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Staircase in. Feels like a big ‘step’ literally. Really happy with it. Nice job. Made locally and not too dear.

Latest "from the mound" picture. (could have been taken back in August, but I forgot 🙂

Build an appropriately sized rectangle the use maths to mark out your two triangles. The smaller the gap between your hypotenuse lines, the lower the volume of waste. Adjust your rectangle to get the lines closer together. A combination of circular saw, recip and hand saw. An appropriate offcut put into the blocks can stop it collapsing whilst being cut.

Is this correct? It's 2 peices of 18mm ply. (Only glue incase it's wrong.) 500mm wide x 200mm deep The joist is 50mm x 140mm x 1900

As a regular user of Nudura, what I love best about the block, build the blocks together on the floor, they all lock together, then lay it on it's side, flat on the floor. make sure to oversize it Once laid on the floor, use your truss drawings and layout the cut lines on the block, verify you have done it correctly, the heel height, the peak, double/triple check it all, now you can cut the block, flip it over on the floor, transfer all measurements and cut the other side Depending on the size of your gable you may (with the help of 1-2 people) lift the gable end up on top of the wall and snap it into place, if its to big you might need to dissemble some of it to get it up

After a week of low temps and high humidity, some observations. Defrost cycles have increased. I've yet to spot one taking longer than 5 mins and more than two an hour. We we've been below 0 for a few days now (-2 consistent day temps). Energy use has spiked at a max 66kWh on the coldest day. Comparing to last years usage we were 85kWh over heavy cold spells and outside of that averaging daily winter use around 55. The living room unit is being over worked and takes time to get the room to temp. That was my downsizing in advance of heat loss improvement. Belive that is causing more defrost cycles. Still comfortable eventually and running constantly to avoid the room getting below 14 overnight seems to be working better. Our bedroom unit is on a separate outdoor unit. That room opens into our living area and having both units running seems optimal for warm air circulation. If I ever wanted to add another unit to our living area, I'd connect it to the outdoor unit that runs the bedrooms - that way it's unlikely to be on same defrost cycle. Overall happy with the last weeks 1st real performance test.

Your house is full of 100s of litres of water. Open the windows. It'll take weeks to dry. All heating is doing is lifting the water from warm parts and depositing it on cold parts.

Hello all, New here, so be gentle! 🙂 I'm trying to set up for an EnerPHit project on our house here and am really struggling with the windows. Having found this site through searching for this type of issue I found a fantastic chart by @Visti to compare the prices vs Uw values for a multitude of suppliers. It's really interesting to see, however as it's now nearly 5 years old I wondered if anyone has created an updated version at all? After many months of wrestling I have a quote for some Rationel windows and it's alarming to say the least and I can't think that it's simply gone up by that much in 4-5 years. I have had a scout through more recent posts, but could find anything.

Since starting this build we've had a handy mound of "spoil" from which I have been taking regular photos from the same(ish) spot to remind me of progress during the "down" days which we self builders all suffer from time to time. I thought I'd share this with you. It starts in May 2021, when the major groundworks had been underway for a few weeks and goes up until April this year - about 2 years. First a picture of the mound of spoil for reference: and now the "timelapse": Since that last picture we've been putting on the warm roof structure, so any further photos from this vantage point don't show much sign of progress. so until something significant happens in August this view won't change much

I assume you've taken care of the fabric - Airtightness , insulation and ventilation? I would consider throwing any money I had into PV and diverters. As your usage is mainly summer months you can divert any excess juice to the DHW and then the Storage heaters pretty easily. Maybe an infrared heater for the bathrooms on a push 15 minute timer to make showering nicer would be cheap enough too.

I would spend money draught proofing and insulating the house, and then leave very clear instructions on how to use the storage heaters…

I would resist the urge to do that until you are pretty much complete and have stopped creating dust etc. Removing the filters would keep them clean but everything else will get contaminated.

No, crack on 👍

I don't think your MVHR will do much for the condensation. Dehumidifiers are the way. Plumb them into a waste if you can so you don't need to mess around emptying them. If you are around during the day, switch off the dehumidifiers and open doors and windows. Obviously a cold and pissing wet winter means it will take a while to dry.

Semi-retirement & downsizing. IMO it's far easier to build from scratch rather than renovate. Excepting that the paperwork has become so burdensome.

Well you tried anyway. Joists fail in acceptable deflection before the breaking point. So you're OK.

Most likely in the South West, Somerset, Dorset, Devon.

Putting this plot on the back-burner due to English Nature enforcing a blanket ban on new developments in the area. When it's lifted will try to get a house on the plot instead of the garage / store

It varies dramatically by region. You really need to ask. My hunch is that the first job should be the dropped kerb, and there would be no argument. Quite expensive. An alternative might be preparing the driveway to the stage of hardcore, but you shouldn't drive over the existing kerb to do it. Plus they might think you are ignoring the kerb requirement. If I may ask, why haven't you proceeded with the project?

We measured it to allow us to slide the plasterboard behind it should be a doddle. 😂

Best to ask the planners. It may be just doing the dropped curb or the foundations for the garage. It does not look controversial so they may be easy going about it.

>>> I'm having terrible trouble with one of my three Neostat v2's (connected to the old style wiring centre WITHOUT reset buttons) and a Neohub Gen 2. I might just restart the wiring centre (probably a mains switch) then the hub (remove the power lead) and then remove and reinsert the battery to the stat. I once had a problem where the hub got its time confused - something to do with my internet vanishing for a bit I think.

Good link. I love this bit at the end: Alternatively, you could make this a DIY project. Often the best installations are completed by homeowners who have taken time to install materials correctly. The most important skill needed is care and attention to the intricate details. You must also follow the appropriate health and safety measures at all times. We would be pleased to support you with further installation information if DIY is an option for you. If ever there was a vieled reference to crap workmanship by builders, this is it. Still at least they know what actually goes on in the real world.

Our DHW is about 40-45C and our thermostatic mixer showers work fine. The only issue we have had, is our Mira unit makes a whining sound at certain combinations of temp and flow. I don't think that is directly caused by the lower DHW temp. Annoyingly one of those settings seems to be the one everyone likes!

Most mixers work at those temps. All of ours do. Just the manufacturer's don't state this. And sterilisation not needed on a modern closed system.

That is a very strong solution, and best if using full sister timbers, but its sometimes tricky to drill the horizontal holes through both pieces.

Well im glad im not the only one that completely confused as to what the OP is asking!

1. Be careful about overheating, especially if south facing. 2. If one unit is too expensive you can break it up with fixed panels either side of a slider. 3. Rationel don’t do sliders but we put in their window doors. Which are full height side hinged windows you can use for egress, might be an option. We used a combo of their full height window doors and fixed panels but not over a huge gap like yours and broke them down with vertical breaks. My profile pic shows what we did.

We had a quote 6 months ago for a 6 meter sliding door (triple track) cero iii. 2.4 high. £25 ex vat ex install. We changed our design

For that amount of glass, you want the best glazing and system you can get, or else it'll be very hot and very cold. Allow £20k+ Have you hade a full heatloss / thermal model done of the design? And does it allow for that amount of glass? We have 5m x 2.7m triple glazed bifolds that came in at £12k, two years ago.

Hi, we went thru the B705 v B785 a while ago, the SE just didn't update this bit of drawing. They also provided full details of the mesh and Shear Links, I just didn't know what they did, so I was trying to educate myself. They have designed the mesh to go in a particular direction, basically side to side, although it is only the sides that take the weight all 4 sides have the rebar on top. The conversion has 3 sizes of rebar in different areas, underpinning in shallow foundations and secondary foundations where they don't think there is enough bearing size for the rebar. All in all quite complex drawings, not helped in the least by them making typo mistakes like B705 when I'm trying to get best price. Thanks for you help.

Well, @Jaybird, I wish I'd discovered this particular Commentriat before we'd started building 8 years ago. So, you've started out right! Well done. Good luck, and try to forgive @Pocster as often as possible. All artists should be much forgiven. He's doing his best, but my God, imagine being married to him! Ian

When I had to add some 'sister' joists in my first floor extension to strengthen the existing joists, my Building Inspector suggested using M12 bolts with these double-sided toothplate washers 'sandwiched' in-between the existing and new timbers:- https://www.screwfix.com/p/sabrefix-m12-timber-connector-galvanised-dx275-50mm-x-50mm-50-pack/99094

To be fair, that isn't really a thing. As cooling methods go it's pretty poor. It has limited power and condensation is an issue if you try and push it. I'm not aware of any manufacturer that offers *slab* cooling as an approved option (there are some that offer fan coil cooling) It's only done as a hack by some enterprising "prosumers". A2A cooling, on the other hand, is pretty.much how it is designed to be used for the majority of installations. *heating* is the "hack". There are units out there that cannot heat. But you are right, excluding the A2A class on the basis that it is mostly for cooling is a bad move, especially now. 1) it's not strictly true, A2A optimised for heating is now a mainstream product 2) cooling during extreme heat events might actually be a sensible idea for the UK What we need to do is strongly discourage (or at least not subsidise) unnecessary "comfort cooling". By this I mean using air con to make a space unnecessarily cool to address poor building design. So no building a glass office box then using a air con to make it 16 degrees during a heat wave so everyone wears jumpers. A simple approach would be to not subsidise any heatpump that can be set to cool below (say) 28C. A2A would be (small) subsidy worthy. There could be subsidies for those that have the space to fit a UV cylinder heated by one. Heck maybe someone might come up with a head unit that transfers to water for UFH so you can have UFH downstairs and fan coils upstairs.

What were the pros you've found with the built in wardrobes? 1. They maximise the storage space -v- equivalent footprint of a wardrobe 2. They are cheaper -v- buying them and paying VAT 3. They look more streamlined than a standalone wardrobe. 4. When your drawers break and need replacing you don’t have to replace the wardrobe, assuming you want matching furniture. There will be some downsides for some, but your wife’s point is valid, in terms of flexibility, but looking at your plans the bedrooms will have slope one side so it’s likely they’re is only one wall a wardrobe can go on in any case. I think moving the second window down is a good idea to give light and more space in that little 1sqm corridor bit. But I think I’ve noticed another issue here unless I’ve been hit with the stupid stick. The family bathroom door will need to be a rather silly & very low 178 cm not to hit the angled ceiling , because the hinged side is close to the wall and you probably don’t want to hinge it the other way into the room. If too late to change design - a sliding door, or move the door south is your only solution. Surely whoever did the drawings flagged this to you? Appreciate it sound like you’re at the end of your tether with your design but far better to sort it all out now.

If you are wanting or needing someone to sign off on something then calcs are needed (or proof load tests). Likewise if you are pushing the boundaries of material compressive and tensile strengths then calcs are a must. Overengineering a small simple structure like a stair is much easier and straightforward, if it looks and feels right then it usually is.

what do you mean by 'loft voids'? if you're insulating between and under the trusses why do you need to insulate anywhere else? here's what our loft looked like after insulating. we then fitted Intello Plus and service cavity battens in to the trusses. we don't plan to plasterboard the loft but the battens help hold the membrane in place.

HSE had a really good guide to working with relatively low-risk asbestos materials. For soffit boards they suggested shaving foam. If you used that (although you should still wear a mask and all the required PPE, of course) the dust released would be minimal. Dispose of the shaving foam and 'dust' as you would any asbestos. https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a9.pdf

@iceverge kindly looked at this for me and replied as below. As they said any other comments are welcome.. the two add on ‘pods ‘ as I call them are because I will never be granted a bigger overall house from planning but they may allow the little extra single story ‘pods’ which would help. So here is the message . Which I’m very grateful for. This forum is invaluable I’ve learnt so much from my posts . Thanks to everyone Nic Here we go. I've thrown about an hour at this drawing. Its like a cardboard cut out template of a house PHPP uses external dimensions unlike SAP. NE wall 46.7m2 Window 3.3m2 NW wall 51.7m2 Window 14.5m2 SW wall 46.1m2 Window 4m2 SE Wall 61.9m2 Window 12.3m2 Floor 94m2 Roof 94.6m2 Your current wall thickness is 400mm. Roof is 350mm. This would result in U values of about 0.16W/m2K with ICF and a joisted roof. Lets assume you can install a floor as thick as you wish with a U value of 0.1. Windows at 1.1w/m2k installed. I note you're in the south coast. Lets assume zero as a minimum temperature. A good airtightness score and MVHR. Take any internal heat gains to be cancelled out by minor thermal bridging and the inefficacy of the MVHR. That leaves us a simple enough sum to do. Area X U value X delta T = Heat Loss Total Your heating load as stands would Roof: 94.6x0.16x20= 302w Floor 94 X 0.1 X 15 = 141w Walls 206.4 x 0.16 x20 = 660w Windows 34.1 x 1.1 x 20 = 750.2 W Total heating demand 1853 w. The foot print is 94m2 and the floor area is about 150m2. You're at roughly 12.5W/m2K specific heat demand vs the Passivhaus limit of 10W/m2K. There's a couple of things you could do to adjust. The small add ons to the south and west adddisproportionately more external surface area than the floor area. For instance the one to the west adds only 5.5m2 of floor area but 131W of heat load or 24W/m2. It's twice as bad as the average of the house. Designing from scratch they'd be a far more expensive option than just making a house a pure 4 sided box or even a full height "T" or "L". I understand you are size limited but slightly thicker walls or roof would help. Only marginally. As you can see even good triple glazed windows loose a tremendous amount of heat. More than all the walls combined. You have 14m2 of windows on the North wall. This will loose heat all year around as unlike the South facing window's they'll never gather energy. ( Nett loss) Consider making them smaller. For mainly this reason it's very unlightly you'll be near the annual heat demand of a passivhaus. I would guess you'll be about 4000kWh per year. Assuming a well functioning ASHPand 25p/unit this will translate to about £250/year for space heating. A passivhaus might be £150. Over all, if built to good standards of airtightness and thermal bridging you'll have a very warm house.

For those who may not have any other options available Starlink doing refurb stuff at 199 for the hardware + monthly subs at the minute.

Posting this again.

Long time since I posted but, forgot to follow up with completion picks. Has been in for a couple of years now and burns a treat. Thanks for the comms on this.

just wanted to add my 2c to this. The figures in the Graham Hendra Freedom HeatPumps video here are the wrong way round. I recently self-installed samsung 16kw. followed grahams video's for setup. couldn't get my head round my radiators running cooler when we got a cold snap. the manuals are all very well but they don't say which numbered setting is on the right and which is on the left, and the screen doesn't say which one is which number. not ideal by samsung. anyway in 202* the "Low Target Value" is the lowest LWT temp value that you want to use when its mild . The "High Target Value" is the highest LWT you want to use when its cold.

Siggles. Thank you for raising this topic, my radiators in the past 12 months has never exceeded 39degC and the temperature would never exceed 17degC. I have changed my settings as suggested above, and wow the radiators are now reaching 47degC. Finally a warm house. Downside being daily electricity usage has increased a lot. Thank you.

I'm wondering if @twice round the block means trench footings. I've heard this described as pilings before (in error or as a local term, I don't know). Hence the query. Otherwise , just getting a rig on site will be a few £k, plus full SE design. dropped kerb and reconstruction of footpath/crossing might be about £3k. @ProDave please curb your use of this american term for kerb. I had to add kerb to the spellcheck dictionary. Twice, if you tell us more about the garage design, and ground conditions, then we can help you choose.

Hello, - a serial builder eh .... What brings you back to the torture-chamber then ?

Ah, so the proposal has been checked by a Financial Secretary to the Treasury has it ? I've just finished reading: Dunt, I., 2023 How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn't . I now de-code the quotation above as : The MP concerned has been shown a piece of paper which she signed, but didn't read, and if she did, she didn't understand the content. Again.