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I appreciate that I am most likely speaking to the converted regarding this topic, but we are currently renting a property on a large Persimmon built housing estate, and I honestly find it so depressing and cannot understand why anyone would choose to purchase one of these houses. Not only is the build quality shocking, but each house is orientated 180 degree relative to the house in the parallel road. Eg, you would never sit in your back garden, as you are overlooked by about 6 houses. You have to always be mindful when looking out your windows, for fear of staring directly at someone who is looking directly at your house. If nothing else, it will make us get on with our self-build, and make us appreciate that we are fortunate enough to be in a position to do a self-build.

I find this comment a touch patronising to be honest. You are fortunate enough to be able to build a house for yourselves. I don't know your ages but look around you on your estate, and ask yourselves are you the "target audience" for this type of residential living? I would suggest you are not - we lived on such an estate for 30 years before embarking on our self build and I have to say, the location, convenience, price and a certain degree of "maintenance free" work, were very appealling to us as we were a young family. Obvioulsy no one "wants" to live in the type of house you have described but unforunately the choices can be limited - Just for the record, "Residential living" worked extremely well for us, until we found ourselves in a position to move on.

Eaves combs are your best bet, but you need to remove the first row of tiles/slates to fit them.

Ooh I would not do that, it will stink in a short period of time, much better to build bird boxes outside in their natural environment.

Thankfully the majority of people consider living in a housing estate box with a small garden and lots of neighbours in close proximity and insufficiant parking to be "normal" and all they aspire to. Right from an early age that was not what I wanted and I am finally living where I want in theo cuntryside.

I quick answer to your question is Because they are cheap and convenient You can often buy a complex home for similar to what many of us are pay just for a plot

It's not a number on a thermometer that matters, it's whatever you find comfortable that's important.

Two "conflicting" points of view, which just goes to show that at the very least there's personal differences. Whether or not they are learned or "genetic" is perhaps a different discussion, I have always assumed (for example) that people from warmer countries would want a place to be warm, but Indian friends of mine want the place freezing, and a polish friend gets cold really quickly In the end, I think the crucial part is that Passivhaus only 'dictates' a house shouldn't be more than 25C which is a reasonable maximum also given the research I quoted earlier. For comfort I seem to be gravitating to 23C but I'll admit the moment I start doing 'manual labour' in the house, eg tidying moving a sofa, whatever, then I overheat quickly if it's already 24.5. But yes, sweaters are great to wear indoor if you are doing it to keep the cost of limiting the heating cost, but it's silly to try to cool the house to be able to tolerate wearing sweaters.

Which just goes to show how under-qualified these bodies are to provide a global summary of an entire property vs just adding the number of ticks in particular boxes and then down-grading you like Neanderthals.

Remember we did our as-built EPC in 2017. The detailed stuff is back in the UK and not to hand, but IIRC we got marked down for using resistive heating and ended up with a C EPC, but still good enough to make BReg requirements. That being said, I regarded the whole SAP exercise as a paper one needed to get sign-off. What I really care about is real-world performance and total levelised cost of heating. Given that we use renewable electricity only, the total doesn't worry me and I suspect that going forward the scoring system will penalise fossil-fuel based heating more than direct electric.

I have a passive-class house with a 70 tonne MBC "warm-slab" within the heated fabric of our build. I went for the deferred option of putting in the 6mm radial from the CU to an outside wall box and a insulated double pipe run from the UFH cupboard to where I would put the ASHP, but held off installing an ASHP and used a 3kW Willis as an interim means of heating the UFH loops so that we could size the ASHP based on a year or two run rate. The issue that we have is that going from using the Willis (plus Oil filled rad top up Dec/Jan) on an Octopus Agile optimised heating schedule to an ASHP at an average CoP of 3½ say might save us perhaps £300 p.a. in electricity costs. (We have a handful of days a year when we put in more than 30 kWh heat.) I'd want at least a 10 year payback so would want my install costs to be at most ~£3K. And then you have the issue that the typical life of an ASHP can be ~10 years. It's just easier to pay the extra £300. 6 years on, and I still can't make the investment case.

I just read your other post , sorry see it is trusses now rather than a cut roof . They All look good from the photos so can't see why doubling up would make any difference as been designed for the load

I would bet they fell off the truck and fractured or someone accidentally ran a circular saw across the top chord or some other damage. They were then reinforced as shown. Perfectly sound I would say.

Number 3. No drainage required.

+1 also you could fir eaves trays if the felt is a bit old. https://www.trulypvc.com/roofing/fascia-soffit/eaves-protection/1.5m-eaves-protector-felt-support-tray-5-pack

All timber moves and by the look of it the sag is minimal. At the eaves it’s quite normal (mostly with slate) to kick the last tile up slightly. Best get up in the loft and look at the actual timbers fir damage.

I'd still have a wind tight and airtight membranes at either side of the insulation. Doesn't need to be the expensive ones recommended by Ecological if you're going with PIR, but the benefits of both are still applicable. (So 2 and 3)

Depends where you are. My local builders' merchant (in Yorkshire) sells them. Screwfix do them - 5 x 2.5m for £33. https://ewistore.co.uk/shop/external-wall-insulation/white-corner-bead-no-mesh/ do them for £3.59 each but no doubt carriage will up it a bit.

So have I, greyscale.

Has a rear extension been built and the end of the extension roof is now sitting on the reiforced bit?

Does the roof sag at all that side ? If not I can see no reason for it. Also additional timbers added to other bits don’t IMO serve any purpose. Have they added solar panels above the sistering, which might be why additional strength was added.

Actually, the plinth/support will be about 5cm recessed under the base, so I'm not sure I'll even see it. I might not bother caulking the hole after all.

Yes a good Ambient Light Rejection Screen (ALR) will make a difference. But a lot depends on the angle of throw from your projector position. This is why a few manufacturers sell the UST projector with a screen.

It’s because of silly prices and a housing shortage. My son has recently bought a house on an estate because he could not afford anything “better” and the only reason he had the deposit was because of some money he inherited from his grandfather ! Yes I would not buy one but because of nearly 50 years of doing up houses I have climbed the ladder somewhat and when I peg it he can pay his mortgage off. 🤷‍♂️

https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/roof-integrated-solar-pv/flexalu-330 I used the Midsummer solar panel web based design tool, which listed all the materials. https://easy-pv.co.uk I didn’t see any specific issues from my reading of the installation booklet.

For me that background and those colours would be too much. To each their own though.

@CalvinHobbes Jeremy used a Sunamp that was originally heated from his ASHP. That got junked I think and he was given a newer one that he charged from his excess PV generation. Originally he had a small, vented cylinder that was heated from the ASHP, but as it was one of those dreadful ones with the F&E tank built in, it lost a lot of energy and overheated the plant room, which caused excess temperature in the bedroom.

The water reducing additives - superplasticisers - allow the concrete to flow easily without addition of excessive water, keeping the concrete strength high and the water content low. If you use this in formwork and there are any "issues", it pisses out pretty fast. I wouldn't bother on a slab if the concrete crew are good.

I think, in the UK, because we have distinct seasons (caused by our latitude) AND variable weather (causes by being an island) we, the British, are very sensitive to our climate. We also have thermally dreadful housing stock, high incomes and low energy costs (I know there are extremes, but the median figures support this). Much of the 'energy saving' mentality goes back to the switch from solid fuel, to town gas, then naturally gas, and the energy crisis if the early 1970s (just as we were told gas would be the cheapest ever and electricity too cheap to meter). So no we sit in over heated houses, ventilated by cold draughts and rattling windows. I suspect that the reason that many people say they like a colder bedroom, or the window open, has nothing to do with temperature, more to do with humidity control. There was a campaign, in the 1980s to get us to turn the heating down, claims like 1⁰C lower on the thermostat can save you 20% on the bill. This is a statistical arguement based in heating degree days, and in some, limited cases may be true. But for most people it is not true, partly because a leaking house soon cools, partly because our heating systems are crap, and mainly because most people are scientifically illiterate and because of ingrained ignorance and prejudice, cannot set a thermostat to the right place. So what to do? Find a temperature that suits you, not what your friends suggest. I would happily have a place at 28⁰C at night, that is 12⁰C cooler that where I grew up. And even at 85% humidity, it is still dryer here.

Small area, normal pumped C35 will be fine, sounds like the ground worker are looking for an easy life, but doing a smallish slab isn't that difficult, with the right tool (even without them)

A general builder would be fine for this. It looks like the pipe is 110mm soil pipe. They can reuse the terminal that is there.

This is the correct route, but then you must NOT use the paint as the layers will need to breathe. FYI, putting the AT paint on the floor will be utterly useless and do diddly squat for AT. The AT needs to come past this layer in the garage, and then that membrane gets taped to that layer. Look at AT as a perfect cube, will all lines, corners etc in contact with one another, as anything less will gives terrible results for a lot of time and money spent. If you can have the cylinder anywhere else, then do so, the garage should be the absolute last option as the heat loss over winter will be significant (albeit a cost / compromise that you may be willing to accept to gain space inside the house). Go way above B Regs levels of insulation in the ceiling of the garage, as this will pay huge dividends over time, that's because the garage will be the coldest draughtiest area in the building so will attract heat loss. You may also need an airtight door separating the garage from the house, or do away with that altogether, IF you want to get a great AT score? You buy insulation once, it lasts a lifetime, but gas and electricity will keep costing you for your lifetime, a cost you need to mitigate against with every effort. The same can be said about the insulation everywhere else, as UK B Regs offers the poorest house you can legally build, and is an utterly dire standard on a very, very good day (and that is the most you can expect if / when the work is executed meticulously by a builder with a conscience which doesn't happen with high frequency btw).

Whatever you do, DO NOT rely on the upstand itself to withhold the pressure of the concrete. BRACE, BRACE, BRACE as they say when the plane is about to ditch. We used Jackon for our slab foundation, and it was very well braced come pour time.

For the OP. GSE trays with the Velux ODL kits for a seamless array. Not finished yet, trays/solar will go round all the velux.

I wouldn't trust that builder to lay my patio, I can only presume it's some old boy semi retired and dabbling around depending on his retirement funding. Casual links to b&q on his website? Customer testimonial written for himself, by himself. Half the images being Google grabs? ..... Yikes!

We have an OSO UVC which is heated by dual immersion. I also have a couple of digital thermometers on the inner tank, one next to each immersion. My Node-RED heating control system does a day-ahead heating calcs at 23:00 GMT each night. We have Octopus Agile and the daily half-hour (HH) pricing runs 00:00 - 00:00 C.E.T. As far as DHW goes, the CH calc takes the average tank temp to work out a slight overestimate of kWh needed to bring it up to 55°C and this get scheduled at the cheapest HH slots with a cut out at 55°C (though at the mo the Immersion thermo cuts out first). We are on a Greek island ATM, so the HW draw is only from one occupant; our son who lives with us in his bed-sit on the 2nd floor. The screen capture below show the last 24hr history for Home Assistant. (BTW, the bottom scale is in local Greek time, sorry.) He hasn't used much hot water today (mainly just a quick shower, I guess). The OSO is really well insulated but even so most heating here is loss replacement. Checking my eventlog table, the total DHW heating used was 1.6 kWh costing 20p (The north sea is dead calm ATM, so the daily low price is quite high at about 13p.) Over the last few months since we commissioned the OSO it's been a lot windier and even though we use more HW with 3 of us in the house, the HH price for DHW has been averaging around 5p so we typically spend maybe 50p a day on DHW.

Most ASHP's have a 7 year warranty, from the few I've been associated with, and that's even from the likes of Stiebel Eltron who offer 5 iirc. Lifespan / longevity is found (promoted) by good design and sizing the unit so that it can live a relaxed and long(er) life.

Yup, what he said 👆

Last time I spoke to my SageGlass contacts, they confirmed that they no longer supply for residential projects in the UK. That was a year or so ago, so I guess it may have changed again since then.

A contactor and a relay are basically the same thing, but a contactor is generally more heavy duty. I wouldn't be trusting those shelly or sonoff devices to consistently handle 13 amps, regardless of what it says on the box. You can see from the video that the relay is pretty puny. A decent DIN rail mounted contactor is peanuts and will reliably operate a 13 amp load for years, probably decades, and take the heavy lifting away from the IoT device.

Basically the B Regs have now got a section purloined from the CDM Regs. In effect the designer of the work has to be competant for that complexity of work and so does the contractor. This indeed does stem from Grenfell and is an attempt to put a name to who designed the building/extension and who built it, making sure they knew what they were doing. However, Regulation 11G says: 11G.—(1) A principal designer must have— (a)where the person is an individual, the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours necessary, (b)where the person is not an individual, the organisational capability, to fulfil the duties of a principal designer under these Regulations in relation to the design work included in the project. I'd say the OP with his experience has the skills etc to design a dwelling house. The structural elements will no doubt be designed by an SE who again will have the level of skill appropriate to to the complexity of design. It doesn't demand an architect with insurance, just someone with the knowledge. The same goes for the contractor in Reg 11H: 11H.—(1) A principal contractor must have— (a)where the person is an individual, the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours necessary, (b)where the person is not an individual, the organisational capability, to fulfil the duties of a principal contractor under these Regulations in relation to the building work included in the project. So I guess the OP will be using a builder who will assume this role, but you could have someone who could do both jobs if they had the skills, so you could well be both designer and contractor - it isn't against the rules. From what you have said I'd be looking for an alternative BC supplier!

If the vent was extended up a couple of feet it might help. Not a difficult or expensive job.

But why, bigger MVHR unit, 4x the heat loss by ventilation and maybe more noise and drafts. Just keep it simple. Floor or radiators single zone - done

@Susie That’s generic information which doesn’t solely relate to what the OP is asking. “Organisations or individuals can carry out the role of more than one dutyholder, provided they have the skills, knowledge, experience and (if an organisation) the organisational capability to carry out those roles in a way that secures health and safety.” https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l153.pdf (Page 7) You may also find this of some use… https://www.haspod.com/blog/cdm/can-principal-contractor-be-principal-designer#:~:text=The simple answer is yes,a breach of the regulations.

MVHR only heats a small volume of air. There is practical temperature limits. If for no other reason than the risk of melting elements of the ducting etc. Passivhaus set this at 50⁰ as mentioned above . This limits the energy that can be transferred to about 10W/m². As your house won't meet this figure you will need some other heating system like rads or UFH. These are all capable of delivering well above the required power for your house on their own so adding MVHR air warming when it's not required would be money spent for nothing.

I read this report when I was researching ICF for my build. USA windows circa 2014 are very different to UK or European style casement windows. Back then they struggled to achieve water tightness, let alone air tightness. We don’t use this approach here. There are some older ICF systems that don’t deal with junctions very well.

I didn’t, expanding tape between frame and reveal, airtight foam inside then brush on liquid membrane as a final air tight barrier

Why would you use a window buck in an icf, unless you live in the states. Most the drawings in the paper give quite a thermal bridge.

Just looking on my spreadsheet It was £122 for the day Bit steep if you need it for any length of time I just drove up and down for about an hour The concrete had been down 12 hours

We're using one company to pour, float and polish our slab. They are very good and would be happy to pass on their details if you wanted.