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It’s true ! ? Not complete ( of course ) but after 7 years we actually move in tomorrow. What have i learnt ? . With infinite support and help from this forum you can build a non standard house built by an unskilled non standard human ? . I always felt my journey was a testament to this forum . If I were a plumber , joiner , brickie etc. then that would be a distinct natural advantage. Yet I am an ex software engineer who builds his house bit by bit ( had to get that joke in , sorry ! ) There have been mistakes a plenty ( not all mine ) - many wft moments . The build literally consists of blood , sweat , tears and indeed other bodily fluids . So thank you to all that offer help and advice . Those that tolerate seemingly stupid questions ( usually are stupid actually ) . But most of all to give time to help someone achieve more than they are capable of . This is the power of buildhub . I will now post some witty comments elsewhere ; or some obscenity that will get me a naughty boy badge .

Greetings! Apologies for the crass title but I am still a kid at heart. ? After a brief delay due to Covid-19 the carpenters were able to attend site and erect our timber frame. Thanks to the accuracy I insisted on and ensured for the coursing blocks the sole plates were a doddle and were done in no time at all although we did have a bit of rain and I had to get the puddle pump out! We used Flight Timber for our timber frame and they have their own lorries with cranes built in and so each stage of the build was delivered by the lorry and then craned in to place. Here’s the ground floor panels arriving. It took them just 2 days to finish all the ground floor external and internal wall panels. The speed of it all is very impressive. Then the posi-joists arrived These took a few days to do but thanks to the 8mm designed deflection and 300mm centres they are rock solid even across the 6.2m spans. It’ll be a bit of a nightmare trying to run MVHR, electrics and plumbing but we won’t have any bounce on the floors! Plus when the sun shines through it creates some lovely lighting effects Next we had a weeks delay as Flight didn’t have any chipboard flooring in stock as they were let down by their suppliers. This was a frustrating delay but with the current material shortages not one that I should really grumble about too much. It was eventually delivered and the chippies got on with laying it and the first floor panel starter plates. And then it was on to the first floor wall panels. These took 2 days to do as well and so within a couple of weeks of starting we had both floors done ready for the attic trusses They were also a couple of days delayed due to Covid-19 but arrive they did They didn’t take long at all to go up and I love the symmetry of them Then it was another week or so getting the roof finished and building the vaulted ceiling in our entrance hall etc and then they were done! It was 18 days on-site from start to finish. Amazing to see. I took some time-lapse footage and you can see the video below: And so we have a superstructure! The roofer is not far behind so my next blog will be about the roof slates and Solar PV array. Thanks for reading and until next time…

I can do it so YOU can do it. Took me 8 months to build a random stone wall through winter, sleet and rain. Had chronic plantar faciitis one year and couldn't stand - needed to dig a trench - normally take me a day. Took me 2 weeks on my knees. The challenges will come. They will overload you. You say (expletive deleted) YOU to them and get on with it. I know your journey; so I will know your pain ( sounds like a quote from a movie! ). Help's here ( not from me! ; I'm (expletive deleted)ing useless )) use it !

You're lucky, as I was, to have a very low energy house. I found my house was very comfortable without any conventional heating. Most of the people the government are pushing to have ASHP and hence UFH don't have low energy houses. When you try to fit UFH in an unsuitable house the 8% goes up because the temperature gradient is steeper as a result of needing higher water temperature. That combined with limited under floor insulation means a significant amount of the heat is lost.

If it’s a stud wall then simply a matter of inserting a strip of timber or ply etc. into the hole, screw through the PB either side to secure the timber in place, cut a fillin piece of plasterboard and screw to the new timber. if it’s dot and dab then cut and insert a few pieces of Plasterboard to make up the thickness.

Certainly not the end of the world, happens regularly … usually much worse

A bypass valve is my strategy, but it's a wee bit noisy at the flow rates the ASHP wants to see.

I would take that last line as a hint they are likely to approve it. No guarantee mind.

NO!! The nation needs closure on that journey, and you're the only one who can run across the finish line with that baton in hand.

Still, it helped pay for it all ?

Good to hear of your progress. Take loads of photos of the celebrations and do have just a little too much to drink tomorrow eh? Ian

I will . Of complete and not so complete bits ! ( roses and warts ? )

congrats, a wonderful feeling no doubt - do post some photos though!

My niece had an electric combi, and binned it very quickly due to the huge running cost. Electricity costs around 3 times the cost of gas/ lpg per kWh. Without a cylinder you options are limited

From experience may I suggest that you consider the installation and running cost of what ever you temporarily install. Also which system will give you the most parts pluggable in to the perminant system of the future. We were lucky to have a LPG boiler and radiator system and have converted it to ASHP. However we have had to increase the amount of heat emitters because of the lower temp of the ASHP..... Good luck Marvin

Thanks for the mega number of ‘likes’ it means a lot …..

I think the answer is controls: with a buffer between source (boiler, heat pump) and heaters you demand heat from the source using buffer temperature. Simple. With buffer on the return you'd have to use flow measurement to shut off the source when demand (=flow) reduces, but getting there means more and more struggle for the source (on both modulation and pressure). With the only benefit being lower buffer standing losses, you pick a buffer on supply side every time.

Well done mate, really glad fir you ???, just need to finish it now (another 7 years? ?).

It does beg the question though whether anyone would ever check that things hadn't been done according to the planning conditions, given they take 4 months to answer and NMA. We amended window locations and cladding layout and some other minor points like security lighting has to be agreed - 'there will be no security lighting'. We didn't mention a reasonable height increase on the highest section of the build.... ? and things were done in 28 days. What were you trying to amend? I guess if these were really minor things, then would they ever try to enforce the submitted plan, or simply shrug their shoulders and say, 'actually we'd have passed that if you'd submitted the plans with those changes.' Simon

I think what he was saying was that unless you have had a condition imposed to adhere strictly to the approved drawings, if the amendment is non-material it would be allowed anyway. On your point about timescales, there have been cases, such as some PD rights, where the LA are obliged to determine with a defined period, failing which, consent is assumed. It does not seem to be the same for the s96(a) ones, sadly.

Well you beat us by a year, well done.

We had a tiled ground floor in our PH without UFH. We heated the house with three towel rails in the bathrooms, supplemented with warm air from an EASHP, and kept the air temperature at 23C. The floor never felt cold and I measured the floor temperature and it was always between 22C and 23C. Warm air only rises to the ceiling because of the temperature gradient. If the house is well insulated and the ducted warm air came in at floor level at a low enough temperature it wouldn't rise straight to the ceiling.

That's me! You embarked on your path 7-years ago; I am taking my first steps on mine. (I am presently ruminating on the daunting prospect of installing 4,820 brick slips during the winter.) You were once the pupil; now you are the master.

Well done, really happy for you

I’d use 6mm everywhere as it will stop flexing on joints (ie where a joint is over a pipe) but also to stop damage to the cellecta panels when the floor is being laid.

I wonder if it is worth simply writing to the council citing the relevant time limits and appropriate sections and simply stating that you now deem approval to have been granted as it has timed out. And let them contradict you if that is not so. You could add something like: "if I do not hear from you by X then I shall deem approval to have been granted" or such like. In my situation, when I did this on a planning condition, my planning officer was kind enough to play along and mark the condition as approved in the system. He did not seem at all surprised that the particular domain specialist in the council (trees in my case) did not provide any comments within the time limit. And he was probably relieved to have one fewer issues to deal with himself. He also told me that I was the first person in his experience to use this mechanism. Just my tuppence.

Interesting. I saw on Martin Goodall's blog that he considers section 96(a) pointless, as if the proposed change is not material you could carry it out under your current consent. https://planninglawblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/minor-amendments.html

Mine isn't on either, it is a very mild November in the SW this year.

Excellent set of questions @harry_angel '... automatically lawful... ' my fingertip-sense says that if that were indeed the case, then they'd get on your case in a timely manner. So - I bet the answer's No. But @Ferdinand knows I guess ......

Said far more elegantly than I did earlier. It just like a row with a loved one. To force a stalemate, all thats needed is silence from one or other. @harry_angel's case is analogous to both parties - arms folded - eyeing one another with scarcely suppressed contempt. Which reminds me, must pop down the garage and get some (still in date) flowers . ?

I get the feeling you'll be disappointed when the timber cladding goes on. ?

The ducting can be bought separately from the MVHR unit and can be metal, rigid plastic or flexible plastic. The ducting design can also be serial or manifold. I designed my own system which was a serial, rigid plastic ducting design connected to an expensive Danish compact unit. You can choose what you want.

You can duct them too, and have a large unit in the loft space with insulated ducts to rooms, so doesn’t need to be the traditional mini wall mounted split system.

Marginal improvements in the insulation, and the brick material, which can make them a little lighter. Some have fans built in as well. But basically, they are just heated bricks and a controllable flap to manage the airflow though them.

That is what the manufacturers say. But physics has not changed and energy in = energy out. What has improved is the control system for temperature and time. But it is still using electricity to heat a brick in the night while the price is lower: not really sophisticated at all.

Don't know what happened to my previous post above as it seems to have got included with the one I am quoting from, so repeating here: I've got one but sadly I am unable to "speak up for them" ! In fact may be the poster that contributor Jilly refers to in her post (5th Nov). Yes you will need a thermal store. My wood pellet boiler worked well as long as I was happy to regularly maintain it every 4 weeks (i.e. strip the burner assembly down and lubricate the moving parts) and get used to some of its quirky properties. Add to that the multiplicity of additional controls that I incorporated over the years. Both the installer and the manufacturer have gone bust so there is no chance of finding anyone locally to service it anyway and getting spares would be difficult to obtain now. I suspect mine is not a unique case as I know of others who have (/or are) waited/waiting for the RHI payments to come to an end before pulling out the old boiler and looking at alternatives. Sadly I have reverted to oil which is what we had in the first place but I wanted to be "green" so replaced it with a pellet boiler (we are not on main gas). Now of course I have come to realise that burning wood pellets is not exactly 100% "green" anyway and the notion that it must be, because it consumes renewables (i.e. wood), is false. My advice to the OP Mike 2020 would be not to do what I did and stick to the oil boiler until he sorts out the insulation and draughtproofing, observe the oil consumption for a year or two, and only then decide on the heating system.

Have you done an interstitial condensation calculation of that thickness of IWI? I only ask because I went through a similar exercise recently assuming 75mm Celotex as IWI and the calculation showed that there was no risk of condensation but 150mm might be a different kettle of fish!

Gas was too cheap. Tradition of wet heating systems. No contribution to DHW. Costs start to stack up if you want to out one in every room ( in a well insulated house you don't BTW) COPs weren't always as good as now. People didn't know about them in a residential setting. If you look outside our fair isles they are extremely popular.

If it were on my own doors, I'd be starting with nothing coarser than 240g max, and in fact, probably 400g. In fact, a good quality 400 wet / dry should remove pencil, no bother at all. Using anything coarse like 180g, especially with any force, will take more than required off. Be careful Also, when oil finishing any hardwood, you'll achieve a nicer feel and finish by miles using a max of 320-400g abrasive. Use a small dead flat block, wrap abrasive around it and use that.

Perhaps try a fine brass wire brush on the pencil marks? Not a steel one.

180 is fine (no pun intended) I have just done a load of solid oak worktops and used 80 grit on a belt sander to take the shear off and then a quick once over with 120. allow the oil to soak in, buff over by hand and fantastic finish hardest part to learn is that tickling the timber while sanding makes the bits show up more, be brave and give it a good overall sand so the oil soaks in evenly

I just sanded ours. Unless you pressed very hard with a hard pencil, the pencil marks should just rub off with the sander. Ditto the grease etc.

Well not from you. Are you asking who you need to ask a question of. You need a question to ask. Otherwise we are all just guessing.

Suspended floor is likely very air leaky and is uninsulated so likely to cool the house 100mm loft insulation is inadequate, 400mm minimum. empty house will get cold especially unoccupied - let the sun in as much as you can search for draughts from under skirtings, socket outlets, under window boards, pipe boxing’s, under bath

Put 25mm insulation e.g kingspan / Celotex etc. Long PB screws through the insulation into the timber. If that is not exactly the right thickness then pack with plywood etc or whatever makes it up to being a square fit. Don't forget to detail your membrane up to the window with all joints taped and all bits filled and taped to the windows before you fit the insulation and plasterboard.

Sorry, I meant well done you, really pleased for you and yours! ?

Nah ! Less than 7 ( no commitment to time scale though )

Ah shit - that's my problem then!

I checked this with the NHS and they advise not to wear high heels if you have this problem...

They're waiting to see how gas works out. Its probably still too early to tell.