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A memory piped up on FB from five years ago showing our first build

We are quite luck in the sense that we have an upstairs plant room that is about 53m2 (9.5mx5.6m). It was designed to be right in the centre of the house, so wiring, plumbing and MVHR runs are radial in nature, hopefully keeping the length of runs minimised. The area was completely clear so I’ve created some skeletal walls from unistrut, with traywork to carry the wiring, plumbing and ventilation. This saved drilling holes in the plastered walls, which is my airtight barrier and the architectural brickwork. Plus if you have to move anything, you aren’t left with an unsightly hole. I’ve also started to create some partition walls (out of unistrut). It also means you have access to both side to run cables etc. I’ve only got the plumbing in so far, but it seems to be working out quite well (see pics). I don’t see why it wouldn’t work out in a smaller area.

will be leaning on your collective knowledge, slow progress expected, due planning constraints, harsh and beautiful site, but remote, will be revising our humble passive house design to make it achievable as a self build will enjoy sharing our small victories and the inevitable setbacks and solutions

At least C19 nonsense has evaporated sufficiently now. It is manageable now, site CDM etc, but I just pay a site manager to do all of this remotely for me these days. RAMS is just a copy / cut / paste affair, and takes my chap about an hour to format site to site. Biggest issue with HSE will be fire, first aid, and dust control. Keep a cheap cyclone vacuum on site, and encourage hoovering vs sweeping up wherever practicable. Tags on scaffold is an absolute must, as a death from scaffold without a tag will result in a manslaughter charge.

Tufty’s plant room definitely looks the business..I definitely would go as big as is comfortable to. We had 1.8m x 2.7m and it has ended up a touch too snug because we originally did not plan for one and split our generous utility room to create ours. All our MVHR equipment, Solar PV set up and batteries, Hot water cylinders, Buffer cylinder, Water softener..blah blah..will be lucky to get a little space left over to put the rechargeable vacuum cleaners out of sight.. Fermacell sounds a brilliant idea for maximising wall placement… as does making sure that there are good heat smoke alarms installed .Earlier on in our design process ..researched Plant rooms as I had this same question and there was precious little info out there..Really informative thread!

I used a dedicated run in shielded CAT7 and by ensuring i earthed the shielding was able to use more than the recommended 20 devices without any issues. Earthing the shielding is easier if the CAT cable has a drain wire i found. The initial batch of CAT7 I got from fscable didn't have a drain wire, even though datasheet said it did.

I think the pump controls delta T but modulation is used to reduce the actual boiler power. If the boiler output power (size of flame) is constant changing the delta T doesn't reduce the power going to the floor/rads.

+1 to this Screed can take the camber out of the beams and can be graded with a long board to run to a drain point and then membrane or waterproofing liquid over the top. The slabs on pedestals can then be laid level as any water is draining below them.

You are missing out batteries. I always maintain up to about 4kWp batteries are not worth it as you can quite easilly self use all of it. But above 4kWp which both your examples are, then battery storage will ensure near 100% self usage, which is way more effective than basing your sums on the pittance of export payments and allowing most of what you generate to be exported. Before you consider that much PV, check if / or for how much fee, your DNO will allow it.

Yes. And heating with bottled gas is a problem too, because water is created as a byproduct. I have often found that nothing much seems to be happening, for a week or more. Then suddenly the slab is dry. Presumably this is due to water being drawn to the surface until it isn't.

Angle plane Gives nice sharp angles and takes any high spots off

definitely recommend buying from German site Latzel

Which is fine if there is a designated main (or principal) contractor however under CDM2015 if you’re the main contractor on site at that point - ie have total control of all operations, then you are deemed the main contractor for the purpose of CDM 2015 and by the HSE. From the HSE website : If a domestic client does not appoint a principal contractor, the role of the principal contractor must be carried out by the contractor in control of the construction phase. So for this to not be correct then the contractor should have an explicit clause in the contract that requires the client to act as such. I would be interested to see where that is highlighted in any Potton contract as I’m not sure how HSE would see it being passed to someone with no liability or training in safe working practice.

@CalvinHobbes too many variables unknown ..! House size, bathrooms etc..? Also, C-19 isn’t an airborne transfer virus so filters for that are irrelevant - finer filter will help with pollen etc for allergy sufferers but the finer the filter, the more often it needs cleaning/replacing.

Hi @Furnace, a belated welcome. Once you have some success with the planning app, please come back an outline your walk from Class Q to full planning, especially as it seems you hope to site the new build in a different location to the agricultural building (if I've understood correctly). There's a few Class Q builds on the forum and a couple that have gone to full planning after securing a Class Q Approval. It's good to hear different experiences. I've now been living in a Class Q conversion of a cow shed for five and a half years, built mostly to PassivHaus principles, but without certification. I have an Advanced Foundation Technology Ltd. insulated raft, with a Touchwood Homes I-Joist frame, designed and engineered by Cullen Timber Design and insulated with blown cellulose fibre. I'm not sure if Touchwood Homes are still running, but the two brothers (Reuben & Adam) that were involved in my build are still involved with Passivhaus builds via https://mango-projects.co.uk/our-passivhaus-build-method/ and https://wilkinsonpassivhomes.co.uk/ I've not found the build method they've developed with Cullen Timber Design offered by anyone else, but can whole-heartedly recommend them. It's a very cost effective way of easily achieving Passivhaus performance levels. For window and Doors, I went with Internorm, but was very close to selecting Norsken. For cladding I went with a European Oak, featheredge cladding on the upper half, for a zero maintenance finish that tied in with an adjacent barn, and a board-on-board PAR Sapele vertical cladding on the lower half, that does require oiling every few years, on the lower half.

@tuftythesquirrelYour "plant room" looks amazing! You'll have to give guided tours, it's a work of art!

I'd buy some PCB mount 1/4" tabs, whip the relay out and make up some fly-leads...

I had to parse that twice. Somehow I misread 'sit in their vans' 🤣

Manage it in bite size chunks, make decisions once and stick with the decision. Changing your mind later costs money and time. Try to keep the design simple, complex can look good, but is a pain to construct. Use a build method that isn't much of a learning curve for the builder or you, if you are doing it yourself. Be careful you don't make rooms to big, it's very easy to do, watch out for evening heat gain from a low westerly sun. Good luck, but enjoy it. Try to get most the decision making done prior to build.

I'll probably stick with traditional timber, as the tops will need notching for UFH pipework, and I'm not sure what else engineered joists will bring to the party.

I used a small ish local company called treecraft woodwork (we used them for our front door as well). There's probably quite a few decent joinery shops around that could do this though. It wasn't cheap, only a bit cheaper than an external door, but it does look good. The door has some insulation in it to provide a thermal break which is important for us. House temp is around 18 degrees, larder temp currently about 4! Couple of photos below.

@Digger1@Adsibob …………you are putting far too much faith in the BCO. He is not going to check your concrete has been mixed to the right consistency. Slump or cube tests will be asked for if required. ……….or that the dimensions of the blocks you are casting are the right size. Yes they will. ……….or that any reinforcement bars are of the correct spec and in the correct position. Yes they will. Most definitely. ……….Most BCOs, as far as I’m aware, don’t have any special qualifications. You would be surprised what qualifications BCOs have. ……….Some may have surveying of building backgrounds, but most don’t. Many have backgrounds in the construction industry some with specialist qualifications in architecture, engineering and construction technology. ……….They are effectively underpaid pen pushers. Very naive statement - underpaid - probably - pen pushers - certainly not. ……….some are very good at what they do, but many aren’t. Most are conscientious and willing to help.

The problem you have is not specific to plumbing or heating. The issue is generic. In this sector, its hard to compare like with like. To the conversation add the sound of axes being ground, personal preference, petty fogging nit picking, and you have the most common self-build problem: lack of sleep due to an overloaded brain. Picked your windows yet? If you have, you'll know what I mean. If not, prepare for another round of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Sleep well. Ian

A few round and about us, all owners pleased with them. Not sure I'm interested enough to justify the investment though. Aware of a few folk building their own, sourcing the components themselves either fish pen pipe, or if you have some shelter 63mm water pipe - could save you a fair bit I think. Have the name of the polycarbonate supplier (7m lengths) that they use if it helps.

That quote has all the discounting hallmarks of the older double glazing companies. About 20 years ago we rang around for quotes for half a dozen new windows. I was stupid enough to include a well-known big name (beginning with "E" and ending in "t"). Their shiny-suit salesman turned up one evening and right at the start I said I didn't need a sales pitch, but could he just measure up and let us have a written quote. The bloke insisted he had to go through his pitch, as it was company policy. He duly wasted an hour trying to convince us of how wonderful his windows were, then measured up, produced a quote, saying that it was a "one time special offer, half the normal price" if we signed up right now. I said sorry, but I wanted to choose after having received other quotes. He then repeated that the "special offer price" only applied if we were to sign up right away. I refused again, and he asked if he could use our phone to call his manager (this was at around 8pm). He came off the phone saying that his manager had authorised him to reduce the price by another 20% if we signed up straight away. Again I told him that we wouldn't and he, very reluctantly, left. We had already decided that no matter what we weren't going to buy from that company, just because of their sales practices. A week later we got a phone call from him again, saying that they were running a "very special offer" and could knock another 50% off the price, as long as we agreed to our house being photographed (pointless, as the new windows would be all at the back). The next house where we wanted new windows I sent out written invitations to tender to half a dozen local companies, with the explicit instruction that any attempt at high-pressure sales would disqualify them. Worked a treat, as we got a small, local, company to do the job, at a good price and to a high standard.

Perhaps I should do a reddit-style AMA 😅