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Hi All, I'm Russ, always been an ardent DIY'er, qualified engineer by trade, now largely retired. I've undertaken many home extension & refurbishment projects, I still run a residential rental & sales business. Currently helping out with daughter's dormer extension/rooms in the roof, Boy how building regs/architect requirements have changed!!! There's enough steel in the top of their roof now that you build a supertanker from it! Main reason I've joined is to pick brains & share info about all things solar. I have a 4kW grid tied array which was installed right back in 2010/11 when FIT prices were crazy high. It's long ago paid for itself & now makes/saves me around £2k a year. Obviously I can't extend it as it's already the max for grid tie system & certainly don't want to lose the FIT I'm on. Recently installed a Solic immersion heater controller which is using the surplus kW that used to go back to the grid to give us free hot water for most of the year - it's fairly obvious where ALL energy prices, not just gas, are going in the next few years Current project I've bought 10 second hand 310W solar panels & 4 x 170Ah 12V solar lead acid batteries & am playing with various installation ideas to take some of the circuits off grid (which will give us further kW for free hot water when solar output is low) using a 3kW cheapy inverter & possibly use some direct 24V heating to give some general background heat I'll be posting up some info on what I'm doing in the PV section & no doubt asking some stupid & annoying Q's - please be gentle with me!

here's my install. so much nicer than on-roof!

Right, this went well.. what I have now, is a 1" gap around my two back ( 800mm ) edges. Plinth to paint yellow/ do last. So the 2 heat barrier 'panels' to consider next. Might they standoff to the walls say 1/2" ? If so they could sit down in these two gaps.. then fill gap up last: so just a 1/2" gap to fill with grout or mortar.

Well, mine doesn't fall for that. She doesn't look at the links, books, mags, references and she doesn't pass it all my way. She asks to 'see' something before we make the decision. Because she doesn't visualise these things well, it means we actually have to wait until the space is created to make the decisions and it only then becomes tangible for her. But she's very much sharing the pain with the building so that's just got to be how it is, even when she worries about things that aren't an issue for me, I've got to resolve those worries before we proceed.

Your SWMBO sounds like mine. But on a self build there are cunning ways to get her to agree . Take internal doors for example . She wants to have input on that . So I send her loads of links / photos etc . The response then is “ you choose I trust you “ - easy . I did the same with glazing , cladding , door handles , even tiles . Overwhelm a SWMBO with too many options and she’ll gladly pass the work your way ….

I'm not sure how much time you've spent looking through the VAT reclaim forum, but very often, they are very much trying to catch you out. HMRC not that long ago tried to apply serious penalties for fraud when someone accidentally tried to reclaim self build VAT back when they weren't actually eligible. They answered every question on the forms accurately, so it wasn't like they were trying to pull a swift one, it was just a simple misunderstanding. The tribunal who kicked HMRC's case out was livid at the way HMRC had behaved. They've randomly tried similar against people who've accidentally tried to claim items not covered by the self-build reclaim rules. There's example after example of HMRC pulling this kind of nonsense. Worse, the processes are extremely opaque. For example, I got a full refund with no questions asked, over 5 years after moving in to my place. There were long periods where no costs were incurred. I assume that a couple of late, biggish invoices helped me over their interpretation of "within 3 months of completion), but who knows? Maybe it's just who I got on the day. Whatever the truth, HMRC is not your friend, and people should do everything in their power to avoid giving them a reason to issue a negative judgement. Even if you're completely right, they'll drag you through an internal appeal process and then to tribunal, costing you time, money and stress.

grow a pair and stand up for yourself. looks better than the rendering, adds a bit of texture to the room

Get all your mates around and grease their palms. 4 good strong blokes should be able to lift that. You want it to arrive un damaged.

Our path and patio is laid to these but weeds grow in the gaps and I have to pressure wash to blow the weeds out annually. As an aside ours is laid on granite grit rather than sand and the pressure washing does not wash the granite away that can happen with sand.

No more red for you tonight lol. Don Juan

It’s what I went with in the end.

Andrew at VAT431 is an excellent resource. Good value for money

Conversely someone here or another forum worked out the cold bridge due to wall ties on a house was so small it was not worth the extra cost . Diminishing returns and all that. Saying that I did no calculations whatsoever for my build, I went with gut instinct (after other buildhubbers did their calculations) and I copied!.

Your experience may have been straightforward, but I'm specifically responding to where you said "They are not looking to catch you out". I disagree, and I think it's important that people not get complacent or think that HMRC is on their side. A brief summary of the background and outcome is here. There's more detail scattered across many posts in the VAT sub-forums.

True, but knowing me with paperwork I would have made mistakes, peace of mind did it fir me.

yeah.....we're aware ?

this self-building stuff has ruined me too as for years I told my wife what 12 inches looks like and now she's confused about timber sizes etc.

the alutrix needs to be under the insulation though and sealed to the walls inside the house. No punching holes through it for downlighters etc!!! It's bloody good stuff and will waterproof the roof on its own for something like 6 weeks.

Local resin bound guy near us told me the other day that the price of resin has doubled in the last year.... If you go this route, make sure the pebbles have zero iron in them. Any iron content can rust which causes the pebbles to swell and the whole thing to break up. There's been a few round here that have had to be ripped up under warranty and replaced. Simon

Same here re speed - although 'apparently' we're too far away in the new build for them to be 'arsed' to run a cable through the duct we've installed ? But on the reset time - if you've switched off wifi as @PeterW said, we find it reboots in no time. So it seems the wifi functionality is what takes the time to reboot. In the current house we run 3 Google mesh routers which happily hops through two 9 inch brick walls into the extension. Simon

I agree. For me they're made in gest. I've never done what I'm told and I can be terribly intransigent if something or someone rubs me up the wrong way and so can my wife, but the implied partnered/consensus decision contract was breached here by the OP. Once one side breaches that agreement, I feel she's in her rights to ask for a re-appraisal of the decision made without her consent and for it to be rectified based on her feelings and preferences. She's going to be living there and will be reminded of the decision for as long as it remains, even if she accepts the new design. Painful as it might be, you just don't make decisions like this, even if it seems minor, without consulting your partner, as what underlies this is not the design per say, but the relationship and trust, which is probably really why she's upset - he did it without her. And to resolve it, don't make it about the economics.

Am I allowed to bet on her? If so, yes let's take bets.

I've toyed with idea of PV directly connected to immersion. Can be done quite cheaply, then it's completely off grid. Certainly would then start to displace electric or gas heating used in the winter. The other alternative is MyPV, MPPT DC immersion. There's also an American guy on YouTube doing lots of solar stuff he has a link to a spreadsheet where you input your panel configuration and it tells which AC Voltage Wattage immersion to use to get best performance in DC.

Tell her it's too hard/expensive/disruptive to do now, and that you'll agree to revisit 6 months after you've moved in. If she still doesn't like it then, you should agree to change it back. I guess you're not that far off finishing, but I found our appetite for spending diminished significantly as the build went on. Perhaps she'll feel the same and won't want to spend £1500+ further down the track. Also, why did you make a decision like this without discussing it? I wouldn't dream of making a change like this without discussing it with my missus. Nothing to do with being scared of her reply, but I genuinely want both of us to be happy with the result. Probably explains why the house is still not properly decorated 6+ years after moving in!

looks like your missing a vapour barrier as it should have been brought up around the skylight upstands (they need to be insulated as well) ?

Well not small holes. The main problem is because airtightness was vastly improved (generally) over traditional building techniques, condensation started to become a real problem. Because of the movable nature of gasses, condensation generally happens on the nearest cold surface. So windows first, then 'somewhere within the wall'. As timber can rot after a few years, there is more moisture in the gas we call air (a mixture of many gasses, including water vapour), and the warmer the air is, the more fraction of water vapour is potentially in it. To overcome this, a VCL is installed on the warm side, in the UK this means the inside. The rest of the wall is now only open to outside air, with its lower temperatures and absolute humidity, the actual grams of water vapour in every kilogram of air. By also being 'vapour open' to the exterior, as the wall warms during the day because of solar energy and weather variations, the smaller amount of water can easily evaporate away. But because there is now a trapped volume of air within the building, and one that has a greater absolute amount of water vapour in it, even if the relative humidity is lower, this has to be dealt with. Window trickle vents and extractor fans were the usual method. Whiles these work, the air changes are uncontrolled and spasmodic, and threw out the energy that had been put into the air to heat it up. So mechanical ventilation and heat recover is now fitted. This works best in a very airtight house and should easily recover the electrical energy to run them. So how do you ventilate your house?

Should add the OSB upstand was probably more like 300mm or even a bit more. Whole thing will be a green roof, eventually !

You can check with the Wayleave Dept. at your DNO for wayleaves for the stay and overrsailing cables. You can ask the DNO to remove them.

The term "self build" encompasses anything from the dedicated skilled man that does absolutely everything themself, to someone that buys a plot and pays a builder to build a house ready to move into. And everything in between. A good compromise for a first time self builder is to pay a builder to construct a "wind and watertight" shell, so from the outside it will look like a complete house with roof, windows, doors etc but will be unfinished inside. You can then get your hands dirty yourself or pay individual tradesmen to come and do the internal work. The No 1 hurdle is always finding a suitable plot which depending where you are might be easy or might be close to impossible.

I initially preferred the render version, but on closer examination it seems as if the side walls on the render version have the same tiled finish as the reality, but it doesn't look like it. IOW the render is lighter than the reality which skews the effect rather a lot. the lighting effect is very different too.

unless its gong to be walked on you dont need the top OSB, EDPM will glue to glass fibre backed insulation no problem. What make of vapour seal are you using ?

I prefer the render version….. the rustic look is very different and I can see why it’s causing conflict. Personally I would cut your losses and remove and redo it and agree never to talk about it again……

Right, that level of change to me is weeeeeeeell outside the scope of the architect and is in the realms of "interior decoration" that you choose once the building is up and you get a real feeling for the space and how you want to dress it. That would never register for me as a major change and just assumed that is what you both chose to do with the space. Clearly it is what YOU chose to do with the space without discussion?

absolutely, don't ever back down ?

Spa tub look amazing in adverts and sounds wonderful, in reality they are rarely used and are a pain to clean and keep clean … water hangs around in the pipes and jets and they need regular cleaning and disinfecting

If you’re worried about the cost of running a PIR sensor then I need to review my house! I value things for how much I like it or how much they improve my life, not how much they cost to run….. PIR in cloakroom and landing ( landing light sits at 20% until triggered to 100% ) mean no light left on and complete convenience. A pull cord is the absolute last thing I’d ever allow anyone to fit in my house, bloody horrible things! Just fit a sensor and I’ll give you the £3 p/a needed to run it at the start of each year For MVHR, I just fit humidity sensors in each bathroom and a press button switch for ablutions for the cloakroom ( 5 min boost ) and the same switch in the kitchen for preemptive boost ( 30 mins or 1 hour boost ) accordingly. £10 for 2 switches, £30 zero-volt digital timer contractor for the kitchen extended boost, job done.

Are you sure you want jets in your bath. They are never as good as a proper jacuzzi and the novelty will soon wear off. By all means, get a nice spacious bath, but this doesn’t have to be expensive. It is quite a bit of work ripping out sanitary ware, so I would choose wisely and choose once. Put the jacuzzi in the garden.

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.

Just an update in this issue, I realised that the 2 port Honeywell valve for the downstairs heating wasn’t opening when the ufh system was calling for heat. I have replaced the actuator head of the valve and we are now back all nice and toasty! thanks Matthew

Just found this from https://www.stovefitterswarehouse.co.uk/pages/regulations-for-wood-burning-stoves Building Control charges Some Building Controls are not very switched on and will also insist on themselves employing an installer to check your install and its compliance with Building Regulations. This is very annoying as they will also likely want you to pay for it. Unfortunately it appears that they can do this. See here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/404/regulation/7/made They do though have to follow a process - make sure they do so. Take a look at this document. It says in here: “In the case of local authorities, which cannot refuse to undertake building control on a project if requested…”

Well I don’t have one!, it was on the building regulations drawings that were passed by BC. I have just scanned the internet on this subject and many sources say the BC officer should sign it off if it is part of other works or you pay the fee for them to inspect but if (like my example above) they don’t have the expertise you are between a rock and a hard place. If you did it afterwards as a separate job and paid the council the set fee I think you would have a lever to make them.

You have got to love an optimist!!!

I used Icf supplies, they will rent them to you.

Why did you choose Nu Heat if you don't like their thermostats? buy a very much cheaper generic UFH control box and you can use any thermostat that you like.

I have just finished two new builds and put in some round pin 5A sockets in the corner of the lounge/living room controlled from a switch coming into the room. That way you can get some table or floor standing lamps controlled from light switch. Much better than the Blackpool illuminations that a lot of spots give off however retain some form of main/bright lighting for whenever it is necessary. I also use two way and intermediate upstairs outside the bedrooms to enable anyone coming out a bedroom at night to turn on/off the upstairs hall light. As for sockets a good rule of thumb is a double in the corner of each room. Agree about tv area if having a tv unit with other boxes like sky Q, games consoles etc put 2 doubles behind unit. For upstairs and downstairs hall its a good idea to have one for a vacuum cleaner and don't forget about the Xmas tree area which might need extras. Hope that helps.

Completely agree with what proDave says. In particular cable runs so Additional sockets can be added easily if needed. One thing we did was to have bedroom light switches also next to beds, so main light can be turned off when you jump into bed. Also ability to turn downstairs hall lights on/off from upstairs. where TVs and computers may go put in more than you think. you’ll need. Pop in a socket in each of the big cupboards and plenty in utility room too.

Sockets. TIP #1: Mark some sockets on the plan to satisfy BC there are enough, typically one each side of the bed, one on each wall, etc. THEN when the shell is up and you can see the bulding and visualise how you will use it, go round with your electrician and mark the ACTUAL positions you want them on the walls. TIP #2: Agree with your electrician that he will route socket circuit cables around the entire room at socket height. As long as there is one socket on each wall that is a safe zone. Then you have a cable in place to add extra sockets any time you want to.