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I may be the wrong person to comment here as I’ve got a 50:50 opinion on architects as I’ve come across good and bad in all walks (self build, domestic and commercial) and interestingly the ones I’ve seen biggest issues with are the ones dealing with the self build market ..! I had to nearly stand between an architect and a client during a full blown argument on site when the architect was shouting that moving a door on a landing “spoiled the aesthetic he has created” despite the client realising it created a horrendous dog leg into a bedroom which would have made it virtually impossible to get furniture in or out of the room… I’ve also had some great dealings with architects who give advice and explain the reasons why - sometimes you need the emotional intelligence and empathy to understand you’re designing someone’s dream, and possibly the most expensive thing they have ever commissioned so understanding that is key. They have much more invested in the design than just money.

I can see where you are coming from But the self builder should end up with a home that they like Not what an Architect thinks looks right

No you don't actually need a cloud key. You can set up the APs using a laptop, or even a smart phone and the app, and then leave them alone to do their thing. A Cloud Key is useful for remote monitoring of network performance, but who does that remotely in a domestic situation (only for professionals handling multiple sites and complicated setups, etc). With the advent of high frequency connections, especially with the forthcoming WifI 6E, the range of APs is reducing while the bandwidth/speed shoots up (2.4 GHz to 5 GHz and, for WiFi 6E, to 6 GHz). Therefore, in my 125 m² new dwelling, I will have three APs. And ceiling mounted too. I am not a fan of low-level APs mounted inside a wall. A rule of thumb is that a person attenuates the Wifi signal about as well as a wall. Overhead works best. I will have a fibre connection to my home capable of 1,000 mb/s. For the wifi speed to match that in the real world I will be needing everything that WiFi 6E can offer at 6 GHz.

Thanks Indy, by the way I was not thinking directly about your thread when I made this thread at all and in no way meant to drag you in. I would like to improve my customer experience irl, and I also get more out of the process if I am able to give more input. I really think that’s a great point. You have to sell the idea. Now I am the worst salesperson there is, I tell people quite brashly what I think. It’s certainly something I’m working on! To make them think the good ideas are theirs is a skill I only seem to manage in work meetings and with my family lol. also thanks again for taking the criticism so well, and you know, sticking with your guns I do respect that and hope it pays off genuinely.

I'm going to add my comments here since I've been engaged in a bit of back and forth with some of the posters on here, on my own thread in the new build form (where my design was knocked quite a bit). To answer your original question, there is one simple answer. You have to be good at sales. You can design the most brilliant houses but if you can't sell them to your clients then they're not getting built. Sometimes its as simple as laying out the rationale for your design choices, other times its going to be make your clients realise that what they want vs what they need are 2 separate things. I also agree firmly with the advice on this thread that people who want to self build often do so because they can't find anything on the general market that meets their needs. Which means hundreds of properties viewed, rejected and through that process - usually a good list of what works and what doesn't for them. If you automatically assume that people don't know what they want and they should go with what you're recommending - you've lost before even getting started. You may find the odd example of someone who will go with a completely new design, but people are people and confirmation bias is a real thing. They will want to work with someone who gives them what they want, calls them brilliant and praises their 'design nous'.

this is correct. we have Norrsken windows and are very happy with them but they are made by Viking windows. personally I would highly recommend Norrsken.

I am not so sure, isn't that more a case of what is offered, rather than what is wanted. Back in the 80's and 90's, everyone was going to be single and live in a city. So we now have empty flats in city centres now. Designers designed places that had limited car parking, forgetting that cars were getting better and cheaper. Also, not many people sleep in anything other that bedroom (studio flats should be banned), most people cook in a kitchen, and watch TV, from a sofa, in a living room and bath in a bathroom. Also, when viewing houses, one with furniture and one without seem very different. Designing a house is not as critical as designing a ship or a space station. If you want compact living, forget a house and get a motor home, they are marvels of design, usually terrible.

Definitely, but not everyone can imagine what something will look like, I am lucky in that I can look at plans and see exactly what it will be like finished., I also designed/built a kitchen diner and separate lounge ?

I got as close to like for like quotes as I could from the list of: Norrsken Nordan Rationel Green Building Store Jeldwen (priced direct with them rather than through a merchant) and a couple of others. ages ago I'd also got a quote from Velfac but this was for Aluminium windows the architect spec'd rather than timber we eventually went for. They were competitive price wise and rather than relying on a ridiculous negotiation process for the sake of it, just gave us a good price up front. About 7k or so less than GBS for 3g windows that had a whole window average u-value of 1.05 including the doors (We weren't looking for PH performance in ours so didn't spec this) . The Nordvest windows were slightly better on G-value (we've got lots of south facing windows shielded from summer sun with large overhang but wanted the winter gain - and can attest now that this works well). Rationel was the best quote on base price but Rationel couldn't do our 1st floor egress window as designed, nor could they do our front door IIRC, nor did they include the sills or transport in the quote. With Nordvest they quoted including timber sills, pretty much everyone else wanted extra for the sills of course, especially the aluminium ones. Nordvest also included transport in their quote so you basically knew everything was covered. What really made the difference with Nordvest is that they actually looked at the designs and window schedule and instead of just quoting for what was on there, they came back and suggested alternative arrangements for window openings etc. So, for example, they suggested tilt and turn windows at some places and fully reversible top swing in others etc. With the front door, I think only one other company could do our size and Nordvest said they only supply front doors with an Accoya external face and it was to be steel reinforced due to the size, which was reassuring. I also like their window profile which was 109mm deep x 56mm. This helped because with their frames I was able to bring them out further from the timber frame to cover the 50mm insulation installed externally and not have to use deep aluminium sills. I only needed 65mm timber sills rather than the 120 + mm aluminium ones. There are also some other neat additions to the design. For example, even on the timber only windows they include aluminium profile as cladding on the top of the bottom rail which clips on just above the bottom bead. As I understand it, this is one of the weaker areas of a timber window and this profile provides better protection. We ended up spending more with them as we decided to increase some sizes, like for the french doors and up the spec of a few bits and bobs but we still ended up paying marginally less less than Rationel would have been with sills and transport included. In total it was just over 20k plus VAT. Can share full schedule so you can see all the details if you'd like. Windows & doors not long after installation. Bays have fully glazed returns:

I'm not really sure who you think you are. From what you have said previously, you are an employee of someone else's Architectural practice, has an actual house yet been built that is your sole design, and not one that the partners have been consulted on. What makes you think you are the arbiter of what a "beautiful" house is? Isn't that for the person paying the bill and choosing to live in the house to decide. House design is a compromise, and one that first and foremost has to be financially viable. There's no point building a "pretty" house in suburbia if what makes it pretty knocks 30m² off the floor plan, a bedroom and £150K off the value. For many plots "beautiful" is down the priority list, and rightly so. You say you want to head out on your own and have the self build community finance your new business venture. However, you appear to have nothing but contempt for them. A little humility, and listen to what the paying customer wants.

Not wanting to rain on your parade, but your comments actually are the reason a lot of people don’t like architects - it comes as a surprise that you’re not the only ones who can draw and use a pencil …. Some people are self building because they want what they want - down to design. What you see as vanity projects may well be what they want it to look like. It may not be to your taste, but given that it is their money, why is that a problem ..?? Yes, tell them where you could improve the design but telling them their ideas are crap is not going to win you customers.

After pondering battery storage for many years, and then the energy prices rocketing this last year, i finally decided to give energy storage a shot, working out how it would sit financially was extremely difficult, and a little bit of a finger in the wind, but as the batteries have a designed lifetime of 15years now, and energy prices rarely go down, I figured it would pay for itself with some profit over the long term, whilst also reducing my carbon emissions and reliance on the grid. As i'm just dipping my toe in, i've decided to just get a single US3000C Pylontech Battery for now, meaning that the max discharge W is around 1.8kW. I will see how this fits in, which will cover most of my loads, and if I see fit I can add a US2000C later on to give the full 3kW discharge. Went for a Solis AC Coupled 5th Generation Inverter, the graphs it produces are really informative. Will get round to taking the rackmount bits off at some point. Example of the graphs available: I will add bits to this thread over time about electric consumption. My annual consumption at the moment is looking to be around 1200-1300kWh before the battery, Export sitting around 2400kWh as excess from the solar farm, so be interesting to see what these figures do over the next 12 months. Cost so far £2450 including installation which was £650. An additional US2000C will be £748 if i decide to go ahead.

You’d only have the slightest of concern IF the screws were put in and taken back out again, and even then the issue would be almost inconsequential afaic. You can relax good sir

Or even worse, the bbc

My timber frame is 35 years old and it has a VLC. So did the Barret ones that (expletive deleted)ed up in the 1980s

I don't get this. ERV has lower output RH from Comfopost simply because RH into Comfopost used is lower I thought. The total cooling power with HRV is higher isn't it? We introduced this because of feedback from others with similiar contruction that first-floor can typically be a degree or two higher/lower in hot/cold weather. But before using Comfopost made doubly sure that fancoils weren't going to be needed and that we weren't going to have localized overheating either. Our primary strategy to reduce cooling load is Loxone-automated external venetian blinds.

I did that but still ended up paying for them ?‍♂️

Given that it's valentine's Day I think you had better get stuck in turning back the clock. Then like any proper married couple hold the fact against her for all time.

In the render there is no tile above the sliding doors (that triangle shaped gable bit of wall). That is decorative plaster as is the sloped ceiling either side of the skylight. In reality we took the tile up to the skylight on that wall. So quite dramatically different I guess. It's a rustic clay tile made in morocco and has come out a little more rustic than we were expecting, so she is annoyed there is more of it than we had originally planned.

Okay, go on, someone tell me WHAT changed between the render and the actual, because all I see is trivial detail changes. I MUST be missing the obvious real change.

(I know that and you know that ?)

I did sockets in wrong place. Should have known people would sit other side of the island. " couldn't you just add another couple of sockets'. This after plasterred and painted.

Kitchen is man territory now ….

Too much maths here…… Just enjoy the hot water and have a beer. If you have PV it’ll run practically for free all summer. Discount that and you’re spending very little for what I think is a super luxury addition. Waiting for hot water annoys me, and mine is from a combi 3m away from each basin! Counting to 5 is 5 seconds too long.

She is always right... Been there, done that, got the t shirt

There's also a Hikvision DS-2CD2232-I5 looking back at the front door.

Not sure the maths is correct for model 1b The model may be correct if the circulation water went in the system hot and was returned cold, but if well insulated the losses during circulation would be quite small. For example I am circulating via a combi, so I can see when the boiler fires. On start of the circulation pump the boiler fires, within a few seconds it turns off. I am running a 30m loop for a couple of hours morning and evening, based on the maths I would be using around 300kWh a day. I am not.

NO! In the illustration it is only possible to have a maximum of 95mm over the corner of the wall plate. I have 400mm in that location ?

Thanks for the info guy's I have asked Norrsken and Nordvest for quotes so will see what happens

Depends what your idea of a "nicer" design is. I might think your nicer design is pants. You must design what your client asks for, it doesn't mean it is right or wrong, but it is what the client wants and the client will not build your ideal or dream house.

We had a fight with our planning permission as many of you know, during this they tried to tell me the “curtilage “ of the existing house was smaller than the residential plot (aside from the agricultural field attached). The res plot is about 1/2 acre but the council tried to tell me it was half of this. I then said I could produce evidence that family members had used the 1/2 acre plot as garden in previous years, they then backed down when I asked for their evidence. When looking into this on tinternet I found many examples of councils trying to tell owners the curtilage was smaller than they claimed.

https://scpbuildingproducts.co.uk/products/leaf-trap-for-downpipes

I've just got myself an old Ford 550. I think a pecker will destroy her?. So resigned to hiring in a big machine and pecker.

Fairly easy to use it you can already handle a digger controls. Will depend on the digger how the hydraulics work. Some use a foot pedal, others a button on the stick.

Definitely We both worked four days and worked the other three on the house I worked each evening While I don’t intend doing as many hours this time I’m confident that our 360 will build the house and workshop combined 316m2 The key is the laboure I have run a plastering- framing and tiling business for many years But didn’t use any of the lads Sort of felt like cheating Plus most earn several hundred per day and I was conscious of the cost Your home looks fantastic Well done

Sounds the same as ‘occupation’ so before it becomes habitable.

So PD would not apply to this additional area.

We've got trees above eaves height without a problem; just clean your gutters out regularly ?

I agree,

First hurdle is what is the planning use of this half acre? Is it agricultural? a paddock? or does it actually have planning use as a garden? A safer bet might be a portable building like a caravan or shepherds hut, easier to move is there are objections.

The build (latent defects) warranty should cover it. you’re overthinking this … just check the slate spec and ensure the roofer follows this.

I'm currently breaking basements for 3 sperate apartment blocks all in Granite. All circa 15000m3 each. Big machine will pay for itself and would take that out in a day BUT most hire places that rent out hammers with their machine put smaller hammers On so it's less abuse on there machines and prolonged hire. Minimum 20 ton machine with a 3 or 3.5 ton hammer P.s or get a crowd in to hydraulic crack it, they'd also get it out in a few hours

Cut the trees back and keep them cut There are many slate roofs that have been in place 100 plus years Without any membrane The roof will see you out Uour overthinking it and worrying about nothing

I think a nice design doesn’t have to cost anymore I like a gallery landing as it gives a wow factor Many just seem hung up with bedroom space I do think that if you are set in your ideas An Architecht is probably not for you We told our Architecht what we wanted and he came up with three designs I’d like to think we have the best bits of all three

For me it’s been a real struggle finding an architect who had their own ideas rather than providing an initial bland proposal and then just making the changes I suggest. As a consumer, I don’t want that. Just because something makes sense in my mind, doesn’t mean it will work in practice, and it’s their expertise that I’m paying for. We did find a really good architect a few years ago now who produced some plans for our previous house, but unfortunately he’s since retired. The last couple I’ve worked with have been a real struggle.

Get a 13 to 20 ton excavator in with a pecker and save yourself a lot of work. Have it done in a couple of days

Wow people have far to much time on their hands...and money I must being boring with a £2 manual switch, not sure how I cope.

Hedgehogs don’t need clips in deepflow - they sit well inside and get caught by the tiles. I use these on the bottom of downpipes to catch the rubbish and stop splashing https://www.wickes.co.uk/FloPlast-Leaf-Debris-Interceptor-Gully---Black/p/158828

Meths is unlikely to harm it, as it'll not soften a lacquer if any has been applied, and will only slightly lift an oil finish. Perhaps try a little 000 / 0000 grade steel wool with meths, and rub over area gently, until marks are removed. Make sure to try to work "with" the grain, although with such fine grade steel wool, it's not likely to scratch oak to any degree. If that does the trick, buff dry with clean cloth and then apply a decent flooring oil or danish oil to restore colour. Give it a go on an inconspicuous spot and see how you get on.

At least they will not be able to complain to me as I will be dead.