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We have just got our planning permission for cavity wall house so very pleased. 😁 Architect doing construction drawings then out to tender. One builder said he would want to just do up to walls and roof then we can finish rest with the various trades. I guess this is cheaper than getting someone to give it to us turnkey? Any tips?

...its really a separate dwelling

Very difficult to remove afterwards Absolutely unnecessary Ive just laid a similar size slab 9 cube 2 hours

I built a deck for my parents summer house using recycled plastic wood bought from this place. https://www.earth-anchors.com/product-category/lumber/ The deck is in a really wet part of the garden and was worried that using timber for the structure and supports would mean that in a few years I would be doing it again. The top was still finished off using bod standard wood decking from wicks so that it could be painted to match. Peace of mind is worth its weight in.......recycled plastic, because its really bloody heavy if I remember correctly.

they're both single storey so a small ladder will allow us access to the sedum roof and we can climb over the balcony railings to get to the wildflower roof so no issues with access. RWH company said to keep the green roof and ACOs separate from rainwater and not to divert it to the tank. I'm no expert so I can only go on what I've been told by the companies that 'should' know.

Yes band A council tax. Have you chosen your house name yet? we had and the static was registered on the valuation list as the house address prefixed by "caravan" so when the house was complete, that entry could be removed and the house address could be added. Strictly you should have PP but Scottish law allows you to install temporary accommodation for workers, and in any event if the planners get snotty, your first redress is to submit a retrospective planning application for the static caravan, and the timescales you are talking of, you will be moved into the house before that is settled, so I would just do it.

Should have planning for it and pay council tax - band A in England, not sure what the scales etc are in Scotland. If you don't have planning I'd just crack on if you only intend on 6mths. If council kick off, by time they do anything you will be in anyway🤷‍♂️

Exactly the same issue we had - broken wire in the pair at the pole where it joined the run to the house. However was not a clean break so the connection on that wire would come and go so the fault was intermittent. You just need to keep pestering BT who will keep pestering OR and eventually it will get sorted. Maybe ask them for an EE router (if your EE signal is any good). On a related note... we have two circuits in the house, so two master sockets. One was voice only and the other voice and business broadband. Neither were on BT but both had started out as BT contracts. Anyway, we decided to consolidate them so in Jan this year we ported the voice only line back to BT and added broadband plus the WiFi discs, EE back up router etc. On activation day, could not get it to work so logged a fault. Engineer came out and realised that the voice only master socket had the wrong face plate so he swapped it over and job done. This month my BT bill has a £245 engineer charge! I get into a chat support call and, after checking engineer notes and the voice recording of my original call, they say it was because the problem was at the master socket it counts as my responsibility and I'd agreed to the fee if the fault was found on my part of the network. I pushed backed hard and they were not budging until after two more go arounds, they acknowledged that the line had never carried data since install so it was an install fault. Got the fee removed but how many people would have had the technical knowledge to put up the fight?

Keep it dry. Airflow underneath it. Don't rest it in "waterproof bowls" of supports. Do rest it on a piece of DPC where the supports are porous (e.g. concrete) and ensure that the DPC is 'n' shaped not 'u' shaped. Cut ends to hang in "fresh air" - you support the beams some distance back from the cut edge so that the bit that might be touching water is side grain. Consider something on top of it - especially the cut edge - such as a strip of roofing felt (easier than DPC as sticks in place) again in an 'n' shape to shed water. Other than being kept dry you shouldn't need to do anything with tanalised timber. Here's ours (my wife has since been introduced to the concept of a straight edge) with some leftover acrylic facade paint (got frozen in winter so not much good but very sticky) holding the bitumen down until the deck boards are fitted. Water falling through the gaps in the deck drip-edges off bitumen onto either the floor or another piece of bitumen and then the floor. (noggins make an enormous difference to stiffness; install near the bottom so that they're clear of your deck boards) If you have any posts that are just in compression the threaded feet are excellent for keeping them dry and levelling them. Consider cleaning. How are you going to hose cat / fox piss and shit out from under the deck when they move in? Leaves that blow in under the deck? You might want some 1/2" mesh dug into the ground and fixed to the bottom of the deck edge to keep the wildlife and leaves out.

To complete the thread, I have attached an approved G98 Schematic, now my system has been approved by DNO. Also included was the G98 form completed. Electrical Contractor signed as installer. I signed everything else. Also attached type approval certificate for the inverter with my application. G98 PV Schematic example.pdf

my Graf got delivered the other day. will be fitted in a few weeks hopefully.

For anyone who comes across this - I have decided to go for the Solido Smart. The ASP currently is £1750 vs £2630 (Gravity outlet and delivered for both, plus VAT). It's 900 quid more expensive for the Solido however ROI is in year 7 based on the power usage, see below for table. This was costs per year and cumulatively added up, starting point was 33p/kWh and a 3% inflation rate over 20 years. So on year 7 the extra money is paid back and by 20 years it nearly pays for itself vs the ASP. Plus point is that the effluent quality and suspended solids is better by a factor of 2 nearly) on the Solido. Will I notice the difference, absolutely not. Do I feel a little better about it - Yes. The Solido also has a flat tank cover and you can move the vent elsewhere which means I wont run over it like the ASP. Both very good units and either would be a good purchase.

As many are aware I built with Durisol, as first time builder. It was chosen for four reasons. I could do it myself and had witnessed two builds underway prior to ordering, the two self builders were on top of what they were doing and I could freely ask questions. Second, the build manual was clear easy to understand, as long as you follow the 6 layers then a pour and use the corner, end and normal blocks correctly there should be no issues Third the system did not require any special props or much in the way support except with OSB screwed to cut joints and at corners. Very little rebar required. I followed the instruction manual, had no blow outs, no sagging window or door openings, very little block movement during the pours. I think most people have issues because they think they know what to do, don't read the manual, build too many rows between pours. Only real criticism and thing I would change. 1, the blocks do not have parallel sides, this does lead to a bit of rework, until you realise. Possible redesign of moulds could fix this A thing not well covered in the manual is airtightness, this should be beefed up.

Just one MVHR unit (Zehnder ComfoAir Q600 ERV). The supply splits for the ground floor and first floor, with the ground floor manifold in the plant room and the first-floor manifold in the loft. The Comfopost is in the plant room on the first-floor branch. This doesn't present any issues with balancing the system, no. There will be a small amount of pressure loss through the ComofoPost, but if the system is balanced/commissioned with the Comfopost in place this won't be an issue. I've been proponent of Comfopost for "trimming" first-floor temperature when overheating has already been designed for via overhangs and automated shading, and I still beleive this is a realistic approach in combination with ground floor heating/cooling via UFH. But, in practice, for some reason the heating/cooling power to Comfopost (measured with a heat meter) doesn't appear to come close to what was in our M&E spec or the manufacturers data-sheet. I'm not sure what the issue is and need to look into this further, but the delta-t is very low .

Only trying to help and advise. Mostly to protect our industry and the people working with the products available. Apologies if this thread sailed too close to the wind.

Just incase anyone missed it probably easier to link to this thread - here is the finished office and link to the previous thread. VID_20220515_165908.mp4.ac562247315873a15cd0716b64a81a3d.mp4

Dave, I think you are trying too hard. The job's getting them to take the fault seriously..... We had a similar issue - several vans and several blokes later; deadlock. Cue some fairly straight talking - followed by another van and another - new - OR guy. Twenty minutes later he'd found the problem , half a day later all sorted. The 'fault' ? The signal by-passed our house, went half a mile down the road and came back to us - often as not scrambled.

Reliance are very good bits of kit.

Original post hidden at poster's request I have been advised, and rightly so, that some of my comments could be construed as deliberately denigrating a single product or manufacturer. I stress here that all products can be used to successfully achieve the desired goals but if self building, everyone should seek full guidance at every stage being aware of all risks. Risks that vary with every product. I have tried to edit my post but been unable to do so. ICF is a trade in itself and anyone undertaking an ICF build for the first time should treat it with the respect it deserves. On reflection, the main reason ICF and solid wall construction is niche is actually down to risk appreciation in the finance and insurance world, compounded by a lack of experienced professionals. Both of which all manufacturers are trying to address. The oil change analogy stands. With respect to Durisol, I have personally a greater number of poor customer experiences than any other product HOWEVER this may or may not be representative and it is unfair and wrong for me to say otherwise. The same can be said for any other ICF system.

All ICF systems hold the concrete core at 'arms length' with it being locked into the centre / core. "Thermal mass", as it has been nicknamed, would then exist in the floor and internal volume vs the fundamental walls themselves. It doesn't really matter tbh as all of the popular build systems typically end up clad internally in plasterboard, which actually has a very high 'heat capacity'. Thermal mass is this heat capacity, eg a surface or materials ability to absorb, retain, and transmit heat energy to assist in maintaining an equal / ambient temperature balance. I'd choose ICF over a TF with a PIR core any day as it offers a lot more decrement delay, but the hands-down winner ( IMHO ) is a cellulose blown frame. After being in so many of these in varying states, eg from start of build through to occupation, that's what I would choose for my own house ( when I finally finish doing this for 3rd party's and do my own build that is ). An ICF system could only really offer up its "thermal mass" if the concrete core was uninsulated internally and you wet ( plaster ) coated that for your finish, so this subject is utterly irrelevant afaic.

Of course, I should’ve mentioned that our flat roofs were designed to take the green roof weight.

What does "thermal mass" mean to you? It's not got a definition that everyone agrees on, and there's no units for it, making it open to interpretation. A masonry skin, outside an insulated cavity, and therefore outside the thermal envelope could be considered "thermal mass". Similarly a poured concrete raft, sitting atop an EPS former and therefore within the thermal envelope could also be considered "thermal mass". The effect of both is to dampen the diurnal temperature variation, and assist the insulation in stabilising the internal temperature of the house. Concrete sitting inside an EPS sandwich would be just as effective as if it were either fully inside or outside the insulation layer.

Hi. If you want an optimum design for off-griddyness then I would suggest a dual cylinder arrangement. A 500L TS ( thermal store ) with 2x 3kW immersions, and a 300L UVC ( unvented hot water cylinder ) also with 2 immersions, with the TS preheating the cold feed to the UVC. This will massively increase your potential to store energy as heat, plus the TS can be depleted ( for heating ) without sapping all of your DHW for bathing. All excess electrical energy into the UVC first, then cascading to the TS. Batteries and PV can dump into either on demand, whichever needs a nudge. Another advantage is, if you have a diesel genny which is water-cooled you can divert the heated water from that into a low mounted coil in the TS to absorb every ounce of energy you create, wherever it gets created. When you have the least solar revenue it will be the winter, and you'll be needing heating, plus the batteries will need topping up via the genny, so, one problem gets solved and the bi-product ( wasted heat from the genny running ) helps to solve another by using even low grade heat at start up to the high grade heat after it's been running for a while. Zero is wasted. What are you doing in terms of heat emitter? Concrete slab with UFH to be used as a further energy store?

I am a builder thats what I do big steels

Overall, while smart way of maximizing self use of PV this probably isn't a very helpful for achieving fully off grid. The limitations for off-grid will be in the depths of winter, and you won't have enough excess solar to achieve these higher temps on those days. If you're only using the cylinder for DHW that's a very small part of the challenge anyway, but if it doubles as a thermal store for the heating system then this could make a dent. I'd say this maybe one case where a wood burning stove with a back burner has its place. Even if you can't grow all your own wood fuel on site, it can be grown a lot more locally than diesel which feels closer to the ethos of self-sufficiency

I am not sure your drawing is correct, who drew it? With the extension stepped back from the main house I would expect to see a distinct line in the roof stepping back that your drawings don't show?

Thanks for asking @Shire2020. We move in a couple of days time. I asked the builder to retile the 0.75.m2 or so he got wrong, and he accepted it was wrong and redid it. He still has a wall to re-paper and a room to repaint (long story… but luckily this time it’s not my fault and I’m not having to pay for it). Apart from that, and apart from the vast amounts of missing joinery (we got defrauded by a joiner and haven’t managed to replace the missing joinery items yet), the inside of the house is looking great and although I’m dreading the unpacking, once we manage to unpack, I’m looking forward to living in the place. The outside of the house is looking pretty awful. A lot of external render still hasn’t been finished, the driveway hasn’t been laid yet, no rear patio, garden still looks like the builder’s dumping tip and we don’t have a front door. But I’m hoping once we move in, in a couple of days’ time the builder can focus on the outside and get it all done for when the front door arrives at the end of May. We will still be missing a fully functioning kitchen, various wardrobes and other joinery items (as well as a massive deposit the fraudster joiner has taken), but at least we won’t be paying two sets of bills and pissing rent down the toilet, and can start saving up for some joinery.

As we are in difficult times for installing or using anything Russian-related , i obviously went full blown politically correct and installed a Gender Inclusive Austrian Cladding "Der Holzbau" but "Die Verschalung" https://tintabernacle.blogspot.com/2022/04/start-cladding.html

Are you sure that is all? Floor, and insulation likely to be 300 thick, and foundations 900mm/1m deep. Your neighbour has to organise all permissions. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-resolving-disputes-in-relation-to-party-walls/the-party-wall-etc-act-1996-explanatory-booklet I found it amusing that this is published by the dept currently called 'Department for Levelling Up'. Not 'digging down and undermining my house'.

Nonsense!!! My mates lasted a little over 6 months ........ .........we're both going to hell btw.