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Hi all, I have now secured my amended PP and I been having fun preparing some colour 3D visuals for my house, I'm pleased with how they come out, what do you think ? J

Thanks very much everyone. One thing is very clear, the chances of us having achieved this without buildhub.org.uk is close to zero. If we had tried on our own, our bank balance would have been even emptier. There's something very empowering about knowing that, sometimes within minutes, you can have informed opinions delivered straight to your laptop. When the soft and smelly hit the fan we were immediately supported with sensible advice and good wishes, as well as reassuring stories of similar calamity. A virtual group we may be. But the support experienced is very real. Very personal. And very C19 - safe. Thanks everyone.

We have just finished with the environmental health no major problems tbh all pretty common sense. The last boat I worked on shifted 80% of their produce outwith EU mostly to japan. The boat before we shifted high end langoustine to Dubai, international paperwork is not a new thing within the industry. A friend have recently set up a shellfish export buisness specialising in brown crab to china, he seams to be constantly looking for staff. When it come to fish I think people forget there is a big world outwith EU who luckily seem to have appetite for good quality seafood.

We did it! Today we received a completion certificate for our new house - our home! It took us 61 weeks from breaking ground - and these included a very wet winter seasons, a change of builders mid-project, difficult neighbours, sacking the PM, a lockdown, tons of remedial works, and another lockdown! What a journey - feels surreal! Could not have done it without you lot here - love this forum totally Before and after pics are below

Over the last four years or so, we have had our fair share of ups and downs. But this is an up. And now, GCNs are very welcome. From a twinkle in our eyes in the little local-stone built cottage (to the left of the photo) to a contemporary orange (coloured) box... which will be silvery grey in a while. Like my receding hair. Lots more to do, but hey! SWMBO reminds me we started when POTUS was being sworn-in , and just moved in by the time he had been sworn at long enough to be kicked out. Is there a lesson there? Probably not.?

I said that ... about page 14.... I’m with you on this but I reckon this is a classic grant plus RHI scenario where the installer stands to make £3-5k a pop for basically a crap install and no comeback.

Considered a new architect ..???? He has happily drawn (including that lovely 3D rendering) that the floor levels are the same inside and outside .. which if you need that sunken raft is not the case .. I am sort of with your builder on this, but I would be checking a few things first. I would get a machine in and excavate down the inside about 300mm in from one of those legs, and check how far down the foundations to, and more importantly how far out. Farmers are well known for the “that’ll do” method of groundworks, and you could find that those legs are stood on 100mm thick pads, or cubic metre blocks - all will depend on what day it was, and who was paying for the concrete... That will cause you problems for any walls, not just your legs as you can’t remove the concrete without some serious work. Have you got a structural engineer and a structural survey for the existing frame ..? That may be useful before you go digging tens of cubic metres of soil out to find you can’t get close to the legs.

Be mindful that there are strict rules when it comes to the existing structure under Class Q ( i.e. . it has to be capable of conversion ) so be guided by your design team not the builder.

If it doesn't do it during the day and only at night then can you change the time clock so it's 12 hrs out. It would mean it's doing this purge in the afternoon and you get some sleep.

One of the problems with Brexit is we are the first to do it. That we are led by the institutionally incompetent* is compounded by the fact there is no one to crib off. C’est la vie. Hopefully someone vaguely competent will come along in the next 20 years. *Is this the fault of our EU membership? (not the EU per se). It looks awfully like our political class have been abrogating any responsibility they can to the EU for decades and suddenly they’re ill prepared to take it back.

The biggest problem is running out of energy... just paint it all magnolia and we'll worry about it later.

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

Mark up the cables so others know what they are. Really annoying finding a disconnected cable and having no idea what it is.

oh I agree, but that’s the “design” bit, using something that’s not fit for it’s purpose should not pass the design stage. A bit like putting a tow bar on a mini and trying to haul a two ton trailer!.

To be fair your house is well insulated. If I lived in Zoots house I wouldn't consider using an ASHP it would be an external oil boiler for me.

They look impressive. Very crisp. We had some done for a development a couple of years ago but made a fair few planning amendments between the CGI and construction:

Yeah worth doing if not sure. Don't want to be responsible for some site worker getting a shock!also they can then test the earth rod properly to make sure its safe

Deffo reuse for site power. Extension leads have dreadful power ratings and things like chop saws suffer badly. Always good to have a high power supply. Yip, just tape them off and cable tie them so they can’t go touching anything.

OK that's 2-core steel wire armoured. The earth path goes from the earth bar in the CU via the bit of earth wire to that galvanised adaptable box. The earth path will likely continue via the stranded armoured around the cable. Those strands will be connected to the brass gland. Tug / push up that earth wire in the galv box and you might see it move on the earth bar in the CU. No prob leaving that earth wire in situ to the galv box. Are you removing the swa cable completely?

Experience of all the 'Passiv slab' houses on here and plenty more elsewhere suggests otherwise.

Lidl were doing a good graphite spray.

Well worth lubing all your window/door locks and hinges with some graphite spray periodically.

When I tied them to the sheets I just did 4 or 5 on bottom legs and then same to top, like a zig zag.

But then here you are, holding up the UK as a country which has done badly - when as @daiking points out, we've all done badly. The only areas I have read about which have done well are countries under a dictatorship, pre-prepared countries as @joe90 said, and Africa. I will say though, with the countries that have experienced SARs etc and the fact they did ok now - let's not forget, when they went though SARs etc, they did just as bad as we are now with COVID! Africa is an area which seems vastly under reported. Why have they done well where Western countries with all their medical facilitates etc havent? I would suggest the issue lies more with western Liberal attitudes. The minute the government tries to prohibit/restrict they are all up in arms about oppression, government heavy handedness etc. That makes government action very difficult. Christmas is a prime example, they made no allowance for Eid, yet we are for Christmas, why? Because your average westerner will just chin off any restrictions and do what the hell they like. Who then polices that? Look at what happened when pubs were told to shut at 10, everyone hit the local off licence and got pissed in the streets. The government is not the primary issue, people and their willingness to disregard the issue and danger presented is. Equally the Government can't be 'strong' when EVERY decision taken is constantly sniped at/undermined by the press, the opposition party, the SNP etc. This sniping just validates the belief in citizens that the government don't know what they're doing so let's do what we like?‍♂️

BC Cost - yes their inspection rate was based on valuation of the build - they went to the higher end cost, we tried to argue the costs down (i.e. you can have a £2500 bathroom suite vs £15k and the like) but they were adamant. The overall difference in cost was approx £600 so we gave in for a (hopefully) easier life, fearing we could be earmarked for harsher inspections by BC down the line. One contractor i spoke to who is quoting was very direct over key payments i.e. block work completion, roof completion, full envelope, etc. and establishing works i can complete that he would be happy for me to self do (drainage, landscaping, foundations (i know some are particular on some tasks) and elements i will have supplier in. In the current climate we are in, builders and suppliers are keen for the work but i don't want to be seen as taking the proverbial Mick - they want to work and i want value for money but i want to make sure nobody gets messed around. I know what i want and want to make sure its detailed that any variation/change is agreed first (before anyone uses their initiative), payment at agreed stages and after inspection of works, retention built in for snagging at different stages. I think its part fear of trying to get it right first time and not get caught out on some oversight that will chip away on our emergency fund for the works. thankfully we are based right across the road from the build and from a farming background so we are well trained in getting value for money!

There is one on the island....... I am praying to the manito gods that the owner will see fit to help me out, good bloke just very busy with his own self build so I will need to wait patiently. I got given the pavers for nothing and they loaded two pallets at a time onto my trailer at the yard but I had to unload every single brick by hand at my end....... access issues meant I had to unload in the most convenient place which very quickly became the most inconvenient place to have 30 pallets of bricks... anyway I live in hope that I will get them moved before April !

This is part of the problem will all reporting. It is often the style, rather than the substance. I skip the adjectives, then see what is left.

Ha, I just said the exact same thing in my previous post. Cowards.

Yes, and I have had loads of it since you started.

Needs to be XPS or some form of insulation which doesn't readily absorb water. EPS is open cell so will absorb a fair amount of water, no good for below DPC. With regards the airtight paint (passive purple or blowerproof), for a cavity wall house, or probably any other house which is having EWI this is a total waste of money! This type of paint is meant to go on the inside face of the walls inside the property to seal any cracks etc, and give an airtight layer beneath the finish plaster. All of these systems etc will have BBA approval documents which show how they should be used, and these are valid with LABC.

John, I used plastic mesh spacers under the bottom sheets - did look at mars bars but for the qty required they seemed expensive. In the thickened areas where two sheets are stacked I used mesh hystools and tied them to the top and bottom mesh sheets.

People will read/buy into whatever it is they want to believe. Clearly you enjoy reading such garbage and no doubt buy into it. I was going to put some time into refuting line by line this dross but 1. It will have no material impact, those that want to hear this sort of stuff will not be persuaded otherwise and those that don't buy into it will not need persuading otherwise anyway. - yes I recognise this line equally applies to myself in that it would be difficult to persuade me to buy into this crap. 2. I have more important things to do. The only things I will say are comparing countries and how they dealt with covid is generally a waste of time, each country is different and can react differently so if you can name me another country with the same circumstances i.e. population density, travel hubs, laws, health provision, devolved responsibilities etc etc as the UK which have done things better then please do. Secondly, can you provide the evidence which explicitly states that Priti Patel has been found guilty of bullying Civil Servants can you provide a link? and not to some crap news article which spins the internal Government report wording into that which they want it to say. I think the bigger story in this issue is how senior Civil Servants will nod their heads when given instruction by elected MPs and then do what they like anyway.

We have had water softeners for nearly thirty years and Wendy drinks tea and coffee made with softened water. I rarely drink hot drinks but drink cold water and use a water filter.

I would prefer to drink filtered water (ie some contaminants removed).

From our experience I wouldn’t say it tastes yuk, but it’s definitely not as pleasant to drink as the water from the kitchen sink without the softener. I would leave the kitchen sink taps hard and will be doing so on our current build. I guess it depends a lot on your local area though. North west Wiltshire here.

As peter said, steel supplier does a mesh support that is shaped like a z, you can squish them down a bit if needed. I would also use mars bars wherever you can as the plastic spacers crush if stood on by a fat concreter.

I saw that email but the attachment didn't come through in digest mode, and I couldn't see it listed on the company's website so gave up looking. Now I see the pdf it looks really good, and good value. If I get reliability issues it'd be trivial to swap one of these in in place of 8 or the s1-dr dimmers I currently have (and would save on a fair bit of cabinet space and vampire load in the process)

This is what I was meaning, we had more rebar in our spec. I think the triangle deck chairs is a easier solution.

Can you not run 125mm triangular deck chairs to support the upper layers ..? https://tzursteel.co.uk/products/continuous-wire-chair-2m-lengths-each-spacer-from-50mm-to?variant=27962143604759&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwueI17Sr7QIVqujtCh1EYw10EAQYASABEgKk5PD_BwE

But what percentage did it used to be???, I remember fishermen being paid to decommission their fishing boats. Open boat yards, build fishing boats encourage fishing, eat more fish ?

Clear silicone - decent quality. Small bead just inside both edges then you can take them off with a Stanley blade or similar. I do quadrant against skirtings like that if I may need to remove it.

@Thorfun I've got @joth's unused DALI extension and have been playing with Loxone+DALI as well as tunable white functioanaltiy ? Thoughts so far: - As Joth said we've also seen that most mid-range light fittings than a designer would specify have a DALI driver option for small difference in price. - DALI is easier to wire (230v + control line) than using centralized dimmers. - Each fitting is a seperate DALI address so you run out of addresses very quickly. This is an issue because the Loxone DALI extension only supports 48 addresses and costs £430. One way you can get round this is if you have a group of 8 fittings they you know you are never going to want to operate indpeendant you can get a "DALI expander" device which will broadcast one DALI address to n light fittings. (I'm yet to do the maths on how much you save though) - Tunable white fittings are really interesting, but they are impossible to use with Loxone in any easy/practical way unless they come with a single DT8 driver. The ones I've been loaned come with two DT6 drivers which means you use twice as many DALI addresses, and you have no way of controlling color temperature easily in Loxone because from Loxone's perspective they are two different fittings, one 2700k and one 5700K. - Not looked into or decided what approach to take with RGBW stips yet. Could use loxone RGBW tree extensions, or could use DALI DT8 RGBW drivers.

Not quite OT, but close enough. I had a recommended interior designer to redesign (not renovate, though a periodic decorating cycle was subsumed in the project) a big student house last year. The most challenging aspect probably was to negotiate changes to a more comprehensive proposal than I was after, to something rather more modest in budget terms. But to do it in a way that put the budget where I was happy with it, but still gave the ID a project that had enough meat on it to be satisfying professionally and did not unduly affect the proposed look. Suspect that always happens and IDs always expect a few "buts and cuts", just as architects do because they deliberately stretch it to show where they see potential. In the event we rescoped and renegotiated slightly to reduce the budget by about 30%, which worked for both sides. Ferdinand

Haha I hope you managed to go back and repaint (unless you like magnolia of course!). Thanks for the response!

Getting some people to vote for confiscating the assets of a minority doesn't make it batter for the minority... Rgds Damon

Hi there, Apologies, perhaps I should have been clearer in explaining that I am hoping to learn about problems with internal finishes and interior design specifically (perhaps stretching to lighting and electrics which you are right in saying needs to be agreed before the plaster goes up). Thanks so much for your response!

Once the plasters on the walls its too late to worry about design issues. The design needs to be agreed with the client before the build starts. Plan things like service runs, location of plant room, levels of insulation, the use of modern technology to heat water and space heating, solar PV, light and shade etc. MHVR, ASHP. Fabric First .... The list goes on.

He's still on the staff list so I'd be surprised if he doesn't look in on us occasionally.

https://www.burtonroofing.co.uk/cupa-r12-500-x-250mm-natural-roof-slates-holed.html £1.83 if you buy 1000+. I'm sure you can shop around though, or your roofer may have a trade account. The Del Prado price was what our roofer told us, not seen it personally. Also, I heard that quote a lot of people that use Cupa opt for the cheaper H range, which just requires more on-site grading apparently.

Here's mine during the pour. The DPM is over the bottom layer of EPS and up over the EPS upstand. If you pour directly into the ring beam then there is a risk of the liquid getting under the uncovered EPS and it floating "away", hence pouring on to the higher areas to weight it down and letting it gently flow into the ring beams. This is not an issue with self-compacting, it can happen with C35.