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@WWilts buy in bulk as it will get used! 🙂

Okie dokie, good ole CT1 … every builders best friend

I have a canopy extractor and have removed the motor but left the lights and the grease filters. I have a 200mm TD Silent inline fan mounted in a service room above the kitchen connected up with 150mm round ducting and spigots. Operated by a switch on the wall. It is very nice and quiet and very good at extracting.

Welcome. Not even started and you've discovered a fundamental of self-building: everything takes longer than expected or reasonable or normal. The only way I coped with that annoyance was to redirect the stress caused into planning in ever greater detail. And still I wish I'd done more than I managed. My signature line is the heart-felt, God's honest truth.

I am sure in some places there is a need for a 21st century "slum clearance" program to rebuild these old houses that are impossible to upgrade properly. But who pays? The EPC system was introduced expecting people to demand an A+++ house just like they will only bay an A+++ washing machine, but it has been largely ignored. I am still of the view that houses with a poor EPC should be worth less than those with a good EPC, to reflect the high running costs or cost of work needed to upgrade them. I saw a flat near here advertised with an EPC G07 I think that is the worst I have ever seen.

We really are the architects of our own destruction? A great headline in Sky on the lines of "Can Renewables Solve The Energy Crisis?" Talking to East European friends and colleagues and they are forever amazed at how poorly insulated British homes are by comparison to say where they come from in Poland. Insulation is what could solve the energy crisis. That's the bottom line, stop wasting what we have and using it inefficiently. We're fed this constant diet of b@lll@cks to switch to an EV, fit PV or a heat pump etc. The utter insanity of people getting free heat pumps fitted to totally unsuitable houses. Why can't the government beat the "You Need Only Fit Insulation Once" drum? The key being to do it right. It's all about the coin, how many times do we see mass house builders skimp on insulation or miss it out. Hell we've even had folk on here building high spec, low energy builds where they've entrusted the insulation works to a builder. The ensuing lack of attention to detail has meant draughts and higher energy bills.

That's the great thing about BH that I appreciate. Henry Ford et al the car maker alluded to this. Best way to learn is from others mistakes and not repeat in the hope that it will be ok on the day. For me the details look expensive to build, hard to supervise and even if doing it all yourself when you get to the door openings the forming of this it will be really difficult, time consuming, frustrating and at the end of the day you may cut corners. In this current climate it's not easy to buy anything that is not bog standard. I would have a serious think about how this complex detail is going to cost you. Think about a trade off. Maybe accept that in the round the base detail may not be perfect in terms of energy loss in isolation. Make a saving here by going for a standard detail then use this saving to deliver more benfit else where? If you are concerned about the environment in the long term then we should be designing things that will last for 100 years at least and can easily be maintained. We should have a mind to others that come after us.. we have a duty to design such that things can be adapted at reasonable cost for later generations? Ask yourself what is it you are trying to achieve?

I have literally just commissioned Jetfloor for our 0.15u Value build. Complete supply kit with beams and the insulation for £4.4k @ 98sq m. It was more cost effective than Tetris, and £150 more than Millbank (but they would only achieve 0.16u with the similar buildup).

Windows have gone mad - my supplier (Munster Joinery) were on a 2 week lead for Plots 1 and 3 then went to a 12 week lead for the last plot. I drive past sites all the time clearly waiting for windows. Mad.

On which: Sometimes the cheapest silicones will do the job, and you would wonder why the big names are so expensive. But sometimes it can be poor. I wouldn't even assume that one 'own brand' or budget purchase was the same as the next as the retailers probably shop around to the cheapest manufacturer, then use the same name. eg Stickslike say £8 Gripfill at say £3 No nonsense £2 The latter is possibly better for a skirting to plaster because it is thin and runny, and sits tight. (Gripfill a bit lumpy.) But useless for timber to masonry...because it is thin and runny. Silicone the same, as the cheaper stuff will sometimes fil a gap, but often need a second application.

They are both said not to shrink, which matters in this scenario. Assuming that one tube will suffice, this probably isn't the time to try the budget options.

Scaffold boards won't bend like 9*1. Use something like rockwool insulation and jam it into any big gaps. Foam will work for bigger gaps but might stain the stone work.

Use something like 9*1 on the both outside skins of the stone wall with some fixings into the mortar to hold it. It's fairly bendy so will adapt to the stone face. Set it so it's an inch above the face of the stone and then fill the gap between both lengths of 9*1 with concrete/mortar and use a straight edge and drag it along leaving you a lovely flat surface to place the copings.

SSE Are going to be next according to my smart meter this morning. It says I'm still paying 11.98p/kWh Obviously it's not had an OTA update but I take exception to this kind of sloppiness. If that was a petrol pump or Taxi meter and it showed one measure of what I was buying - then I was actually charged twice as much when it came time to pay I would not just let it pass.

****! better get some more ordered then.

Sealants are due a price rise of about 50%!

it's a pretty simple spreadsheet and I won't share but here's an image of the categories I got from the various TF companies. hope this helps and there were a few unknowns in there as well so it is very hard to compare like-for-like as most people find which is why build quality was so much more important than cost for us. once we'd narrowed down to these 4 companies we did site visits for each to get an idea of how they work.

Hi Tony K We fitted a Bora hob in the end, but nearly bought a Novy Panorama, the Novy range is good quality, not cheap though. if we have 3 pans simmering and a fry pan going then we have to run the extract on its highest setting to capture probably 90% of steam. The MVHR picks up the rest. We have found that the ovens can create more odours as they vent to the front. On the whole though we don’t seem to suffer from odours. One mildly annoying side effect is the Bora vents out into the void in the centre of the kitchen island, and then grilles around the plinths, so you can feel the draft on your legs, but only on the highest setting, which to be fair is not used that frequently. Anything that prevents more penetrations in the airtight layer, especially to outside has to be first consideration. Good luck with your build.

Just about any flexible material or filler will do, are you sure the noise is from the small gaps? More likely board movement acting like a sound board. Or transmission through the structure

Used to make air filters. The smaller the better as they cost pennies to make and it made the technology seem better.

I don't feel so sure about that. I think behind the scenes he's able to muster undue organisational influence because what he's saying plays into the hands of those who have much to gain and lose in the coming energy shift and they currently wield power. Just consider the self-inflicted damage he and the ERG helped to inflict socially, economically and politically and for what real ends?

A lot of HVAC and dust extraction systems are poorly designed (if at all) and installed. filters can be too small or too large, air flows can be too low or too high. no use having a very fine filter with high air velocity as the small particles behave like bullets or shot blast material and destroy the filter as they hit it.

Hi All I am in the process of starting the self build journey. We have had an offer accepted a plot of land, solicitors are taking forever to sort out the paperwork. Very much looking forward to picking everyone's brains to make sure we maximise the build while trying to dodge the ever rising costs.

Agree that the main issue is insulating current ( old ) properties . Without being heartless I was thinking when Ukraine rebuilds entire cities they could set an exemplary example of sustainable , low carbon , efficient housing …… Perhaps we need to knock everything down ….

Also shows how out of touch politicians are with reality. Let's remove vat on insulation but only if you also pay someone to install it. They should be paying for TV campaigns that shows impartial information on the benefit of insulation, how to self install, where the best areas are to start installing etc. Same with draft proofing. I am NOT talking let's make it air tight and install MVHR, much more basic level as most the UK housing stock is so poor with regards insulation, that's a cheap fix and a lot of people can DIY that or become informed enough (by TV campaigns) to know what to ask an installer to do. Then paying for it to be UK made and almost given away.

I have some.

Uranium and Lithium. ProDave 0.37%, SteamyTea 0.63%, PeterW 0.4% and the winner, @joe90 0.74%

Thanks for the replies all. We elected to go for the Schuco ASS 70 FD.HD bifold in a 3-pane config - this is a newer large leaf version of the regular ASS 70.FD, which can take up to 150 kg / 1.5m wide / 3m high per leaf. We are within the weight limit for triple glazing and went for that. As Conor says, the higher glass to frame ratio is better as the U-value for the glass is better than the frame. As you know, there are pros and cons to all options - 3-pane sliding, 3-pane bifold and 5-pane bifold. I'll report back with my thoughts when they are installed.

@Ferdinand makes good points. I think I’d still go “All Matters Reserved”, just with my knowledge of the self builders who I’ve worked with. I suppose it depends on the site, but maybe access is quite important, knowing the lake district. you need; Form, payment OS plan with a red boundary, 1:1250 Site plan with roof/footprint 1:200 I suppose, at a minimum. I don’t see why that would cost 4K, you can do the first one yourself then go to the design/planning service if you don’t get anywhere. You definitely don’t need an architect though, if it’s not a house for you.

Call it a run of about 4.3m. I think the pipe run can be entirely in the insulation.. If the 50mm pipe is just below the screed at the trap end then there is 100mm of fall available within the 150mm insulation. A 100mm fall over 4.3m works out at 23mm/m. That's within the 18-90mm recommended. 23mm/m is 1 in 43. What does @Nickfromwales think? If that's OK your tray could sit on top of the screed or even be recessed into it by about 20mm depending on the trap used. If possible use large radius/swept bends where it goes around corners and support it regularly on to try and keep the fall uniform.

I've done this more times I can remember. As long as you seal up with a frame sealant, and do NOT create a damp bridge with cement etc, you'll be fine. Yup. Take a look at a few of the houses around your area when driving about the place. They're commonplace. Horizontal needs a little thought, but vertical is pretty much safe as houses as long as it's not fitted opposite the fall, aka 'splodge' zone, of a discharging 110mm foul branch. Where the 50mm waste pipe ( I never use 40mm on subfloor shower installs ) exits the building and changes direction, fit a 50mm T and put a cleaning eye / rodding access cap so you can clean back to the trap, and downstream to the foul pipe with ease. Deffo 50mm for this instance

Couldn’t agree more with ToughButterCup. I’m not sure how many of us on here have Sunamps, quite a few I think but Sunamp grumbles seem to be way lower than ASHP grumbles. Maybe it’s a percentage thing?

My heating requirement is about 2.5kW when it's +20 inside and -10 outside. I fitted a 5kW ASHP so it can do 200% of my heating. That's mainly because there are very few ASHP's less than 5kW but any smaller and it would be too slow at heating DHW. In practice it means the heat pump has an easy time and could cope with a lot colder.

We went for AAVs. One in concealed cistern and other in cupboard. No issues so far and BCO happy.

If you are after cheap and decent but are prepared to put up with a slightly thorny journey then Munster Joinery. Spec plots - 4b detached - decent uPVC with metal lounge slider - supply and install £4,600 inc front door and utility door. Mine - aluminum all over, 2 sliders, 4 doors and pretty big - £20k supply & install.

We have just finished fitting aluclad doors and windows from them. Overall very impressed with both service and product quality. Try giving them a call- we are in Nottingham and their rep came to us with a small unit - not as good as a showroom obviously but still gives you a good idea of quality. Think he was based in Cambridge, not sure what area they cover but he was very helpful- let me know if you want me to PM contact details. For us they offered the best overall value and we are very happy with our choice. One of the deciding factors was we actually preferred the internal finish to some of the pricier options as we have clear lacquer internally and the wood staves are bigger than some others so there are less joints. Part of me quite like some joins as part of the fact that it's an engineered wood product, but on bigger units I do think the larger staves look better. Happy to answer any specific questions if you have any- it's a big decision!

We have literally just finished fitting aluclad from Allen brothers. Thier aluclad are actually manufactured in Denmark by their sister company but we only dealt with the UK side. Great communication, delivery and good products. We are very pleased with them, in my opinion great value for money which I guess is what you're looking for!

Whilst our quarts are 25 mil I was.concerned about cracking when I tightened the clips So I used a thin line of silicone to sit the hob on and it’s been fine

Yes a satisfied Rationel customer here. I put our windows out to tender to a lot of companies and Rationel were half the price on Internorm, and almost as good. So worth a try.

I think tile backer would work fine. Once you get it to a nice line it will be plain sailing (possibly). You could use a string line. You may want some more random stone to fill the bigger gaps or there will be too much mortar. I guess it is quite tricky to marry the factory produced copings with the rustic artisanal charm of the rubble wall but I have every faith in you.

Actually … not rapid set ! Otherwise I’ll have to work quickly!!

Depends how tall the tower is. About time we stopped fitting half a dozen 2 MW turbines and just fit an 8 MW one. We got into this mess though our planning system. It was not unusual for developers to apply for 6 turbines, get refused, then apply to put 2, larger ones in. And this nonsense about giving 'locals' cheap energy, that is just rewarding wankers. Should do it the other way around, cut them off if they kick up a fuss.

You will all be growing extra fingers, oh hold on

@Carrerahill think we both posted at the same time !