. Without wishing to sound too much like a nerd (but I really do find it interesting), hydraulic lime has impurities in it which gives it the quality of a fast initial set in response to mixing it with water, hence its name. In that respect it behaves somewhat like OPC, but it will then slowly continue to cure by absorbing CO2, as above. If you're going with OPC, surely use the same mix that you used for building the wall.

Of course, being a Loxone partner I couldn't agree more..........?

Yep, new house will be ASHP, Solar PV with divert to 2 immersions. Much simpler. Simon

Blame isn't the issue. The OP asks (in the light of current circumstances) when they occur - and not before - how should such increased cost be fairly apportioned? Halving the increase seems to me to be reasonable.

No. The foundations should extend down to where there is no risk of shrinkage or heave. If the floor slab is susceptible you will need it to be suspended / beam and block.

Thanks Nick - trying the gaffer tape test now.

Indeed. That's what I meant by adding a chamfer to the edge ?

Similar to a night on the piss, except it lasts a lifetime.

It is fair to assume that builders have already put a mark up on materials, it is why they have trade accounts a merchants. If they don't know what is happening in the industry regarding prices, they are not good business people, and are best avoided. May seem harsh, but if they come back and ask for more after agreeing a price, they don't know what they are doing. We have had a good 12 months to understand the affects of COVID-19 (clue is in the 19) and 5 years to plan for BREXIT. If a quote seems low, there will be a reason, and not a good reason. If it is high, it is more likely the builder knows what they are doing.

I've watched a jack burrow through a bag of feed to get to the rat's nest behind.

Hi Peg n Bru You should be very proud of your decision not to carry on with the wrong thing at the wrong cost. Too many times I have kept digging when already in a hole. When dealing with client requirements I always consider the following: Only set out to build a building that is 75% of your budget, if you do not have detailed info but best estimates, if you want to avoid sleepness nights. (Espically at present) Is this a forever house. If so prepare for less-abled access to everything. Wider doors to the whole house say extra 2k. 1 month in care home because access in your home is no good 5k. I would aim for level access from kerb side through home and into back garden. Other items need to be future proofed. We have a ensuite that can be altered for wheelchair access although you wouldn't know it. Excavating for a basement comes under the heading of the Dark Art. You never know what's down there, espically if the history of the ground is not known. This usually blows budgets.... and if it doesn't think yourself lucky. As the build goes on keep a rough budget. Know how much you are over budget. Know what you can save money on if you have to. Have a good look at what you think you want and what you need. 3 ensuites sounds great until you have to clean them. Roughly measure the floor area of the building. Is this too big or too small compared with other similar homes. You can check on rightmove for floor areas. Ensure the airtightness and thermal resistance are good. You only pay for the once. Heating every year and the cost keeps rising... Good luck. M

Oh go on then, includes compost heap as well (the steel mesh is to stop my terrier pulling logs out to get to mice/rats in the log pile)

Yes. 10mm each side.

Bed and haunch in lean mix concrete, full bed, never bed on just pads and don’t hang from hangers unless visible, as it will droop leaving sags in the pipe.

On this last point from Donegalsd. We have the budget, without a mortgage, to build something far larger more grand more bespoke but decided early on not to do this because we want the freedom to enjoy our 50s and 60s while we are fit and able. Instead we are going with a kit house from a supplier. We’ve been to see a few of them and we love them. There’s plenty of scope within their designs to make it your own and we’ve made quite a few changes to the basic design. What we will do is spec up the interior more. We will end up with a beautiful house in a beautiful plot for a reasonable cost without going all Grand Design about it.

haunch with conc every 1.5m to comply with building regs. If you have block and beams above you can get hangers to hang of the beam to suspend the pipe from.

Gas isn't go anywhere for the next 75 years minimum, the planning involved, the replacement and upgrading of homes, electric network etc will take decades as people will just not put up with switching to an inferior solution that impacts on neighbours quality of life and costs 10x more. In reality the oil burners will be subsidised out first at huge cost to the taxpayer then in 20 years once they are done homes will need to be brought upto modern insulation standards then after another 20-30 years it can be looked at again.

You could do some fake plywood ones for stack ventilation like Kevin McLoud did at Swindon. Just don't put them 3 storeys up in the middle of a two-sided gable so you need some quite serious lifting gear or a big scaffold to repaint them ?.

There's a chimney on my house plans, nay fooking chance that's getting built. If someone whinges I'll deal with it then.

Finally finished the woodstore, so far roughly moved about 7 tonne bags of wood into it. And yes, those corner bits are leftover bits from the cladding. It's just outside our utility door so convenient for winter. We will plant all round it so you won't see the concrete eventually.

It’s a cost / benefit judgment. In our case the legal costs probably outweighed the loss.

builders quoting now fixed price contracts without using some sort of escalator clause are mad. It's just plain gambling.

Basically what @Temp mentioned above. The condition you want to vary is ‘usually’ no. 2 or no. 3 as the the first relates to starting within three years (unless like some other LPA’s, they have a 1 year start date). The condition you want to vary will read something along the lines of… “The development hereby approved shall be carried out in accordance with the approved drawings [insert drawing numbers].” You’d normally be expected to upload both the current/approved and replacement drawings including stating their numbers and prefix’s. The reason you can give can be something very similar like “to allow changes to the approved design”. If you wanted, you could note all the different changes but depends as to how much detail you provide.

If there is no gap at all then I would cut/scabble the concrete back a bit.

He can have my second chef for 5k.

Lean mix. Used all the time for this sort of thing. Cheap and easy to work with.

I would be looking at the alternative ways to survive the situation. With what is going on, from what I understand, you have 2 problems. You need to move in and the build is behind schedule. In your circumstance I would be looking at how to survive what realistically is going to be a delay in completion and prepare ahead for it. I would avoid all unnecessary personal expenditure, see if I can stay with friends, relatives, consider at what stage I would be prepared to move in to a partially completed home and so on. None of this is fun, but it's not going to go away. Again, I would be writing an extensive list of all the items that are left to do, and then ask the people on Buildhub for an estimate of how long each one could take, and then you will have a more realistic picture of where your going. Yes some can be worked on in unison but not too many. I would be creating a critical path of the works which would be a good indicator of how far to go. I would do it in reverse. As an example: Before furniture in it was the carpets, before that, decoration, before that electrical second fix, before that plumbing second fix, before that kitchen and bathrooms, before that plastering, before that all services, and so on. This list also gives you a time line and you can follow the progress. I think the next milestone for your build is to be watertight, and I would ignore driveway at present. As a side issue the electric car charging at home: Our charger which is about a 3kw one basically charges at a rate of about 14 miles for every hour of charging. You can have a charger that will do about 7 times quicker recharging but will use 22kw Good luck M

We realised that our original plan of an L- shaped two single storey pitched roofs connected by a flat roof section was too expensive right at the start of the 1st lockdown (about a week before we were going to start foundations). We told the builder we were pausing, we went back to the planners with a simple two storey long - single room deep - house. They agreed in principle it was fine and we went back to planning. If you are still relatively early in the build process you can completely redesign. A simple 2 storey rectangle, no dormers, no roof protrusions, airtight barrier above the ceiling in the first floor is always going to be the cheapest design. We had an architect, he has been great but communication can be slow. I do see the attraction in a design-build package. Our timber-frame had to be reinforced with steel (after the design stage) not the end of the world but it wasn't costed in original estimate. A design build wouldn't have had that problem but may give a more generic design. Timber-frame goes up quick and there are plenty of design-biild companies. Do you really need 3 stories? I decided to build a smaller house to have a smaller mortgage and be able to enjoy working a little less and spending time with my kids.

Most contractors will absorb Or like Conor split small increases But when materials double or more like many have You the client will be expected to step up regardless of fix rate contracts

@Moggaman that is a very light beam, it will bend like a banana as you pick it up. Have you made sure all your seats / padstones are perfectly aligned / level..? Slinging with a Telehandler is the way to go with that load - you’ll need a 5m lifting strop, mark the centre of the beam and then go 1.5m either side and attach the strop. Forks through the loop and lift and it will tighten up as it lifts. Depending on which JCB it is, it could reach anywhere between 7m and 14m total boom, the issue will be boom angle and how close you can get the machine to the building.

I'll bet my bottom dollar that it's 150mm PIR with a u value of 0.15. Its a very common detail and the 70mm screen just happens to add up to 220mm which is the height of a block. With 70mm screed over 120m you still have 16 tons of "storage heater" if you run UFH pipes through it. Every degree you raise the temperature of the slab by is about 4.4kWh of energy added. Say your heating load at is 2.2kw if you manage to heat up your slab by 5 degrees on cheap night rate electricity your it'll keep your house warm for 10 hours. Thats my grasp of it anyway. Read @TerryE blog for a better explanation. Although you have a lot of heat storage capacity in your walls don't over estimate the effect it'll have on day to day life in your house. If your sitting room is 17deg it will take an age for the 20deg stored in the centre of the concrete wall to release its energy to the room. Practically by the time it does something else will have already heated the room or you'll have given up and gone to bed. In reality its only the first few cm of a wall that absorb and release any heat on a daily basis. The slab is slightly different in that actively heating it you are taking into account this time delay. If done well you can gently (and cheaply) heat your slab well in advance and enjoy the slow release later. However it's not much good if you need heat NOW! We didn't install any heating ( in Cork). Mostly due to be pretending to be brave (read stubborn) and also being tight. There was something like €7k uplift for UFH and a heat pump and at our very small heating needs I couldn't make it break even anytime before 25 years if ever. We'll have to see how this goes this winter with our single electric rad in the hallway but in hindsight I would have copied @TerryE and @Dudda and just done UFH and Willis heater with the option of a ASHP later if a cheap one appeared. With regard DHW we have a direct 300l UVC. This performs well leaving aside the issues we had with the plumbers. I think I would get one with a spare ASHP coil and even larger capacity next time round.

You shouldn't have to calibrate these sensors. Were yours copies @TerryE? The genuine ones aren't that much more in the grand scheme of things.

Wonder how long it will take before our resident scaffolding expert weighs in with some criticism after viewing your pics.

Cheers guys. I deal with scaffolds most days in an oil refinery and whilst this one is is not up to that standard it’s only really the toe boards that would cause concern to me personally. Ive been wandering around on it with no issues. Unfortunately the concrete/ asbestos sheeting you can see was fly tipped in our skip whilst we were on holiday last week it was not from our property. Quite annoying, awaiting neighbour getting back so we can review CCTV

Thanks for the advice on how to post pictures, do starter for ten let’s see what happens. I await the flak, but obviously not a problem with the property type.

The original sewers are still fine but the tank system was getting a bit tired (it collapsed when the farmer dumped a few hundred tons of rubble on it) so I’ve installed a bacterial bubbling sewage treatment thing and used the original soak away which was for the separate latrine block for the workers outside. Still got the original toilet. The bunker and latrine originally had 3 soakaways so decided not to fix something that has worked fine since 1942.

Welcome. Perhaps study some of the reasonable number of undergrounds reservoir conversions that are around now.

I would stay up and fight, but there's finally something good on TV.

Piss off (from a retired builder ?)

They may have to for safety and future investment. They may, for instance, be looking at the feasibility of pulling cables through them. Large point to point pipework may be used as hydrogen transporting, or even water. Alternatively just increase, via taxation, all energy prices. It is, when you think about energies utility value, very, very, cheap. You can't get a person, or an ox, to accelerate a tonne a metre, every second, but a kWh can potentially do that for 5p. This debate has been going on for over 45 years (since the oil crisis). It always gets hijacked by non energy criteria i.e the poor paying more, we need to use less, of everything, the rich won't care, they can afford it. As Bill Clinton said a few years ago about climate change, "we will still be arguing when we are sitting on a raft in the Atlantic".