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Day1: The diggers gather like vultures. The old bungalow is doomed now with only one more day of asbestos removal on the inside. The driveway can't be finished until the rain stops. Day 2: Half the house appears to have gone! It seems there isn't much to it that isn't rotten. Another view of of the half-a-bungalow. Skipping a day to day 4: All the house down with the wood awaiting collection. All the asbestos roofing felt has been stripped and removed from site. The pine floor (front of frame) is retained because I can see uses in the future. Day 5: Site graded and ready for building the new house. The tall house in the background is a neigbour's self build from 10 years ago.

Hi 18 months ago we found a large (2.85acres) sloping site with outline consent on a small part of it. A fortnight ago planning permission was granted for our contemporary build (full application as our plans were bigger than the red line of the outline consent). The planning officer liked our plans (we had paid for pre-planning twice) and recommended approval. We were almost caught out - the Town Council objected because our plot is designated as green corridor in the emerging neighbourhood plan and Highways were quibbling about visibility splays. So more expert reports including landscaping plan for the whole site were hurriedly done. We own the private road with six houses on it. We worked hard to get our neighbours on our side and three submitted support for our application (three had objected to the original outline application). We need not have worried, the planning committee loved it approval and gave unanimous. So here we go. OnS638_310-05_PROP-ELEV 1.pdf 1039-SCD 01B Landscape Masterplan.pdf

I've just done a review of our heating costs over the last calendar year. We only use electricity and have SunAmp PVs heated only by E7 for DHW, and a Willis for UFH heating the slab of our 5 bedroom 3 storey house. Based on my Home Automation logs, our annual (Willis) space heating costs for this last year work out at ~£380 p.a. This would fall to around £115 p.a. if we had used an ASHP so maybe an annual saving of around £265. We use an induction hob and 2 × electric oven/microwave for cooking (with a 2 ring Propane for backup and which we've never used in anger) so we have no other need for gas connection. So there would be maybe a 10-year payback for installing an ASHP if I did this myself, plus some extra benefit if we used one with a cooling mode option for the Jul / Aug temperature peaks. We also saved a lot of money avoiding gas installation, and the annual standing charge for gas connection (~£75 p.a. in our area), and the cost of annual maintenance for a gas appliance (something that is mandatory IMO). And note that if we did have an ASHP, then the avoidance of the gas standing charge represents an offset of some 65% of the ASHP running cost. So in our case the gas vs ASHP argument is a no-brainer.

if they ain't red, they're rats

Hi, we have just installed temp builder supply with DNO UK power networks for the first step of our build! This is how it went and the cost explained. 1.UK power networks cost - £2257 to bring the electricity from the pavement. 2. DIY digging - breaking up the concrete with Hilti 1000 (bought from ebay £350, planning to sell again after the build). Hiring the generator to power Hilti £48. Digging the trench 600mm deep. 3. Made box for casting the concrete base - using cheap pine floor boards from selco. Place the pipe (supplied by DNO) for the connection (right), also the short pipe (left) so we can place the earthing rod through to the ground. Pore the concrete mix (ready mix type, 3 bags) and waited a day to set. Material for above £38 from selco. 4. Screwed down the GRP box bought from ebay (£320 + VAT, but we could sell this on ebay for £180, so the real cost would be £160) UK network specify larger GRP box than this, but they confirmed that this size (W750xD450xH1250) is fine. 5. DNO came and installed the power cable though. They came 3 times - day1= digging only. day2= make connection, day3= filling back and make concrete surface (including our side as well, kindly) 6. We got SSE to install the meter (free), and electrician to install the consumer box and a socket. (installation £250) Toolstation - MK consumer box £58, double socket £12 Screwfix – eatrhing rod £2.50 Screwfix - Earth Rod to Lug Clamp 3/8" £1.80 We have put large MK consumer unit as this will be moved to the house once it built. I would not recommend SSE, as they did not turn up twice and wasted our time...! They are now installing 2nd Gen smart meter, which is much better than 1st one, you can move supplier and smart meter would work with the new supplier.

Down here was once known as Bidonville with good reason. Pretty much every dwelling was a shack. It was the done thing to put down a layer of crushed, broken glass pre any floor slab to discourage rats.

My immediate thought is wow, why is your heating demand that high? A constant 3kW from hydro would power my entire house with energy to spare.

The Eddi manual is really comprehensive - https://myenergi.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/eddi_manual_v2.3_english.pdf AFAIK you can use the Eddi without the Harvi provided you can run the cabled CT clamp round your meter tails to monitor power in/out and for the Eddi to divert accordingly. If not, you can use the Harvi to wireless connect CT clamps to Eddi. You've then also got the 'hub' which is basically the internet gateway bit so you can use the app to control/fiddle/monitor your Eddi HTH. MM

I generally use the following as a measure of success with WiFi - 1. Can the unit survive longer than a year powered on without leaking memory/crashing/requiring monthly reboots 2. Has the wife complained about being unable to get to Facebook/Instatwat/Tinder recently Between my own home and the various relations via "IT support" I've been through TP-Link, D-Link, Netgear, Draytek, BT.. even some Cisco small business stuff and they all seem to work "ok" but as you've found either drop out periodically or require a kick now and again. I've been running the Ubiquiti Unifi AP AC Lites for a while now and they're working well... so I think that's what I'm going to stick with/recommend for the time being. Another thing was to split out the functions, i.e. have a router without wireless/wireless disabled and then have wireless access points around the house thus if any part of it proves to be carp I can swap out a function rather than the whole shebang. Currently got 46 'devices' on the network so a bit more than your average household.. but that comes with being a geek. MM.

nah, stick it on timber blocks as said above , if it does subside a bit, Jack it up and put in a bit more packing ?

Most (though not all it would seem) heat pumps operate at a lower set point when doing heating, than when doing DHW. So they run efficiently. However, a thermal store is a poor choice for an ASHP. you need the water in the thermal store a lot hotter than your target DHW temperature, otherwise your hot water will start to cool down quickly. An UVC on the other hand you can heat the water in it to 48 degrees and then draw off hot water and the water you get will remain at or very close to 48 degrees constantly until the cylinder runs out of water and it will turn cold very quickly.

I've spent a happy few hours logging data from a laptop, using another wireless sniffer, Vistumbler. I've also tried switching over the ancient D-Link 802.11g router (so only 54 Mbps) in place of the much faster Netgear one that we've been using for two or three years. What I've found is that the Netgear router regularly just loses transmit power for maybe a second, anything between once a minute to once every two or three seconds. Seems to be heat related, as when I swapped over to the old D-link (which got rid of all the wireless problems we've been having) and then switched back to the Netgear, the Netgear ran perfectly from cold for maybe ten minutes or so, then started just dropping the signal again. I tried turning off the 5 GHz option, as the Netgear uses the same module for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHZ, and that slowed the rate of the dropouts at 2.4 GHz a fair bit, but they are still there. So it looks as if 99% of our Wi-Fi problems may well have been from this weird fault with the router. I've switched back to the ancient D-Link one and that seems to be rock-solid everywhere in the house, and even out the front where my car's parked. TBH, the fact that it's only 802.11g isn't at all noticeable, as that's still a lot faster than our "broadband" (accepting that I doubt it ever actually delivers 54 Mbps). Clearly the first thing to do is just to get a new router, as it seems clear the Netgear has a fault. Hopefully replacing it will fix the problems we've been having, without having to faff around with additional APs.

Concrete blocks will crush. You need to use of cuts of timber like you would see under scaffold legs. Bits of plank or joists

Frankly it won’t take 10 minutes whilst it’s being unloaded, if you want it spot on a good car jack at each corner (one at a time) afterwards will enable you to fine tune it.

Personally I would look more at breezeblocks.

I have 2 different size blocks in my walls. The largest can go to 1.2m without any membrane but can go higher if needed using one. The smaller blocks can go to 0.9m and that's it.

Marine ply on this wall not strictly necessary but .... you know ! So pocket door frame will fix next to this . Then I’ll build a ‘skinny’ stud wall in front of that - once I understand the pocket door ....

On a couple of other forums (sparky related) quite a few installers seem to be complaining about the quality of the moldings and the ability to assemble / de-assemble without breaking the cover retaining tabs, also the grill contacting the fan upon installation and modification is required. I think if yours are in you have nothing to worry about!!

I note that a period of 0.25 seconds is 4Hz so that's probably where the error comes from.

As you can see there has been some progress on site and things are looking good - not all plain sailing but as we keep telling ourselves - we are getting there. Blockwork walls are going in and we can finally get a real feel for the basement rooms and the layout. Lots of back and forth on waterproofing and insulation/ thermal break under the walls and real problems locating 100mm high Marmox blocks - these are specialist lightweight composite insulating blocks that help prevent thermal bridges and keep the house warm - we dont need many but there are few substitutes (Foamglass being the only one we found). These are made in Egypt and due to some big orders in early Jan there are none in stock in the country until mid Feb which is too late for us so we went for the 65mm thick which are not quite as good - but hopefully good enough. We will need some more for other areas later but for now these will do the job and keep the guys on site busy. The design is complex and in hindsight we should have made much more effort in simplifying the design (or persuading our professionals) much earlier on - our advice would be that if the design looks complex on paper then this is the time to question everything and try and remove the difficult or odd bits. For example we have multiple floor levels and a combination of 155 and 215 high concrete beams for the floor - if we had known how difficult this would make things we would have changed it beforehand. Its the small details like this that make life very hectic as we finalise the exact construction and are constantly running round trying to keep the guys on site busy. We also have some steel in the basement that an MBC steel frame bolts down onto and needs to be exactly right as concrete and steel have very little wiggle room, and in the process we uncovered an error that would have impacted all the way through the build - luckily caught in time. And as it needs to be in place before the blockwork can be completed its on the critical path. So now steelwork and Beam and Block are on order, as is a crane to fit them all - not sure exactly when but it will be another big day when we get the B&B floor in. The guys are doing really well, and despite the weather, are making good progress and are cheerful - amazing what difference giving them cookies, doughnuts and fruit make when its wet and miserable. One of those frustrating and ironic parts of the build is that you bemoan the lack of progress and everything seems to be in limbo for weeks, and then suddenly everything hits you at once. The MBC drawings are 95% done but not signed off, but we have construction starting on site on 30th March - so plenty of time to make sure the groundworks are ready and we can sign off the drawings and get the frame into production. MBC estimate 2 weeks for Plot 1 and 3 weeks for Plot 2 - perfect. But then Internorm finally come back with some dates and they want to check the window and door apertures on site on March 31st, and start install on April 20th! Strangely there wont be any window apertures the day after MBC start, and they will still be on site on April 20th. So now we will have to push back Internorm and juggle dates and work on site, but at least we will get the windows in pretty soon after the frame is finished which will be a great relief - we have all seen the TV programs where the windows take months to arrive - we seem to have the opposite problem! Good problem to have but ..... On the video front see https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0 for the weekly videos

What do you want it to look like?? Brick, plastered, stone or other. This choice will push you down a particular method and rule out others.

Stairs should really be one of the last things you fit once all other messy trades have left. Two reasons - 1) you have the final floor finishes in so no risk of screwing up the measurements, 2) no risk of the stairs getting wrecked by trades We got our TF supplier to fit some temp MDF stairs (with a bit of tweaking, they never quite fit) from the outset and they worked great - I must have taken them off and put back on a dozen times during the build to allow boarding, plastering, painting etc.. - they were pretty knackered at the end but still serviceable. Others here have built temp stair cases themselves or used a scaffolding solution. I used https://max-stairs.co.uk/ who were good and had some very contemporary styles - we have one 'traditional' oak staircase to basement and then two cantilevered stringless staircases to upper floors - very cool. Aftercare was a bit hit and miss, they were meant to come back to rectify a final riser in the loft that was not flush with the floor (the floor is out, not their stairs) but I never chased them and TBH it would have been an extra for me & would not be a big deal for a joiner to fix - its on my eternal to do list. However I'd still recommend them.

I think one of these would look the part in a wine cellar, and has cloud based Wifi built in https://getawair.co.uk/products/awair-2nd-edition Specifications Dimensions Sensors Temperature -40 to 125° C +/- 0.2° C (+/- 0.36° F) Humidity 0 to 95% +/- 2%p CO2 0 to 4000 ppm +/- 75ppm Chemicals (VOCs) 0 to 2014 ppb Dust 0 to 500 μg/m3 System Requirements Wi-Fi Connection Smartphone or tablet with support for Bluetooth 4.0, running iOS (8 or later) and Android (Jelly Bean 4.3 or later) Free Awair account Wireless Working Wi-Fi connection: 802.11 b/g/n @ 2.4GHz Bluetooth 4.0 Power 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz

I need it to, but i only have a mini digger, no a ruddy great big JCB. However, not as far as Joe, but still too far.

Well I am a Luddite so fir my conservatory I bought this on Ebay for a few quid ( a damp soggy feb day in Devon hence the high humidity). I was wanting a Co2 monitor to see how effective the MVHR was but convinced by others that RH was a good indicator of Co2. I have always thought that running the MVHR 24/7 was not needed (especially in summer when doors and windows are open). I have a humidity stat that I have yet to connect to the MVHR to kick the unit to boost after baths/shower/cooking, I am now thinking of installing a second one to switch the MVHR on when the RH and associated Co2 level get above a threshold that requires the house to be ventilated.

You can get off the shelf stuff, and it is not as if money is the problem.

6mm cement sheet, something from James hardy. I have used a smooth faced version before and it paints really well.

I have embraced the Philips Hue smart lighting, especially the "white ambient" bulbs. Pricey I know but the "temperature" of the white light is tuneable.

This has actually made my week - especially as I am currently having a miserable couple of months. As far as I am concerned the highest purposes / achievements of BH are 3 things: 1 - If someone has a more attractive, comfortable, better designed or otherwise more satisfying house to live in than would otherwise be the case. 2 - Ditto higher quality construction. 3 - Ditto more energy efficient. 4 - Ditto quality of decisions. 5 - Keeping more sane / balanced / thoughtful / less stressed throughout. It really can make one plus one come to three. Thanks @simplepimple. Such comments make what time we all put in in our various ways worthwhile imo.

Everyone knows what I’m going to say................concrete Lego ?

Well, it's been like watching paint dry today, but, with just one loop left, i think it's safe to say i have finally succeeded! WF did send me a new batch of actuators (and it's those that ive been using), but i don't think its that that's made the difference. I think the key is simply patience! But, for anyone who's interested, here's the procedure ive used: 1.Switch off flow to all loops. Then, attach and calibrate one actuator at a time, as below. 2. Attach the temp probes onto flow and return pipes 10cm from the manifold (as per instructions) and screw on actuators finger tight. 3. Power up actuators and the LED should then rapidly flash at ca. 4Hz (not 0.25Hz as stated in the instructions). 4. After just under two minutes, the LED will change to a slow blink and the actuator motor can be heard moving its pin to open the valve if its not already open. 5. After a short pause, the actuator motor will reverse to fully close the valve. 6. This is where the patience comes in. Next it opens the valve at tiny increments (not perceivable) to find the point of min flow in the flow pipe. This can easily take another 20+ mins, and its easy to think that the actuator is stuck, but don't give up! Eventually, the actuator will kick back into life and, with a slow flashing LED, reopen the valve fully. 7. Shortly after this it will move to stable operation and calibration will be complete. You can then switch off the actuator and it should close the valve fully. 8. To be on the safe side, i waited 40+ mins before switching off. Hope this helps others.

You will have problems with depth as you’ll end up with a floor of about 360mm or more to do that span and still have a bounce. Concrete beam and block floors are not as strong as some think. Go with a JJI / Posi at 300 centres and you’ll have no bounce. It will be 245mm joists IIRC and you’ll need to insulate between and possibly above to get to BRegs levels of insulation. Bigger issue may be the bottom of the beams being exposed to damp/cold. Have you considered making some sort of cassette type floor with 300mm Posijoists and OSB and then pumping it full of cellulose ..? Add 25mm battens / timbers and UFH in sand/cement and you’ll get the best of both worlds in terms of feel under foot and insulation

Because with self build insurance they know that you are pretty much tied in so the renewal price shoots up. Self build always takes longer than you think generally so it's always worth taking out an initial policy for longer than planned (think they provide policies of 24 months or even longer). I got caught in this trap (my policy was 18 months) but luckily all of the main structural was complete so I swapped it to a 'normal' buildings insurance policy (albeit for more money than a normal one given the stage of the build).

I've quoted recently for 48m2 worth of windows and the prices range from £356 to £485 per m2. You can see a chart of them below: PM if you want the breakdowns in excel! Edit: X axis is the area averaged U value of the whole window (glass and frame combined)

IME rats will go under stone. To stop rats round here takes a concrete slab, especially if there is a potential food source.

and i warranty it will never be as good as this stuff--black as coal

I have temp and humidity sensors and I take on board what folk say about Co2 following RH but I live so close to the sea on the west coast of Scotland where for the last two months its rained nearly EVERY bloody day...... RH is always high.... and I just want to be able to clearly record and monitor Co2 as I am trying various different approaches to ventilation in about 4 different buildings. I just find it frustrating that it’s not easy...... unless your an computer and engineering alchemist!

Depends how long I live ? (in that case buy my little Furgy fir your missus and add that to your list!).

the only upside to my workshop not being too big it stops me taking on even more projects (before i finish the ones I already have.

In fact, no matter how large, it is allways to o small....

@AnonymousBosch I reckon you can be very clear minded about having a death wish! I don't read most of the threads because I don't understand what they are about, this one looked fairly understandable - GAAAAHHHHH!