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Be careful what you wish for! Firstly thanks to all for all your posts have enjoyed reading them, there are many to thank but @the_r_sole is a font of knowledge who gives it to you straight up as are many others. Charlie.. it's very much doable. A few years back I embarked on a similar journey although I came at it from the SE / Contractor side. While I do my own design stuff and some "Architectural Design" I collaborate with in particular with one really experienced Architect. I have said to him in the past.. you don't need me (SE hat on) as your design is spot on. He just sizes the building / structural envelope and main beams say nearly always correctly, but he has been doing it for nearly fifty years! But then we start to play about. I put my Architectural hat on and he puts his SE hat on.. we are like "two old grumpy men" and the result is some elegant, competant, safe, and economic design. Oh.. I use the word elegant as this indicates that it will stand the test of time. The work is flooding in and a lot of it is repeat business coupled with some interesting stuff. So yes you want to do your own thing but find some one that can compliment your skills and recognise that you can feed off each other and learn new stuff... together. I advocate that a great Architect should also be competant in structural design, not the calculations but have to a feeling for how the building works and that includes how it stays up structrally. A great SE should be at a minimum competant in the principles of Architecture and have a bit of flair / artistic bent. Over the last few decades the professions (Architects, QS' SE's etc) have diversified and you can see this on BH.. no one is talking to each other and the Client is left in the dark. From my own recent experience I have found that going back to the "old way" where we all start really working together pays dividends. Yes there are a few Clients, BH members too that think it still pays to breakdown each design element to get the lowest price. The lowest price is not always the best in the round. See Ruskin common law of business.

Russia was effectively "working to rule" on their previous Nordstream 1 contracts to apply pressure (or as they claimed 'rebuild reserves'). Germany (Merkel and Gerhard Schroder her predecessor (?) ) had built Nordstream 2 in the teeth of EuCo opposition, and thrown Ukraine under the bus by making it possible for Russia to pivot to Nordstream 2 instead, which would cost Ukraine a couple of billion Euro a year in transmission fees. Schroder was employed by GazProm on a generous salary (600k Euro a year iirc) to help their Nordstream project. To the extent that a billion Euro compensation package was being set up for Ukraine. The new German Govt and especially the new Green Party FM (Fraulein Baerbock) is stronger towards Russia, and even under Merkel they had done a semi-reverse-ferret by being tough on regulation to try and put some back pressure on Russia. Germany has also - unlike a lot of European countries - failed to build LNG import terminals (we, for example, have 3 big ones, and pipelines from Norway and Holland plus our own remaining supply), and so have Russia's apron strings somewhat tied around their neck in a noose. We get a lot of our LNG from Qatar, Norway and the USA in tankers. There are a lot of USA gas wells coming back on stream this year after COVID which will help. LNG terminals: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/lng-europe-2021-current-trends-european-lng-landscape-and-country-focus#:~:text=The current large-scale LNG, Also Germany has a crunch because they decided to close all their nuclear power stations after the Japanese nuclear accident and keep lignite power stations open, and are now rushing to close those coal power stations a decade earlier than they were planning (2028 not 2038 roughly I think), for Green and possibly embarrassment reasons. They just closed 3 former GDR nuclear power stations (to be fair, they needed closing). So in the absence of Plan B, they need loadsa-naturalgas from somewhere. Plus Holland - a key source of gas for DE - are now running down their gas fields for green reasons. And there is pressure to keep them open, but earthquake problems in local towns. Plus there's all the Russian sabre-rattling on Ukraine, and Germany was preventing defensive weaponry being supplied to Ukraine via NATO schemes. Plus UVDL rather trashed the German armed forces in a previous position as German Defence Minister before she trashed the European Commission's vaccine procurement programme. They are still flapping around about a fighter procurement decision that should have been made more than a decade ago, and someone decided "no F-35s" and made a political announcement that makes it embarrassing to reverse-ferret on that one. It's all a bit of a complicated Dachshund's Breakfast, and not really the sort of comprehensive mess that Germany is in the habit of making. And now they have Mr Macron prancing around trying to turn the EU into a kind of Greater France Mk 2, at least for the next 6 months. All he needs is a Cuirassier's Uniform and a Martini-Henry rifle and he'll be as happy as a ranting hippo in a mud lagoon. Although we are not dependent on Russian Gas, we are impacted by contracts set with reference to the international price. Germany need to build some LNG import capability pronto, and drive real Green Energy as fast as possible - but that will take at least a decade or two to really have a big impact. We got we are today by being the single country in the world with the biggest investment every single year in offshore wind from 2015 to 2020 as the implementation phase of rolling waves of contracts, and we are due to add another 250% to our current offshore capacity by 2030. I see Germany doing a dash for gas in some way. For fairness, I should also perhaps note that we imo cocked up by not keeping a serious strategic buffer of gas; we chose to close our end-of-its-life facility in approx 2015. I think history shows that to be an unwise decision - a 90 day rather than 9 day buffer would have helped us last year, and we should have leased a tanker full of gas as our reserve. F

No this will get complicated. There are rules about building for family and who claims what, and that’s assuming these are new build not conversions or restoration unless they have been unoccupied for a number of years. Need to get this right from the outset as it could cost you ££££

There are metal conduits that have been covered with sand lime for decades As with a previous thread wet plaster especially lime doesn’t stick to plastic So metal (ally) capping will be fine

Well... Right or wrong I made up a small mix the same as seemed "right" when I was experimenting in terms of colour and the way it moulded round the flints. 3 builders sand 1 sharp sand 1 lime 1 OPC. Stuck in the bucket and dry mixed really well first with the Aldi paddle mixer. Then wetted with Everbuild Integral Waterproofer, diluted 20:1. Mixed again. Left a bit then remixed. Most importantly, despite the sharp sand, the mix is easily pumped with it not drying out at all. Must be the lime/waterproofer having an effect and keeping the water in the mix. Did the half bucket but the original, skinny, Roughneck mortar gun piston broke. Printing a new heavy duty design now in PETG. The issue is spacing, a bit bigger than a fingers width in places. I'm going to live with it. When a bit firmer I'll go over the mortar with a dry sponge.

Whos name is the PP in for the VAT reclaim at the end ..?? And who’s going to live in it ..??

Why are you planning for something that will not be needed for 40-50 years ….?? In that case you’re qualified to answer your own question. If you can’t, you’re not qualified to do the wiring.

When did you do this? The cost of demolition is surely now serious. A new sheet of plasterboard is £8.50, but costs £12 to dump. Would you really destroy this building?

Metal capping for wet plaster

...the ground. Best bet! ?

Ask @Gus Potter

It depends how you are building. Icf then talk to the icf supplier timberframe then they will probably have it all in house. Block cavity, ask on here.

Google triton gas and waterproofing materials, it’s a liquid paint on stuff used for waterproofing, but is also gas tight so good for methane and radon barrier. The company does loads of different products. With regards sticking stuff to icf, I had the SIGA rep come out and he applied primer and tape to our walls that worked really good, but it was far to expensive for the linear metres I had to do.

Recommendations on here It’s unlikely that he will need to visit the plot Even with bad ground He or She will follow the data by others Ive a very good one that I’ve used for years Very reasonable price

Not exactly a start it it’s a start Just the Cil and building regs to finish off over the next few weeks Then I’ll be able to dig the foundations out Hopefully we should have a water supply by then

Don't worry @Jilly I've been at this long enough to not be offended! You're right that a huge part of the perception problem is the inability of some architects to communicate exactly what they do and the value they can bring. There's a few practices who have booklets to help inexperienced clients (ourselves included) but we also tend to know when a certain client is a good fit for us and will help them find someone else if we can see it won't work out! We work with clients for years at a time so it's worth finding people who want to work with you and who you want to work with!

Fixed flow temp is the worst possible configuration for ASHP. This is why the controls have sometimes almost endless configurations all centred on reducing the flow temps whenever possible. That said, if it’s an underfloor heating setup needing only 30* flow anyway, then clearly all that complication is going to yield minimal gain.

Hi - And welcome to the forum, I am sure someone who knows more than I will be along shortly. Power outages can do damage to stuff as well as resetting it so it may be that you stat is damaged, if you wind the stat right down does the ASHP stop working? At any rate probably best to provide some details of the setup. Does it also do Domestic Hot Water (DHW) or just heating? Do you have a schematic of your system you can share with us?

Take a bit of time to digest and go back and read the other comments again from BH members. Play about on BH and read around, you'll pick up some great nuggets for later anyway. Then take a view on whether getting an SE feels right for you. I'm not strong on spelling either and get carried away as it's social media! Folk don't pay enough for a desk top study in general.. they see it as a box ticking excercise so they get what they pay for from the professionals. Nowadays professionals just provide a churn that looks good often with little value and try not to accept liability. It's a mess. No wonder there are reports floating about exploring why UK build costs are apparently high. I've done a few desktop studies and a good one takes time.. some several days / weeks to gather the info and then a day /s or so and a night/s to sleep on it. This approach has saved some Client a fortune that has well out weighed the cost of the study and mitigated the cost of the on site ground investigation.. The really hard part is to convince a Client that what you are doing is worth while! You can do an lot to help yourself here. I would put your back into it and do you own research, it's only your own time you are spending. I clicked on the link for the desk top study but for some reason it is not downloading? can anyone help?

I think the answer your question @CharlieKLP will depend on whom you ask. Because everyone is different and has different wants, needs, budgets and constraints. People will also have different expectations, depending on their own previous experiences of professionals. Ultimately, to the complex endeavour of building a house, which lets be honest is part engineering, part art and a hell of a lot blood and sweat, an architect can be many things: a designer, an artist, a project manager, a coach, a diplomat, a technician, a generalist and/or a specialist. The exact ratio of art to engineering will depend very much on the customer. My advice would be to be honest with your clients. Focus on what you enjoy the most, but be honest about that, whilst finding solutions for the things you don’t really want to do. So for example, if you only like being involved in certain types of projects, reject all others from the outset. If it’s more about the elements of a project, team up with others who can do what you don’t like doing. I consulted a very well regarded award winning architect who had done a couple of local projects as well as his own studio in ways that blew my mind. I knew I had to have him involved in my project. I approached him and pretty quickly realised I couldn’tafford him. But he was such a nice guy and so clearly a genius that I walked what he could do for us for the money I had. He suggested I pay him £1,200 just for the initial concept. This was some of the best money we ever spent. He met with my partner and I and asked us lots of questions about how we live, what are our gripes about the house, what were our aspirations for it. He asked about our budget and timescales, whether there were any plans to work from home in the future (this was pre pandemic), expand our family, hobbies etc. He really got to know the way we live and the way we wanted to live. He even set us homework. After a couple of sessions he set out two options for what we could do with our 1930s house, in some hand drawn scale sketches. Both were viable and both achieved our aims, albeit one was a bit over budget because it involved ripping out the staircase and installing a new one in the middle of the house. But it really opened up our minds (as well as the house) as to what we really wanted and what was possible. Now some will criticise him and say he should never have temper up down that path… but ultimately it was our choice. But we wouldn’t have had that choice if it wasn’t for him. As we couldn’t do the whole project with him because he was way out of our price range, I took his sketches to a much cheaper architect, one that I didn’t know much about other than he was young and cheap and not very experienced. I lucked out because this architect has done a pretty amazing job for us. But his inexperience sometimes comes through, and whilst I don’t regret going with him, I do miss the more expensive guy. A month or so ago, I had a few issues that I needed a second opinion on. I went back to the expensive guy for a one off consultation. He talked me through it, or as he put it, “coached me through” the decisions I needed to take, helping me appraise the cost benefit analysis of different design choices. In doing this, he made me raise that the recommendations my actual architect was giving me were the correct ones, but the more experienced chap had more than just experience. He had a way with people, a bit like a therapist, a bit like a friend, whilst still calling on impecable architectural knowledge. But even the more expensive guy had his limitations. I know he doesn’t do any appeal work, preferring his clients to use a planning consultant for that. I also know he always insists on getting a proper measured survey from a particular surveyor. And maybe that’s one of his benefits. He knows what he is God it and he sticks to it. If you team up with the right people you could do the same.

Tbh, this post exemplifies exactly the issues you hit with self builders. Getting a project designed and through planning is much more than just interior layout to satisfy planners... The design has to balance 100s of little considerations from buildability, local plans, building regs, budgets, site constraints, daylight, views, client preferences etc. The real value in what an architect does is in the design stage, if you get it right the rest of the project should be on rails, everyone thinks architects are expensive, but compare changing the position of a wall on a drawing to see how the space works to deciding when you see it on site that you want a slightly bigger room or a window in a different location.... Gaining planning permission is also the single biggest increase you can make to the value of land, so having the skills to deliver a planning approval to add hundreds of thousands to a bit of land is quite valuable...

People pay for the design, they don't pay for the method of delivery. My cad and BIM files contain a huge amount of information that's been built up over years, we issue only prints or pdf information as we can completely control that information, we will coordinate with other professionals who may need raw data files to make their work easier/quicker, but we won't release the files to a client and have zero control on how they're amended or reused. There's plenty of legal implications of sending out easily editable information... Until we had cad you would just get paper drawings from all the consultants in the process, you wouldn't phone them up and ask them to send out their squares, drawing boards and pencils - no one pays for the raw cad data, they pay for the information required to communicate the design, after all, the contractor always has to interpret the drawings to built the thing anyway...

What do you want the CAD version for exactly? the reason you don’t give them out, is because cad files contain a lot of information and work beyond the floor plan. Blocks and things. It also creates an issue where different people are changing things, it’s confusing and legally tricky. Do you just want dimensions? when I start a design, I don’t put dimensions on as people get stuck on numbers. You can end up moving things 200mm when they don’t even know where they want a room.

Hello @iMCaan Concrete founds are fine under water and as others say seepage at this level is quite common. If you are wanting to drain the site a bit I would avoid if possible placing the drains below the level of the top of the concrete found. What can happen is that folk go mad and dig deep French drains near their founds. If in clay soil this can dry it out in the summer and your building could settle. If in sand the fine grains could get flushed out from under the founds.. and they settle. I've seen this on old stone built houses / steadings / shallow founded corbelled brick founds etc where folk put in a new drain deeper than the existing founds surrounded by pea gravel and a few years later cracks start appearing in the walls as they have dried out the ground under the founds that have happily sat there for decades. Most of the time movement is caused by blocked drains and tree roots and that is what you read about on the internet. Thus when new building we don't think "the other way round"

Okay, so next stage done now with 2 coats of the basecoat. I've some mistakes in that I used the basecoat to fill joints and countersunk screw holes and I used the microcement mesh across all the corners. This meant that I used a bit too much basecoat and ran a bit short on the second coat! I also used the mirocement mesh on both internal and external corners, which was not great. Next time I'll use normal scrim tape on any corners. Having never done this before I may have applied the first coat slightly too thick too. Anyway, not too much of a disaster. All that has happened is the small wall area within the built in shelf will need to be tiled at the back and sides. Applying the basecoat is really quite similar to applying thin coat render on external wall insulation, but it's a lot thinner, with each layer being only approx. 1mm. I'm going to allow this cement to set overnight and tomorrow, first sand down this layer and then apply two more layers of a slightly different cement layer with what looks like a finer aggregate, but is still trowelled on like the basecoat. Overall, I'm quite happy with how it's turning out.

That’s such a great idea, would really love to one day. I don’t have any money though, I don’t get paid that much! I like the idea to market my business as a self build architect, and yes cost effective design is what I would go for if I was going to build. I actually prefer to design smaller houses than mansions.

We were lucky enough to use the services of someone trained in NZ- where architects are seemingly more broadly trained in engineering and buildability, and not as focused on the money...

Spend a lot of time explaining your process and educating clients - you're completely right, we do have the equipment to survey a site in the office but it's much quicker, more cost effective and more accurate to use a specialist but your job is to explain to people the why's, I've just redone our website to include FAQ's which is the same questions we get over and over again. The expectations and opinions of architects on here is very far from the reality (in my experience) but you have to work exceptionally hard to communicate that. 5k is cheap for getting to planning but you need to show why that's the case. Also make friends with a QS who can give you cost plans at design stage, people seem to think that architects can design within a tight budget in an incredibly volatile construction market, at least with professional cost planning you can track some of that as you go... you'll still get tenders which swing massively and the client blaming you for it being over budget but at least you've done as much as possible to mitigate the risks

I bet they wouldn’t require one if it was there money

Ouch! A lot of people are wrong but you are right?* I have been thinking on this while walking in the sun. This is not the forum where you will meet your clients. Self-builders do so for very specific reasons. 1. Cost saving 2. Control 3. Hands on 4. A dream The first three appeal to people who will take a chance, be immersed in their own project, and be watching detail, quality and cost closely. Almost by default they don't want or need to be hand-held throughout by a single party. Some will be know-alls that don't take advice. Others will be exploring every aspect and wanting to now why, why, why. Most will be earnestly striving for a good job at a very cheap price. Your market is therefore to do a simple design (most likely tidying up a provided sketch) and leave, but technicians are doing this already for low fees. Or to do amazing flights of fancy where budget is irrelevant, and lovely big fees follow, but these clients are not on here. *actually this isn't your fault it is taught at uni. I have come across quite a few who think they are special, almost in inverse proportion to their skill and value.

The biggest complaint that self-builder have with most Architects/architectural designer is that they have a poor knowledge of modern building systems and costs. It matters as much (if not more IMHO) how the inside looks and works as the outside does.

I agree with those above that say 25mm is fine and it would've been nice to able to use 25mm x 50mm battens for us as it would've saved a lot of money but we had to use 50mm x 50mm battens due to our external blinds needing to have at least 80mm gap between the wall and the cladding. pretty much doubled the cost for our battening. fortunately we're installing it ourselves and so saving a packet on labour! ?

Our cladding boards are 20mm too and typically 3m long. Given it isn't structural and they are only holding the cladding up I cant see any benefit in using anything other than the blur Roofing battons

Someone who picks up the phone when I call

So are the multi rate tarrifs not restricted by the cap? I was considering switching to Go myself late last year, it would have given at the time a marginal saving in the daily charge and the day rate plus the 5p night rate. Looks like that would have been a bad move after all, and makes me very wary of these smart meter related variable tariffs. I will be digging my heels in and refusing a smart meter for as long as I can.

You are right. Some of us on here have already done the easy savings. The general population is entirely different. As a slightly different example, because I am driving 600 extra miles every week, I have decided to put my 40 year old automotive engineering skills to some practical use. If I drive normally on the A30, M5, M4 and A34, then A40, I get about 45 MPG. If I potter along and add an extra hour and a half to the journey, I can get 70 MPG. Now I appreciate this is not a house, but expecting a little less can save a decent amount (about 40 quid a trip). My biggest energy saving device is the Poundland washing line.

Cheer up, your super insulated new build will turn you into a Thermal Aristocrat while the other 90% of Britons descend into thermal poverty. Next winter you will be able stand behind your triple glazed windows and shout at the thermal peasants "let them eat cake and wash once a week".

I have dealt with it on several occasions, once formally and others informally. Always successful. I would expect a bit of red on the leaf but perhaps this is especially healthy. As it is far from clear, it would be prudent to kill it. This is what I would do, and you must make your own minds up, together with the neighbour, Do not cut it back but spray it thoroughly with the nastiest systemic you can find.. Repeat whenever it dares show a leaf, and at least 4 sprayings per annum. Expect to do this for 3 years and never relax until a year passes without any sight. It is an offence to dispose of any cuttings incorrectly. Therefore only when it is all dead, cut back the growth and BURN. Every node on every branch and root can grow a new shoot. The official way of getting rid of it, which we proposed to the planners and then did, is to dig it all up (incl all roots and soil) , and bury it very deep (2m???) with polythene over. It dies. Then also check the area regularly for any new growth. OR get a specialist in and tell the LA. Allow several #k oh my pound sign has become a # several thousand pounds.

Clearly we are not "most people" then because I keep trying and failing to find anywhere we "waste" energy. The only savings I can see is cook less, wash us or our clothes less. watch less television, don't keep food in a fridge or freezer, sit in the dark at night or sit in a cold house.

We are dammed if we do and dammed if we don’t Electricity price rises will keep pace with gas rises Or visa versa If we could all convert to solar power There would be a tax on the sun