Leaderboard

It has a lot to do with the gauge of the block work, you should build a STOREY POLE this is a piece of timber 50x50 that will have height marks on it, it could have a mark for top of windows, top of doors, first floor height and so on, the brickies can use this to adjust their block height up or down a bit to hit the design height, over 10-12 courses of blocks gaining 1 mm per course will grow the building by 12 mm plus a brick course you can juggle things a lot. All down to good planning. Or as above just run a ledger board around the walls to simplify air tightness.

I ran my own Kitchen Company for 20+ years. 1000mm would be absolute minimum, and still a pain in the butt. I would normally design 1400mm for back to back working. 1200mm as a minimum. You might just get away with 1000, but you will find it a pain, and may well end up with a kitchen that looks cramped.

Thanks everyone so far! I’ve got hold of the title deeds and surprisingly it details servitude rights in favour of us regarding service media, access and repair / replacement of said service media. The wording is in plain law so I’ll be getting our solicitor to translate at the first opportunity as there are also servitude rights regarding services for the estate.

Had to give my friend a stern talking to today. She bought a little house a year ago but couldn’t get her flat sold so to save on paying two lots of council tax she rented out the house through an agent. Her flats sold now so the tenant was given his notice and moved out middle of last week. Place has been left dirty , garden overgrown, radiator off the wall etc and a garden shed which he was to have no access to has had its padlock drilled out and door left wide open.. Agent has been in and listed everything and intends to keep back some of the deposit to put things in order but when I heard from her this morning she wasn’t wanting them to do this as she was afraid he would come calling when she is on her own. I’ve managed to talk some sense into her and explained that the agent won’t have given him any details about her living arrangements and whether or not she lives alone and I’m sure he’ll know he won’t be getting all his deposit back but it amazes me how some people live.

We have emailed the builder now having considered his option and have stated we want the roof completely replaced, with a fall and insurance backed guarantee. Had he done it right properly all this could have been avoided. He's not going to be happy but like it's been pointed out already he must have known and could have put it right at various points instead of progressing. I only hope that he protects the rest of the house when he takes the roof off....

Rotate the entire plot design 90deg clockwise to bring your main living areas into the midday sun and orientate most of your windows south. Access both houses from minor side-road with separate driveways, its safer for drivers and kids to avoid entrances onto main roads if possible. Square up the house designs as much as you can and simplify the roof plan. This will prove a large cost saving and make a house that is warmer, lower maintenance, less drafty, faster and easier to construct. Aim for 2 identical houses to save on design cost, and if you can scrape together the cash to do both simultaneously, give you greater buying power for materials and labour. Pretty house designs though and looks a great plot. Good luck.

Consider bolting a ledger plate to the wall and then nailing your joist hangers onto it. Much easier to achieve good air-tightness and achieve a level first floor. As per the excellent green building store videos.

I can sympathise with you on this, but sadly it is more common than you think. In terms of your specific question, who are the windows coming from ..? I would pay the supplier directly and ensure they (the supplier) know that they are for your build only. Ask them for the stage payment points and then have a straight conversation with your builder about your reasons for doing this.

We're using the mitsubishi FTC5 controller that has specific function to manage 2 zones at different flow temperatures, here's a snippet from the MI that explains it. Fan coil will be zone 1 and ufh zone 2, we'll set the zone 1 to a higher target temp so the fan coil should rarely come on. For cooling we'd probably reverse the preference so fan coil runs first.

Snap , with RAL 7016 Window Frames and Sweet Chestnut cladding

So all of the ICF quotes are in. I've tried to standardise them as much as possible, but some have interesting notes which I'll detail below. Putting this up for others who might find it useful in deciding their supplier or working out costs, but also for any feedback or thoughts from the more experienced (that's all of you!). Our build is approx 220sqm footprint and 260sqm of wall. Durisol includes a 22% discount that they put on without negotiation Beco Walform have quoted for the 375 but say the 313 would save around £8K (inc vat) and only increase the U value to 0.165 (though the published value is 0.18) so much better value Nudura say that a U value of 0.24 is plenty and anything more gets really expensive Velox includes the steel that goes inside the wall. I've included a price of concrete at £100+vat/cbm. This is a little on the high side, but it gives comparison. None of the quotes include rebar (if required [except Velox]) - would have to wait for SE calcs. Can anyone suggest an amount (in £ or quantity) that they used on their build? I know that we'll be able to reclaim the VAT on a new build but were costing things as a worst case scenario. Labor to construct I'm guessing at 9 days for 1+1+me: 2 days build, 1 day pour (lower ground). 3 days build 1 day pour (upper ground). 1 day build, 1 day pour (gables, finishing off etc). Hope that helps someone and thanks for your thoughts!

Letter received at end of last week. ...the letter ended saying "please allow 20 days from the date of this correspondence for funds to appear in your account"...or words to the effect.

All of the island options would fail Scottish building regs..... I just don't see that kitchen as large enough for an island.

I think that's a wise move. My thought was yes his idea may work, but what happens if there's an issue a year down the line cos of the extra layer, is he really gonna be interested in coming back to sort it when he has your money.

No Tenant Access Ever ! ( just in case I didn’t make it clear )

Needs a bit of a clear out. Roof seems to have been reinforced / repaired when tiles were put on (would have been slates originally). Insulation is very thin tbh and I guess compressed through age:

I cut some Celcon into wedges an mortar gunned them in.

There will be tape there Don’t go to deep that you rip the tape A good quality Flexible filler is fine If it does become a problem Get your plasterer to tape it on his way home Ten minutes Cup of year Then five minutes feathering it out and you can sand it the following day There should be hardly any need for sanding Itts unusual for a long bound edge joint to crack It would be worth putting a line of screws either side of the crack

I would fill it, then either sticky scrim and easyfill then feather out 450 or 600 wide, sand and paint or paper tape it and feather out

If you feel you are way behind on materials and labour you have paid for -- then now is the time to get it sorted --it will only get worse this pandemic could be a full lock down soon -and if your builder is in trouble then you will be last thing on his mind . he will pay his men at the end of the week --not the beginning before they have even turned up on monday morning ,which is what i think you are saying he is wanting you to do ,if its in arrears then no problem --just make sure it keeps in step

If you have paid him for materials that haven't arrived what makes you think the windows will? I'd pay the window co direct by credit card as others have suggested. If they are reluctant then as long as you pay at least £100 on the card the whole lot is covered. But it has to be for the windows themselves not "fitting" or "designing" the windows.

If you have not already done so, pay with a credit card, then you get section 75 protection. (terms and conditions may apply, check them)

But your only opening a small hole so won't cause any damage to theirs.

Just lift some of the paving bricks and a slab and dig down. A post hole digger will get you over 1.2m deep in a hole not much wider than 600mm square. This will give you the depth of the top of the concrete. If you need to find the depth of concrete you can use a spade to scrape down the concrete and the post hole digger to remove the spoil. https://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-fibreglass-post-hole-digger/35835

To have more than one company running together isn’t that unusual Your husbands gut feeling is right A new builder will want at least as much money upfront Perhaps more At the moment the risk has increased for the contractors also With many clients having cash flow problems also Now would be a good time to sit down with your builder and discuss a labour only deal Suppliers have become very twitchy My main framing supplier has cut my monthly limit from 100k to 50k for the foreseeable future Some jobs are having to be put off till the filling month So the client tells I’m not paying you this month till you are back onsite Lots of work in Cashflow isn’t great I run three companies for this very reason If I had just one company I would be in a position where I’ve got enough work in for 40 men and have to cut wages down to 20 men Im struggling to keep on top of the work we have now with 40 plus It’s like being a juggler While you don’t want your job propping up other jobs You need your job to progress You need to strike a balance If you choose to bring in another builder They will hit you with higher rates

sometimes the simplest solution is the best

Have a look on you tube at a site called "My Home Farm". The guy on there- who I think has contributed to this forum, has done what I plan to do. He is really helpful and has answered queries from me directly. He did an update a year after installation about the efficiency of his ASHP also on you tube. I find real life experiences really useful in my research, especially when the people involved are not trying to sell me anything. Its all a bit of a minefield, but I am seeing a way through I think !

You use bricks to get you to height if that suits better. Then a packer if needed under the hanger. Then it's built over with whatever will bring it back into coursing.

That is right @Moonshine. Even some of the self builds here sail close to the wind, but the HSE normally only get involved if there is a serious accident, a death or a report of dangerous practice from the public or other bodies.

That is odd, I could imagine a situation that the builder would rather the.order went through them to make sure the sizes were right and to make a 15% uplift on the cost of the windows, however having the two companies linked is something I haven't really come across, and it seems like there could be a chance of a monopoly on the price of windows provided.

Got a letter this week stating my claim is approved and will be paid within 20 working days. Quibble over 2 invoices which I will sort out. No 70% payment, all done within timescales.

I suggest stop and look for another builder. We've been in exactly the same situation, cost us a small fortune. PM me if you'd like more details.

Can you swap to a "labour only" arrangement with the builder? You order, and pay for, any materials from the builders merchant and then your builder comes on site to do the work. If he does not arrive then you could find someone else to lay those bricks/install those windows etc. We are working like that and I do feel more in control. I can do all the research on materials and then get them on order in readiness for the availability of the trade that we need. Of course, you will have to sort out where the materials are that you have already paid for. You could treat that as another problem to solve while the build is going ahead, assuming your finances will stand it.

In our village there is a super design for two semi detached houses. They have been designed to look like a large detached house with two gables but are, fact, two semis' with concealed doors. It is only because we know the two (related) families that live there that we know it is not one house. I always admire it as I walk along the street.

For what's it worth, try and remember you are installing MVHR for its practical benefits not aesthetics and so if some evidence of its existence can't be hidden away then so be it. A bit like radiators. (Of course I don't practice what I preach. I had many a sleepless night trying to work out how to retrofit our MVHR with minimum visibility. We had a simpler layout to deal with though (although did have 2.5 floors) and I was lucky with some built-in wardrobes, joist directions and the fact they were I-Joists so could have large holes drilled through them if necessary. Still difficult and I look back now with some pride - and surprise - at what I achieved! )

I am planning to site a Mitsubishi ecodan (monobloc) ashp unit 25 metres from the compatible Mitsubishi cylinder which will be in the house, to minimise any intrusive noise and due to the layout of my barn conversion. This week I confirmed with the mitsubishi technical chap that this would be fine and would not affect performance as long as insulated dual pipe was used to connect the ASHP to the cylinder. I have sourced the pipe through a company called Mibec.Its overall diameter is 125mm, with two 32mm pipes within. A 25 metre run with fittings is around £675.00 I think. The guy at Mibec said this is now a common approach and the pipe is very popular. Other manufacturers make it of course. He said heat loss over the 25 meters would be negligible. After reading comments above I hope what I have been told is true! I queried the distance I am going for with the mitsubishi chap and said I thought I read somewhere in my research that the distance should be limited to about 12 metres. i think he said that was the case when the refrigerant was circulated, but now it remains in the ashp so distance is no longer an issue. The only proviso was that you may need an extra pump added to the system if the integral one cant manage on its own but by using 32mm pipes it may be fine. ( The minimum recommended pipe diameter for the ecodan is 28mm).

What height are the ceilings in the ground floor. Think your going to have to put a box section along the lefthand side of the kitchen. This will enable you to run the ducts along under the joists to get to where they need to be before they go into the correct joist. You can use the height of the kitchen units to help hide the box. Where it crosses the kitchen towards the Sink you will need another box from here to move to duct into the bottom rooms. The cupboard beside the sink will help hide it. The purple line will be the run and then you just turn the duct into the body and bring it to where it needs to go. If you really want to use mhrv then your just going to have to look at some kind of boxed in sections in the kitchen and bedrooms to bring the ducts down.

BPC are very good IME, why not give them a chance to offer a full design by informing them of your "incompatabilities"?

The thermal losses will probably be the same, so the loss of CoP is probably similar. Any pipework needs to be very well insulated if it is to be buried in the ground. Keeping pipe runs as short and straight as possible. KISS

Thanks @puntloos that link is really helpful and does as you say suggest that there’s going to be a further transition, but looks as though duty will still apply but on the UKGT tariff which is generally more favourable but just as incomprehensible! Still don’t feel like chancing it so am going to try and get any big ticket items I need for my build in the country before the deadline if I can.

Noise is one. The internal units can range from sounding like a very noisy fridge to sounding like a really quiet washing machine. Choose well and with units that have good reviews / live feedback from such adopters. The one I was I a absent with would have pissed me right off of it was ANYWHERE in my house ( other than the basement ) as it was annoyingly noisy / vibrations etc. That was a Daikin iirc. Re temperature, you can select a ‘high temp’ split which will go north of 65-70oC with ease ( reliably ) as the one I worked on had to go above 65 to melt the PCM58 in the trio of SA units. Did that PDQ too.

Do you have a monoblock? Do you have an internal compressor unit and THEN an UVC? OP is asking about a true split system which has the compressor indoors ( like a GSHP does ).

Essentially as I understand it ashp ( fan ) is placed a distance from the property . Inside is effectively a Uvc .

Just sticking some pics up of what it looks like in case anyone in the future is interested. Its really easy to use, just paint it on. It goes on navy blue and then dries black so you can easily see where you have been. I have put two coats on, could probably get away with one if you wanted to use it sparingly. Its texture is slightly rubber like, probably the best way I can describe it. As a parge coat it is a lot more expensive than using a cement parge but then I'd argue its a far superior method so on balance it comes down to a personal choice of what you are willing to spend in order to tackle the issue. I only had a couple of small areas to do so was happy to part with the money for it.

Hang on a sec. We’re in the middle of a national emergency / pandemic and the HMRC redeployed their people to administer the priorities of the numerous emergency tax schemes - Furlough, emergency business loans, etc etc etc. I’m sure they assessed that the Self Build VAT Reclaim Scheme might not be a priority over the small matter of saving the economy, jobs, businesses and ensuring millions of people who couldn’t work could feed their families and pay their mortgages/ rent. Or are we suggesting that those of us who are privileged enough to have built our own homes and awaiting some money back should have been the priority ? And so due to there being an inevitable backlog they’ve decided to change their rules to release 70% of claim ASAP, while they clear the backlog and can fully check the claims. What exactly should they have done? ”Dear Mr Smith, please find enclosed your VAT refund. Because we have prioritised the VAT refunds for self builders over other emergency Covid 19 schemes, I’m sorry to say the economy has now completely crashed and your lovely new home is now worth about the same as your VAT refund. Yours, HMRC”

Hi All I wasn't sure where to post this topic so just went for this thread in the hope that someone could advise. We started our build back in January, obvious delays due to covid so have been putting the speed of the build which is soul destroyingly slow down to that. Without going into too much detail we have encountered delay after delay with everything, we have recently found out that the builder has cashflow issues - we paid for materials back in May that have still not arrived on site and we have paid for deposits of materials etc that again have not materialised. Groundsmen were telling us that they hadn't been paid etc etc. We have now held back paying this months invoice to avoid 'being out of pocket' until we see what we have paid for or have confirmation that they have been ordered. My gut feel is to stop working with them but my husband is reluctant to do so as he doesn't want to have to find another builder and have more delays. The next step is to order windows and we have been told that they won't order them until we pay a deposit, again I do not want to part with another penny until they are installed (these windows should have been ordered weeks ago but again they have been delaying on this point). What is the normal practise of paying deposits? Thanks for any advice.

Month 1-3 of the build with a main contractor (and a PM as well). Things go really well, prompt and 2 weeks ahead of schedule. However the builder gets twitchy when we visit the site (?). Month 4 of the build. Work gets slow, 4-5x people on site but no real progress by end of a week. Materials which were supposed to be purchased by the builder seem very slow to arrive. Chased the builder for windows order for 3 weeks, eventually ordered ourselves (and just in time to fit before the Lockdown!). Month 5 of the build. All progress stopped. 4x people on site doing nothing. Already 6x weeks behind schedule. Builder starts cutting corners (eg DPC level too low, drainage not sorted, BC recommendations ignored, structural steels positioned incorrectly, incorrect lintels used etc. Builder extremely aggressive at weekly meetings and at our site visits. Our PM is still blissfully tranquil at this stage, his position is that we are imagining things. We urge everyone to be transparent and communicate so we could find a solution, but are angrily ignored. All the above time we keep paying (reduced weekly fees, but still paying! stupidly hoping that things would go right). The lockdown date. It's clear that the builder is unable to continue. We freeze all works. Five weeks later we find another builder who's willing to take us on at shell&core stage and progress to completion on labour-only basis. We sack PM and completely take over the procurement side. We are on site daily for checks, discussions and deliveries. Finally happy with the speed of the progress. But the lesson learned cost us c. £100k :(((

Although I value the input on CDM, VAT etc. I’d really like to keep this thread about the design... there are already a lot of threads on here that cover those subjects... ?

Warning. Hi I have a 7kw unit.. I know its a bit short for your plan, but thought Id say a few things about my split 'Arotherm' Vaillant system 6 weeks installed. Its impossible to live with causing me huge stress: reason- noise. All dB info (on the pdf techhy pages) refers only to the fan/ compressor unit outside > & relative to a point measured outside. This unit is not a problem, standing even close to it its an unobtrusive purr. The problem is in the inside unit(s), the boiler primarily. Compressor noise (eminating from outside unit > entering house via 2 pipes) I had to try to eleiviate by expensive calls to Vaillant, &, not being able to rid it.. had to set the HW to go on at 7.30am, so this wretched noise doesn't drive me mad & actually wake me up in the adjacent bedroom before 7.30. This means I now can never have HW in the morning until 8.30 being an hour for it to do its compressor on/ off/ on thing for an hour in order to get HW up to temp. Once I'd done this, I could at least sleep strees free until 7.30, when it woke me up. Dreadful IMHO. I ran the CH for 1st time fri, & rads didn't get even my most modern insulated bedroom warm (more a distinctly average 'not cold'), my stone cottage rooms.. weren't adequately heated at all. My kitchen I have to revert back to a trusty £5 fan heater & just forget putting on the rad. Very poor, but it gets alot worse. The next morning, yesterday, & again today, I've been woken at 6.45 by the boiler (not the outside compressor to it noise entering house) making a very prominent electric motor noise on/ off/ on/ incessantly for 1 hr yesterday.. & 2 hours today. Absolutely infuriating. This is the 1st time in 6 weeks Ive had in installed, that Ive heard this motor start up/ off/ on/ off whining drone. Its so loud I can hear it downstairs & 1 room away, even in a new extention the noise is transsmitted along the rad pipes. I had planned to start a b&b with the two bedrooms: but now totally impossible due to this wretched boiler noise (motor noise is very prominent from it > to the cylinder in same room too).. so my future is affected, income etc, as one night spent in the room (the boiler's in the spare bed cupboard, as is the cylinder- where old one was removed, & where alot of people have them) will undoubtadly mean negative comments, & Id be unhappy to let it outs it is anyway. The next bedroom.. if I get woken up in here, then I cannot too let this room out really. I called Vaillant & my fitters about the compressor noise, who said it is normal, so there is no 'problem', & so I am stuck with having no HW ever before 8.30am (& the noise from this is still prominent IN the house after 7.30). But this new motor noise is so bad I cannot possibly live like this/ so I now have to spend £thousands getting it ripped out & something in its place instead. I am furious about it. I have a whole morning of expensive calls to make -again- to Vaillant to see if there's -any- possibility of roidding this new motor noise, or rather shifting it at the least to 7.30 am.. but I doubt it. Its not a fault too- its just how the damn thing is.