Leaderboard

Just wanted to extend my profound thanks for all the replies and useful info. Both my partner and I spoke at committee last night - jointly. We spoke about our motivations, how we had made efforts to integrate the proposal into the neighbourhood and the compromises we had made. We also included some brief information about the sustainability of the house we are proposing. Neighbours, parish council and local ward councillor all rallied together and spoke against the proposal. At times their behaviour felt like playground bullies ganging up on us - the 'newbies' to the village, not helped by the fact we are a good 10-20 years younger than them and trying to do something a bit different. They told lies and waffled on about drainage for a while which isn't even a planning matter. The local councillor, which I assume does this a lot, was actually very poor at speaking and did talk about a lot of non planning matters, which was a surprise. Even said the only reason the original planning permission was granted was because the old owner was disabled. That was quickly shot down by the officer. The most obvious and upsetting lie they told was that we hadn't even consulted them about the proposal, when we took round the plans, stood in their kitchen and went through them - with no adverse comments received. I guess they must have developed selective amnesia 🙄 One of the committee members was very negative about the proposal, but luckily the rest of them all spoke up in support and on the vote we had 1 abstain and the rest support for permission. All in all, a incredibly stressful process that I do not ever wish to repeat. I think I read a little nugget on here a while back 'you only find out how unhinged your neighbours are when you apply for planning permission'. i can sure say I 100% agree with that now! Onwards and upwards with our project now!

Good point The amount of work that you do yourself will have a massive impact on your costings It seams a long time since we came in at 815m2 At a very good standard Something I have notice this time Planners have included our detached garage - workshop Last time while we included the material We didn’t add any m2 for the garages

The regulations state the size minimum for the shower, use that dimension and add to drawing. Activity space then adjoins the defined shower space.

I can’t recommend any post manufacture treatments but you need a Hydrophilic (think that’s the correct term and spelling) coating as this causes the water to sheet and flush debris away with it. only dealt with panes already treated from the manufacturer

Thanks for that. The front is north and the rear south. So the living rooms get the sun (and the sun room) Yes no reason why you could not build it without the sun room and garage. We only fitted one stove, in the kitchen / diner and in a different location to shown, about mid way along the west wall next to the door. The single 5kW stove will heat the whole house if you keep both the double doors to the stairwell open. If you shut the kitchen / diner doors then it will overheat just that one room. You really do have to think of it as whole house heating and keep the doors open. I would make the main bathroom slightly deeper than it was but by the time I realises I wanted to do that, the bedroom doors were in place and that would have been a big job to move them (trivial if noticed before that load bearing wall was built). Changes we did make, omit the airing cupboard from the east bedroom, that made the en-suite bigger. The HW tank is now in the small bedroom that puts it much more central to the points of use. We have not yet built the pantry. One thing that is not to everyones taste is the combined utility and WC. It works well for us though. The upstairs roof is built as a cut roof from big ridge beams and a "gable end" extends out at the front centre above the bathroom, and two gable ends extend out the rear one above each bedroom. These mean almost all of the upstairs has standing headroom even though it is room in roof. We built it for about £150K so just under £1000 per square metre, but it took 6 years and a LOT of DIY work to get it that low. You would not do that now with the increased cost of materials so I don't really have a clue what it would cost to build now. I doubt it's much more expensive than any other house design. Elevation plan attached. BW013 - Elevations.pdf

Energy companies should not have share holders.

confused here - what is your issue ..?? Do you have a site height limitation ..?? And what is your outer wall..? Brick or render on block ..? If you’re going for insulation and screed then get the brickies to do a double row of blocks / brick out block inner with your cavity and then they will back fill that. You’ll then need to make sure you have enough room for a 125mm of MOT1 and then compact / blind this and put a DPM and cast your concrete to the top of the inner block. From there, bring your inner block up another level, bring the DPM up and over that and that is now your FFL when you infil with insulation and screed.

If you want cheap/secondhand panels then ebay. If youre not bothered about matching panels then just buy as they come up at the right price/near by. Bare in mind that if youve got electrically mismatched panels, the lowest output panel will bring the output of the whole array down, unless wired in what could be complicated wiring if youve got a few variants of panel. Micro inverters or optimisers get round panel mismatch so a good solution if your collecting panels as you go.

Hi Ralph, I am unsure but i will ask my builder for you.

I think our liquid screed installer said they no longer use Longfloor as they had issues with the product and now only use Cemfloor. but, being cynical, you just don't know if those issues were financial or not! we had Cemfloor though and very happy with the product and finish

No it isn’t critical Liquid or S&C screed always say that Poletdhene sheets will be fine Some ply on the external doors also

thanks but just not interested in having a petrol/diesel powered generator sitting around so any extra is totally worth it for me.

Only a week ago I finally got around to climbing on our flat roof to clean a Skylight which had a film of fine sand (and algae that grew on it) that got deposited when we had Saharan dust blow our way last year. That's obviously been a cue for more sand to be dumped on us today. 🙄 Why does it stick so well? I would have thought it would wash away - the fall on the glass is around 1:60 but it stayed there for over a year, through all kinds of storms. I'm looking up at it now and it's raining quite hard but the stained area I got spotless last week is already looking to be invincibly stained once more. I worry that microscopic scratches left from cleaning the glass are serving as nucleation sites for further staining.

I'm the other way around, can't stand Android phones. 😛

But they are all estimated, the estimate will change hugely, based on building shape, size, build type, external and internal finish, flat roof, pitch roof, insulation levels, ventilation/ airtightness, heating type (gas, ASHP,gshp, UFH radiators) etc etc. Two different kitchen designs can change a build budget by £50k, the amount windows can change it again by £20 to 30k with ease, uPVC or Ali clad can change it again by the same amount. My thoughts are for a basic start point. £2k to £2.5k per M2 with someone else doing all the work will be a basic ok performance house, so 400k for 200m2 two storey. Add a good 10 to 15% on for single storey but depends on roof complexity (our roof added about 25% to m2 cost). The more bells and whistles and any changes you make along the way will add quite quickly. The above assumes limited or no landscaping, painted internally a single colour.

What about something like this, depending on your internal layout and duct routing options? An integrated cylinder with heat pump. https://www.heatershop.co.uk/dimplex-edl200uk?gclid=CjwKCAjwlcaRBhBYEiwAK341jdz8DNVbnJrzxbk1ovEi_RGvJ_EbNp7dLREhL5O8TUwt0wVa5byJAhoCbJ8QAvD_BwE Although I have never used one so don't know how efficient they are.

It seems that both hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties may play a part in 'self cleaning glass'. Obviously having a hydrophobic surface would mean water chasing away rather than pooling but a hydrophilic surface would also promote complete wetting and allow rain to wash away the dirt leaving a streak free window.

This is one of the most innumerate analyses I have ever seem. I don't know if I have the patience to list the holes therein. It needs to be called out because it is nuts. But I'll try and be polite and impersonal. Richard Murphy's biggest conclusion is that: the electricity and gas suppliers to the distribution companies are going to see their profits (ed: on a typical bill) increase almost exactly forty times, from £43 a year to an extraordinary £1,717 a year. He gets to that by making the fictional assumption that a typical bill is the fixed price tariff that *he* has been offered by *his* energy company for the house he lives in with his GP wife in Downham Market, and applying it to the whole country. That is £3000 under an unregulated fixed tariff: * let’s assume that all the data that I can find that says that the average house paid £1,200 a year for fuel in 2021 is also right. It was pretty much for me, for example. Now let’s base what energy costs might be on the fixed prices now being made available by the same energy suppliers who were happy to supply our electricity and gas for £1,200 last year. It seems around £3,000 is that new normal. Again, it happens to be for me. So, the price is increasing by £1,800. It is also a fictional claim for an average bill. since the typical bill under the cap is £1971, which I think almost everyone will stick with, following analysis for example by Martin Lewis. The cap quoted is by definition the amount an average consumption household would pay. So that immediately reduces Murphy's claim for 'profiteering' by £1000+, because his top line is very exaggerated. AFAICS most of his other assumptions are also fictions, which I may take half an hour to analyse later. In the meantime, I recommend BHers have a little look, and find the holes in this particular colander. Ferdinand * There does seem to be a dishonest marketing issue. I have been prominently offered 2 alternative fixed tariffs which will cost £2700 or so, whilst the capped variable rate at probably well under £2k is not mentioned.

What about a solar assist heat pump, they are generally around 2kW, come with 2 off 2x1m panels for outside though and they need to be mounted. Or if you like engineering something, could you use a car Aircon condenser and car fan, instead, mount in a custom box. Use it to heat a 50/100 litre cylinder with coil and take the UFH water from that. Or a Willis heater, CoP 1 though, so may be costly to run. Or an all in one air to air heat pump, for cooling and heating. But that doesn't used the UFH. But no outside unit.

I think the term is hydrophobic. Rain-X for car windscreens is an example.

I have converted a stable, similar 1990s vintage. The SE specified several trial holes to be dug in the foundations and in the slab for him to inspect. The first SE wanted underpinning all round, so I sought a second opinion. The second SE wanted more inspection holes then said that as long as we didn't dig out the slab, the foundations were adequate. There was significant cost differential, but of course we couldn't get in as much floor insulation as I would have liked.

Hi @SBMS Yes it took me a while to work this one out. Almost everything that uses power creates heat. Put you hand on your WIFI box for instance mine reads about 40 centigrade. Touch the back of the freezer when cooling. I have a temp gun which tells me these things. And as for cooking almost all energy is used for heating and where does the heat go? If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.... The point is, generally the more power used in the home the more heat supplied other than by the ASHP. Another one is the ratio of people to the house: 2 people here in 100m2. Some 2 people to 300m2. heat from 2 people about 150Watts or 200 when discussing politics or religion. so could be as much as 3.6kWh heat per day. Good luck Marvin

You may find you need to do a lot of foundation work anyway, agri buildings are not built to residential or commercial standards and sinking foundations is sort of accepted. there is always a way to do something, but without seeing what you are dealing with and ground conditions etc. It is very difficult to be specific.

We had a water softener setup in our last place and I hated it with a vengeance. I seemed to be spending my entire life either arranging salt delivery or going to collect and then filling the bloody thing up all the time. That and the cost of the unit with installation and storage space for the salt. I certainly wasn't convinced it provided the promised value in savings or comfort. Not again.

my take on this would be to draw the activity spaces on the plan layout, just use a nominal size for the tray, although you won't physically have one, you will have a tray former that is the showering area. Building warrant wants to ensue that there is room to move around.

My clients in Oxford couldn’t, but as you say perhaps that was a planning issue. I struggle to comprehend how ‘they’ can let ‘you’ move into a house that does not have basic amenities and safety systems / electrical etc not installed and certified. Seems open to abuse. Does remind me of one architect, who designed and built his own SIPs passive ( certified ) house, where I went out to survey for a full M&E install, and he said “we’ve been ok without heating, hot water and ventilation as we’ve only ‘just’ moved in”. A quick glance around told me they’d been in for a year or two minimum. 😐. Viva 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 !!

In England you can move in whenever you like unless there is a planning condition requiring certain works to be be done before occupation.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BABY-BELLING-table-top-Oven-w-Grill-2-Hotplates-Mains-NOT-13A-Good-Order-321R-/255428899934?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0 quick grab. 13a are available.

But a Baby Belling and that’ll do for now. 13a plug!! Job done.

Thank you! We've got a working kitchen sink We haven't got the oven/hob worktop yet Co and smoke detection all good Hot water all fine

It is because just about everything has to be bigged up, turned to 11. You can't get your car cleaned without it being called 'detailing' by some nob. I am currently sitting in a garage as my car needs a new ball joint. They are also going to put it on 'the diagnostics'. It is a suspension joint.

Beware the Christmas dinner effect! It's all gone pc now with regard to overcurrent protective devices and say RCDs on the same circuit. Diversity between devices in that context is now know as selectivity 😂

Keith..Welcome then.. lot's of interesting stuff here. Don't panic! Draw what you have on a bit of A4 paper and what you had originally . External ground levels, the brick / block coursing, the kit, the floor, suspended or ground bearing slab etc. Take a photo or scan and post. Don't worry about scale as just draw the blocks and say their size. Lastly it's not a drawing test, just convey the info as best you can. Gus

Thinking about it my Triton Body Dryer has the same deal in it if you want to run it and a leccy shower from the same cable.

Hiya @Amateur bob Have raked back through you posts and made random comments for your digestion and general discussion. Reach for the Rennies if need be all. Your posts, generally copied, are in italic. “I’m looking at a different house design” Good.. different does not mean expensive. I would go back and really write down you requirements. For example I built a house for us that had three large bedrooms near Biggar. Other houses locally on the same footprint had 5 bedrooms but we always designed for there being just two of us living in it most of the time. We knew that potentially it could reduce the value as it was not really a large family house. When sold we got a substantial premium over and above a similar 5 bed as the folk that bought it were retired and wanted this type of house. Why does everyone not do stick build if its cheaper? A number of reasons. One is speed and speed often translates into the release of funds by a lender and valuation. Speed.. well roughly two joiners will build three accurate panels a day give and take. Some panels can be long, some short but I would price on 3 a day. You also need a good working platform and space to store the panels you have build on site. Take your average external panel as being about 3.0m in length to be safe. Internal non load bearing panels are just erected later on, often once the ceilings are up. The non load bearing panels need very little drawing effort. Internal racking panels are the same as external panels but with no vapour barrier. Two good joiners who know how to build kits on site £ 250 -275 each per day. That will get folks attention in the Central belt, my Mum lives in Dunning. To build a kit on site you need the panel drawings. I do panel drawings for Contractors I work with that do stick building as I’m often doing the whole design so all the cad / model files and so on are already set up with grids, levels and so on.. you need a bit of practice to do this well and most importantly you need to know what kind of joiner / contractor you are design for as one part of the job is to play to their strengths. It can be difficult initially to find joiners who will take the job on. That said I recently did a 250 sq metre + single storey house with complex roof where the Client specified stick build as this suited his preferred contractor. Cost to do the walls panel drawings about £1750.00 with a bit of prefabicated roof truss specification /detailing chucked in. Once you have the panels up you can then shop about for insulation and so on, you can change your mind! Stick building gives you more flexibility and choice. “Thanks for the reply so this design is fairly cheap to do if i dont open any of the downstsirs rooms up? Could you give me a rough cost for a house like this, average/basic spec” Would love to but prices are all over the place. The main thing is not to get to hung up on the timber kit. PeterW and plenty others on BH I think (and I agree) suggest that the super structural frame is only 10 – 15% of the cost of the job so even if you pay more for the kit in the round it’s not a disaster. “yes he budget is tight but would i not need joinery skills and time myself to do a stick build?” To build a kit for the first time DIY you’ll need to be fit! You’ll also need some joinery skills and an understanding of wood.. post for another day. “so a standard joiner can built these stick frame houses up to the spec of the kit providers?” No they need to be familiar with TF construction, know their way around the types of metal fixings and how to fix. Etc. “Our original design was 2 storey box shape as it was an easy design but refused, the next application needs to be materially different so i thought lowering ridge height would help planning and roofs in roof would be cost efficient, are those designs I’ve shown quite expensive? Dive back and review for example the Scot Gov permitted development rules, then see where you don’t comply and address as you can. It may seem like basic stuff but in doing so it will increase your confidence and allow you to get the best out of this. “They basically commented on the size and visual impact so i thought lowering ridge height would be a good place to start? no real limitations to plot size” Have a day out walking about the area, see what else is out there. Imagine you are a planner! Good you have plenty land as this is a real bonus. Also, when you walk round and about your land you can get a better feel for the shape, contours and so on from a distance rather than just standing in the middle looking outwards. ”This would be a cheap design as no dormer windows and use of roof for upstairs? “ Old rule of thumb.. allow 3- 5K per standard 1200 – 1350 wide dormer if new build. If attic conversion folks.. the price can be a good bit more. “Thanks for the feedback, is there any way to avoid these big steels for the vaulted ceiling? steel is not cheap just now” Don’t get too hung up on this for now unless you are going for daft / pretentious vaulting and huge spans. Concentrate on the layout that suits you. Your big construction savings often come from setting the building at the right height with respect to the existing ground, foundation design, drainage design, access, services and so on. The immediate value comes from getting the house to meet your dreams... just a great home to live in and.. in doing so you make it energy efficient, sit well in the environment for example. If you do this then the house will also maintain its long term value. All the best.

I think Building Control normally want 225mm of cavity below the dpc. Google suggests this can be reduced to 150mm if weep holes are provided. At least the nhbc say so here... https://nhbccampaigns.co.uk/landingpages/techzone/previous_versions/2011/Part5/section1/sitework.htm That means you can/should start the cavity at ground level or below as the dpc is typically at 150mm above ground level.

You can make the zip 100 deg but you get pump issues, so ours are always set just below.

@Lesley72 I just put in some random vent axia extractor which does the job but is bloody noisy ! Drove the person nuts but it did sort out the problem, I now have the house back and have moved in and will be replacing it with a remote mounted inline fan. Still to decide on model.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! People please! what about the other 100 reasons for different results! Some of the biggest are the installation details, right from the thickness of the external insulation to how long the pipes between the ASHP and the Buffer Tank and or hot water tank which is either direct or gravity, possibly different sizes being additionally heated with either a mains or solar excess power system. How insulated the tanks are. Are the tanks in side the thermal envelope or outside. And what about solar gain? How much glass what orientation. Location location location. Here we get about 180 hours more sunlight a year than London. 1 hour every other day on average. Cat flap? Letterbox? Smokers? Cooking habits? Tumble dryer? Elevation? Is the building in shadow? Typical wind direction? In a valley? Wind funnelling caused by other building positions? What about what temperature the inhabitants prefer? Wood burner? MVHR? or other mechanical ventilation? What rate of air change? and on boost? and how long on boost? Internet? TV's running All electrical items inside the thermal envelope (I think they almost all or all produce heat) Internal gym? Internal swimming pool? The way the ASHP is run: Constant same temperature 24 hours a day? On and off different times? Weather compensation? Batteries being charged produce heat. From the PV? UFH? Radiators? Water coils? And as for the airtightness and Insulation well.. Structural elements like steels altering the average thermal resistance. You end up with a scatter graph and 5 dots near each other that can be for 100 different reasons. Glazing We have thermal blinds and curtains and these definitely make a thermal difference. The efficiency of the ASHP? The type of buffer tank with or with out coil? size of the tank. Yes lots of these are little details, but add those small differences together and... Here I have changed a little detail (that I can) one at a time to come up with what works best here with what we have. Good luck! M

None of those stock designs are floating my boat. I offer up my house plans. My design, detailed professionally for the building warrant, and only a few minor as built changes from the plans. I think it makes a nice simple house very efficient use of space and it works well for us. 992830669_BW005-GFPlan.pdf BW007 - FF Plan.pdf

You will need a sink, and a cooker, plus some worktop to be habitable. The LPG should have been done by a Gas Safe Registered installer, so you should be able to find that online. The norm is for the GSR'd fitter to register online and simply forward an electronic link to both you and the BCO. Same with electrical. If the kitchen is completely absent, you cannot officially be moving in, or practically tbh. Hot water? LPG combi? No hot water no moving in. CO1 and smoke detection system working? If not, you're not moving in. For shower, just buy 2 cheap disposable shower curtains from Wiko's and you're done.

Quick answer to sealing the cement boat is to seal with undiluted SBR Two coats 24 hours apart This will seal it and aid with the tiling

I think it's even worse than that. The current government are relying almost entirely on 'the private market' to put in the investment, and we all know how this market likes to behave. It doesn't want to take the risks, but wants all the rewards. It certainly does need to take some control and make some serious investment both in terms of effort and finance, but the current lot aren't even close to being capable, nor do I see anyone who is right now.

Not entirely sure what's implied here, but I can surmise. Resources being part of the commons is totally different from how the services are run. There are many models available to provide good services yet retain public ownership and common benefit, it's the short sightedness and limited ideology of closed minded policy makers that stops it from being put into effect - and this isn't aimed at a particular side of politics as both the conservatives and labour are over the years just as guilty, just look at public private partnerhsip introduced by Blair to see what was in effect a massive fleecing of the NHS in the interest of an accountancy slight of hand to make it look like less national government borrowing, and basically benefited large, rich corporations and their shareholders. The idea that privatisation is more efficient is also a perpetual myth.

I can only remember back to the 1950s when IIRC there were the:- Electricity Board Gas Board Water Board GPO Egg Marketing Board Milk Marketing Board British Railways Board

I agree, certain fundamental resources should be part of the commons where everyone benefits.

Maybe sleepless nights are rights of passage for us self builders…

Yeah, basically put the above would be showing the blind on the outer skin behind the external finish. Different boxes existing where you can render over the front face of the box.

We're just about to start construction on our self build. It's main builder led so am not doing anything ourselves. If anyone is after any prices for things (roofs, joinery, ASHP, windows, doors, aluminium sliders, garage etc) let me know as I found pricing up one of the hardest things when starting out. I ended up being miles out! Build is in Lancashire, traditional brick and block, blown insulation, traditional roof.