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Ah bugger..................... Another Architect who has been taken out for lunch by the Kingspan salesman, shoved a little book with nice copy and paste details and told " this will solve all your problems". They've left you with an expensive option and a non compliant U value ( unless you magically stop all air infiltration and convection inside the unventilated layers of air in the wall build-up). I've written another post on this. Here's a quick calculation of the wall as proposed. It'll be worse in reality as the Kooltherm boards will certainly not be sealed 100% to the timbers and you'll get thermal looping (moving air inside the wall). They're very thin also at 285mm. Architects tend to be very good at concept, usability and balance of designs but alas many fall down on the practicalities of actually building a house. I know this isn't what you want to hear but I'd be tempted to fix the design into something better on paper now before going any further down the building route. Go for thicker walls and make sure all the structure is covered by a pitched roof, balcony included. Get rid of the parapet walls and the bay window. They're going to leak water and air and heat long term. Ensure that no element of the house cannot be easily brought in on a flatbed trailer and can be lifted into place without any large equipment. Sorry if I'm being a killjoy but it annoys me to see professionals being so careless with their customers money. Do you have planning permission yet?

Problem solved by new plug: much easier and quicker than I thought! Having specified the exact locations of the sockets, I thought I was starting to go mad when the previous socket didn’t fit!

make sure you can get a concrete lorry and concrete pump down the lane before deciding on the ICF route!

Some interesting projects under this Government scheme. Also a subsided training scheme has been announced, some details here. Apols if you knew this already, I didn't.

Welcome I knew nothing when I started on this site three years ago. Now, I regularly dispense answers to questions on a daily basis. I still don't know much tho...

I'm kind of glad July hasn't been too warm, as its enabled me to get more done than i would have otherwise, but the rain has been the main issue, and surprisingly, hedgehogs which have been running all over the front garden, until they mysteriously all died, why i've no idea, felt very privileged having them here. First bit done whilst the hedgehogs were still around, the bit i've been wanting to do the most, around the boiler and gas box, where the worst damage to existing masonry was. June brought boiler service time of the year, so while the plumber was here, he fitted a new longer flue, and also a new gas pipe from the meter to the boiler, to accomodate the thicker walls. Around the flue, I have applied the required dual density rockwool wall board, heavy but really nice to work with, with the remainder done in the usual EPS. Fascia was also installed badly by a contractor many years ago, so i took the bad bits off to replace later on. Fascia repaired, brick slips applied and gas box has been resprayed and refitted. I still need to silicone around here and fit the boiler flue rubber, along with cutting the waste pipe down slightly to fit nice and snug. Rear of extension has been boarded, and mostly rendered, the top part is also fixed now, and just needs a render basecoat on, and brick slips. Front is also complete, and i have since popped a trim above the window to cover the foam, this also needs a bit of silicone when i get a tube. Below the DPC on all sections of EWI, i've got a tub of black render to finish this off, which i'm going to do all at once at the end. Really pleased i've managed to get this far, i've still got to take off 3 rows of tiles front and back of the original bungalow to put some mesh in to stop mice getting in the loft, ensure the insulation is bang on, and vented, replace the latts and felt and tiles back on, a nice autumn job i think when its a bit cooler still, minus the rain!!

welcome. when i started our self-build journey i didn't know much nor did i contribute much either! no one (as far as i know that is!) ever looked down on me for that and after a time as i progressed through the build i learnt more and was able to contribute more. we all start somewhere!

Other option is, if the individual pieces can make it down the access, then have the full lorry load delivered to local storage and then transport to site as required.

If you can find a joiner who went to college, they will know the principles , and have done at least one. The details will be on the drawings. Ours made up panels on the slab and manhandled them into place. Thus a normal bm wagon can do the delivery. Helps on cash flow and risk too... Read elsewhere on bh.

Yup! Have a look at the way these guys do roofs. Nowhere for a leaf to get caught and the walls are super protected from the rain. https://www.makar.co.uk/portfolio Also I think you're missing a trick by not having carport access to the house under cover. We didn't and it's a regular sprint thought the rain with the kids to the car.

Output. You could connect the 3.4 to the output and that would keep going and the 3.1 to the input and it wouldn't. If you had the 8kVA unit then both could be kept going. Or sell the 3.1 and use an MPPT like my setup. Depends rather on the value you place on riding through blackouts, and whether you need more than 5kVA (4 kW continuous) to power your loads. If you want to integrate yr generator then the Quattro range have a Grid input plus a Generator input, they can be configured in all sorts of ways e.g. autostart the generator according to state of charge etc. But more expensive. 5-9kWh of battery strikes me as small, I put in 7.1 to begin with but upped it to 10.65 as it wasn't enough to keep everything going until the E7 cheap period. Also I needed more capacity to use all the current available from the second PV array. 2 hrs endurance in a blackout is a good rule of thumb for min size. Various solutions to this on the Victron forum.

These things are amazing….

+1 on all that's been said about wall widths, insulation levels etc. I think you need to specify a U-value target for the architect to achieve WITHOUT using overpriced Kingspan Kooltherm products but standard insulating materials. we have 140mm Frametherm 32 (it's actually Isover but it's a bit like PIR being called Celotex) between our 140mm TF studs and 80mm PIR internal to that for the walls. for the roofs we have 190mm Frametherm 32 and 100mm PIR internally. under the slab we have 300mm EPS. some might say excessive but this is what we wanted to get right from the off. you could also investigate a twin-wall TF (which can also be stick built) with blown in 300mm cellulose. many on here have that make up and say great things about it although there are some naysayers on here about it sagging and drooping but you can't always believe them. 😉 get the insulation AND airtightness done right and enjoy lower running costs for the rest of your lives there. ps. spend weeks and weeks reading on here on the relevant sub-forums and then go back to your designer armed with ammunition about what YOU want, not what they want to churn out for you. Fabric first should be your mantra. good luck! I like the look of the house

I saw a video of someone in the states doing the same. He just removed the fan blades and the coil temp sensors, moving the sensors on to the new coil. The remains of the unit mounted in the wall next to the cylinder.

in fact they must fix it or you will have water pouring out when you remove the lead pipe.

a la Frank Lloyd Wright. (Waterfalls) . Is that wise? The SE doesn't do down-pipes. if external they should be shown on the drawing so you know what it really looks like. They may have to check the gutter size though. If internal....no please don't, they may leak and they will gurgle. seriously about the slab. 150mm reinforced concrete is an industrial slab for forklifts and racking. Then you have have battens and chipboard????? I advise do not give any 'benefit of the doubt'. You will pay for then live in this house. Now is the time to insist on a practical design that will be to your budget. you have an economic wall construction, tho needs changes made, a very expensive roof, and an over-designed floor. Allow lots of money...you have discussed budget I hope. Have you checked your consultants out? seen examples? They may be qualified but this not really be their thing. Or the alternative is to not have an architect as a good (and substantial) builder can make this work. Then the SE signs the papers.

That is very pretty. i could cut and paste from my standard responses! where are the rainwater pipes? Glasgow has the second largest amount of rainfall for a town or city, but has the highest number of wet days with 14.2 on average every month. Actually that is possibly less onerous than London and other places with less rain but in huge downpours in recent years. do you like that wall colour? If you intend it to go grey then show it grey. if you want to keep it that colour you must apply a finish. the horizontal boarding will catch the water at every joint and go slimy unless this is looked at in detail. That roof needs a very good builder indeed. I see from the ground floor construction that you will be running 5 tonne forklifts. You might want to tell your people to try harder, or are they subsidising it? 90mm pir (kingspan again) is not nearly enough. Plus the floor is the easiest area to insulate so more here can offset the walls as they are. some confusing description of the floor, but seems upside down. then over the industrial slab you have a batten support system and then chipboard. I feel I have missed something. Either that or it is a good time to change designer.

Good morning, after lurking around this forums fountain of knowledge for a year or so and spending the last few years researching ways to improve our home and also researching for the long term goal of a self build, I thought it was time I joined the party and made myself visible! As an amateur I’m afraid I can’t contribute much in the way of expert advice so I hope that doesn’t come across as selfish! I hope to tap into the vast amount of information and help available here, while contributing where I can from what I have learned on this journey. Lee.

My tuppence worth. I agree with @kommando. I have restricted access, albeit only 80 metres worth. And could not have a crane on site too. My frame builder, which I chose to be local, simply had the frame designer design smaller panels, which were made in the factory and brought to site on a smaller lorry and then handballed in to position with dollies and few burly lads. It went up easily.

Too late for me, I have submitted it. But it's an excellent, albeit provocative, start to an article if the Guardian take an interest.

Electrical or water UFH? If electrical, suggest there should be a layer of (probably thin-ish) insulation under the cable, and the probe can ride on that along with the heating cable. Even better - put in two probes, one as a spare.

Sorry, I have read it properly now. You can't turn it off, rather than it's running all the time. Yes they should fix that for you.

That is pretty much what we have done. We are adding an insulating layer on the inside to achieve current standards, and it will also reduce temperature fluctuations in the service void. We have modified our wall cavity design to be 50% pir and 50% (ish) mineral wool. Practical and more likely to perform as intended. I've not seen a technical assessment on thermal looping in this situation. I know it is an issue in windows and especially skylights. In this situation I'm not immediately concerned , but happy to be enlightened. @IcevergeSo right about the Kingspan details. Their manuals used to be so good that it was often my first reference. Then they give the free cad stuff to architects so no thinking was required. As I've said, I have not looked at the drawings. Is this based on the ubiquitous Scottish white hoose?

Looks good. Well done.

Blimey, what a palaver over a detached garage. The structural engineer should stick to structural engineering rather than worry about moisture prevention, loads of garages are built as single skin. As for the BCO they need to read Regulation 21 - Application of Energy Efficiency Requirements. Paragraph 1 applies them to buildings, paragraph 2 then exempts those buildings listed in paragraph 3 and Paragraph 3 says (d) standalone buildings other than dwellings with a total useful floor area of less than 50m2. Patently a garage is not a dwelling. This is the statutory legislation, the Approved Documents are simply guidance on how to comply. It's always useful to start at the top just to see if there is a legal basis is for some of the more extraordinary demands one hears. In this case Part L doesn't apply to your garage but should you wish to insulate it then that is entirely your own choice as to how much insulation you use and the Building Regulations have no opinion on that.

Good point, its been that long since I bought my cameras! It comes with a 8 channel Poe NVR that i have in a box somewhere. The whole system is Hikvision and has be been supplier/specced by cctvkits.co.uk

Yup thanks BigJ. Just done so in fact/ had a peep inside- nothing obvious, all 6 connections firm. I think I've found the likely LAP one I bought.. so will just have to replace & hope/ fingers x'd new one works. I'd prefer Crabtree- I choose this stuff on my hifi plugs etc, solid quality.. tho that smaller round one, I'd think I'd maybe have a Zootmare stuffing the big HD cables' 6 wires in. Cheers chaps

The sentinel has "low supply" settings that can be programmed for overnight.

Won't matter how much care you take the track will only pop off when it's buried in the deepest sloppiest muck on your site. It's just an example of how life kicks you square in the nuts sometimes.

What is needed, is someone who has had a BUS / MCS heat pump install to come and tell us exactly what it cost, exactly how many man hours of workman time took place at their house, and exactly what heat pump and other equipment was installed. Then we could pick it apart into a material cost, and a reasonable labour cost, and see what the "MCS premium" really was. Without that all I can say is "me and my plumber mate could fit it a lot cheaper"

So true 😂

If your unsure how to replace the track then I would think you don’t know how to tension them correctly either. In which case you are probably running them too slack leading to them jigging about and the damage. You will need a grease gun and a socket set. In the flat panel between the front drive sprocket and the idler wheel is a hole ( probably full of mud ) on this hole is a 19mm nut with a grease nipple in the centre, this is how you tension the track. Swing the arm arm of the machine round and push on the ground to lift the track off the ground, take a pic and put it up, I bet the track hangs very slack. To adjust it up you fit the grease gun to the nipple and pump in more grease, as you pump you will see the idler wheel move out and the slack in the track lift. Get some pics and report back.

That is a bugger.

But where he is, timber frame is the normal, brick and block is the niche and has been for some time.

Yes, but they are planners without a scooby of the real world and accountable to no one.

your making a rod for your own back by choosing a niche, expensive build system with limited builders who can do them properly. save yourself a load of headache and cash and look at a normal brick and block build.

Option 1 is less desirable. Removing any part of the structure which is sound has higher risk and may have unintended consequences, especially as you appear to have limited knowledge. If you follow as I said before it will provide equal stability without the risk

Usually less effort in ensuring tightness, by those that think the line/live is the priority.

Most areas have a dedicated timber merchant, often an independent. Being specialist they may have more names.

What about ICF, no experience myself but seem to all get delivered on pallets. Light and easily moved about it would seem. Someone like @Conor could provide more information re ICF

While that is definitely a good perception, traditional brick and block houses can be built to meet new building regs, and can be built to exceed. The key to any build where you want to minimise in the energy input to the final build is insulation, insulation, insulation, and that includes air-tightness. What you need (in my personal opinion) is a youngish builder who already has a reasonable level of experience, who is prepared to build over and above the building regs and to address those key items while they are building. While this seems a tall order, the earlier recommendation by @Temp to visit some local "one-off" build sites is seconded by me. Alternatively visit local builders merchants or tool hire shops and ask them for recommendations. I found my GRP roofer in this way (and I am very pleased!)

One outcome of this is a universal standard HP interface would be useful. The proprietary control box costs just under a quarter of the price of the physical unit. The good news is that these "fire sale" Samsung units prob sky indicate how much HPs could be sold for regularly. The current 4k for a 5/6kw unit average seems to be a combination of demand and the fact these units are fairly new, there's lots of R&D and setup cost to be amortized. Vaillant have spent £4m on upgrading and expanding its.uk factory and £55m on its.german r&d plant. Hopefully, as more competition comes on the market and volumes (and supply channels) increase the cost will start to drive down.

I guess the issue is most policies would cover the contents for damage due to subsidence (either the building / a section of wall collapsing on them or e.g. if movement caused a pipe to crack and flood, or an electrical supply or gas line to be damaged and start a fire. Although potentially low probability (depending on the scale/nature of the subsidence) that could be a much more expensive claim than e.g. theft as it could involve total loss of your contents. So presumably off-the-shelf insurers aren't willing to get into trying to assess how likely that is for your specific property. It might be worth going through a broker to either find an insurer that is willing to price the risk or a policy that excludes subsidence-related claims.

Try Farmers Union insurance. They get a very good ?Which rating and they take a more personal approach. The only thing I didn't like about them was the time it took, on the phone, with a very nice but oh so chatty, representative.

And put a bit of thread-lock on the brass screw that holds the tap head on

It's the age old 'not enough PTFE so I'll turn it until it stops' posse. Put about 23 turns of PTFE on tightly and turn it until you see about 1 revolution of thread left, then just keep turning to the desired position AND STOP! Simples

In case you were wondering, yes, this came from appliances direct. It was about £550 or something. I didn't use the supplied extension set, I simply re-flared the ends of the indoor unit pipework. Pressure tested it to 100psi with pure argon (I'm a welder, I have it in stock) then vacuumed down for 20 mins. Float the low-side gauge up to 20psi then remove the pump+adapter from the service port. Then crack the valves and back seat them. Easy when you watch enough youtube.

Make your own, easy now you have a jigsaw, drill, multitool and an angle grinder.

The cylinder swap is easy The primary pipework swap is difficult Using plate to existing cylinder; instead of replacing cylinder; doesn't fix the issue of your primaries. Fix these with (a) new primaries that use refrigerant not water; (b) a solution that uses lower flow rate on primaries (easy if.ypur property only needs 5 kW space heating); (c) a solution that uses higher deltaT on primaries (easier if you have a dedicated CO2 monobloc for hot water; or (d) a separate solution for hot water (such as a standalone heat pump cylinder) Otherwise all this idea for using a phe is it wonderful but you're still f**ked trying to get enough water to/from it on the primary side to work. In Europe meanwhile... https://www.svarienergija.lt/produktas/silumos-siurbliai/cooper-hunter-hm3/ Etc Split system. Outdoor block with compressor and evaporator. Indoor "fridge" with hot water tank and space heat pump. Teeny little refrigerant lines in-between. Change from £10k fitted. When the new rules comes into play allowing 900 grams of propane R290 in split systems these group to propane; support high temperatures like the monoblocs; and you'll just sling the refrigerant lines up the wall, over the attic, and into a new fridge in the cylinder cupboard. No bespoke nonsense. No custom made this that other. Just whack it in and move on.

Tony's build (@tonyshouse) has demonstrated that you can achieve passive-class performance with a block/brick cavity wall construction, but it's a challenge. As I've said elsewhere I feel that the root issue is total failure of innovation and true quality control in the major builders. If you look at so many other sectors of business technology and innovation over the last 30 years have totally transformed how the products are mode and the services are delivered. IMO, the building industry as a whole seems to have systemically resisted attempt and change and both the government and related professional bodies such as RIBA have miserably failed to perform their roles in legislating / advocating such change. So we are left with a few small builders and specialist firms, and self-builders showing by example. @Sensus used the phrase anally retentive when discussing another post and Jan often refers to me as being anal to describe to sort of fine attention to detail that I sometimes adopt. Yet we don't talk about Rolls-Royce being anally retentive about the design and manufacture of their jet engines or Apple being anal about the design of their iPhones, etc.. It seems to be almost a presumption that whilst attention to detail is essential (and expected) in some business areas, when it comes to building a house then this is just over-the-top. However, I disagree. Quite a few of the active members of this forum have demonstrated by personal example that you can build a top-quality passive-class home for the same sort of price as your average mediocre new-build of the same footprint, etc. Where there are price premiums these are more to do with the overheads of building one-off rather building a high quality product. But the devil is in the detail, and maintaining that quality, so maybe we should just use the "anal" description as a badge of recommendation. If you are a self-builder who wants a highly efficient, high quality, low maintenance to live in then you need to get a bit of anality yourself or find a professional architect or project manager that you trust to do this for you.