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It will also depend on the make Flopsst which screwfix stock is nearly half the price of poly pipe which most of the merchants stock It is better quality But both do the same job Most ground workers prefer the later But there not buying it

You can do all the wiring yourself ( apart from CU and some specifics ) You can do all the plumbing yourself and drains You can build all the stud walls and plasterboard yourself You can paint / tile yourself You can install kitchens and bathrooms yourself You can build the entire house pretty much yourself and save £100k ‘s - it might take a bit longer though …. 🙄

I think you need to add money for services (can be quite expensive if you are remote), plasterboarding and plastering, decoration, internal doors, skirtings and architraves, wall and floor finishes, prelims (skips, scaffold, insurances), landscaping.

The top of the range 3G noise reduction ones ('0062' type) are much better. I can now sleep through many rainstorms (2 large Velux windows in the bedroom) which was impossible before with the 2G ones.

I always use Sky Plastics, they destroy Screwfix on price. My builders merch is pretty good too, but couplers for £1.25, or double socket bends for £2.19 you just cannot beat it.

I would be peed off if i were you. Ask him if he missed the Flemish bond when pricing up the job ? I would want him to admit this as a good faith gesture. Providing he admits his cock up, i would, in a friendly way, point out the fixed price contract, and offer to pay 33% of the 10k. I would have thought that that was fair. The most i would go to would be 50% of the 10K. You want to try and keep things friendly, but don't want to be bent over by your builder for his cock up.

That depends. If the wall is brickwork with poorly jointed perpends (vertical joints), and if it's an exposed wall in heavy wind-driven rain, you can get a constant flow of water down the inside face of the external leaf and looking for somewhere to go - which could be a big problem. If it's rendered and sheltered then it's unlikely to be a problem.

I'd prime the wall with something, i used some soudal airtight paint stuff to create a non dusty surface as that's what I had laying about, then a permanent flexible mastic sealant like Orcon or something and then a cut of membrane and tape it.

Have a look at fence cant rails to use as posts.

@Thorfun @Katie AG Hi - both great guesses but it’s a dormer window for the bathroom at first floor level. The bath will be directly behind the window. If you wanted to use the flat roof as a terrace I’d certainly consider moving the master suite upstairs with direct access.

I agree with most posters - his mistake but you don’t want to sour the relationship. Ask him to meet you half way and ask him if there is anything else he has missed.

I’ve said it before I’ll say it again … If I can do it any (expletive deleted)er can do it

@Jim30 How well handed are you? Blocklaying, timberwork, pouring concrete plumbing, roofing. Nothing is too difficult if you're prepared to throw time at it. Joinery and plastering might be best left to the pros, depending on your competency. I drew up a 100m2 house somewhere if I can find it. Do you(or your planners) have any preference regarding style? I would steer away from ICF as the materials are dear and you'll need propping, concrete pumps etc or a telehandler with a concrete skip. For DIY the risks are higher as a bad mistake during a pour could sink the project. You can buy timber joists, OSB, nails and concrete blocks from every builders merchants in the land. Lots of ability to shop around and you'll never be tied to one provider or be exposed to the risk of them going bust.

Without a doubt double pole is safer. Why are you looking at sockets with an RCD built in? Your RCD protection should be at the consumer unit, having more than one RCD is not safer, but it becomes pot luck which one trips. So assuming you don't need an RCD because your wiring is already protected by an RCD in the CU and you want DP switching the choice becomes: https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-general-ip66-13a-2-gang-dp-weatherproof-outdoor-switched-socket/67928 £8.99 https://www.screwfix.com/p/knightsbridge-op9n-ip66-13a-2-gang-dp-weatherproof-outdoor-switched-socket/841vf £17.99 https://www.screwfix.com/p/mk-ip66-13a-2-gang-dp-weatherproof-outdoor-switched-socket/98279 £29.99 for me it's the BG. You would have to break that 3 times more often than the MK for the MK to become better value.

I have thought about that, but the chock of wood would need to be cut to shape to fit inside the slight lip on either side of the mouth of the C stud, plus I'd need a lot of them (one for every stud). I have also thought about hiring a speed gun or maybe a nail gun, but I'm not sure why either would address the tendency of the stud to deflect inwards. I should think I will end up doing it slowly, cursing a lot, and making a few unnecessary scuffs in the boards. Initiating though as there must be a way that pros avoid the problem. As others have said, perhaps a combination of skill, different tools, a second set of hands, different screws, etc. Of the above, I will try different screws and see how I get on.

As you hint later on in your post: divorce is expensive. Part of our budget is the knowledge that we both want this house, and we are both prepared to compromise. She's only been a bit down about the lack of progress twice in eight years. Pragmatic is the right word. And the recognition that self-building is a massive priviledge. How many do we know who would give their right arm to be able to build their own house?

I'm getting the impression that a lot of my figures are low ☹️ Re services at this rate I may go off grid 😂

Yes, but unfortunately the nearest manhole was far enough away that the height was completely different by the time it got to us. As I keep saying (as we spend more and more money on unexpected things) you can't know what you don't know. It sounds wise, anyway 😅

Ouch. That is expensive drainage at £500/m. Did nobody look in the adjacent manholes before starting? A very good example to the OP of the unexpected. If you did the same again you would know so much more, and thus there is generally a cost to being a first timer.

That's pretty much the idea but it's so difficult to pin down a realistic budget.

None, zero, zilch. If you have one it fills. If you don't have one there is very little waste. Doesn't apply to demo and rip-outs of course. Allow cash for buying equipment instead of hiring. Then in theory you can sell it again. But do you, or is that lovely dewalt stuff too good to part with? So allow the cash anyway.

Self levelling screed can be as thin as 3 to 5mm up to 50mm. So 40mm should be fine. Check the spec before buying. If the room has three seperate concrete slabs you are very likely to get some cracking where the slabs meet. These cracks can propagate through tiles. So I think you will also need an isolating membrane on top of the self levelling before tiling. I think a typical 20kg bag will cover 1 sqm to between 10 and 15mm depending on brand. So I think you are likely to need betwedn 50 and 80kg per square meter. It can also start to set quite quickly so you have to be able to mix and spread it fast enough to keep up with that. It's exothermic so I think thick layers are more likely to self heat and accelerate setting. I've only used it once so others might be better to comment.

No idea. Ours were double glazed velux, one in the en-suite and one in the hallway outside the main bedroom and only listened to at night when it was quiet.

I've just used united civils supplies for pipes they delivered the 6m jobbies (polypipe). Landscape plastics for bends and couplings, IC's and risers

our electrician is a friend and he agreed that we do the labour of running the cables and he'd come and connect it all up and sign it off. sadly we needed to catch up some time so we paid him to do first fix as well but it would've been a substantial saving if we had the time to do it ourselves. maybe you can find a sparky who is amenable to something like that.

Canski, I got most of my drainage pipe online for the exact same reason - merchants were more expensive, in particular Travis Perkins. Trade Pipe, Plastics Express were two that I used. I did have to do emergency buys at TP when something went wrong (and that hurt!) Just think carefully about delivery if you are not onsite. I had delivery to home, and schlepped stuff down to site on my roof bars 🙂

No access panel required. Since this presumably has a flat ceiling then 300mm of fibreglass quilt? It sounds like it's not going to be a "porch" if it's going to be part of the thermal envelope so what does the building reg application say?

The only really big difference is in the professional fees and connected services, they can be spread across many houses, rather than just one.

Ahem...

For me, the jury is out on this.. Can you build block / block cheaper than ICF 100% Yes. Can you get the same levels of insulation and air tightness for the same money? there's the detail. My budget is low, so much so, I can't even type the figure, but I'm building ICF (100% DIY), will we run out of money yes. will the house be very thermally efficient / airtight / watertight and heated before then Yes. There's so much extra work in time and money getting block built as efficient as ICF. Once the ICF is up its insulated and air tight. @jim30 If your getting trades in and a hands off approach your budget is way too low - sorry.

Mostly day release, but taught by who, I hate to think. Or a relevant degree. Then more training, by who......ditto Every aspect of construction, and they cannot be taught everything. Hence lesson one should be.....don't dabble, you don't know as as much as you think. May i suggest perforated pipe with membrane surround. It is cheap and easy, and acts as a soakaway for drizzle, with only big downpours reaching your pond. Unless the pond needs constant topping up, in which case don't.

The other thing to note. Changes on paper cost cost very little, a change while building generally cost for the delete and the new, plus 10 other things you haven't thought about. Once you start building change nothing, when on a tight budget. Insulation - EPS is way cheaper than PIR, but you need 50% more EPS for the same insulation values. But it's still cheaper. DIY UFH is simple enough and cheap, you just need to be methodical, it's also makes best use of a heat pump efficiency. Bathrooms are generally expensive, plan to one for building control and possibly another later when funds allow. Shop around for everything big savings can be made

I built one in as a feature for when I was topping up my water feature. It was fed by the mains and I had a stainless steel chain running down the centre. It looked great but I had the advantage of being in control of the water flow. It was very sensitive. 😀

A means to an end, is what that option is Carry on, as these are 1000% worth every ounce of your time and effort. ”If it was easy……..”

I think it costs £50K for persimmon to build their ‘homes’. Online article so take that with a pinch of salt.

Ah its Flemish now the real reason! They didn't realise this and now need to cut massive amounts of the bricks into half's and queen closers. days and days of work cutting and not laying. I know because our build is using Flemish bond and I'm doing the cutting, 1 in 5 packs of bricks is all half's so you can imagine the time needed. And you cant just chop a brick in half as it wont be a half so each brick has be cut twice. If you have time to do it yourself offer to, would be a massive saving. I bought an electric table saw for the job and can do a pack a day on it. I got a price on from a brick cutting service but it was horrendous.

On our first build we put concrete under the BB As there was a possibility of flooding There’s no requirement to put anything under there Most large site give the area a spray with weed killer then put the BB in

Are these solar thermal or photovoltaic, or one if each? Can the heating be done via a buffer tank i.e. an ordinary immersion heating element in the buffer, then the LPG connected to the same buffer. A diagram of the systems is a good start.

Looks Ok from here too - the route can be at an angle and unless the handle is really awkward that should comply.

Diverter ordered (for the down-spout). Digger on site today for a dig-out tomorrow to redirect the piggery roof supply to the pond. The stupid thing is that, based on that BCOs (poor) advice in relation to the piggery, we created a small pond supplied by water from the house roof run-off (and a spring).The house roof delivers water to the pond.

he's right ,1100mm doesn't work brick so brickies have always used 15 courses which is 25mm too high before a window board is added. Use 14 courses and it allows 50mm for window board.

No That would be a waste of money You will have to put some stone down for the lorries Just to get upto the foundations Get them dug Then get some stone around the perimeter and anywhere you will need to get a delivery crane BMs etc This is all that I did prior to concreting

Be careful with vat . Vat is zero rated at point of single order for pv or pv with battery . A battery later will attract vat . Tbh there are ways to mitigate that 😉

Co-incidentally I had this very conversation yesterday with the BCO who visited our site. His thing to always check is the 1.1m height. He said so many builds fall foul of this. As soon as he left we went straight up to measure it as we’d added a kerb for the Velux windows for the standing seam roof. We’re just under but with the FFL we’ll be well under.

let me start this with the obligatory 'i'm not an expert' arse covering...... 😉 afaik you can get 3.68kWp per phase without G99 (i believe you still need to submit a G98 though?) but your installer is saying you can have 5.88kWp. that's why i was questioning if you'd done a G99 application and the DNO have come back saying that was your limit. so, again afaik, on a 3-phase system you can have 11.04kWp system with a 3-phase inverter so 3.68kWp over each phase. we have a 3-phase connection but our whole house is being run on a single phase. as such i didn't want a 3-phase PV system as 2 of the phases would simply be exported leaving only 3.68kWp to run the house. and as much as 3-phase smart meters should let you perform net-metering i just didn't believe it. and so we decided to put in a cheeky G99 application for 10kWp array and 5kW battery on a single phase and it was accepted! hardly anyone around here has solar PV so i think we got lucky with the area. but we now have 10.5kWp array with a single phase 10kW inverter so it should generate our house's daily needs in the summer and still fill our battery and car and any left over can be exported on the SEG. obviously, if you're running your house on 3-phase then our situation isn't relevant. 🙂

I don't think it's commonly talked about, but C-studs have a direction you should assemble in. You should screw the side with the web first as it is stiffer than the other open side. If you're on your own and struggling, you could always drill a pilot hole for the first screw. I use self drilling buggle head screws. Screws must be fine pitch for MF.

It's not a vcl, it's just a polythene sheet that's put down to separate the insualtion from the screed. Purpose is to prevent chemical reaction between the aluminium coating and the cement. Standard ground floor build up is concrete slab - dpm - insulation - polythene - UFH pipes - screed. Many variants on the above of course, e.g. Insualted raft.

Since creating this thread I have now built all the metal stud walls, plus one wall from timber, and half-boarded the lot ahead of first-fix services. My experience, which may help others considering whether to use metal or timber studs has been that the metal stud system is easy to install (even though I'm working alone) and a bit more forgiving than timber. It's quite quick therefore. One big problem has been trying to screw plasterboard to the metal 'C' studs. Far too often the tip of the screw passes through the plasterboard, meets the metal stud but then, rather than penetrating into the stud, pushes it away. This will often damage the plasterboard, and is extremely frustrating. Once the first screw is in properly the metal stud tends to stay still thereafter, but I have needed someone to go to the other side and push the side part of the stud up against the plasterboard to hold it still while I drill. That is possible when fixing the first side of plasterboards in place as you can still access the studs, but will not be possible when I close off the walls. Is there a solution to this?! Cheers

By joining to the neighbour's garage, is there any risk that your house might change its "estate-agent" description from "detached" to "linked detached" and thus affect its perceived attractiveness to a future buyer? Such things shouldn't of course make any difference but sometimes do. Or did I get the wrong end of the stick and your house will be unaffected.

If you have awkward neighbours the party wall act might make the costs too high for a small sq ft