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The road the self-build isn’t straight. While our actual build was relatively quick (14 months start to moving in) the whole process from when we decided to make the life change of moving from England to Scotland was stressful. I quit my job, and we put our house on the market. It sold within a few weeks. However, the sale fell through twice. We uncovered a load of legal stuff that our conveyancing solicitor missed when we bought the house that nearly caused the sale to fall through a third time. The plot purchase took longer than planned and we couldn’t find anywhere to rent for months because of all our animals. At one point I was unemployed, we owned an expensive house we couldn’t complete the sale on, we owned a plot of land we couldn’t build a house on and we had a house we’d rented we couldn’t move into. However, I got us through all of that and things settled down. We then go into the design and planning stage to find out that our architect was incompetent so what should have been relatively straightforward took 10 months. We then got into the build to find out that the builder the architect used was also incompetent and caused some serious issues. We dealt with the issues but the delay caused us problems all the way through the rest of the build. However we are now in. Did I ever consider throwing the towel in? Not once but I did get very frustrated and pissed off at times. However, I could see what a wonderful life we’d be able to build for ourselves here and I knew the final result was going to be exactly what we hoped. We’ve made some brilliant and supportive friends. My long term friends were also very supportive and my wife was awesome throughout. I’m retired so having the time and head space helped enormously. That said, there’s no shame in quitting. It’s easy to say keep going. But ultimately your health and wellbeing matter more. Just make sure you are completely honest with yourself.

Build the footings either side of the channel, and bridge the gap over the channel with reinforced concrete lintels. Build wall off the lintels. Why make it difficult?

That's b***ocks. Floor first, right up to the wall. Then bring the wall tiles down onto them with a 1mm gap. Seal with CT1, wipe flush. When set put a silicone bead on which you can periodically replace. A Welsh wizard once told me that.

Google is amazing, but sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees. Too much information and many hours lost trying to find the answer you need. Then the inevitable happens and you get side-tracked. The sun sets and you decide to put that darned DIY job off for another day. All you wanted was a simple answer to a simple DIY conundrum. Hopefully, I've found the right place for tips and advice, so no more excuses and no more delays!!!!! I've renovated two old properties and still feel like a beginner. Hopefully, I can find the answers to some DIY problems on this forum, and perhaps.... I can help others too! Thanks to all, for this fantastic forum, I wish I had found it sooner.

Our first self build went really well, we were incredibly lucky, but it was still enormous stress and we were only in our third decade back then. But, the memory of the stress does quickly recede, but the bloody great big grin inside at the pride of what we have achieved takes an awful lot longer to recede. So when you get to then end it is the most fabulous feeling. In the meantime it might help to contemplate that getting the project started at all is not something the vast majority of people could manage, so you have, it can be argued, already achieved something brilliant. As my wise (but incredibly annoying) Irish neighbour used to say, “don’t look at the pile of wood waiting to be stacked, look at the growing pile you’ve already done.” And smile.

Some of the tone testers have crocodile clips to an RJ45 plug, or you could look to buy the fly lead separately. That way you can just bare the ends of a couple of cores to create the "tone" that you then trace at the other end. Something like this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/Generator-Tracer-Tester-Alligator-VDV500-705/dp/B084LKVBM5

Introducing Skoobie, a Skoda Fabia and the newest member of the team. Not the first purchase towards the build, we’ve already bought a twin battery Makita chainsaw and Trevor the trailer to help clearing trees, but they were back in January. Skoobie is not in the first flush of youth so fits in well with my (G’s) seventh decade creaking knees, but we are hoping she (yes, this Scooby is female) will do great service in pursuit of our new home. So where is the project now? We have full planning permission but we still don’t actually know how she is going to be built and by whom. It seems such minor details need to be sorted before we can assemble a credible budget. Who knew? Our house is on the market but is garnering little interest, so the upside is we have time to plan everything to death and worry ourselves witless. We’ve done the CIL stuff and they’ve accepted the previous occupancy to reduce the CIL levy should we have to sell in the first three years and they’ve also confirmed our self build exemption. A planning condition prevents starting before September anyway and although we may well start soonish from a CIL point of view with garden clearance and maybe demolish the garage the main action won’t start for a goodly while. There is just so much to think about at once, and it is such a roller coaster of emotions. In the building technology Olympic race we are on the 115th lap (yep, going round and round in circles). Both traditional blockwork and ICF were non starters, kit build companies (SIPs and TF) fell at the high jump as they failed to clear the electric wires on site, so that leaves stick built on site by chippies and a TF kit assembled manually as the front runners, with a SIP kit manually assembled limping in third. On the upside the delayed start has meant I’ve been able to visit two self build sites and learned tons as a result - with me asking more questions than a warranty application form but still being met with such kindness and patience. But time to plan means time to worry too. We thought we were nearing a design which we like which also met all the fire regs imposed by building so close to our boundaries, only to realise that we needed to check that the resulting design would be both mortgageable and lifetime mortgageable - we like to plan ahead and we do want access to funds to grow old disgracefully. We can hope! That’s boiling our brains right now, and getting straight answers from underwriters about a possible future mortgage app is not easy! But we press on regardless…

There are many on here that extoll the virtues of fan coil units so I thought it would be fun to see if we could put a couple in - one for each bedroom. Looks straight forward enough but two questions come up. Firstly what pipe to use from the plant space to the units. I have found THIS stuff which looks like it should work. Will it? Secondly do I need to provision for a condensate drain back to the plant room and away or can an evaporative approach be taken as in most fridges?

That’s correct Walls first

Ah, glad it's you @saveasteading ... It's a 400mm wide trench with a standard perforated pipe in it. Covered with inch stone. It runs all the way round the house and discharges to a fairly steep bank. It works well. Or did when I last looked. SWMBO has covered the bank with greenery. I'm told its purpose is to prevent frost heave and is standard in all new houses. I'll have a look and see if I've got any photographs of it during the building of the foundation.

Fair enough. This seems different to everything else I've absorbed on the topic. Let us know how you get on - i hope it goes well. For my stone slips I think I'll stick to having what is recommended by Nudura.

I’ve got significantly more holes in my membrane from the battens

25mm from brissco I didn’t do any reconciling. The tray has the membrane lapped over it. And the screw holes are into pvc fascia. I’m not concerned about water getting in there.

I'm not at the stage of needing to actually find a UK supplier, but Daikin advertise I found the following two important parameters you need to be able to adjust: Fan starting temperature for cooling and heating. This is the water flow temperature being detected by the fan coil to give a permission for the fan to start. Not all units have these as adjustable, so worth checking. My default settings were 15 degs for cooling and 32 for heating. These were reset to 18 and 21. I found some cheaper units were factory set to 35 for heating only. Also check the flow output at different flow temperatures, once you get to UFH flow temp the output of fan coils drops. My unit can do 6.5kW a delta 50, at delta 10 it's closer to 1kW.

Probably pushing it a bit. Mainly because of the electric showers. Have a look at 'diversity'.

Yes but a ground bearing slab. With block and beam I would have some insulation below the pipes and plenty above. Assume the space will be vented below B&B, so if cold outside the space below would be similar.

Couldn't agree more. If only @Pocster would stick to the subject, the world would be a better place innit?

Hey everyone. Some might remember me, most probably won't, it's been over 3 years since I did any work on my build and at a crossroads now. I got my ICF walls up to first floor level and got the concrete poured into the walls. Then due to family stuff and health, had to put a complete hold to my self build journey. So nearly 3.5 years later and at 53, I have the very tough decision to make of whether to carry on or take life easier and settle for a normal house and probably no workshop. I love my plot and would love to live in the finished house (and workshop lol), but have to be realistic of how long it might take to get there. I write all this wondering how many of you guys have been in the situation of having to decide if carrying on is the best choice? Did anyone walk away and regret it? Was anyone close to giving up and calling it a day??? I'll probably post a few questions on the next steps of work, which could help me decide what to do. Hope everyone is good and made progress/finished their builds Vijay

I only just realised that I never followed up on this. Apologies that this response is 4 years late, but I thought I would update this just in case anybody in the future finds themselves in this very specific situation! We determined that the culvert is classed as a "main river", meaning that (as far as we can tell) we are the riparian owners as @ProDave pointed out earlier. The classification also means that a permit from the Environment Agency needs to be obtained (in England) before carrying out any work near the "river". We liaised with the Environment Agency (who were very helpful and pragmatic) to determine what could, and could not, be done. However, a change in circumstances led us to put our plans on pause.

All our cold pipes run below the insulation in the floor (200mmm PIR). They are in flexible conduit cast into our concrete subfloor. Keep well away from UFH as you will have a breeding ground for bugs in the warm space. Also who wants warm 'cold' water. Legionella growth chart - UFH temps are the correct temperature for slow and optimal growth dependent on flow temperature.

Slight amendment, if you think you will need cooling in bedrooms install fan coils.

Yes, in a conduit within the insulation.

I just bought 20 for a tenner on Amazon next day delivery, not sure it gets much cheaper. Use them, bin them, get more.

Erm, ours is starting the ninth build year this October. And I have enjoyed every minute 😑

Get a cat cable tester . You put a dongle on one end and tester on other . Piece of piss . Pocster knows best 👍

Back in 2010 we were the first Isoquick foundation system to be laid in England. Unfortunately the concrete laying did not go well. A combination of cost cutting, by not using a pump, and the concrete setting too quickly left large voids in the 200mm slab which were detected using ultrasonic testing. The results were confirmed by drilling core samples. Fortunately I had videoed the whole process which showed the mistakes made by the concrete installers, and the company doing the work for us accepted full responsibility. A month later we had a completely new slab. We just carried on, but a few weeks later than we had expected, but as the whole build took eight years it wasn't too bad.

You need to break down what MVHR does Extracts from wet rooms, so all the wet rooms temperatures will be averaged out by the time they get to the HE. But you are only extracting 1/3 to 1/2 the whole house volume each hour. So not much Supply air will pass through the exchanger and basically be within a deg or so if the outgoing air. Again you are only supplying the same volume as you extract each hour. So again not much. You bypass the HE if the outside world is cooler than inside the house, when inside is hotter than outside but at summer temperatures outside (not winter), but you are still changing the air in the house once every few hours. HE bypassing is stop making things worse not really fixing them. Open a couple of windows and you can do several air changes an hour with a cross flow. MVHR is just ventilation don't treat it as anything else. A floor several degrees cooler than the air can suck a lot of heat away. The other day the heat pump was pulling 7kW out the floor for about 1.5 hrs over a 2 hour period, just because the sun was out, it was about 20 outside. But this is really a topic for a different thread.

In planning officer speak ‘subordinate’ means ‘size’. They used about 9 synonyms for size in response to one of my applications. Without specifying what an appropriate ot acceptable size is, of course. All part of the usual planning cat-and-mouse guessing game.

I’ve also applied a waterproof render behind my stone slips, external stone adhesive then sticks to this.

Emin is regularly mentioned in similar Appeals, but not regarding size, in the Emin case it was held that the size of an outbuilding is not relevant for the purposes of Class E, but the building must be ‘required for some incidental purpose’ in relation to the dwellinghouse. Another case often quoted is Wallington v SSE & Montgomeryshire DC [1990] from which the notion that it is the incidental activities that should be reasonably scaled to the dwellinghouse. The size of the outbuildings should then be appropriate to those activities. ie. if the dwelling house can accommodate 6 people, then it would be unreasonable to build a recreational outbuilding that can accommodate 50 (exaggerated) people in the stated activities. There's not a specific planning definition, so take the Oxford dictionary. ie. "lower rank", which doesn't mean smaller. Primary use is dwellinghouse, subordinate use is outbuilding. The dwellinghouse can exist without the outbuilding, but the outbuilding is pointless without the dwellinghouse.

try imperialbrick.co.uk

That's exactly it, I know it will be an amazing place to live and I believe a nice life once it's done

Thank you so much everyone. I find it so tough as I flip between what to do and how long things might take. My partner is amazing but she doesn't really share my self build dream. I met her after I started the build, so it's not something she'd ever have thought about doing. She's more into new run on the mill developer houses because they are "finished" and new. She thinks the build would be an amazing home, but doesn't see it as worth it because of the time it would take. When it rains it pours

If you're set on buying from abroad then some of the Polish manufacturers may be worth a look, debesto, fenbro, etc. Debesto certainly have a wider range of brands.

How far is junction 16 of the M4 from you. nice sawmill there that I get my cedar from. Vastern timber.

Well done. The airbrick and ground level will sort all that and perhaps even dry the other area up , if you have airflow. How many airbricks have you found? I would plan on a spliced joist resting in the wall. Tanalised timber and an extra coat of rot preventer on nes and old timbers. and maybe bitumen on it too. Where you can't see a dpc there may be a slate layer just behind the pointing.

I'm not sure what the permanent solution would be. Permanent removal of the soil on the neighbour's land would require construction of another retaining wall at right-angles (and it'd need to be a hell of a lot more chunky than those slabs to meet Regs) and it would have exposed their footing wall. Subject to a structural assessment of that exposure, back-filling with pea-gravel might help the 'moisture management' but, like any French drain it becomes a maintenance liability in terms of potential 'silting'. This can be mitigated by layers of horticultural membrane, though. To get a really good idea of what is going on you really need to see in your neighbour's sub-floor void. If their 'arrangement' (solum - 'soil' under the suspended floor - about 300mm below joists, AFAICS) is the same as yours then their solum is against your back-room wall because of the height of the 'step' (the flagstone 'retainers'), so your chances of that bit of wall being, and staying, dry are poor. Interim solution for the rotten joist is simply not to 'pocket' it in the wall. Build a 'footing' out of your solum and sit the joist (protected by a DPC) on that.

It's a tricky one. It has taken probably over 100 years for that end joist to rot out. A quick solution would just be replace that end joist having given the new joust lots of coats of wood preservative. you have solved all the easy problems on your own land. To do anything with that retaining wall is going to need cooperation with your neighbour and work on their land.

I think your theory that the damp in the corner is being 'transmitted' via the neighbour's masonry is a good one. All of the 'solutions' which come to mind immediately are compromises rather than true solutions. I shall ponder a bit more.

We're in the process of getting quotes for aluminium windows and doors but I'm finding the sheer number of window profiles quite overwhelming. I'm struggling to understand how to attach a value to the different elements of the window. It probably doesn't help that window suppliers seem to give conflicting advice along with their reputation for impaired honesty. The suppliers that we've gone to have quoted for Cortizo and only seem to supply one or two profiles in any case. I'm aware of other brands/profiles such as Schueco, Aluprof, Reynaers and can see that they make a range of profiles of differing quality/performance. I gather that Schueco have the bext reputation and also are the most expensive. But beyond that I have no idea how to assess what constitutes a good value unit. I'm looking for an idiot's guide on how to assess whether I'm getting bang for my buck. Also, if anyone is willing to share the little things that they regret about windows they've bought. It'd be very helpful to understand the small nuances of windows such as opening mechanisms, life-span of gas fillers, issues installing etc - basically the stuff that doesn't show up on a data sheet.

Have you tried this place... https://brickslips.co.uk/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI582skb_ghwMVZYxQBh1S7jKwEAAYAiAAEgKipvD_BwE I think the market for brick slips is a lot smaller in the UK than in Europe. We lived in Belgium for some years and saw several houses getting EWI and brick slips. I think their VAT system encourages this sort of renovation. When I looked at slips back in 2005 for a house in the UK I was told most slips in the UK are made by cutting bricks which is obviously horribly expensive and wasteful. Since we import a lot of bricks it might be worth trying some EU based companies or the UK arm of an EU company that manufacture rather than cut slips. https://www.wienerberger.co.uk/products/facades/manufactured-extruded-brick-slips.html?campaign=19635358725&content=646924808837&keyword=brick slips outside&campaign=Manufactured_Brick_Slips_HP&content=646924808837&keyword=brick slips outside&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItNOq1bzghwMVo5CDBx0v4AsgEAAYASAAEgLJBvD_BwE https://www.ibstock.co.uk/products/facade-systems/brick-slips?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI582skb_ghwMVZYxQBh1S7jKwEAAYAyAAEgJGqfD_BwE I suspect they won't talk direct so try asking about distributors? If really keen perhaps take a trip to the Bati Bouw exhibition in Brussels next February. Likely to be reps there from many of the European Brick manufacturers. May Belgians and French self builders take their house plans to the show. Not much info on the show yet but the site is here.. https://www.batibouw.com/en It's a massive show over 13 halls. Needs a full day to get around if you have a lot of interests. Possibly 2 days! Last time we went they had demonstrations of different construction techniques for things like solid first floors.

If it helps, you could look at getting your own slips cut down from regular bricks. Might give you a few more options with local brick cutting yards.

That’s exactly why They are not interested in small one off jobs Try Ian Shard at Lancashire Brick He’s owns the company and is better than most on small orders

I thought I would put a post together for those that are looking for windows, replacement or new build. As someone who deals with final order placing / final quote discussions. One of the things that crosses my desk on regular basis, is that the "other supplier" is more cost effective. Which leads me to ask myself "more cost effective against what" are you comparing apples for apples? When I ask people to compare, what we generally explain is to look at the following (see below) if they are not willing to supply a copy of the quote without prices. Product - is the product similar. For example are you comparing a Timber Aluminium cladded window with a Timber Aluminium cladded window? Glazing - Is the glazing on offer from both suppliers comparable? Is it double glazed v's triple glazed for example or is it float glass v's toughened or laminate? Check that doors have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows within 300mm of a door have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows below 800mm from the finish floor have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows that are 1400mm in height or above for toughened/laminated glazing. Most suppliers will start to consider toughened / laminated from 1400mm onwards, some will still be float glass. Check triple glazed glass units. Some suppliers will only toughen the inner and outer panes and leave the middle pane as float glass, others will toughen all 3 panes (I recommend all 3 panes as toughened) when required. Why? quick example is from experience, a customer in the north west of Scotland had the middle pane as float glass in french doors, the doors are recessed with wall on either side. It effectively became a wind tunnel. What happened is during high winds, the door sashes had that much wind pressure constantnly, that the door sash was pushed away from the frame slightly and a rattle effect occurred (only thing I could think would cause this to happen). As a result the middle pane (float glass) shattered. This required the whole sash to be replaced, as the glass was glued into the frame on that particular product. Timber - Is the timber comparable, are both using spruce/larch/oak/pine etc.? Are any of the products finger jointed as standard (which is more cost effective versus fixed timber, but not as aesphetically pleasing). Is the timber cut from from one section of wood or is it individually glue laminated timber? Ug values - A 0.5Ug can be quoted by suppliers but the costs vary dramatically. One of the reasons for this can be the glass make up and the gas that is being used. Some quotes won't tell the gas being used but it's safe to assume that if it's 48mm glazing it is Argon. Pay attention to the spacer distance also, not for cost but if the spacer is above 18mm, convection can occur of the gas filling (gas moves around in the unit). Hinging - Are the hinges concealed or are they exposed? Door Hinging - Pay close attention as suppliers will have quoted standard framing on doors, others may have increased the widths of the jambs to increase the space available at the hinging for plastering behind. RAL Colours externally - are the quoted RAL colours the same? Internal colours - have they quoted the same? Some will offer the standard colours such as a clear lacquer, others will have them painted - does this have any impact on price comparison. Sizes - have any of the units been split, due to not being able to achieve the size required? Some suppliers will not be able to do large sizes, others will be. Look out for compromises. Don't always look at the end figure and immediately reject a quote as being to high, compared to the others. Most suppliers will have the supply price first, then additional items such as window cills, compriband, membrane, installation etc. which are optional to the quote and not necessarily required but may be included in the total cost at the end. Most self builders like to take on the mantra of doing the whole build, others would like to leave this to the supplier or builder and or source their own materials if supply only. What is being offered with the installation service, are the installation options / costs comparible to each other? Who takes responsibility for the windows upon arrival? Generally speaking most suppliers who are installing, should be taken responsibility from the moment the windows leave the factory, to the moment the windows/doors have been installed, sign off. If supply only, the responsibilitygenerally passes to the client once the offload commences. So it is important to document the windows before offload, during offload and once offloaded. The manufacturer will normally have documentation / pictures before departing the factory, it makes life easier on whether a claim with the haulage company or whether a claim with the supplier is required (both should go to the supplier who should deal with it). Warranty - how long is the warranty, what does it cover? Last but not least, is the quote comparible? Have the suppliers referenced things the same way or are have the drawings been scaled and then referenced by the supplier (this happens a lot when no window schedule exists)? A lot of architects don't create window schedules for some reason (one the major parts of a build and most costly aspects) and problems of missing windows can be encountered, due to the elevations not always showing "hidden" windows which can be seen on floor plans. Some suppliers can miss this, which then impacts that quote. Hopefully some people find this useful, of not apologies for the long read

cavity closer system for nudura. Tape the inside and outside and I cannot see a lot getting through there.

You make no mention of; · Basic performance testing – watertightness, air permeability, strength. Likewise cyclic-testing or corrosion resistance. · Certification/3rd-party assessment of suitability for UK conditions · Security testing. Glazing. · There is no specific requirement for units taller than 1400mm to have toughened glass. · The doors sold to your customer must have either been rubbish or totally unsuitable for the location if they were vibrating so much that a pane of glass shattered. Incidentally, I regard the vibration theory causing breakage as implausible. Timber · If softwoods are being used - which is the most common timber for windows - the form of preservative treatment is of particular significance. Ug · Not as important as Uw. You also make no mention of g-value – high solar gain with a lack of shading is a problem with large areas of south facing glazing. ‘A’ rated sounds great in theory but can often lead to sauna like conditions in a highly insulated building. Hinges · Function over form. Of far more importance then visibility is the load rating, durability of the hinge finish and potential for adjustment. A few other things to look out for; · Are all the windows and doors from the same factory/manufacturer? If not profiles will vary, as may colours, ironmongery and even glass colour. · Does the warranty come from the manufacturer or the agent/distributer? What happens to the warranty if agent goes bust? · Is the system designed for UK weather/building conditions or Central European climates? · If to be used in areas of severe or very severe exposure (see BRE 262) can the system accommodate a checked reveal as required by NHBC? Is it a drained and ventilated design ? · Has the glazing been sized to accommodate the wind loadings? · Has glazing been sized to accommodate any barrier loading requirement at higher levels ? · Are units being joined together and have these couplings been assessed by an engineer? · Does the product certification cover the size of unit being supplied ? Does the certification relate to all the products being supplied ?

It’s all here mate ! Just avoid my whimsical shite 👍🍔

I hate when people show off how quick their build was .