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So, a bit of an update: The Building Control guy came round and had a good look on 23rd. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to pass it because the basement hadn't been tacked, so represented a fire hazard (from quite what, I don't know, but anyway) which was a bit of a blow. I then contacted the warranty company to beg for an extension. I got through not to my usual warranty surveyor but to his boss, who told me that (a) they didn't need building control sign off since we were building the property for ourselves rather than as a commercial developer and (b) the basement wasn't covered by the warranty anyway! He asked that I send him the gas and part P certs and, pending one visit from my normal surveyor, they would complete the paperwork. The visit went OK and, though I've no paperwork yet from LABC, I have at least emails from the surveyors a few days prior to 30th stating that all has been satisfactorily completed. I don't feel I'm out of the woods yet, until I get a completion cert from them but I can at least concentrate on a few other things now. Thanks everyone for your help, encouragement and great advice!

Bit of an update. It's been quite a learning curve! But I'm definitely getting somewhere. The walls are straight and level, I think I have about 4mm error on the front wall but I can live with that! Not too bad considering I've never built anything before 😂 I've started to build both piers where the door is going, and I decide to add a pier to the rear and opposite side wall just to be safe, but not on the front wall where the window is going in as I want my work bench to run along that wall. When it comes to reaching the eaves height, is it best to start building the front and rear block work up to the apex, or build the roof structure first?

I used to work in a Builders Merchants. There are various levels of discount depending on how much you are likely to spend. The best kind of account is a "Cash Account". This means that you pay cash (debit/credit card etc) at the time of ordering. This beats all the big boys who have "Accounts" that they promise to pay within 3 months but rarely do. Whilst it is a trade secret what the discounts are for each individual customer they are much more likely to want to deal with a cash customer than any credit customer. I phoned around for each order and our local merchant always beat them (deliveries cost money). That was all except on one occasion when I beat their price on insulation. He could not believe the price I had been quoted and I had to prove it before he approached his Area Manager so that he could supply it to me at what was cost to him!

Well done you for posting and asking the questions you are and compliments on your model. Funnily have just done a design for something very similar. I'll split the post into two parts: Your original post has three photos.. call them photos 1 ,2 & 3 Part One if you were not adding load to the attic floor: Photo 2 shows the joists spliced in mid air. Often you find that there were back to back cupboards in these houses and someone has taken away the cupboard on one side that supported the end of the ceiling joists. One way of fixing this is where the joist does not rest on the wall is to extend it. Say it is 500 mm short of the new support.. and the support is 100 mm wide. Get another bit of timber and cut it 1800m long.. nice size as you an get 4 bits out of a standard 4.8m length of timber. That gives you a 1200mm overlap. Now the old timber will be imperial size.. new ones are often metric so watch out for that. Now get some Cascamite structural glue.. read instructions! This is important. You need to look at the end grain of the existing timber and see which way the circular pattern of the grain runs. The side of the old joist will be "cupped" Turn your new timber so the end grain pattern runs the same way so that when it dries it tends to cup the same way as the old timber, if not it will pull the joint apart or split the timber. Next offer it up and pilot drill the new timber. Clean the old timber and new and cover both sides in the glue. Now screw them together with 5 x 80mm screws staggered at 200mm horizontal centres. Keep the glue off you.. messy stuff. The screws do the clamping while the glue cures. The glue is stonger than the wood so job done.. no need to check the screws for strength.. other than to say the screws provide an alternative load path if something goes wrong with the glue. When you look at the ceiling joist spans you'll see that by extending the now short ones they are spanning no further than the longer ones. Lastly don't forget to put in the noggings / dwangs. The above sorts out how you remove these back to back cupboards you find in these houses when you want to take them out an make straight wall. Provided you are only going to put around 25 kg / m^2 including the self weight of the flooring ceiling etc.. which leaves you with about 10kg per sq metre load for xmas decorations and the point load from a plumber. In summary this about the safe working load you can put on these old ceilings. Sometimes you can put on extra load but this needs to be over the supporting walls below provided they are truly load bearing. Part two: Adding further load: You need to start in the solum. On the ground floor you'll probably have brick walls on a found than can transition to thinner (3") cinder block on the first floor. But often the first floor cinder block is built off the floor joists and offset from the structural walls on the ground floor. You should consult an SE as there are quite a lot of unforseen implications. Don't mess with the roof at this stage until you get a better understanding of the issues. For example I often see that folk have on the ground floor widened the opening between the front sitting room and the rear room to make it open plan.. it needs a bit of thought. What you do up top has an impact lower down. That said if you want to post more drawings showing how the walls on the first and ground floor line up I and others will chip with potential solutions that you can mull over. Easy way is to do some floor plans with gridlines. Once you nut this out at the lower levels then you turn back to the attic floor. If you are going to do this then why not design it for full domestic loading to be on the safe side. It may be that in the round you might be better off spending your money on a rear ground floor extension that will add real value to your house? For all: On the face of it you may think hey.. I'll strengthen the attic floor by putting in big timber running continuously from the front to rear wall and let them rest mid point on an internal wall.. On the face of it that looks good..it reduces deflections a good bit but there is no free lunch as what you do here is to create a two span continuous beam. The bad news is when you do this the central support attracts about 60% of the overall load and rather than 50% if the timber was formed in two pieces..simply supported.. things can start to protest if at a lower floor level the load does not go straight down to the founds for example.

Switzerland may have to ban the use of EV's this winter as there is not enough electricity to charge them. https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/12/01/swiss-look-to-ban-use-of-electric-cars-over-the-winter-to-save-energy-n514785 I have speculated before, not much point in mass adoption of EV's until there is sufficient renewable power to charge them and the grid is capable of supporting the massive extra load that will be needed.

Solis also have a modbus port that can be freely used to get at generation data. The connector is a bit unusual though. I cannibalised an old Garmin satnav cable with a similar plug on the end of it to interface to the inverter. How you handle the data depends on how deep you want to dive into the world of home automation.

There’s set guidelines (at least in Scotland) as to whether you need a bat survey or not. We did as the house we where demolishing had a slate roof and stone gable, in hind site the roof should of “fell in” before we put in for planning as it would of saved a year or delay waiting on the right time of year for the surveys etc and a chunk of money. We found that most bat people are quite literally nutz about bats however we where luckily pointed in the direction of a bat surveyor who was doing it as a job and not a passion. Bats where just the start of our tick the box and deplete the savings exercises, tree surveys, archeological surveys etc worth it in the end but keeping alot of in my opinion pointless people in a job

I think currently Solis is a recommended make of inverter. Fit a generation meter for your own use, so you can see how much you have generated. 2.5mm twin and earth from inverter to CU How to connect to CU, post a picture of your CU first, that is possibly the hardest bit to get right. You need to notify the DNO under G98 that will need some paperwork, but nothing too complicated. you notify after connection. And as a separate thing without export payments you want to be load shifting to self use as much as possible, so washing machine etc only on in the daytime one at a time close to mid day, and fit a solar PV diverter to sent excess power to your immersion heater, that will pretty well guarantee nothing significant gets exported. Oh and respect those DC cables, they will be live now.

What have you got against plasterboard boxes? Easier for all trades and you get some choice of final socket positions near final fix not all rigigly set at first fix. a 35 mm dry lining box is a good fit in 25mm battens and 12.5mm plasterboard.

You really do not need to worry about 5-10mm gaps tbh. Any decent spark will see this and make sure the cables are installed to avoid one getting trapped between the faceplate and the lug of the box. Basic stuff, practiced regularly on many sites each day, and not anything to worry about.

brown Wall raw plugs and 60mm x 4mm screws. hand screw rather than ragging with power driver

That is becoming a difficult formula. And then allow for what you don't know you don't know. I would just add that being onsite every day gives you control, insight and some leverage. You may save many weeks. Plus, depending on disposition, you can do little jobs, hold things for the builders, and move things along. A lot of time is lost when the builder is short of something....sometimes an excuse for a part day. You can go for the missing grommet. But remember that most of us on here have experience. It is probably more difficult than we are saying, or even aware.

I wouldn't think a mouse would just leave it there, not if it went to all that hassle of climbing there. More like a cacheing behaviour. Crows?

So that's good. Builder has mutiple contacts and shops around. If you had money deposited at one BM that woukd be less likely. There is no reason to deposit money, certainly not that much: use credit card. We are very pleased that the local BM can beat almost everybody, and generally quotes their very best price straight off. On the few occasions when they can't compete, they are grown up about it. Another advantage is delivery. They know the site, deliver when promised, and correct any errors immediately. I forgot the downside. Builder charges you no vat. Buy materials yourself and you pay the vat and can't claim it back until the end. 200k job, 80k materials, 16k vat. ...ish. But if you are getting good discounts that balances out and doesn't matter.

@RenewableNeilUnfortunately we are in middle of renovation and we had to move out. So we couldn't test in winter season. We did test it in summer and air flow was better and quiter than previous system. The unit is not very heavy, check Mitsubishi specifications. It should be possible to mount it to joists. Do check noise specs from Mitsubishi if it will be indoor for you, ours in separate Garage

Keep an eye on bond prices, thy are the inverse of interest rates. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/government-bond-yield

i can't edit the above post now, but builder has saved me £110 from the next best supplier i found

I can vouch for this stuff. Had a very slow leak which was never found. Put leak sealer in and left it. Pressure not dropped for years since.

That's because the wind is not blowing and we don't have enough storage. I could have told you that as well. And as for our energy crisis in general, there was a member on here predicting this 2 or 3 years ago, mainly about our ageing nuclear stations mostly just about at end of life some have been extended just a little, but that is a lot of generation about to be lost and the replacements are only just being ordered. Wind farms are great and clean, but when there is no wind you need a backup. It's about time our planning actually said we will retain a certain amount of fossil fuel capacity to be used in such circumstances. It's a good job there were still a couple of coal fired stations that had not been torn down or we would have been in trouble this winter.

You're being BS'd. Don't hand over any money to anybody unless your getting something immediately.

If it's a Mr. Cool pre charged system and you can comfortably run the condensate drain and electrics to the unit then it might be two hours. A mate did one for a converted garage he lives in. But installers are assuming they'll need an electrician and possibly a plumber in addition to their services, travel, call out charge and any other physical obstacles that might delay them and require returning to site to fix any issues. And insurance, pension etc. Lots of overheads for even a small job for a single A2A unit. I always start out thinking a DIY job is simple but am regularly surprised by how much detail and effort it actually takes!

Unless you can find the offending leak, which will be tiny and probably evaporates each time the heating warms through, you may be better off dosing with Sentinel leak sealer and running it at max for a few hours. It's shit-hot stuff and works incredibly quickly. I would recommend, once dosed and the leak sealed, emptying and refilling the system to get back to just water / inhibitor mix ( or as close to ) for the remainder of the life of the system, only re-dosing if the problem reoccurs.

If your connected to the grid with something that should have permission, then youre not "doing the right thing". The "right thing" is to submit an application, seemingly with some DNOs not charging. If you are actually doing the right thing then your application will get approved.

I sent a covering note with my vat reclaim explaining the different addresses on the invoices (old home, followed by rented place, followed by plot address). It wasn't queried, so I assume it's not an unusual occurrence. Re: best terms. I know I got some good discounts from my BM, because I was able to check them against what a small developer was paying, but I was still able to get better prices shopping around on many occasions. Don't assume that best terms means best market price 😉

Heb will build them anywhere. They even have one in the Caribbean I believe. It’s what we’re building. A LH702PD which we’ve modified a bit.

See the two cost saving threads pinned in the General Forum. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/forum/48-general-self-build-diy-discussion/ Essentially one is about setting yourself up to save money, and the other is a noticeboard about discounts.

My invoices so far have my current address and the name of the plot as a reference.

Good advice above. To elaborate: Small builders generally have one account at one BM. This is because it can be tricky to get much credit until a sustained period of trading. £1,000 Credit doesn't go far and the builder may be out of pocket. How much would you lend this builder? They often aren't getting as much discount as they think. That needs comparisons and negotiation, and they should be too busy building. 10% is standard and you can do much better. If you let them buy from their BM it helps them build a reputation, perhaps ag youf expense. You can get an account but may not get credit for a while. Pay promptly and it can build up. If it is in your skillset you can get the best prices available. Waste can be expensive, whoever is measuring and buying. Some contributors here have more confidence in builders' accounts skills than may be found in reality. Some struggle with basics and vat at the best of times. A builder charging at zero is out of pocket for up to 3 months as they pay 20% to the BM. Who is paying? You probably. For a well established and bigger builder, much of the above doesn't apply.

I am PM'ed our project myself, with assistance from our architect whom I paid on an hourly rate to help out with PM as and when I needed him. My main job was ordering hundreds upon hundreds of things, sorting out returns, chasing late items, liaising with third party contractors and photographing things to send to my architect for his confirmation that it looked right. On simpler items I also checked my builder's work myself and gave him instructions when he didn't have any, but on the whole I was lucky that his workmanship was so good it didn't really need that much checking. I found it extremely time consuming and at times very very stressful, but I think this was because I was holding down a full time job at the same time, so I was regularly pulling 18 hour days trying to juggle both jobs. I was also completely gutting an existing 100 year old house and the rebuilding it as modern as possible. This was probably harder than a new build where you are building everything from scratch and aren't constrained by existing things, like the position of the sewage pipes, the electrical supply and the weird roof trusses the original builder erected 100 years ago. If i had my time again, I would have spent more on project management, but hindsight was not available at the time. The only thing the BCO did prior to completion was check the depths of our trenches for the foundations and require them to be made deeper at points before the concrete was poured in. He also raised a few issues with our drainage. There were a couple of structural bits I asked my structural engineer to check, but hardly anything. Depends how much you trust your main builder.

The first drawdown will be as you describe but you can hopefully make up the difference in the excess interest you pay by not drawing down the next stage until your cash flow actually needs it for example..providing everything goes relatively smoothly, you could be drawing down for stage 2 when you are actually well into stage 3 etc and when you will be saving paying interest on a larger sum anyways.

Our north facing windows have almost permanent condensation on the outside at this time of year. Indeed it's ice on the outside of them at the moment. As above it shows they are working and not letting enough heat through to melt that ice.

I would hope not. Mine only cleared when the sun came up or the wind started to blow. If it clears when the house is heated, the glazing isn't keeping the heat in enough.

I am on a very tight site and have trusses to fit. I have left it to the truss company to do the whole thing to include crash deck, delivery, cranage and install all on their own RAMS. We will just provide scaffold and pay the bill. Expensive but it derisks it.

Permanent means you cannot just lift it up, so wooden ramp screwed down is perfectly acceptable, as long as it complies with the rest of the regs. Correct size, non slip, blah blah blah.

If you want permanent I'd have suggested something similar to @Roger440 but not splayed. Cut the slabs in front of the door in line with the joints in the last slab leading up to the brick paviors. Pack up the slabs to meet the cill-top and fit a little upstand (could be stone; could be 'sacrificial' timber) for the edges. Stop the upstand 20mm away from the wall and there's no interference with the render. Agree the temporary fixes will work too.

Or of the structure itself. The problem first, then the solution. Farm buildings have no safety factor. Occupied buildings of course have a factor to allow for freak weather, bad workmanship etc., with people being valued above tractors or animals. Therefore I can promise you that the farmer who built this did not put in, of pay for, any more concrete or steel than necessary. Therefore the steel and foundations will not be sufficient for a house. Enlarging the foundations and strengthening the frame is expensive. The answer is to find a good and pragmatic SE who can find alternatives. For example, building an additional steel column for each portal frame, on a new foundation internally is very much cheaper than attengthening what is there. They can be on the lines of new internal walls. As to insulation. If the steel structure is completely contained within your new insulated envelope, then that is best. There will be some heat loss through the steel into the foundations, but not a lot. A subject for later.

Most of the certificates can be done by yourself after a bit of research on line. Don’t forget to ask on here.

Re the gas, I had to submit a Landlords/Homeowners Safety cert. Re the water usage, I paid an on line Co £75 which was a waste of money, as I think there are free online calculators which looked the same. It ticked the box any way. If you have the mortgage in place and keep paying and you aren't asking for more money, I'm surprised if that would be an issue. Not everybody bothers with a warranty. Have you sorted out normal house insurance yet? I got mine sorted before the BC certs were finalised.

That is Part M.. Part P is electrical.

Ours found a few minor things but signed us off when we promised to do them immediately. One window needed a If any electrics not 100% finished ask electrician to make them safe and ideally get him to write a letter letter confirming they have been made safe. I still have missing wall lights 15 years later 😞 Part P will be mostly about the level access entrance and width of doors between their and the WC. He might check dimensions of the WC if it's a bit small. Our BC0 checked that every pane of glass that needed to be toughened glass was marked in the corner with the BS standard. He also wanted to witness the drains being pressure tested. Kits for that are available at Screwfix/Toolstation etc. Remember to seal any unconnected pipes and put water in traps.

If there's no sign of cracking due to ground movement caused by soil shrinkage or swelling already, then I wouldn't anticipate a problem with swelling following a tree removal. That said, if you are definitely on shrinkable clays and the house has shallow (<600mm) foundations, then as a precaution you could have the tree removed in two hits. Remove 50% one year and the rest the following year.

You can screw a wood wall plate to the steel with self tapping screws, or drill through and place a timber in the web and screw the two together with the flange as a sandwich. Cobolt drills are your friend here. I would think the door company would use tec screws or baypole screws into the steel. Why introduce timber here?

They just need a self charging hybrid! …. Friend of mine has ordered one thinking she never has to pay for fuel again 🙈

Sorry I wasn't clear. It was the builders merchants who said it was normal practice for self builders to lodge 10k with them then give the builder permission to get things using this money. A deposit account I think he said? A bit concerned our money would be protected if they went bust. I guess maybe I will keep it to 5k with regular top ups.

I wouldn't count on that. BCO turned up at the end of my builds, have not shown up yet for my parents build (its just internal fit out to do now) and they are really only looking at a finished stages, there is plenty room for stuff to get fudged and the BCO would never know. I recently went to do the electrical snagging visit of a commercial building I did the design for, my colleague doing the mechanical where he found issues, this building had been signed off by a major cities BC department, things I pulled the contractor up on were, no interface units on door access control units with the fire alarm, so on alarm none of the doors automatically released, emergency lighting not working, it was even flashing the charge indicator red, missing covers on panel boards and DB's, no labelling and in some instances the ON-OFF stickers were reversed so it looked like things were in the off position when in fact they were on, fire exit signs missing or installed incorrectly, inadequate cable support or saddles on conduit - I will not list them all, however, my point is, you cannot count on BCO to check and snag your build.

If my section 106 doesn't get sorted before May I'll be well over that before I'm finished.

Make sure you give clear instructions.