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Finished, thank the lord!

Family sized estate car with towbar, roof bars, and rented trailers IMO. Pay the delivery on bulk materials by truck Rent a trailer for the medium stuff that you want the option to load slowly "I want THIS board and THAT board and NOT THAT board etc" Keep a sheet of 22 mm OSB and the roof bars for "fudge, I need another sheet of plasterboard" or a giant roll of pipe / cable etc 3 metre long oddments (pipe, curtain pole, etc) go straight in the car along with "white goods" sized things (cylinders, heat pumps, air conditioners, bathtubs etc) If it's boxed / bagged and liftable goes in the car If it's shovellable and dry then stuff t that can also go in the car if you're not in the slightest bit precious about it? 1.6 TDCI Focus Estate for us (the 90 bhp version) with a 2cm lift kit on it. Costs £0.20 to buy. Does 1000 km on a tank of diesel whilst running around. Takes 3m pipes inside it with ease. Open the tailgate and you have a cleanish seat with a cover to have a cuppa in the rain. Not banned from the tip like vans. Not subject to speed limits like vans. Doesn't get broken into every 5 minutes. Doesn't whinge too much when I rent my favourite 6 metre twin axle trailer form the place next to the sawmill. Needs to be dry day with bit of a run up to get that up the grass hill though! If the site is a wet mess a van will be worthless to you IMO (gets stuck) - you'll get further in small front wheel drive car with decent ground clearance; small 4x4 car; or a real 4x4.

Terminate everything at a patch panel. Then workout how many need to be POE. Eg cameras, access points, non POE may include TV, computer, printer, hue bridge etc etc. buy a switch with the correct number of ports (POE and Non POE). (I’m a Ubiquiti fan but others available). Get patch leads and connect from the Patch Panel to the switch. Connect a cable from your router to the switch, disable router wifi and you’re sorted. btw. Suggest you get a little data cabinet keeps everything clean and tidy.

I didn't get a price for single phase, as I needed (wanted) 3 phase for the workshop. My connection was around £7.5K, but included 130m of install through a duct in a trench. The 1 phase v. 3 phase difference would have been in the 100kVA pole mounted transformer that was around £2,900 of the connection price. I was told that this would have been lower for a single phase connection, but I don't remember a price. I doubt it would have made that much difference.

So the developer simply didn’t think of peeps building sideways I guess. Either way such covenants can be released so if I were a planner I’d not rely on them. I can see your desire, and in your shoes I’d probably think of that too. But the trouble with this stuff is that peeps are inspired by others getting permission so from a planning perspective I guess they have to think that granting one thing will lead to others doing stuff that then can’t be refused but which may not be so good. We bought some field behind us for extra garden, then abetted neighbours doing the same. For decades after we all lived happily with big gardens. Then houses changed hands to peeps who think gardens should be wall to wall with extensions, sheds, gazebos, hot tubs, and everything else one associates with such an outlook, clearly “the only way is….” Oh, what did we inadvertently start?

Really pleased with how this detail ended up!

Sorry to be a party pooper but if I understand correctly your extension will stick out way beyond the current front building line of the row of houses behind yours. So if you walk towards your house up the road behind you you will see a neat set of aligned frontages and then your extension sticking way out. I would have expected a flat ‘no’ on such an application, partly as it would establish a precedent to all the houses behind you to extend toward the road (feel free to guess why this comes to my mind as we contemplate moving from our hitherto rural idyll!). If that extension was single story it would reduce the impact on the road compared to a two storey extension, but if I lived behind you I’d be planning what I’ll then build on my frontage.

I have 3 phase, although only use 2 phases for the house and 3 phase in the workshop. EV charging, batteries, V2H and V2G technologies are all in their infancy and will develop quickly over the next 10 years - If the connection costs around the same I'd go with 3 phase to protect for multiple EVs being charged over night with the larger battery capacities that will come along with solid state batteries. It may complicate a PV & battery installation, although keeping your house on a single phase and a SMET2 3P Smart meter may mitigate most issues.

Au contraire. You lack the vision and creativity of an architect. Imagine how impressed your friends will be to ascend half a staircase then clamber over a banister to finish the climb. No one else will have a feature like it. 😉

If available I'd do it for vehicle charging and future PV / battery reasons. Most EVs have 16A / 3.6 kW chargers. Two or three of them. If two, then max charge rate is 7.2 kW. If three, then they only use two when on single phase (to avoid melting cables), but can use three when on three phase (to charge at 11 kW) Very few can do 22 kW charge; but two 11 kW vehicles can easily. Beware that smart meters may take longer to source when on 3ph in the UK.

Sorry, no clue. An AIR barrier won't hurt you. A VAPOUR barrier will prevent moisture in the caberdeck drying to the outside. Imagine wearing a bin bag on a run. The sweaty sticky mess inside the bag is your caberdeck if you use a vapour barrier. Now wear goretex etc. The vapour goes through but the wind doesn't. This is what you want. Glued caberdeck is enough. The areas to concentrate on are the holes and the edges. No point wearing a coat if the wind is howling through it.

Vapour barrier not required there. Glue all the caberdeck joints. Plenty good enough as an air barrier. Your difficult area is the caberdeck<>wall joint. That wants to be airtight. Foam won't cut it. You'll want an airtightness tape there.

https://www.fastbuildsupplies.co.uk/53650-150mm-vertical-extension-piece

The design of that one does look quite a lot different to the one you’ve proposed though. Approx. how long ago was that one approved? Btw, do you “need” such a big porch? It probably isn’t far enough the size of a Bedroom. Seems a lot of wasted space. The existing walls could be re-configured to make that better.

Fine if you can get it - not much extra install costs - it's only one cable after all. Will be expensive if there's no 3P transformer near though.

Not completely the same but you get the idea.

The proposals do look very imposing, especially the proposed two storey element in relation to the existing two storey element. It kind of gives off the look of a pair of semi’s. As a general rule of thumb, LPA’s support two storey side extensions which are half the width of the original. It’s all about keeping it sub-ordinate. You want 4m and they’ve asked for 2.5m. Why not meet half way? The roof could be lowered so the front window would be more like a dormer. The room it serves wouldn’t lose out too much. Those alternations alone should be welcomed.

As we are encouraged to use less with LED lights etc I can only guess it’s the amount you can sell back to the grid with PV 🤷‍♂️

Hi, I've done quite a bit of building - renovations, extensions, replacing rooves. Always DIY, low budget, usually working alone. Built a tiny off-grid cabin in a lovely piece of a valley - 23 acres of oak forest surrounding a meadow which is full of insects and wildlife. I'm aiming to keep it that way, with a few fruit and nut trees scattered about. But we can't officially live there, so I bought a building plot nearby. The plot is nice and was cheap. The intention is to build a cheap timber house close to passive house standard. The plot is sloping 8 degrees, and I wanted a minimum of digging and concrete, so it's built on oak piles. The floor space is under 50 square metres, so I'm not obliged to hire an architect or structural engineer or have air-tightness tests etc. But I do want the house to outlive me, and as the builder I am responsible to correct any defects that appear in the house over the next ten years. So I'm here, mostly for feedback and advice. Brexit only allows me 90 days at a time in France. I'm generally happy to come and go (though the principle of losing freedom of movement offends me!). So some of the building I'm doing in the UK - making up I-Beams, and making doors and window frames, and taking stuff with me to France with my van and trailer.

I think there is some guidance about leaving half the area on a corner plot. Check you councils planning statements. So a 7.6m distance you could try for 3.8m. See if the planning guidance includes the footpath or not. E.g. 7.6+0.9 footpath = 8.5m so a width of 4.25m should be accepted in the guidance. Check if the garage would be permitted development?

Like @Pocster said, you have to be prepared to say 'no'. I also think you need to start to nip things in the bud as soon as you detect some initial nonsense, otherwise you signal them that they can take the piss. I appreciate this is sometimes easier said than done. If there is a true 'undiscovered problem' I do try to be sympathetic. As I've said elsewhere on BH - bigger contractors will sometimes just try this on on a bigger scale.

I wonder whether you've just been sent an early/unfinished draft? I wouldn't sweat it, just send the problems back and get them changed. To set the tone, maybe tell them you're surprised and I hope you will get an apology.

Its a long walk everywhere upstairs and you have to go to bed via the wardrobe, the study bedroom appears to have the desk chair on the bed and there are several places where doors clash.

Don't tell anyone about the 105 and 110 sites and plan your soakaway at the 28 site

Hi and welcome, You can schedule both climate and hot water within the SMO20 controller, to set the allowable times for the ASHP to run. Page 22 and 38 of the linked document. A couple of things to think about. Has a schedule been set to match with a cheap rate, over night tariff? Are you using such a tariff? If not then schedule your HP for times that suit you. If you stop climate from working for periods of the day, the heat pump may not be able to put sufficient energy into the house on the coldest days in the hours you have allowed it to run for, so may start to use "Additional Heat" more often (if your ASHP has this). This is a resistive heater, similar to an immersion, that is not as efficient as the heat pump so may cost you more to heat your house. You can block additional heat to check if your ASHP has sufficient capacity to heat you house in the allowed hours. I keep Additional heat blocked all the time. If you want hot water in the morning then don't shower within an hour*** of the schedule switching off at night or bring it on an hour*** before you need hot water in the morning. *** adjust the hour to how long your reheat time is on your cylinder. The noise you are hearing is unlikely to be from the SMO20, but from the circulation pump on the ASHP. Most Nibe ASHPs have an external circulation pump (located in the house) and you may have a second for your emitters depending on configuration - it's likely you are hearing the pump. Ref. https://www.nibe.eu/assets/documents/23948/231759-6.pdf

put british gas cover on it, wait 8 weeks. claim.

I bet you're glad, that picture brought back a lot of memories. 😢

We used Resorcinol PRF Resin Adhesive for our work, its a two part so needs carefully mixing. https://woodadhesives.akzonobel.com/en/adhesive-technologies/phenol-resorcinol-formaldehyde

Another quick sketch.

Hi all, Just negotiating for a plot in rural Co Fermanagh. Power is a long way away. 300m+, so waiting for a budget quote to aid negotiations. Always wanted to build a container home, not sure now after reading lots of posts. Clad Timber Frame or ICF probably. Want that agricultural look and feel. Already picked up loads from reading this forum! Hoping to share the journey, mistakes, successes, losses and wins to help others. (and use all your knowledge that you have shared and will share!) Thanks to admin for letting me get involved!

never ever pay any subcontractor a fee based on a percentage of your build. Total rip off, they are scamming you based on the postcode. Same plot in a London postcode gets them treble for same amount of work. They get away with rip off services because they can, similar to solicitors taking months to do a completion that could be organised in a day etc.

Our build is very different from all other houses around and the initially approved plans, it’s cubist, flat roof, fibre cement cladding as opposed to chalet style bungalows. No objections from neighbours. Now it’s built it splits opinion, some love it as it’s modern some hate it. We get a lot of neighbours talking to us as we landscape. As long as you aren’t changing ridge heights, I’d be tempted to submit plans as you want them, no reason to keep building the same looking houses.

We built the most inefficient home possible, by the nature of a large bungalow in the shape of an 'H' effectively, with a lot of glazing, very high ceilings everywhere and simply put an extra £6500 ish into upgrading insulation everywhere we could and 'try for good airtightness (2.7)..... Then hoped for the best! (incl MVHR, ASHP, UFH, PV) End result is bills of somewhere between £150 and £175 for our electricity for a warm house. There is a pragmatic middle ground in everything, but don't compromise on a home design for the sack of savings £50 a month on bills....

Over the last couple of months we have made steady progress. But, I've been very remiss in taking photos. Last time I posted we were busy building up the walls in phase 1. It's now ready for the lintels, which we waiting a month to be delivered. This one requires some blockwork changes as the overhang is over a block joint. This is the inside looking North looking down over the valley. This is the outside looking in, again some block changes needed. We used thermally broken IG lintels, which were on a 4 week lead time so to fill some of the time we have been prepping for phase 2. We realised we didn't have enough space for concrete lorries and storing the spoil so we moved the soil spoil heap further into the field. This doesn't look much, but it took 3 days and countless repeats of load dumper, move and tip, and repeat !!!! We've also moved into one of the horses winter fields, but we will return to a field when we've finished. Apart from putting block on block and repeat we've bought a few items at auction. We got some windows that are exactly the same model as we are ordering, maybe not the exact size, but we can make them fit. Of course the cill will be replaced. We also got a lovely sink for the utility room. For the first time in months we are dry on site, not sure how long it will last. At the moment I'm trying to order the posi-rafters for phase 1, but I need some input on a beam from the SE who is being very un-responsive. We've realised that we have a beam on our SE drawings which say 'B3' and no details. He initially responded saying it could be either an RSJ or a flitch beam, but that was 2 weeks ago. I was told last week that the rafters are also on 4 weeks lead time. Once we have those then we will be putting some of the barn roofing on as a temporary measure as we'll get the whole build roofed at the same time. I'm horrified at how little we seem to have done, but as I'm no longer working at home I think the work force (hubby) may be slacking 🙂 More soon, when I have some proper progress to show. Jill

You’re not way off, that seems very expensive.

We booked the removal guys to move the heavy items About half of our stuff They asked for a day rate 3 men Six hundred quid cash That’s fine Whilst my working day starts at 6am I do realize that most will be less keen Day of the move They rocked up at 10am Had a puncher on the way Lucky there was a Macdonalds near by to get breakfast while waiting for the AA Anyway first load on for 11 dropped off at the new place and back for 12 They needed to see Gregg for an hour Came back and asked for another 500 quid to finish the job Had us by the balls so to speak I reluctantly agreed But changed my my mind at 6 pm when everything was moved and spent the next hour arguing with there irate movers What happened to a price being a price No one seems to want to work anymore Fair-low has a lot to answer for

I hate when a fixed price becomes a new price later … Once had a roofer remove all the roof tiles and then suddenly “ it was more work than I thought “ . No issues found , simply trying it on . I told him he could have the extra he had asked for if he asked me for it in front his labourers and fought me for it . He agreed to the original price and finished the job . Ffs - how to piss me off extremely quickly .

same trench side by side. dont worry there are no pipe separation measuring police.