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You would also be committing a criminal offence. Not worth it in my view, unless your self-build is going so badly that you need new accommodation. I hear HM Prisons are fairly water tight.

Welcome to self-building. Frustrating innit.

I was going to go around the house with silicone to fill this gap, but a builder friend gave me this expanding foam strip to try. Seems a LOT simpler than silicone. How have others dealt with this gap?

Let's have a sense-check, eh? This type of 'luxury toy' is for sporadic use, a bit like my 5.5L V8 AMG. I don't get into that thinking...."ooh, if I take my time I'll get 23mpg", so the same applies to your luxury, pamper-station. Just accept that it costs X amount to 'enjoy' and so be it. Think of how much you will save vs spa membership etc, plus travel to & from, and then just make it comfortable and enjoyable and switch off. This is not a rehearsal, we're here once and then it's 'adios' (which is why I didn't focus on MPG), so unless you use this every day for hours and hours on end (which I don't think you can healthily do with such a toy) then just suck it up? I am typing this from my un-insulated man-shed / office, with 4kW of fan heaters wafting warm air around. They heated this space almost instantly, do the job wonderfully for next to feck all, and when I'm done I just switch them off until I need them next. Simple, effective, convenient, "job done".

I would have thought the insulating properties of 38mm or 44mm thick logs would have been sufficient for the short periods of use. As steamy says log cabins for outside use. (And they look good).

Excellent news 👌. Keep that test result as you well may be asked to prove that's the case on disposal, it still may have to go in the asbestos skip at your local tip

Pleasantly surprised to get the test results back today with the result NADIS ... No asbestos detected in sample. So here ends my search for a way to dispose of it! @gaz_moose I haven't had a reply to me request for a quote for disposal only but will update this thread if I do.

At those price I would tell the grid to take a walk and do a full off grid. Do you have plenty of space for PV? And a generator for mid winter.g

I’m awaiting a quote for a 4KW Veismann Vitocal 151-a so be interesting to see how that comes out.

You could do a 2 storey side extension, but I don't think there would be enough area for it to be worthwhile. You would also need additional bin / bike store space.

Once you allow for footings, rainware overhangs, construction access, wall thickness, you'll end up with a building about 1.5m or so wide. You'll never met building control regs for access etc. E.g. an accessible bathroom will be at least 1m wide and 1.5m long, and then you'll need space for a 900mm wide corridor to access all of the rooms, and then same again for stairs. Park a caravan in your drive. I'd love somebody to prove me wrong?

It is going to look different as you've got dry ridge/hips now whereas previously you had a wet system (bedded on mortar). The British standard now requires ridges and hips to be mechanically fixed which is best achieved with a dry system, with wet systems generally only now used for repairs. You've quoted the planning permission but what did the architect's plans state regarding materials and fixing method? I wouldn't worry about the difference in the actual appearance of the tiles as they will weather in over time. The installation looks poor though. Note the following: - The hips shouldn't be unaligned like that. If they've fitted a hip batten I don't understand how that would have happened. - They haven't clipped the cut tiles along the hip. I can see what looks like 2 lead tingles, one is loose, but every cut tile should be clipped at bottom and top. - There are large gaps between the membrane and tiles which will be vulnerable to driving rain. The membrane should be dressed to and adhered to the tiles below. - The chases for the stepped lead flashings haven't been fully sealed. - Flashing looks like it might be too long and there isn't enough cover down over the tiles, particularly on the hip. Max length (assuming it's code 4 is 1500mm and there should be min 150mm cover over tiles.

This is the requirement he should use: 4.1 The surface linings of walls and ceilings should meet the classifications in Table 4.1. Table 4.1 Classification of linings Location Classification Small rooms of maximum internal floor area of 4m2 D-s3, d2 Garages (as part of a dwellinghouse) of maximum internal floor area of 40m2 Other rooms (including garages) C-s3, d2 Circulation spaces within a dwelling Other circulation spaces (including the common areas of blocks of flats) B-s3, d2(1) NOTE: 1. Wallcoverings which conform to BS EN 15102, achieving at least class C-s3, d2 and bonded to a class A2-s3, d2 substrate Sorry the table doesn't come out but I think you can see for small rooms it's D-s3, d2 and others C-s3, d2, hallways etc B-s3, d2 So if your bathroom is over 4m2 then it ought to be C-s3, however if your panels do not cover all the walls then paragraph 4.4 says: 4.4 Parts of walls in rooms may be of lower performance than stated in Table 4.1, but no worse than class D-s3, d2. In any one room, the total area of lower performance wall lining should be less than an area equivalent to half of the room’s floor area, up to a maximum of 20m2 of wall lining. That may help you work it out. If all else fails and you are a bit over then try to point out that a bathroom is a low fire risk. They do not need fire doors when opening onto a protected route because of that very reason so the chances of a major conflagation starting in yours is low..............

Nope. We are in the "sustainable" core of our village and the planners like every new change to be sympathetic to the street scene. So PV on our street-facing roof (SSE aspect) was considered a no-no. There's no point in having an additional heat battery for us as our whole house intrinsically works as its own heat battery, but my thought is that this approach might be more appropriate for a retrofit or more traditional build-style. Any form of heat battery should allow you to time-shift heat generation and storage from periods where the unit price of electricity is low and decouple this from consumption demand.

No, curtilage is the area of the land the house stands on (there can be subtle interpretations of that for farm houses etc) and runs with it that forms the "planning unit".

can you pop a cable tie around the bottom pin once it's in place, to hold the door "up"?

Meter box designs are lousy to start with, you only have to walk round any housing estate to see how many are secured in place by duck tape. Fix some proper hinges and ignore the silly pins and it will be better that it ever was. I would nut and bolt them on with big washers to spread the load, I fear pop rivets may pull through the thin fibreglass.

At my last house, I got my kit from the Electric Gate Shop and installed it myself. I was happy with the tech support. I had imy installation checked for electrical safety by a proper electrician. mains voltage motors photocells on the posts inductive loop in the driveway preventing the gates from swinging open onto a parked car The motors sense if they’re closing on an obstruction, e.g. trapped body part, and you can adjust the force they close with telephone cable back to the house with a button inside the front door so we can open the gates from the house and also lock them open (switch wired in series with photocells). Handy when you have guests As well as the usual remotes, a GSM module which opens the gates when it receives calls from pre-programmed phone numbers. Very handy as you can call it from your car as you approach the house so the gates are open as you arrive. Also handy for allowing access for friends, relations etc. no stops for the leaves when they’re open, but a clever stop which grabs them when they’re closed an electric lock (similar to remote door access in apartments) which is activated automatically by the controller and locks the gates together when they’re closed. This is to stop anyone from forcing the gates open. Works a treat and very reliable.

Why should I care about some naff formula? I own my house outright and don't intend to sell it. Maybe the EPC version dated 2035 might be more relevant. It's our comfort and the actual running costs that are important to us.

It's a no brainer surely? Gate Gates, you could by two for the price of one from Easy Gates. Saying that the Lift Master stuff from Easy Gates has been super reliable. My BiL got their kit first (sliding), then me (sliding), then a neighbour (swing), then my mate (sliding). Ongoing support, extra fobs etc never an issue.

With any self build, unless you can afford an Architect/Builder to oversee the whole project, you're going to be chasing people, materials, answering questions and more. My own project is up to roof stage, timber frame is finished, roof finished but outer brick/block leaf is next, then soffit, fascia, gutters, then porch, then windows & doors. Each have their own challenges. On top of my day job! I've a delivery of lintels tomorrow and I only thought to ask what size rigid truck is it to find out it's a full Articulated Truck with a moffet (look that up in goggle!!). Won't fit in my housing estate!! cue plan B, C and D !! We're going to offload it to a footpath outside my house on the other side of a council wall and I'll use a hand truck to get them one by one into the site through a gap some teen made wider last year and it was never fixed by the council! I'm sure each self builder has a raft of such stories. My house needs 2500 bricks and 1280 blocks. The brick supplier I'd booked and paid for in full, was meant to deliver this Friday along with the block supplier providing all the blocks, sand, cement etc. They gave away the bricks to another (assume larger) customer and it's 2 weeks to get a new order in from Belgium. I tried the other supplier I found in google for the same bricks and got through to the same woman I'd been dealing with, same company, one's a shell I'd say. Tried the supplier and they only supply to this one company in Ireland. Anyway, as a one off house they can bump you down the list so I tend to like to get things onsite a week or two early to avoid this added hassle. I've very tight for storage but if you have a brick layer onsite and no bricks you'll be forced to buy something, anything and have to live with it forever. Time management - getting answers to questions is one thing, learning on the job is another. I want to nail in about 200 nails by hand but after realizing my initial attempts were leaning tower of Pisa'esque, I purchased a first fix nail gun, my first! Wow! 200 nails in 3 hours, all batons attached to the window openings. I can sell it later but the right tool for the job for sure! I've to install my first express nails tonight after learning about them from a neighbour - fixes wood to concrete. The roofers left 6 Velux boxes behind with BBX on them. What are they for? An extra? Do I need them? I think they are to act as a vapour barrier and possibly air tightness according to initial google searches. Something else I've to figure out later on. The roof has turned out well hasn't it! They had to finished the Oriel Window Metal / Trocal flashing before they finished roof tiling. It has a ventilated ridge and those plastic covers at the edges all the way along the roof line instead of cement they used to use. I've about 40 spare tiles stored away! The outer brick/blockwork is my next major hurdle. There's a few items I need to buy, figure out and get onsite: 100mm DPC for above 1st course of blockwork above foundation 18" DPC for around windows Expansion ties - Ancon PPS200 ebonded Safety Tie - box of 250, at least I have spares! I can return the unused ones. Wall vents - using Timloc Cavity Wall Drill Vents - you drill a 25mm hold angling upwards and then plug this into it. This absolves the brick layer from having to install them as they go Wall ties - the timberframe supplier provides 4 boxes of these and marked up where the studs are to get good purchase Stop Bead and Drip Bead (plastic) for render, Weber OCR, Weber paint (I'm doing this job once the blockwork is finished), Mitre bond glue (2 part glue) Gutter Brushes for later Expansion Joints - I've two 10 meter gables, each require two expansion joints. There's an awkward window and ESB box on one end of one side so thankfully we're putting the expansion joint past both of these even though you should have one every 6 meters and within 1/2 of this distance from the corner, ours will be 3.8m from the corner. the timberframe amazing team marked up the best positions for expansion joints and identified this one before the Structural Engineer signed off on it. I've taped up all the Solitex on the outside of the Timber Frame, plugged the side door up with timber, OSB and more Frontex WA. We're still installing a lintel in the blockwork but will ignore it otherwise for the block course and if someone wants to open it later they can with an angle grinder! It saves wasting a lot of space in the utility room having a door there with no purpose. There's no sink = reason to not make it a boot room really. I'm lining all the window openings with insulation over the next week or so and adding batons to take the window straps. They want a strap within 100-150mm of any corner and no more than 700mm apart. The Straps are 1mm thick and come inside the window about 100mm. I've sourced wood to exactly match the insulation thickness which can be hard but avoids trying to plane / table saw wood onsite. This Friday I've to hope everything fits onsite as it's delivered and we've room for a telehandler afterwards for when the brickie's start! That's a snapshot of my week! I'll do a post about powering electrical devices onsite without a generator using an Electric car & Anker 2kW battery soon I think, some lesson learnt there!

To use Class A.1 Permitted Development to extend your property, one of the constraints is that the total area of buildings within the curtilage excluding the original house should not exceed 50% of the ground within that curtilage excluding the original house. So it's plot minus original house = X, you can then have up 1/2X to use for buildings (obviously subject to other constraints depending on size, height etc etc). So the workshop uses 18m2 up and the porch another 5m2 leaving you (1/2X - 23m2)m2

For the site inspection report this is a standard question, so if you weren't required to have one you can just ask Building Control to send an email to confirm why you didn't one. In case anyone else gets asked this, no need to panic like me

It’s Dura mat I normally use Ditra But my wife found this at £800 for seven rolls Which is nearly twice what pay for Ditra There a 5 mil build up once fixed

do your own perco test, its dead simple. Heres mine, warranty and BCO fine with it. ]

On my bucket list to do one day!!! Even better a steam room, but they seem more involved.

I have built saunas, probably a few hundred of them. There is nothing clever about them, sounds like the ones you were in was panel construction, though log saunas are usually used outside. The heaters are just resistance heaters from 3 kW upwards, they usually change to 3 phase once they hit 9 kW. The 'coals' are just lumps of granite. They protect the electrical elements from direct contact when the water is poured on. There is be a temperature sensor/thermal fuse hidden away somewhere in the cabin that is wired back to a controller. That controller also has a timer in it that limits the amount of time the sauna can run (this was a safety feature introduced back in the 1990s). Lighting was ultra low voltage, 24V usually, but that has probably gone LED now. As you observed, they are just sheds with large heaters in them. Our panel saunas were insulated, the log ones were not, except for the roof.

Cart before the horse. You can't have a soakaway design until you have a percolation test result.

Here is what I did If you can buy a kit, mine is 70mm thick timber and fully insulated top bottom and sides. Way easier and not that expensive for what you get

Whilst I feel sorry for you and your situation which is very wrong, not all builders are like this, I had a brilliant builder and no complaints at all, it was not luck I searched using customers recommendations to find him.

On nods basis of £1500 to lay the tiles, which I think is too cheap, you then have all the concrete to dig out, re hardcore, re compact, new concrete, new steps formed. thats another £3000, then the tiles. It’s a £6000 job at the least. also what’s under that stone slab, I bet it’s a manhole, so that needs a new lid and re bedding.

Looks like asbestos cement so fairly low risk. Only needs taking off and wrapping in polythene or large bags (double wrapped) and taken to local waste site or into a covered skip - your local skip provider should be able to deal with it.

As a follow on (as is common here with the post-and-dash brigade, we have not heard again from the OP)... I'm finding this strategy is working with the PHPP calcs - so I can try out the variations of brise soleil, external blinds, low-G glass etc ensuring that I limber under the PHPP overheating limit. I'm aware though that this is a somewhat fragile strategy (the PHPP overheating calc itself is a bit fragile anyway) and, in practice, reducing the glazing a bit might make the chosen solution a bit less brittle. This does also force you to start selecting particular frames / glass / blinds for the modelling, which I guess is good.

I have similar objectives to you i.e. a good amount of glazing - so, I'm planning on putting in the max amount of glazing while squeaking through the regs. My strategy (which I won't know completely works until I have planning and BC approval) is as follows: + read and understand the Part O simple calc. Bear in mind these opaque calcs were written by and for the big developers and originally drafted to prevent overheating of city centre flats FFS. Why single self-build dwellings should be landed with them you'll have to put down to a lack of political nous on behalf of the self-build community. Consequently these calcs don't take account for external blinds, brise soleil, low G glass etc - which is all stuff the big developers won't do - they would rather give their customers smaller windows. + do an initial house design with the amount of glazing you prefer. Think about the house orientation re the sun. You may want to do a check against Part O Simple Method and PHPP simple % guidelines to see if you're anywhere in the ballpark. Note that restrictions on N glazing are fairly light, W & E glazing a bit more and max restriction on S facing. + send in your design for planning approval, knowing that you will probably reduce and/or amend the glazing later. That should be no problem, it's adding glazing later that will exercise the planners. + find a BC that will accept PHPP solar gain calcs, my LPA BC, for instance, will only accept Part O (or presumably TM59). + model well for solar gain with PHPP and tweak the design to get under the PHPP bar. You may need any or all of complete shading modelling / brise soleil / external blinds / lower G glass. + if you can't get what you want and you have an OK budget, try modelling with TM59 and see if that comes up with a better result than PHPP. + check that BC will sign off your calcs and run the glazing amendments past planning for approval. Depending on your design and your proclivity for running calcs yourself you may need a consultant for PHPP and even for part O if you prefer to spend cash rather than exercise your Excel skills. (Actually I believe there's an online calculator now.) You will almost certainly need a consultant for TP59 if you want to use that instead.

It's about 270l full, a 300 shell with expansion volume; and both the ASHP and DHW coils are around the 3m2 mark. I run the DHW from the heat pump at a 51c setpoint and a 2c hysteresis, so what with stratification and deltaT on the flow the top of the tank is 55-57c. The sensor is halfway down, between the DHW and ASHP coils. Myself or Boy Wonder can have a shower before the heatpump cuts in, better half about 3/4 of a shower. But the output temp never drops noticeably as the heatpump is quick enough to replenish the heat... So at reasonable flow rates I only see a few degrees between TS temp and DHW at the tap. Also, in the cold weather I run a timed boost on the upper immersion at getting-up time so the heatpump can focus on charging the slab without unneccesary defrosts. At E7 rates I'm sure the difference in COP makes minimal difference. Obviously if the stove is/was lit, or the sun's been out and the diverter has been busy, there's a lot more energy to play with too.

Who know if you will go down the heat pump route, but either system can be designed for low temp radiators, appropriate pipework diameter. plan pipework routes to make any change over in the future easier

Or plumb for a heat pump, size radiators for a heat pump, fot UV cylinder as normal and get a viesmann boiler with weather comp,

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We've put shadow gaps at all floor-to-wall joints and around all door linings in the living areas of the house where we have hard floors. We haven't used them in carpeted or tiled areas. We've used them for their aesthetic. We have minimal steps/rebates/shoulders etc. around any features and have tried to keep that theme running throughout the house. We have used a very simple skirting/architrave in carpeted areas. Our logic to this was that the more hoovering required in these areas would risk damage to the bottom edge of plastered walls if we used a shadow gap against carpet. We also wanted a slightly softer look in the bedroom areas. Some thought needs to go into how it is best to deliver shadow gaps around door linings. Two schools of thought: 1. temporary ply liners in to board and plaster to, then remove ply liners and fit final liners, or. 2. fit final liners and mask/protect then plaster up to them. We went with 1. and found we got some cracking around the liners as we fitted the final door liners. As the liners were screwed in they pushed against the edge of the shadow gap trim and the plaster cracked behind it. This happened on a couple of doors and required chipping out the cracked area and filling. If it was a painted or varnished finish to the door liner I'd try 2. next time, but natural, lacquered or oiled finish and I'd stick with 1. to avoid staining on the finished door liner. We used Qic Trims https://www.qic-trims.com/product/type-r/ After decoration you will need to mastic the gap from the edge of the shadow gap trim to the floor/door liner. There will always be gaps that need finishing. Shadow gaps do seem to mean different things to different people. To me they are a small rebate at wall-to-floor and wall-to-frame junctions that disguises the actual joint in a shadowed area. I know they are also used in conjunction with skirting to create a rebate above the skirting, but to me that's not a "shadow" gap. Our version of a shadow gap:

Cheers for the help.

Context: asked for a quote for an ASHP + 300L cylinder and UFH buffer tank (for a zoned UFH system fitted by myself) Following MCS guidelines the heat loss calculations have resulted in a 6.0kW Mitsubishi Ecodan being specified along with a 300L UVC and a 30L buffer tank. From the quote: The total cost for the complete system detailed in the above specifications will be £6,764.62 + 0.00% VAT. A £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme voucher has been deducted from the installation cost above. So a total of £14,264.62. A quick interweb search: Ecodan 6kW - £3,162.66 300L UVC for ASHP (I'm going high cost case with a pre-plumbed unit) - ~£1,800 30L buffer tank - ~£300 Ancilliary pipe, cable, switches etc - I'm going to allow for £1,000 which I think is fair give the pre-plumbed cylinder. Note there is no UFH related kit except for the 30L buffer tank. So I make that a total of £6,262.66 Leaving £8001.96 for labour !! Two people to get all the parts into place (2 hours each) One plumber to do their work (12 hours being generous) One electrician to do their work (4 hours being generous) TOTAL hours: 20 hours Hourly rate: £400 Even if we round it up to 3 full days (24 hours) that's £333/hour I will let you all choose the first optional word to the two word phrase "******* off"

...don't have a sauna and steam room?

I'll labour for you 'mate' lol.

You missed a word out ' It would be for my kids bikes so they aren't ...'

Don't worry, it will still leak whether it's upside down or not... Simon

To be convincing you would have to spray paint indecipherable markings in several colours, a week later put out plastic barriers, then traffic lights for elf and safety, noisily dig a hole on a Saturday morning at 7am, without any hearing protection and showing a deal of fat belly, leave it for several weeks, drop off some kerbstones and leave them for several weeks, place kerbstones badly and not even, sit in your van all day while it rains, and finish up 6 months later leaving a bunch of mess. Efficiently doing it all in one day would only attract suspicion.

I think lots of BCOs are requiring 'dry' and mechanically-fixed ridge tiles now. You may have to live with the colour, but I am a believer in straight lines... Do you know the make? If so send pics to the manufacturer and ask if that complies with their expectations. Then invite the contractor back to tell you to your face that that is a good job.

Welcome to the power of the mafia. You are lucky they aren’t imposing a traffic management survey on you. i think I paid a total of about £8000 for all the fees, surveys and other bollox the council required. Total daylight robbery.