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So yesterday I had a busy day dot and dabbing and thanks to the guy on On the Trowel Youtube channe, I skimmed my first ever walls as I need to get this room finished in the next week or so to give my younger son a bedroom - it was supposed to be in September. The wall was straight, plumb and the plastering was not a halloween horror show - just a few minor imperfections. I'm most pleased about the clean top corner to the primed ceiling:

It is about time we stopped saying that other countries are not doing enough. EEA Trends and Projections: EU greenhouse gas emissions see significant drop in 2023 Press releasePublished 31 Oct 2024 Total net greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union dropped by 8% last year, marking significant progress towards climate neutrality for the EU. The huge drop was led by a significant decline in coal use and growth of renewable energy sources and supported by reduced energy consumption across Europe, according to estimated figures included in the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) ‘Trends and Projections’ report published today. The annual EEA check-up on EU progress on its energy and climate targets stresses that EU Member States will need to sustain this rate of progress to achieve Europe’s climate and energy targets. In 2023, EU total net greenhouse gas emissions decreased to 37% below 1990 levels according to preliminary figures in the EEA Trends and Projections report. After two years of slower progress against the backdrop of recovery from the COVID crisis and impact of the energy crisis, the EU is resuming its strong downward trajectory in emissions, moving towards climate neutrality. At the same time, sustained progress will be needed towards 2030 and beyond, the report says. The EU Climate Law sets ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions - a net 55% reduction below 1990 levels by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050, to deliver European commitments under the international Paris Agreement. This target includes net removals from the so-called land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector as well as emissions from international aviation and maritime transport activities regulated under EU law. The European Commission has also recommended a 90% net reduction target for 2040. Trends and projections in Europe 2024 Based on reported existing climate measures alone, Member State projections forecast a reduction in net emissions by 2030 to a level 43% below 1990 levels. However, 22 Member States have submitted additional projections that include planned but not yet launched measures. Together, these would reduce net emissions in the EU by 49% below 1990 levels in 2030, in the target scope of the EU Climate Law. Updates to national energy and climate plans — where several Member States have yet to submit their revised plans — offer an opportunity to implement additional measures to bridge the gap towards the target. An initial European Commission estimate of the plans submitted so far confirm an increased collective ambition level and a reduction of the gap. Leena Ylä-Mononen EEA Executive Director As our recent European climate risk assessment revealed, the impact of climate change is accelerating. This leaves us no choice but to strengthen our resilience to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This year's Trends and Projections Report calls for comprehensive action across all sectors to achieve our shared goal of balancing greenhouse gas emissions and carbon removals within the next two and a half decades. Renewables take bigger role The accelerating decarbonisation of the European economy has only been possible due to the rapid expansion of renewable energy, paired with the reduced use of fossil fuels. According to EEA estimates, the share of renewable energy has grown from 10% in 2005 to an estimated 24% of the EU’s gross final energy consumption by 2023. Further, the EU has managed to continue reducing its energy consumption: primary energy use has fallen by 19% since 2005, while final energy consumption saw a 11% reduction during the same timeframe, according to early estimates for 2023. Huge emission reductions in energy sector Europe’s emission reductions vary across its economic sectors. In the energy supply sector, emissions have halved compared to 2005 levels. The industrial sector has also seen significant reductions of more than a third over the last two decades thanks to process improvements and efficiency gains. These two sectors make up the bulk of Europe’s current cap-and-trade system — the Emissions Trading System (ETS), and their cumulative reductions brings the 2030 emissions reduction target for ETS within reach. However, the situation is different for the sectors covered by the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) which has national reduction targets. These mainly include emissions from buildings, transport, waste and agriculture. While the buildings sector has achieved an important reduction in emissions — with a drop of over 30% since 2005 — the transport and agriculture sectors have shown slower progress. This indicates the need for a shift to sustainable transport modes, and to implement further measures to unlock the emission reduction and carbon removal potential of the agriculture sector. Beyond 2030 The EEA report stresses that maintaining momentum towards climate neutrality will require clear and predictable policies beyond 2030 — not least, an agreement on the recommended a net 90% reduction target for 2040 and an assurance of sufficient investment for the net-zero emission economy of the future. For 2040 and 2050, existing projections reveal a widening gap between the aggregated national expected emissions and the EU targets. They also indicate the importance of the continued development of new, extended and expanded policies and measures to ensure emissions reductions and carbon removals can deliver climate neutrality in only two and a half decades. About the report The EEA’s Trends and Projections in Europe report explores historical trends, recent progress and projected future progress on climate mitigation through reduced greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy gains and improved energy efficiency. It builds on data reported by the EU-27 Member States, five EEA member countries and nine Contracting Parties of the Energy Community. With this package, the EEA supports the European Commission’s assessment of progress toward meeting the EU’s climate and energy targets. In its upcoming Climate Action Progress Report, the Commission will use recently submitted National Energy and Climate Plans from Member States as an additional information source.

We have an old house with concrete floors without any insulation. The electric blanket in the bathroom floor is a very nice luxury. Mentioning this discussion to my wife she reminded me of how pleased we are with our electric towel rail. It is plumbed in to the CH but also has an electric heating rod in it. A cheap and simple control from Toolstation allows us to press a single button for 2 hours heat, and dry towels.

Go for the best, don’t skimp on the main structure of the house. better of forgetting the expensive toilets and build the structure better.

On Monday the second gable is poured and most of the internal bracing, corner bracing and window shuttering is removed. Tuesday rains all day so no work on site. The internal floor is under 1 inch of water with no way to escape, without us brushing it towards soil pipe. Good to know we are airtight at the floor/wall joint. The steels are installed, we were supposed to have wooden roof beams but somehow this was not calculated by the architect who insisted the roof truss company would do the calculations later. The roof truss companys only want to do the calculations when they know you are ready to order and they said the beam spans could not be done. So on the last minute we had to go back to the SE who worked out our steel beams and the total cost of roof went up £8k. I wish the architect had suggested the SE looks at the roof calculations earlier but unfortunately we just have to move on from this, and up to this point we have had no other extra costs. Since we are no longer working with the architect I have had to find a new SAP assessor who I can engage with as the build progresses. We have been discussing how changing the steel beam might change things as the vaulted ceiling can now be higher if we want. This gives us more space to heat up. I also wanted to know the effect of not putting as much solar on the roof or not having the wood burner changes the SAP results. Since having a smart meter fitted at home we have reviewed our current electric usage and decided that less solar (7.5 kwp instead of 11 kwp) but with the ability to add a battery. Also I think aesthetically one row of 15 panels will look better. Total Man days of labour week 7 is 16 days. Total to date b/f £44925 New Design Stage SAP Calculations (previously done by architect) with ongoing advice about changes that will affect the SAP and to include the As Built SAP documents and EPC at completion £720. It does seem a lot compared to online prices but for peace of mind knowing that we can if we choose to only put 6kwp of PV on the roof instead of 11kwp, is an overall saving. Total to date £45645

In case anyone else comes across this retrospectively, Zehnder's valves are coanda effect (i.e they direct the air across the ceiling rather than down onto the occupants) and also allow for the insertion of an "air blocker" so you can direct the air in a certain direction. https://www.zehnder.co.uk/en/indoor-ventilation/solutions/air-distribution/zehnder-comfovalve-luna-s125

Fortunately You don’t have to employ a principle contractor Or designer You can be a self builder and not be shackled to anyone

Good comments, In extremis, or as belt and braces, you could put a porch or canopy on it.

You set yourself as both client, principle designer and possibly contractor as well. However, if you are getting a builder in to organise more than a single piece of work, they should be the principle contractor at the time they are working. We did it that way, the off guy was principle contractor until he left, then I assumed the responsibility as I was directly contracting people in. (CDM 2015, Northern Ireland)

Good luck. Definitely highly unusual to fit a door like this. It's not a terribly difficult fix either.

Besides the superstructure, we have done most of the build ourselves. We stood down our architect after the foundation design and the building regs submission. This was many months before we broke ground. We had the CAD versions of our drawings and my wife had also drawn the house in SketchUp. (Prior to this she had made a physical model.) We were very confident in the details of the build. Because every part of the superstructure came from one supplier, their technical manual covered any questions we might have had. Over the course of the build we’ve had every kind of arrangement you can think of; from a day rate quote by text, to a detailed contract with phases and full materials breakdown. Some have come to visit the site and made a number up on the spot. Sometimes we’ve already had the materials, others they told us what to buy, some bought the materials and passed on the cost. Most recently a trade wanted the first 1/3rd paid up front to secure the booking. We have taken a pragmatic approach, and tried to work with trades that could see what we were trying to achieve. 90% of the time it has been a great experience. I try to understand how to do each task, which I hope means that when I talk to the trade they respect the job I’m asking them to do. There is no rhyme or reason behind the pricing, the spread between 3 quotes can be 100%. The story of each trade, is really the story of the build. Stuff goes wrong, not sure if excessive blame does anybody any favours. Our interior door supplier went bankrupt, taking the deposit for 11 doors. The insulated foundation UFH was not installed as per the drawings, I only found this out much, much later. I liked the lad that did the work, and he also managed the foundation pour and the power floating. So overall I was pleased with most of his work. The foundations were level and the concrete smooth. Your build is not far from mine, if you want a sounding board, happy to lend an ear, send me a PM. Please appreciate that my knowledge is puddle deep, this is my first build and this forum is the crutch I lean on.

Don't use chemicals. I use a pressure washer with water only and it works no problem.

Hi and welcome, yes there are some good traddies but there are even more cowboys (no woke politically correct crap from me). everybody has to start somewhere and learn as they go on.

You could certainly feed 2 separate manifolds, one for each side of the beam.

I have this unit and was prepared to add a boost maybe linked to HA . What I found is the unit boosts really quickly automatically so it wasn’t necessary. If you shower then within 10 seconds it ramps up . I did make sure the vent pipe runs to bathrooms and en-suites were really short I.e mvhr unit is near too these .

Yeah it’s different with a main contractor with sole control of the build Subbies would just blame each other

I checked the temps at the buffer tank but all zones were closed (pump still runs) I get 35C or very close to it in all 4 ports. I will check it again when all zones are open and the heat pump has to work hard.

Once the structure is up There’s little point bringing in an Architect Unless you have money to burn 🔥 Regarding trades You will scare them off if you start talking contracts You can get a detailed heating and electrical drawings done But if your partner is anything like mine drawings would need to be very flexible If Your watertight Your on the down hill part of the build Two thirds done

and shower tray wastes. i ended up using trays that had variable waste positioning to accommodate joist locations

It’s just not something you can use where you need to dub out areas as it doesn’t ever dry out when applied over 3-5mm thick. Particularly bad where it’s a constant splash/wet area, or where a porcelain tile is being used (due to its lack of porosity). Acrylic works fine on new open plaster/plasterboard, and with a porous ceramic tile, but I simply stopped using ready mixed adhesive as it is just too inferior to cementitious stuff to ever risk it. Proper DIY imho. If you’ve tanked also, then it’s 10x worse again, especially if you need to grout the next 24/48 hrs, as this stuff really needs the grout lines to allow the moisture to evaporate/escape. I used it once over tanking, with porcelain, and 2 days later I removed the bottom batten and the tiles just started sliding down the wall in front of me. Whole wall was taken back off, adhesive in most places was wet enough to put back into the tub and be removed complete with a wet sponge, never used that stuff again after that tbh.

Basically as @ProDave says use the spreadsheet on here. 5.7kW sound massive, which would indicate you have something very wrong, for that sized house. Mine is about 3kW at -9. And heat meter shows that to be true, and matches the spreadsheet almost spot on. I don't have the best MVHR, best airtightness, a rubbish form factor, and loads of glass. 2m³/m² @ 50 Pa, is at a very elevated pressure, compared to real life (high winds from every direction at the same time). Using SAP calculation that becomes an infiltration rate of 0.1358. Will come back to that later So your MVHR will have an air change rate of 0.5ACH. the MVHR unit will have a 80 to 90% efficiency. So effective air change rate drops to 0.075, plus 0.1358 infiltration rate. So 0.2. Use that figure in your heat loss calculation for ventilation rate and you won't be far off. But once built you are likely to reduce the MVHR flow rated to about 0.3 other wise you end up over ventilating the house, so the figures are likely to reduce a little. You do the calcs, in Scotland you have to do it as part of the planning process, they even want my UFH design and supporting calculations. Good thing with UFH and well insulated is that wide or narrow pipe spacing makes very little difference to flow temperature. If I installed 100mm centres or as I did 300mm centres, it adds about 2 degs to flow temp. 300mm centres is just little less responsive, but heating is always on low, so who cares. When you get around the calcs you will end up with a 5kW heat pump. No need for MVHR to factor in heat loss he is just adding ventilation. Heat engineer that doesn't factor in MVHR heat recovery, should just be sacked and told to get off the project. He is not fit for purpose. Just design it with loopcad. Our living room has 7m wide and 6m tall at the peak of glazing at one end, it's the warmest room of the house on 300mm centres, because its designed to be the warmest. It's designed to be 21, when bedrooms areas are designed for 17/18 at the same flow temp. Get the basics in order Proper heat loss calculations use the one in boffins corner. Once you have your head in that headspace everything else starts to slot in to place.

What software are you modeling your heat loss with? There is a simple heat loss spread sheet on this forum written by a well respected former member. I used this to predict the heat loss of my new house, and it's prediction of a worst case heat loss of just under 2.5kW turned out the be absolutely spot on. As built air tightness is all down to attention to detail, all build methods can achieve good air tightness if you detail things properly. There is no such thing as a design air tightness. You don't deliberately design to have poor air tightness, except in rare cases where for some strange reason you don't want to fit an mvhr unit so you deliberately make sure your house is full of leaks so building control don't insist on you installing mvhr. In short you are approaching this wrong. Plan to build an air tight house, plan to detail all aspects well to achieve this, and plan to install mvhr.

A few basic things in reality Vs model. Your heat load is worst case, constant over 24hrs. If it's 5kW, and you've a 5kW heatpump, it won't be enough. Purely because the sCOP (and other inefficiencies, needing to heat water etc) will be less than the label, and you won't be putting enough energy in to the building. You'll need more like 6 or 7. You'll likely run the building as a single zone (or one per floor, like we do) adjusting individual room temps be tweaking flow temps. You might add a buffer. Your mvhr will modulate down when really cold, to protect against low humidity. You probably won't want to run your heating 24x7 (which these models assume). We run ours for 7 hours on economy 7. These things are hard to model. And the reality is you have to just go with close enough, and stop worrying about decimal places. Our peak heat load is something like 5.6kW. but we've no curtains on the big glazed areas, so its probably higher. I went for a 9kW heat pump that modulates down to 2.5kW. it's perfect. When it's really cold, I just adjust the timer so it's on 20 hrs a day, rather than 7. Room stat and weather comp takes care of the rest. If you end up with too big a heatpump, you can easily compensate with behavioural changes. E.g, fewer zones, running for shorter periods of time, buffer tank, and still hit good performance efficiencies. If you end up with an undersized heatpump, there is literally nothing you can do to compensate in those challenging periods. Only option is supplemental heating. Defeating the purpose of an efficient heating system. You need a 7kW heatpump.

You have hit the nail on the head. You face an unsolvable conundrum. You don’t know your airtightness until you finish the build, therefore you don’t know your heat loss, so how can you size your heat pump. And for low temp heating in an insulated foundation you have to put in your UFH pipe loops at the very beginning of the build process. You essentially have to take a huge leap of faith that it will all work, and commit the cost and materials on that promise. Insulated foundation, MVHR ducting, ASHP flow and return. These all shaped my house more than any other factors. I struggled with this dilemma very soon after finding BuildHub. The curse of the more you know, the less sure you are. Ignorance is bliss! Most of my build decisions have been predicated on how to achieve good airtightness, how to reduce ASHP short cycling and how to stop the house overheating. PPHP and a good consultant will solve this, but like every other aspect of the build, if only you could click your fingers and have people you can trust work for you. I only recently discovered that the MBC guys that did my foundation only put in 2/3rds of the UFH piping that was on my LoopCAD drawings. This destroys all of my heatloss calculations and ASHP decisions. How can I go back and undo this, when I can’t rip up a concrete floor and put back the missing UFH pipes? You just have to live with the mistakes.

Install an internal air admittance valve instead. We've three stacks in our house, each one with an AAV. No need for an externally vented stack.

I'm fairly sure a Tesla PowerWall is AC coupled and is connected at 240VAC? Within the "battery package" is an inverter/charger that takes in AC to charge the batteries and supplies AC to power loads. If you want to connect a PW at DC you'd likely need to open the casing and bypass the inverter/charger which would void your warranty. You'd also need a DC charge controller to regulate the charge from the PV. Plenty of DC battery packs available but don't think a PW is what you're after A 2.5kw array is gonna supply next to nothing in the winter when going to need the ASHP the most. Have a look at PVGIS to see what you'll get.

I did my stud and boarding much to everyone’s humour . Only one small place where I missed a stud - thought (expletive deleted) it be ok . Only place of course the plaster has cracked …. Noggins become your new friend

Sq/m pricing is a bit like the length of a piece of string. However, I can quite believe that £5k sq/m would be the going rate for a good quality extension in London. More in an awkward or expensive area - parking/congestion charge etc. Obviously if using your own labour, then that can be a significant saving, but not so much if you’ll be bringing in a main contractor for the shell. Slightly more saving if you are going to manage trades - groundworkers/bricklayers/roofers/electricians/plasterers etc. From what you’re saying, if you’re providing own labour for things a competent diyer could complete and managing other trades, then I’d be thinking £3-4K sq/m would be realistic in London. Whereabouts are you looking at buying as that will have a large effect.

Accuracy in studding and boarding will certainly help and it occurs to me that metal studding is less likely to cause problems as it’s straighter and does not shrink?

Poor stud work, out of alignment so boards bending to compensate. wet studs drying out poor boarding, not cutting around doors just butting up. boards not falling on studs correctly not enough screws. the list goes on and on. I boarded mine, to the letter, it couldn’t have been done any better, I have minimal cracking. but I definitely have a few in places that i really thought wouldn’t have, it’s a bit of a bastard really. it just depends if you have a few or a lot.

@SimonD which side of Bath? I’m in Salisbury and can recommend one - no idea how far he’d travel.

Should be recessed behind any vertical DPCs in the jambs and the DPC at lintel level.

From the apparent thickness of the wall in the image, I suspect a cavity wall. A measurement of the actual wall thickness would give a good idea. If it is a cavity wall I wouldn't accept the door as installed. @Conor has mentioned several problems, and for a cavity wall I'd add the bypassing of (1) any cavity wall insulation, current or future (2), the vertical DPCs that should have been used where the cavity was closed, and (3) the cavity tray that theoretically should be above the lintel. I'd wonder what they've done about the DPC at floor level too.

Using a foil backed insulated plasterboard will give you a moisture/vapour barrier and is available in various thicknesses to suit, often used around door and window reveals.

Whilst you are doing all that good work don’t forget your perimeter insulation.

I've mostly constructed single-sided metal stud partitions to create a void that's filled with either 100mm or 145mm of hemp-based insulation (100mm wedged behind the studwork everywhere, plus 45mm within the depth of the metal stud itself where external rain penetration is unlikely or impossible). In case you're wondering, the use of timber for studs in virtually unknown here in France. In a few places where space is tight - reveals, for example - I'll be applying 20mm of cork insulation direct to the existing wall, probably bedded in a thin coat of plasterboard adhesive (scheduled for late November). In preparation, the plaster on brick/stone walls was hacked off and replastered in sand - hydraulic lime to even it up and improve airtightness.

been saying that for 30 years who in thier mind would allow kids to throw petrol bombs at police in NI should have been shot dead and we would not have the problem now too much tolerance of bad behaviour same oges for all the foregin rioters sure it would not be tolerated where they came from they just taking the piss all the time ,then cliaming human rights violations simple change inthe law ,which will never happen anything that happens to you AFTER you break the law is on you how can it be right htat asomeone breaking can sue you for an unsafe roof ,o having glass on top of your boundary wallwhich caused them hurt should not have been on it in the first place

As above Its a bit like Cadburys telling us that we all need to each more chocolate

I just got half a dozen Trick or Treaters in one. Just about to top is up with soil.

Absolutely. A cardboard model. The a ply model. Then a bird house. Then a dog house. Then a pump house. Then a garage. Then the house.