Leaderboard

Just another 150 slates to go Pictured is my wife on a Sunday afternoon Its been slow going with the weather to contend with and working full time still I’ve a couple of spare afternoons this week Going to make a start on the render

i was referring to and linked EPS, unfortunately i have dyslexia so autocorrect doesn't always catch everything. Here is the standard buildup giving a U value of 0.103 against a min spec of 0.13

I get how it's important to have the same look of building as essentially the countryside will remain unchanged aesthetically but from a building science its raving lunicy. Agri buildings are always very budget constrained and mostly planned with a lifespan of only a few decades. They don't have the structural margins required of domestic houses and are often made from carcinogenic materials like asbestos and creosote. Add to this the possibility of zoological diseases from old mould spores and animal waste I would favour taking some accurate measurements, before bulldozing the entire thing. "National Heritage" is not something that will suffer if someone takes a 1980's cow shed and replaces it with an exact replica.

None Ian Five hours sleep then ready to do it all again

So I finally figured out the problem. It was pretty incredible really. A second fitter came after the first installation failed and “fixed it” with the “missing fire cement”. Then it failed again and he came back, together with two other people from his company AND a rep from the stove manufacturer. None of those 4 so called professionals spotted that the baffle was missing from the top of the fire box until I said: “could the problem be anything to do with this”, pointing at a rectangle of dense insulation that was still in the box and explaining that “I asked the original installer what this was for, but he said it was ‘probably just to protect the stove during transit’ but that didn’t sound right to me, so I kept it.” At that point, the manufacturer rep, says “well that’s the baffle, the installer clearly didn’t check the installation manual as that makes clear how this should be installed”. He showed me in the manual. At this point I asked what the purpose of the baffle was and I was given a list of various benefits, including that it keeps most of the heat in the stove, so that it can warm up your room, rather than letting too Much heat get into the flue pipe. Clearly, without the baffle the flames were getting into the pipe and over heating the connection between the adaptor and the flue pipe. It was that join which was leaking. Bloody morons. I feel like I should complain to HETAS about these cowboys. Still waiting for them to bring a replacement adaptor and do the installation for a third time!

So I've got a pocket door (in my design), separating livingroom from kitchen. there's a projector protruding above the door (ceiling height 2.70m allows this). There's cabinets above the door that can hide the bottom of the projector. On the livingroom side we do want the projector to be enclosed in something (fan noise) It looks this way. (ignore the projector for now) We have added storage: But, should we make the storage look like built-in and create a pocket tunnel by extending the wall surrounding the pocket door a little? And the core questions which one would you pick? What is the best solution? Or something else?

I guess like many here, it's been a desire to build my own home for many years now, although I didn't ever think it would be an itch I'd actually get to scratch. However, work circumstances changed in the past couple of years and seeing as my wife and I couldn't find a suitable next home, we've decided to build one instead! We've just completed on a new (old) house on half an acre within the settlement boundary of the town 4 miles down the road from where we currently live. The current property was built in 1959 and the plan is to demolish and rebuild, which is what the house on the next plot over did 4 years ago. There's a number of houses on surrounding plots that have already gone through the same process in the past 10 years, so we're reasonably confident about the planning process. We've not built before, only rennovated our current house, so lots of the process is new to us. We're just in the process of picking an architect right now. Simon.

My wife is the same. I go to the shops and open her text for the shopping list and just stand there asking myself WTF half the things are on the list. When she calls out what they are, it's spelt how she thinks the words sound. Then I say "oh, yea".

Get one of those carbon fibre window cleaning poles. If you have a wet and dry vacuum cleaner (like a Henry), you can clean your gutters as well. I have a scaffold tower, may even use it tomorrow. Best thing is, the whole lot fits in my car.

You served up to @pocster on a plate there @Onoff🤣

https://www.superdrug.com/electricals/hair-stylers/hair-crimper/babyliss-the-crimper/p/810703?gbraid=0AAAAADp4mz-DVFHIKpLCmbFPTFASrmt0w&gbraid=0AAAAADp4mz-DVFHIKpLCmbFPTFASrmt0w&gclid=CjwKCAiA9NGfBhBvEiwAq5vSyxmO5brbauJNyiQ_ij7H_4Lf02I2rKOUydKNFJulzE61vR7_-vdrQhoCiQsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I do, at some point, need to purchase a scaffold tower to board and decorate our vaulted ceilings. Maybe I should wait until I have one and do it from that.

You said “on the cheap “; not me 😁. I was being practical and giving a perfect workable solution. 👍

So 2 layers to give 300mm at £30 a sheet is £60 plus the extra muck away won’t be much if any cheaper than 200mm PIR. I used 2 layers of 100mm Celotex so 88 sheets £4500

just had a great idea! although it might be straight out of the @pocster handbook I have a drone..........make a 'flag' and attach it to the bottom of the drone and fly that up quite a way away from the panels so the flag doesn't need to be big to shade a larger area! genius. what could possibly go wrong?

Couldn't find it in Part A but google found several reference to 9m. Example.. https://www.housebuild.co.uk/construction/building-guidelines/building-regulations-and-other-guidance/part-a-structure/structure-loading-and-ground-movement https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nhbc.co.uk/binaries/content/assets/nhbc/tech-zone/nhbc-standards/tech-guidance/6.1/movement-joints-in-masonry-walls-.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjVtbXgqqf9AhVQY8AKHaMJCF8QFnoECBUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0iIrfduR9YBQe2mpnAS2Xm

If youre not confident on a ladder, or dont have one, pay a roofer/handyman to cover them up in turn with a sheet of cardboard cable tied to a roofing batten while you check the generation. Assuming it's not a bungalow, its gonna be quite a challenge to hold a sail steady on the end of a long pole while the monitoring updates

A rebuild might be the best option then. Do it right. A friend of ours recently had a room built out in to her barn and she was very happy with it. We could even dig the floor down and have it insulated. It's only the bedroom so insulation isn't so important as we're only there over night, tucked up warm in the bed. We haven't actually moved in yet so we don't know how the property feels over winter. Perhaps best to wait and see before making major changes.

Don't think the shade would have to be the full size of a module, half the area would probably be more than enough to establish which module is down on power.

This is not expensive but is not suitable for all species.

Maybe my terminology is wrong. I meant the ones outlined here. It rules out the idea of making a good job of external insulation as there'll be too many thermal bridges. With internal insulation you'll end up with a much smaller room or with external insulation you'll end up with a minimal improvement due to the aforementioned thermal bridges. A knock and rebuild, even of 3 walls and the roof might be worth considering. A small timber frame wouldn't break the bank. Otherwise some PIR inboard and foam tape all joints and 22mm battens for a service cavity. And then plasterboard. Some PIR on the floor and float 2 layers of OSB crossed glued and screwed over it. Get some dedicated ventilation in there too. Otherwise it'll be musty. Germany has more or less everything for sale s far as I can remember.

Keep pushing for alternative solutions, as you might be made to keep the mitigating solutions forever. Clarify as with the garage, whether the pole can go afterwards or not (I suspect it might need to stay, so make it something you can live with). As I understand it we are not meant to touch/change anything recorded on the Bat Licence. If I had known this could be discussed with the ecologist before being written in stone on the Bat licence I would have paid more attention. They will suggest bat tiles/boxes etc. The boxes have to be specific (expensive) ones, not just any old thing from the garden centre. As an aside, it's rather surprising that you have bats when you don't have any nearby trees....

exactly this and if you can strip the roof off prior to submitting plans so your not stung with bat surveys etc.

Is there no other downstairs wc? If so it is a no brainer to put one in.

Good thinking. I've circled the room in question, currently labelled "Store". It's approx 2.5m x 3.5m is West facing but has a pretty small window (approx 800mm x 800mm) so lightening isn't great for much, which is why I was wondering whether a downstairs W/C + Utility might be a good idea there, coupled with the services already being in that area... Thoughts/opinions welcome!

Ask BCO about this, and if there is any need for buttresses etc. The steel may be able to have tongues on it to allow fixing the wall and the steel together mechanically, which may help retain max GIA.

240m2 / 2.88 ( an 8x4 sheet ) = 83 sheets for minimum advised thickness of 150mm of insulation. 83 x £75 = £5,810 for 150mm of kingspan / cellotex ( you may get cheaper using seconds / damaged boards ). Then you'll need prob 120mm of RC35 concrete, laid in sections with expansion joints, with reinforcing / anti-crack mesh, and then UFH pipes get zip=tied to the mesh prior to the pour. You'll need sand blinding, then 25mm of EPS as a sacrificial layer, then the DPM, plus some perimeter insulation skirting ( 30mm PIR ). Not inconsequential amounts of money / labour as that's a big old floor!

200mm of XPS or 300mm of EPS ( much cheaper but you need to cost for the extra excavations / muck-away then ) so I'd go with 200mm of rigid which will be around Passiv standards. 300mm unnecessary.

Well I've been researching this some more and thought I would post an update: + The headline is that this looks a significant can of worms for a lot of self-builders unless you have very mass market design sensibilities. Barratt home anyone? + This video by Pilkington says (about 1/2 way through) (roughly) 'yeah, if you want Grand Designs, then the Simple Method won't work for you'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrY7odmPm68 + I did a rough-and-ready 'Simple' analysis of our current design. If my calcs are correct, then we're way over the limits atm. + There's a lot of the 'Simple' procedure which doesn't make a lot of sense to me e.g. why would you want to limit North facing glazing? + @Susie - as you have pointed out, there's no allowance in the 'Simple' method for any mitigation like the various forms of shading etc. So the proven Mediterranean methods: outside shutters / awnings / vegetation etc etc etc are totally ignored as are modern methods e.g. Pilkington's low-transmittance SunCool glass. + That suggests TM59 modelling may often be necessary, which might be properly expensive if you get someone else to do it. + There's a comparison of a couple of modelling packages here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0143624418792340 + And I note that one of the two pieces of software mentioned there: EnergyPlus, is free https://energyplus.net/ All-in-all quite a complex headache IMO. Designed to protect city flat dwellers who largely have to live with what they've got (and cope with the window opening implications re noise / pollution / security / safety), I question the relevance for self builders who usually have control of their own building and can therefore retrofit (e.g. shutters / awnings etc) later if they find they have a problem. Also, bulk house builders will only have to model a 'sample of homes' (and Part O doesn't give hard criteria for the sample) and therefore they can spread the costs over an entire development, whereas the self-builder will usually need to do a one-off i.e. 100% analysis. Hmm, another little industry and new build tax has been created.

they say they saw bats entering the roof space in the 30 mins I wasn’t there. That is difficult to argue with. Though I did dispute with our SE that he had tested ground strength using a 2m long steel rod he had somehow found and lost on the 2 mins nobody was with him. Grrr. But then I had other evidence. Looks to me that you should put up the post and boxes. He should, in his report have told you what heights and box types. If not, ask. If you don't have a tree, do neighbours? The bats won't mind.

Play with that website @HughF linked. I'll really give you a good idea of what's possible and importantly the cost differences for all the options. For example a full height fixed window is cheaper than a door with a sidelight, is cheaper than a french door, is cheaper than a slider, is cheaper than bi-folds. Amusingly the cheapest is best thermally too in this scenario. Don't rule out good quality uPVC. My parents have 10 German made white UPVC 2g windows since 1985 and they're going strong apart from one broken hinge that needs fixing, a bust door lock, and two failed 2g units. Zero maintainence in that time otherwise. Also pay attention to the lentils and thresholds. These details can add up.

I returned to the task this morning with a new (used) drill bit provided by the hire shop. Initial signs were not promising but eventually I got it done, drilling all remaining holes with the exception of one. The drill bit did not have a pilot through the centre today, and I found that after every cut the next would only work if I hollowed out the bit, removing the top-hat-shaped excess that had formed inside. The bottom right hole as shown in my original photo remains unfinished. The drill simply wouldn't do it, again lifting off the steel rather than puncturing the beam. As @markc mentioned, I think p[perhaps some localised hardening took place during failed attempts to drill that spot. Anyway, hope that is useful to someone, one day. Thanks, as ever, for the advice.

Welcome @vagrantly3893. I've been studying the pics and not coming up much the wiser as to the layout. Can you provide a quick sketch as to what are internal and external walls etc? Also any abutting walls. The structure looks a little like my standard of blockwork...... Might it be worth just starting from scratch? You're on continental Europe also I'm guessing? ( Plug sockets + bricks) Are you familiar with the range of products available in your local builders merchants? No point in specifing materials that are not available.

Join the An-Ecologist-Shredded-My-Nerves club. I got so annoyed by the incompetence shown by mine, I paid half the bill because that was what I thought was fair. The key thing about ecology is that ecology-focused Conditions relevant to your site must be evidence based You say that the ecologist has found no evidence of bats. There's no evidence of tigers either, (I bet). And you're not being asked to erect a tiger-proof fence (I hope) In that respect your response above .... . is understandable (because you are keeping your eye on the main prize - Planning Permission). May I suggest you make sure you know when he is on site - make him give you a schedule shadow his every step when he is there make him give you the evidence and in the absence of evidence , relax and have a plan ready for when there is evidence Just double checking: have a look at planning permissions given round your area - say 5k or so. Is there any evidence of bat activity in those Planning Applications ? And if there is, what mitigation was conditioned? If there is no other locally recorded bat activity ...... and you have had a really good look in your roof space. It is very easy to be a really sloppy ecologist. First hand evidence available on request.

Great news, not reported, is that wholesale prices continue to fall. At this rate I would expect around a 40% drop in prices next winter. Electricity futures are around 16p, this would equate to around 20p/kWh at retail. Gas futures are around 127p which equates to around 6p/kWh at retail. Due to the lagging nature of the price cap it may go up a little before it goes down. The funny thing is that these prices are still well above three years ago, but will feel like a bargain relative to recent prices. I have to note that some idiots wanted to reconstruct with generators last august which would have locked in those prices for the next 15 years costing over £100bn. Prices are already down around 80% since then. It seems to me that the massive spike last summer was caused by Germany setting aside money to guarantee that they filled their storage. People knew they had to buy whatever the price and took advantage. ]]

If you are just opening up 2x2m holes for doors then it’s unlikely any additional pillars or wind bracing will be required. Really only a problem when full width open plan extensions are added

With a typical PV diverter as soon as the thermostat in the immersion opens the diverter cant push any more electricity into the immersion and the excess starts to go to the grid. If you want more export at the expense of hot water then either turn the thermostat down or turn the diverter off. Just be concious of legionella considerations, if that concerns you.

Cut and paste techniques. The root of many f$@k ups.

The drawing is clear. The confusion comes from the writing.

Plastic or Aliclad timber? For plastic I like modernupvcwindows.co.uk, supplying the deceuninck profiles. For standard sizes, look at what’s off-the-shelf from screwfix/b&q, and copy those dimensions.

probably all you need.

There's no "may" about it, and it would be the best money spent. Ola @seano, welcome to the madhouse If I can be blunt, no, you do not want to. It doesn't sound like you'd have room to ad the minimum 140mm of phenolic rigid insulation which would be the very minimum insulation I'd ever install for a client if they wanted UFH. If the SE says this can all be dug out, then please do so! You'll need to examine the foundations first and strategize how this could be done ( by leaving sufficient undisturbed ground around footings / pads etc, but it would be well worth the effort. Plus, you'd end up with a new, flat, even slab to have underfoot. FYI, the UFH pipes would then reside in the concrete and all the insulation would go under the, then, constructional slab.

If you break an annular cutter spend some time getting any broken bits out of the hole or better still finish the hole from the other side. Also a dull cutter can heat up the material and cause local hardening so a new cutter then won’t bite without giving it a harsh bump to break the surface and get the teeth to start

I found this video really interesting regarding particulates. Reality check stoves vs rush hour traffic vs electric toasters. (start at 20 min for the sauce)

What about a tripod like structure with whatever batman wants on top?

More than adequate. I pulled our 1.5 story red brick bungalow down with a 1.6l VW golf and a long chain.

Glass? Oh I see you don't like cleaning glass.

@Lucasgrantmaw I'll answer the soil survey question as I'm sort of collaborating on this build with Lucas. An in depth soil survey was done in 1996 due to the current property subsiding. As a result 32 piles were put in to a depth of 7m below the property and a raft built on top of them below the existing footings. Nothing has changed on site regarding the sub soil make up. Due to the positioning of the original property, this will be demolished and a new property will be built to make better use of the plot orientation and will not use any of the original piled foundations. The rest of the information Lucas and his wife will need to make everything happen will be down to them too research along with other forum members on here to help them unravel some of the complex issues with a passive house build. That's my two pennies worth, I'm off now to build some garden walls when the weather sorts itself out.

+1 to QuoteRack for non-standard insurance of any type. I’ve used them a few times and they have a really broad broker network that does a very good job.

Added to say that I had great difficulty trying to find a policy that suited my needs so in the end I went through a company called QuoteRack. I simply completed their online form detailing what I was looking for and subsequently 4 brokers called me, and I sourced a policy from there. My policy is with a household name but not one I could have sourced without a broker I believe. Remember though that when it comes to insurance full disclosure is imperative so don’t hold back on any details that may be relevant. https://www.quoterack.co.uk/