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I will write about the install of my MVHR system, as this is something I have done myself (with help). Theo house is being built by my contractor, supervised by my Architect and QS (who is the CDM). As I am remote from the location I can only watch what happens on CCTV. When I was last there the old house was standing and we had disconnected the services. 6 Months later, I have a new house, Weather tight shell, Windows and doors in, sarking and felt on, and tiles and PV being fitted. I am doing the MVHR as I couldn’t find a company to design and install what I wanted so I did it myself. Had a slot in the schedule for me to work and got on with it. Internally the team were completing first fix joinery (all the stud work). This was the two-man team who are always on site and are doing the majority of the work, the company bring in others when required, but the two in the house whilst I was there are my main team. My design: This is my layout as planned, 2 x Brink Renovent 400 Plus units, 4 x Ubbink AE 24 port distribution boxes, 180mm insulated duct and silencers for the main runs and 350m of AE48C duct, 50m of AE34C duct with all the associated connectors and fittings. A total of 36 outlets/terminals….. Suffice to say it is a lot of equipment. It arrived on 8 pallets at around 1100 on the Tuesday morning. I sourced all my equipment from CVC who were/are great, arranging delivery slots, supplying additional equipment quickly, and I still have an outstanding order for the vent terminals and some other bits still to complete. I arrived on the Monday lunchtime after 6 days of traveling (not all to get there) and had a meeting with the site manager and the first thing we agreed on was to board out the plant room with MDF (as a final finish) so that we could install the equipment and be done with it (rather than approximately place it and then remove awaiting final plastering) This turned out to be one of the best decisions as work could be finalized and other trades could also finish work in there (First fix electrical could fit the 24 way 3 phase CU)… We also got the loft boarded out at this point to enable the first floor runs to be completed. On Tuesday morning the building team started boarding the plant room, starting on the wall that the MVHR units were to be sited as a priority, this was completed by the end of the day and then started on the attic boards. Once the delivery had arrived and I had checked it I had some initial work to do. First to install the acoustic insulation into the distribution boxes and trim the spigots to the 180mm mark and move 2 of them to the top for the ground floor. I the attached the first 2 silencers to the top mounted distribution boxes (Large jubilee clips (44-217mm) work perfectly). These would then be mounted against the ceiling with the silencers running up into the plant room. (the first floor is 250mm concrete planks and I am having a suspended ceiling to put all the services in). This is where having a builder with all the equipment to hand come in handy. One of the team then worked with me, the manifolds were fixed to the ceiling, simple concrete screws direct into the planks and then we started on the ground floor ducting. (I had pre calculated what ducts from what rolls, but that got altered on the fly when we had longer lengths remaining) The duct was run through the stud work and fixed approximately every 2 meters either with wood screws to the stud work or concrete screws to the ceiling. Rather than buying the Ubbink fixings £15.42 for 10, I used builders band £10.00 for 10m and plumbers felt £10.00 for 20m (you can probably get it cheaper) as the fixings. The above shows the 2 ground floor manifolds and you can see how the builders band and felt was used. We got most of the ground floor ducting done in one afternoon. The terminals were left dangling with about 1m to the previous fixing to allow them to be positioned by the plasterers when the fit the suspended ceiling as they will be positioned either in the centre of a ceiling tile or plasterboard (room dependent). Wednesday started out installing the MVHR units as the main ducts needed to be installed before the attic runs could be done, this also allowed time to continue boarding out the attic. The first unit was positioned on the wall and to support it extra noggins were installed behind the wall, easy when the stud work is still open: We mounted the second MVHR unit then measured and marked out the penetrations for the ceiling. Then the builders simply took down the ceiling boards, cut them out and put them, back up. The ducts then had a perfectly snug fit through the ceiling. The two silencers going into the attic had to be slightly compressed oval to fit due to a double joist. Images of the plant room with the MVHR units fitted. (already painted) Fitting the attic manifolds was a little more complicated, the supply manifold went as planned Here you can see the 2 x 90-degree bends attached to the silencer going into the manifold and all the ducts coming off. The exhaust manifold wouldn’t go in as planned and had to be rotated 90-degrees to fit between the truss webs, fortunately I had plenty of 180mm 90-degree bends for the final connections. Exhaust from below and side (one duct moved between pictures). All the exhaust ducts were relatively easy to run (crawling through the webs). 7 of the supply runs had to cross the attic and not wanting ducts in the main storage area, these were turned down to run along the joist space. On the supply manifold you can see 5 of the 90-degree elbows turning then down and below the left 3 (2 from the side and one of the front ) look like this from below: This was the plan, but on the far side as the came up beyond the truss webs (non-boarded area) I didn’t use the 90-degree bends on the far end just curved them into place. You can see the runs under the attic boards (incomplete) and moving off to the respective locations. By Thursday we had installed all the ducts and terminals (so 3 days with a builder and all the tools). We then decided to fix the first-floor terminals into their final positions (just plasterboard for first floor) so either screwing/banding them to rafters, screwing to the attic boards where available, or inserting small offcuts to attach them to. The decision was made to paint out the plant room so we removed the MVHR units and ducts, bagged the ground floor ducts and the builders sanded and filled all the screws. It was painted on the Friday (advantages of a builder and his contacts). During the week I realised I needed to order some extra circlips (not easy to get large ones) so I ordered them via CVC and also my RH sensors which were quickly delivered. I installed these into the units (whilst dismounted) not an easy task, very fiddly and not to be recommended on a unit that is already installed. And the sensor heads into a short length of 180mm insulated duct. On the ground floor units we had a short length connecting the silencer to the MVHR unit, but one was not planned for the first floor ones, however as the silencers are flexible and compressible I inserted a short length on top of the House supply and exhaust connectors for this purpose and inserted the sensor there. Sensors installed in insulated ducting (simply tie wrapped into place) I then just had to wait for my final delivery. I am planning to plumb my cisterns into the MVHR (Se the previous blog entry) however since then @Auchlossen has done a similar utilising 75mm ducting so I decided to go down that route (hence the roll of 75mm (AE34C) ducting) I did use it for some runs. I ordered 3 x OsmaSoil 3S094G 82mm Reducer to 50mm Grey 860749 to fit over the 75mm ducting and convert it to 50mm plumbing push fit. The plumber will do the rest as detailed in the previous blog. These fit almost perfectly. The first picture shoes one pushed up to the seal, the second one shoes one pushed onto the seal. They are very tight with the seal but will push on and make a good airtight fit. As part of my initial plan I purchased a HB vent terminal for experimentation, just to prove that these systems are interchangeable I fitted an offcut of 92mm (AE48C) duct into the HB terminal, no problem. So, when the question comes up can you mix and match, yes (within reason). On issue I see with the HB equipment is I am not sure how easy it is to unclip the terminals once in place as there does not seem to be a way to easily und the locking lugs. On the Ubbink equipment you can unlick them by twisting the red click ring until it disengages and then remove the duct! The roofers are currently slating the roof and will fit my vent terminals in the appropriate positions with a 500mm length of duct to protrude through the roof insulation. These will then be connected up to the MVHR ducts when a come back to do the final commissioning, fit outlet terminals and balance the system. (next year).

Challenging thought. One long bench will look great, but is it really most useful...... How about several separate dedicated benches. One freestanding heavy one with a big vice. A lower one for machine tools. A classic woodworking bench and an electronics bench with a laminate top set for a good sitting height. Dedicated workstations according to the work in hand.... luxury.

I'm pretty pleased with my little 3kw room sealed Burley- bit like a model T Ford though, only available in black! Your underfloor feed probably works better than my through-the-wall, which behaves differently depending on wind direction. It's on a north gable and strong northerlies mean that you need to throttle the air intake down a lot more than normal.

Looks really smart, have always chosen black, but may change my mind for next purchase! Nothing beats a real fire!

Course for wood fine for metal

Cr@p photo there Dave! Is it one of these: http://www.toiletspares.co.uk/compact-inlet-valve.html

"He who pays the piper calls the tune" .

A misspelling?

How likely is it that Permitted Development Rights might be withdrawn if an application was made that excluded some of the items that could be added by using them? What I'm thinking is that you could make an amended application for the core building, then add the car port and garage part either under PD, or after PP has been granted by a material modification, using the argument that you could add these later without PP using the PD that would then apply.

Or you could go balls out and recess a pair of metal box sections from floor to ceiling and finish those flush to the existing PB.

What stage are you at with the job? Are you fully refurbishing the room or just changing the sink ? If the wall panels are going onto the whole wall from left to right and the sink is in the middle then it's a relatively easy fix. Just channel out the PB and egg box from one vertical batten to the next, the ones that span the area the sink is to be fixed to, 1230 high and remove the cardboard lattice entirely. Brush the exposed PB ( rear of PB of the adjacent room ) with 75 / 25% PVA / water and then cut a piece of 22mm P5 Weyroc and lay horizontally, working from the floor up, so two pieces required if one 2400 cut in half won't do the width. Get some fast fix ( pink foam ) and apply horizontal and vertical beads of foam at 100mm centres to the PB going only as high as 550mm from the floor first ( 600mm P5 ) Push the P5 against it and gently push against it for 20 mins whilst it cures. It's important to dampen the face of the P5 with the same PVA solution to aid adhesion and speed the cure. Glue the tongue and do the same with the next piece. Then you have a section of 22mm thick P5 say 1200 wide and 1220 high embedded and bonded into the wall void. Measure the thickness you have remaining to the existing PB face, match with the nearest undersized product, 4mm / 6mm ply or better if you can get 9.5mm or 12.5mm PB but either will suffice. If it's ply, glue and screw it on, PB just needs screwing. Then apply your wall pannelling over the top and it'll be rock solid. Edit to add : To remove the original PB from the egg box lattice you'll need to cut it into multiple strips of 50mm and remove them one at a time so as not to damage the other room surface.

@Dee J -£1500 sqm is very doable if you look at the main costs carefully. Labour gets more expensive the more specialised or non mainstream that you go. Most good bricklayers can do brick and block in their sleep - go to ICf and although it’s just big blocks, ask @recoveringacademic how it can go awry ... A good joiner can do lots of studwork, but ask them to do a Larsen truss frame from a pile of timber and you’ll probably regret it. What you can do though is work out where you can spend now and then in the future put in what you want. Bathrooms and kitchens can be changed - there can be a factor of 10 difference from low to high so buy wisely. A lot also depends on your skill - if you can do things like the plumbing then a pair of decent cutters and a box of fittings you can probably do the first fix in Hep2O. A lot about budget is down to how much your labour is costed at - look at Grand Designs last night, what they built for £100k was amazing but it took 10 years ..... you could double your £180k budget based on what you can do, but that’s for you to decide ..!!!!

I wouldn't go there as a primary support. Here we discovered 6 months after moving that that was how our heavy stair handrail is attached like that, when one came out. I spent half a day looking for structure in the wall and found nothing suitable, so I ended up bolting right through the wall and making the 100mmx100mm stainless steel anchor plates on the other side a feature in my office. For this, I think I would build a small custom boxframe from CLS to sit beneath the cupboard, either to the same footprint or slightly smaller to look attractive, then sit the unit on it and panel the sides with a suitable finish. You may or may not need to drill into the floor to hold the box frame in place, or could fix it the wall with something just to stop it moving. Alternatively you could glue the box frame to the floor. It could go inside the Ikea legs of you prefer. You could even make your box frame from 18mm ply as a simple box. I could also see something like an Ind Coop beer crate that builders stand on working if it is the right dimensions. There is nothing to stop you using bricks or a stack of one or two breezeblocks or thermalites or similar on their side instead of a box frame. You can just hide them behind a trim. If there is an issue attaching the unit to the top of the blocks, then plug a small sheet of eg marine ply the same size as the footprint and screw to that. Ferdinand

The legs would support the weight, but the issue is going to be what do you screw into and the likelihood of the wall flexing. In all honesty I have never seen this kind of wall. @ProDave is right, if the cabinet can overlap a stud at all then attaching it to one stud should give a tight fixing and you can attach the other side with a plasterboard anchor. However, I am guessing you wouldn't be asking here if that was the case. I have done the same thing fixing a large TV to a plasterboard wall. You could use a plasterboard cavity fixing as it won't actually be taking a lot of weight, but i would be worried about the plasterboard flexing and eventually breaking. I was going to suggest a strip of marine ply to replace a strip of the the plasterboard and screwing into this. The trouble you will have then is attaching the plasterboard to this. Best solution I have is cutting a strip out of the plasterboard. Putting in two noggins that attach to the studs on either side, slip the noggins halfway behind each edge of the cut them you can put a new strip of plasterboard back across the noggins and screw into one of them. No matter what you do you will be left with a decorating job, but I assume that has to be done anyway.

I quite like chatting to people who are curious about the house. Over the years we've had:- Around 20 AECB members visiting a PH Eight middle aged people from Sweden (EU) looking at over 50s rural living in UK Dozen or so lady ramblers stop by twice a year to monitor progress Locals always curious about a house without heating and the dustmen once a fortnight for an update and giving me tips such as when turf laying 'it's green side up'.

I have many neighbours and a footpath runs along the site edge, I have stopped telling people when I hope to finish as things are taking longer than I expected - most have now stopped reminding me. One family who were in a holiday rental last year and this did wonder how I was getting on as I had said I had hoped to be finished by next March - no chance. There are four or five regulars who stop for a natter, mainly now about other mad neighbours generally they are supportive and notice when I am not there commenting the next time they see me. It has its moments - last week I was installing the earth rod and I came across a large (10") iron cylinder I was uncovering it a couple (five doors down) wandered by and peered into the hole. I have have found this cylindrical thing down here I am just investigating perhaps, I said jokingly, its a UXB. She said "I lived in this area during WWII and this area was heavily bombed. I went much more gingerly and they marched off up the path at some pace! Needless to say it looks like it was some sort of drain pipe but very large. I try to fit in to the community as well, we will be neighbours when its finished, and do things for people, many of whom are elderly. So far I have delivered rubble, moved a heap of road stone, provided some timber for boarder edging and swept the end of the road where many of the loose stones, that form our road, had migrated out onto the main highway. I have even been invited to the WI coffee morning a few times!

Make a carpet bag then they'll just think you're a bohemian hipster! Frost Auto do some carpet and vinyl dyes.

Before I began the actual process, I couldn't understand all those Grand Designs episodes where people were working full time jobs then working on the house long into the night when they weren't actually building it. How much time can it take to make a few decisions, I naively thought. Interior doors? An hour's online research. Kitchens? Give it two or three nights' research, then a couple of trips to make a decision. In reality, even minor decisions took many, many hours of researching and thinking. Important things like kitchens probably had 100+ hours spent/wasted on them. That's a lot of time when you're working and have kids to entertain. I find that the real stresses came later, because everything you do beyond a certain point is visible forever. Earlier stresses and difficulties are covered over and forgotten about, whereas a poorly installed run of skirting board reminds you of its existence every time you walk past it (well, it does me - my wife doesn't see any of those sorts of issues ). People shouldn't underestimate the amount of stress that'll be involved. At times it was easily the most stressful thing I've done, and that was with the benefit of being not far off a cash builder with no money concerns. That said, the end result is worth it. In my case, my marriage is definitely stronger as a result of what we went through (a couple of common enemies helped!), and I learned a lot about myself in the process.