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It is now looking something like a house. There is still some way to go, particularly internally, but Building Control are happy so far.

The house has warmed up and stayed warm! I’ve booked the original plumber to come and do a full service in the new year and flush the system (mostly so I can see him squirm). im going to clean it again in a couple of days and see if it’s got anymore in. thanks again everyone

Oh dear. If only people had stayed awake in school science lessons. What sort of (expletive deleted) approves these installations.

Not sure. Here are some photos:

Is this the @Pocster garden? And is the stuff previously nicked and thrown back over the fence in disgust? 🤠

I looked at this a while back, along with someone else. We came to the conclusion that the realistic break even point was 3.5 MWh/year. Not looked at it for a few years now, so the BEP may be a bit lower, but then there has been general inflation. I use between 3 and 4 MWh/year.

Really pisses me off, electric boiler are just a con praying on unsuspecting people! That being said, if people are to stupid to spend 30mins checking online checking electric boiler vs ASHP or even just asking around... Maybe they deserve it??

I went multi split. 2 outdoor controlling 4 indoor (one sunroom, one living room, one in each bedroom). Main reason was the west facing side of our bungalow is always cold unless we get a spell of consistently nice weather. Our spare room /office is there and I wanted option to heat this room while other units are potentially cooling which isn't possible with ducted. I didn't dig much more but I'm sure I'd read that far less fine grained control with ducted system so I'm not sure if you can have one room at 17 and another at 22.

The only advantage I see is it will flow high temperatures so suitable for normal sized radiators. But charged on E7 or similar. May as well install storage heaters. I will dispute. If you have a battery and UFH it's loads cheaper and you can also cool. I'm just using standard E7. Heating season this year has had a warmer house and a lower bill. Heat pump output much better match for the house heating demand than the gas boiler was.

You could invest in a few freehold lock-up garages. No sitting tenants, EPC, council tax etc. Sometimes there may be an angle for later planning consent.

can't you just tee it into something else and fit a dri-trap?

All the info you need https://www.heatgeek.com/do-i-need-to-upgrade-my-radiators-for-a-heat-pump/#google_vignette

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1bgVeeIjCp/ Downloaded 29th December 2023 The image is shared from an Instagram Channel called 'Dutch Bricklayers' I wonder how many people go past that wall and never notice it? It's called a Falling Soldier Course. Gorgeous. @Brickie - you done anything like this?

Tiny amount. I've never gotten round to plumbing in my condensate pipe, so it current fills a large plastic lunch box. Only really have condensate when it's cold outside. Normally in winter it's about ~100ml per day. Nothing in summer. I empty it a couple times a week.

Whatever you do with your pot I’d get it well hidden! 14 months since my husband had his brain haemorrhage and multiple complications he is no longer the man he was and therefore not able to come home. I now stand to lose half of the house we’ve worked all our lives to have. This house was going to be sold when we retired to give us an additional pension pot as we have no private pensions. I am now in the situation that with my half I’ll probably need to buy something like an ex council house to give me extra cash to live in my retirement. This is something neither of us foresaw and it makes me so angry to think we’ve really worked for nothing, if we’d stayed in a council house all our lives and had no assets his care would have been paid for!

Just to close this, the pozi's are installed into hangers onto a steel, I detected a small amount of movement in the joist when pushing and pulling the corner of the bottom chord in the location circled on the photo! I have since glued and screwed lengths of 5*2 as bracing against its neighbouring joist to try and mitigate against any future lateral movement.

A2A convert here. Currently very slowly renovating a bungalow in central belt. I spent an age trying to work out what would be best for space heating and DHW with the help of BH. You might find this thread has some useful information. TLDR : I decided my best option was dump solar to hot water. Heat pump water still not common enough so if it goes wrong it's potentially harder to get someone qualified to fix which likely comes at a cost.

Like many other people, I have had slow progress getting started, but I now finally have the diggers on site.

Saw this on Social media-very clever! Never done anything similar myself. intrigued by the bond used-assume it’s a ‘Wild Bond’ that the lads who went to the continent in the 90’s used to talk about. The only rule appears to be not to repeat the same course for a nominal vertical distance.

Yep backer rod would work, maybe a dab of silicone on the corners as when you fold it around it will naturally have a bit of a gap, or mitre them ???

Context here is the house is still in the process of being built by a principal contractor. If they have their tiler start altering electrical or plumbing fittings that haven't yet all been commissioned or signed off, then any faults that subsequently develop would be a finger pointing nightmare. Thus the principle contractor will be obliged to have all the trades involved in the scope of work to wade in to do their bit for any changes In my experience as a client (or a different builder in the same area), these sorts of rework variations can overinflated both because the principal contractor does not want the risk to impact on the programme timeline, but also because of an emotional cost: the individual trades absolutely hate ripping up and redoing their handy work and will moan and drag heels over it, and whoever is directing the thing just doesn't want/need to be dealing with that extra headache, so sand bags it both to put off doing the variation and for their own overheads in making it happen

Thanks, I'll take a look. My only concern with foam would be blocking drainage holes in the profile - I'm assuming there would be some to drain any water that got past the external frame-to-glass seals? I saw another thread where someone wedged foam backer rod between the glazing unit and frame, perhaps that's a safer option?

Take all the beads out and do a re test. I bet this draft is coming around the glass unit and the bead is pushing it to the corner gap. You could remove a bead and seal the unit into the frame using illbruck airtight foam, then re install the beads. I would remove one or two beads carefully, to make sure the glass is secure on packers and that it stays in place.

G9’s are pony, always have been and always will be! The G4 being the only lamp that is worse! Especially if they are fitted into an enclosed fitting they’ll constantly fail. I never recommend G9 fittings to my customers for that reason. I still fit quite a few and always warn the customer that they will be replacing lamps regularly, otherwise I get phone calls! Having said the above, some brands are significantly better than others. I do such a good job of avoiding supplying these things I’m not sure which though!

Couldn't you do something similar with sheets of left over walk-on glazing? I dunno, a glass crash barrier or summat?

I am happy with my Bosch washing machine. Much easier to use than my old Bosch one, which lasted 14 years. Not always and as I found out, it is cheaper to buy a new one. My German Bosch was made in Poland.

After many more callouts a sympathetic engineer deemed our machine unserviceable. This on the basis the required spare part was no longer available. Engineers were good, bad and very bad. Some direct from the service outfit, some subbies. After one visit with it left "working", the belt started to slip off. After refitting a few times I then had a look and found a lug on the motor broken off. Not just broken off but missing and nowhere to be found. On the back of this we got a new one FOC under the service contract. You got given a choice, a list deemed equivalent to what you had. To upgrade your choice you could pay extra. SWMBO chose another Hotpoint! Despite me batting on about buying Miele. Just another nail in my coffin I'm sure.

In the standard contracts there is a line to fill in for 'liquidated and ascertained damages. LADs Of course the contractor will try very hard to avoid delay, but also to justify any delay that will allow an 'extension of time'. EOT Surveyors battle over this. There used to be some evil contractors who endeavoured to charge their subcontractors this way, and I expect some major clients did the same. The lawyers gained. With 'real' clients, ie decent people trying had to make a living, I would explain about LADs. and that we already lost money if the job runs on. If LADs are insisted on then 1. we have to fight them rather than gt on with the job. 2. will add a few weeks of that value to the tender, as risk. 3. explain that if the deadline is as importnat as they say, then they should have started sooner. With corporate clients I simply added the risk as a likely job cost.

twinwall polycarbonate sheeting. but i think its just going to be a massive sail. make sure you screw the roof down solid.

These days, flats are designed to stop smoke coming in if there is a fire. This is why Grenville residence where told to stay in their flats. If you are going to do a major refurbishment, it may be worth looking up the latest regulations regarding fires in flats. I have noticed my neighbour has taken up smoking, that leaves just one non smoker out if the 6 houses where I am.

I agree that this would be excessive for a garden tool shed, but its a good idea for something more substantial. On a big timber frame once, the supplier wanted a concrete upstand to the perimeter. quite a fiddly and costly thing to do. I proposed precast concrete lintels , bolted down, which also allowed us to pack them to dead level and to adjust the line if necessary. The supplier was really happy with it, as of course it fitted perfectly. So was I as it was very much cheaper than in-situ and a bit cheaper, but a lot stronger, than brickwork. about £10/m

There are so many options for something like this. There’s that garden rooms bloke on YouTube that advocates cementing threaded rods into the ground and building off that. Also your skill level - what you can do yourself - costs of materials etc etc. I’d never built anything before so my small barn was DIY constructed as follows ( apologies if using wrong terminology). for founds I did a strip foundation with deeper dig at 6 points - four corners plus mid way (8x4 building). Couple of courses of brickwork around. Foundations. In filled with hardcore, sand, dpc, solid insulation then did a concrete hand pour over top to create concrete floor. Treated timber bottom plate 4x2 fixed to perimeter brickwork. I built a series of modular 2.4 x 1.2 wall panels out of 4x2 with 9mm osb on face. These were bolted to the bottom plate. Built the gables same way, then the roof timber, beams etc for a 45 deg roof. Clad structure in breathable membrane. Insulated the framework and put airtight polythene stapled inside. Whole thing clad in combo of steel sheeting and leftover Siberian larch from house. Interior not yet finished but thing has not moved even in storms. Inside it’s not cold in winter and not hot in summer. saved a fortune building it myself and really enjoyed doing it learning many skills I hadn’t done before other than usual diy around home.

Heya , I'm 'self-self building' small dimension timber frame structures [Doug Fir] to learn how to eventually build a house ... car tyre and gravel foundations , 63 by 38mm studs , joists and rafters - sheep's wool + straw bale insulation , tyvek and slim board cladding for walls and the roof , - with 8mm timber panelling and clay plaster frames on the inner walls and cathedral ceilings , plus oiled 20mm boards on the floor ... refurbished 2nd hand doors and windows .

A quick update 27 October 2023 to today. Including the last cold snap where we had temperatures down to -7, our total electric bill is on average 34.4% cheaper being on E7 compared to standard rate. To make these saving is only possible with the battery, it being charged on cheap rate. Most the period our heat pump was running on WC 24/7. Had a couple of mild days and did night-time floor charging and the saving was 43%, with no day rate electric being used. Comparison includes all heating, DHW heating and all other normal electricity usage. Happy so far

For Building Regs, you can get a completion certificate once you are at shell stage and complied with all the regs. Floor and wall finishes don't matter, but electrics need to be complete and signed off, as does gas and drainage, heating and ventilation. All insulation in place, doors and windows fitted, airtightness signed off, entrance access in place. You will need your as built SAP. External works not an issue for Building Regs, but probably over 90% of the spend will need to happen. Don't risk running short of money in the current lending climate or you could go skint.

No problem. Buildhub is an invaluable resource for the self-builder and indeed anyone doing anything to their house. It is pretty likely most questions you have will already have been asked and answered so use the search function. A top tip is to use google to search the forum as it can return better results. There are a few books that are useful and worth getting: Self-Build Simplified by Barry Sutcliffe - walks you through all main things to think about The House Builders Bible by Mark Brinkley - This is a more general book covering a wide array of items including renovations and extensions.

To give you some idea. My approach so far has been: Engage timber kit company. They’ll supply and erect the kit to weather tight so that includes windows and doors, external membrane, steel work and insulation. Engage various consultants for the technical design such as foundation, drainage (treatment plant and soakaway), private water supply etc Install electricity supply. Engage groundswork company on a fixed price. He supplied all materials and brickies except the insulated blockwork I sourced them I’ve then got quotes/tendered for every other element of the build from the roofing down. Kitchens, bathrooms, MVHR, ASHP, HA, electrical, plumbing, tiles, screed, joinery, plastering, garage, scaffolding, welfare etc, some on supply and fit and some just fit. It’s about 13 different companies/trades so far averaging 3 quotes per element and 5 contacts per element (not everyone you contact will quote) It’s a fair degree of effort tracking it all and it’s taken me 12 months to get to this point from when we signed the kit contract and 20 months from when we first viewed the plot. It was 11 months from signing the contract to breaking ground which is almost complete. The kit arrives on the 17 April and will be up by the 27th. Two week buffer in case delays and first trades on-site mid May. We’re aiming for an October finish. I’m effectively retired so have the time. Other half still works so effectively my client 😂 Hats off to the folk that do all this plus actually build it and hold down full time jobs.

Hello, I bought my first house two years ago which was built in 2005. The biggest issue I've faced since moving in is that the vast majority of the upstairs floor creaks to such a degree that it bothers me daily. My initial research led me to think that it be a case of fastening the boards down or replacing nails with screws but sadly it's turned out more complex. In pulling up the floor in two rooms so far, have found that the joists are 220x44 spaced at 400, floorboards are 18mm chipboard t&g which was screwed down. In May I had the main bedroom floor lifted and replacd with 22mm t&g chipboard which was glued and screwed, six months later and the room is now pretty much back to where it was before. In the meantime before the main bedroom deteriorated, I lifted the floor in bedroom 3 myself with the intention of fitting new 22mm t&g, this floor is still up as I'm hesitant to put down the boards I've bought and end up in the same situation. The opinion of trades I've had look at this room is that there is probably some movement in the joists, but don't have any firm suggestions. In the room which is up, I've found a few things that I need to fix but I'm unsure if they're a cause or red-herring: Joists not nailed in hangers, can be seen in photos, though this is only the 3 short joists which only span that room where they meet the timber going across the end of the stairs Noggin noise coming from the nails, almost the whole floor creaks so I don't believe this to be the root issue Holes for cabling/pipes not done within regs I'm stuck with how to proceed, ideally I'd like to have someone come and report how to resolve it, specifying materials, fixings etc which I can follow. A structural engineer I spoke to said they would be unlikely to be of much help. My only idea was to firm it up with additional noggins and maybe fit ply.

Doesn’t matter what age you are if you have to go into care they’ll take everything you have until you have nothing and only then will they pay it. I have thought about a couple of lodgers but being a woman on my own now I’m a bit wary

Old Macdonald's Law applies Energy In = Energy Inevitably Out

No. 89.97%.

Corrected.

Is that 90% of people who self build…?

I’d think you’d want a decent scaled drawing. Might not be the thing to attempt early on.