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Hi There, I just wanted to share my experiences with one of the biggest stressors for me on the self build, leaking windows - I had 3 of them and it drove me mad. I'm here to share the experience and ask opinions on potential fixes...First of all I didn't want moustaches on my windows like this: I can moan about the detail but in fairness......At least it's watertight Here are my leaking windows, the Stone window/Doors have a different detail which is working perfect(thank God, don't fancy ripping off stonework) You can see I jumped to the conclusion that something was wrong with the window because the only leaking windows were the windows with a fixed glass panel below an opening window..there is a more complex drainage system in these windows (Aluclad-PVC) ... Anyway after so many tests, it turns out it was the sill after all and you can see there is no DPC on the sills either below(It was cut short to allow the sills be stuck in place). you can see the window on the right was ripped out last Month in an effort to address these leaks. (DPC sill in at the moment) This is the install effort unfortunately I trusted the window installers who said once the DPC was past the concrete core, Everything was good (sweet Jesus) and I didn't know any better Sill was CT1 to the window support....That actually was fine and watertight as I later found out. Here is the final install: I extended the window side drip edge because the window company did not manufacture the sills the way I had asked...I guess they were going for the mustache look? Also they didn't know anything about drip edges under the main sill either? So I bent little strips of zinc and powder coated them and stuck them to the Sill. Here's a really bad front profile of the sill, the edge of the sill is actually bent around in a C shape up until my little zinc add on above. The leak is coming in on the seam where the render comes down onto the narrow little bit of aluminum. It was maybe 6mm-8mm wide. All of the other windows seem to be unaffected here's some of the water leaking in under the concrete cold joint the floor makes before the second Floor walls. and here's some lovely salt lines on the head of the opening below the leaky windows (about 1.5 years of leaking) I never respected that ICF was like a sponge for water, I should have sealed up the foam before the sill was put in That product mentioned by @Russell griffiths Illbruck 295 is absolutely great stuff, super sticky and seem quite durable too.

Not sure where to put this, but I thought that this might be useful for other members considering switching to a ToU tariff. I've been considering moving my Home system to use a ToU tariff and Octopus seems to be the only supplier offering one ATM. My main concern was that they have a spreadsheet for historic pricing for 2019, but no hard data on current pricing on their website. You can't get access to their forum until you have an account, which is a bit of a problem if you want the data to make an informed switch. Luckily they do offer and document a REST API where you can query the ToU tariff data. I used this to pull the data for the last 2 years, and aggregated this for time-of-day by Month. I've attached the quick and dirty scripts (minimum effort to write) that I used for this as a starting point if anyone is interested in doing this themselves. I used httpie and rs (because Octopus did and I couldn't be bothered to recode these; you can just sudo apt-get these utilities on most linux distros.) I've also added the main summary graphs below. My main conclusions are as follows: Electricity prices are rather high at the moment (winter; an increased demand due to Covid home working; and possibly a Brexit hike), and in my case I have a 24 month fixed E7 tariff from OVO which isolates me from this hike, and so the rates will need to fall somewhat for it to be worthwhile for me to switch. However the ToU tariff is cheaper in comparison to current single rate and E7 "flexible" tariffs, so long as you can stick to some basic rules: Use the Midnight - 6AM window as much as possible for high-load stuff. Avoid the 15:30 - 18:30 peak demand pricing where practical and move as much daytime use out of this window. About the only use we have in this window is for "always on" devices and cooking and this is rarely more than 1 kWh during this window. The price can fall considerably on an infrequent basis (11:00 - 14:30 on sunny days in the summer; anytime the wind is blowing). If you have a Home automation system and use the daily price forecast API, then you can reduce your electricity overall costs further. Analysing our past usage E7 saves us about £15 / week in the winter months and a ToU tarrif would increase this saving to £20-25. Be aware that you need a converted SMETS1 or a SMETS2 meter fitted to allow your smart meter to be switchable between suppliers. In our case, we have SMETS1 meter that is due to be converted in by July. (This OVO form post gives the back story.) Hope this is useful. These are all calendar monthly aggregates by 30-min pricing slot. Min and Max are the usual definition; the remainder are averages over different time windows. Get-tariffs #! /bin/bash BASE_URL="https://api.octopus.energy" PRODUCT_CODE="AGILE-18-02-21" TARIFF_CODE="E-1R-${PRODUCT_CODE}-C" TARIFF_URL="$BASE_URL/v1/products/$PRODUCT_CODE/electricity-tariffs/$TARIFF_CODE/standard-unit-rates/" W=~/Desktop/agile for ((i=0; i<$2; i = i+1)) ; do START=$(date -d "$1-01 $i months" +%Y-%m-%d) END=$(date -d "$START 1 months" +%Y-%m-%d) MON=$(date -d $START +%y-%m) echo Processing $MON http $TARIFF_URL period_from=="${START}T00:00Z" period_to=="${END}T00:00Z" page_size==1490 | \ jq -r '.results[] | [(.valid_from|capture("^........(?<m>..)T(?<t>..:..)")|"\(.m) \(.t)"), (.value_exc_vat|tostring)] | join (" ")' | \ sort > $W/agile-tariff-$MON.lst done Aggregate Tariffs #! /bin/bash W=~/Desktop/agile for ((i=0; i<$2; i = i+1)) ; do m=$(date -d "$1-01 $i months" +%y-%m) perl -ne ' my ($h,$m,$v) = /.. (..):(..) (.*)/; my $i = 2*$h+$m/30; $tot[$i] +=$v; $cnt[$i]++; END {foreach (0..47) {printf("%.2f,",$tot[$_]/$cnt[$_]);}; print "\n";}' \ $W/agile-tariff-$m.lst done

Look at your LPA Enforcement policy. That should give you some indication of how your case should be resolved. Micropolitics matters. You now have a clear incentive to resolve this quietly, amicably. And at the core of that is polite outcome-focused discussion. Avoid value-laden commentary. It just puts people's backs up. It's in nobody's interest to make a drama out of quite a low-level issue . You could easily have followed the terms of your permission, but didn't. By your own admission the outcome of your action is minimal. So people could easily be puzzled about why you did it. As for trying to delay resolution for 3(ish) years, it beats me. Have you nothing else to worry about? Sort it out quietly, politely and quickly. Who knows you might even make some more friends as a result. And will save you money.

Hi all I'm fairly new here posting but I've been lurking and genning up on the forums. I'm looking to do a self build, but land prices are bonkers atm, and the land for sale is rarer than rocking horse droppings! So I am thinking of setting up a community self build project in Cheshire (Cheshire Westish area) and I just wanted to gauge interest out there for other wannabe self builders in Cheshire who wanted to do the same and on a budget. Pls feel free to get in touch if you're interested. Thanks for reading

holy feck!!!!

I was looking the other week as I’m due to change and neon reef were 12.something all units and I have a North East Fife postcode. they only do electricity but I’m fine with that and will look for gas elsewhere. Appreciate you don’t have gas.

So yours combines the function of an MVHR as well passing the incoming air through a heat exchanger first? That makes a lot more sense and I can well imagine the exhaust air after the heat pump is indeed very cold indeed. the system described by the OP did not include an MVHR element and the incoming air to the rooms appears to be raw outside cold air.

Very happy with doors and door frames, we fitted them all ourselves , ours are pale grey with silver infill to match the stairs

The door opening in the frame is almost always over sized and the door liner will need packing. In a similar situation i used the absolute minimum packing on one side so there was more packing on the other side where the space for architrave was tight. Then i cut the architrave to size and fitted it. you hardly notice that it is thinner than the other side of the door.

Oak veneered MDF from Howdens, longer lengths than real solid oak, cheaper, won't warp or crack. Doors architrave and skirting treated with Osmo door oil:

You will determine whether or not this is to be a contest. Nobody else. Take the hint, apply for PP, move on. What possible advantage is it to anyone - most of all you - to make a mountain out of an as yet non-existant Enforcement Notice? Yep, some people are bat-shit-crazy-vindictive-little-cock-wombles. And you feel the need to take notice of their behaviour? Get a proper problem.

Some of the made to measure ones have architrave already fitted on one side and with a slot to accept the stuff on the other. With these, it is best not to have to scribe the architrave to a wall and you are best finding out the width of the arch and making the adjustment on the opening if required.

Before they serve an enforcement notice, the officer usually will want to come and visit. But to do that, they need to arrange access (and if they don't, put up some locked gates so that they can't get in without access). So go through the motions of arranging a date for a visit... as far in the future as you can possibly get away with. Then two days before the appointment, email the officer with some excuse to delay the appointment. Covid is your friend here. By delaying several times, you might be able to buy a couple of months.

At least that's something ?

The problem is once a neighbour complains and they find a breach of the regs they are kinda obliged to "regularise" the situation... https://www.lgo.org.uk/make-a-complaint/fact-sheets/planning-and-building-control/planning-enforcement Yours might not be quite that bad but I don't think they have any powers to approved a breach unless you make a retrospective application. If they approve it the neighbour can't really complain that the due process wasn't followed.

So do a rough budget of £10k kitchen, £5k bathroom, £3k each en-suite, £2k utility. That’s your big blocks of supply and fit at roughly £23k. For the remainder you can estimate £200 a door, £150 per room for arcs and skirts, £500 per room board and skim. Add £250 per room for basic decorating. Then you can multiply it simply by number of rooms to get to a budgetary value. Don’t forget to include hallways (just ignore the doors unless they have them too). So in this case a 3 bed with lounge, dining, kitchen etc would be 12 rooms so ~£13k to add to your £23k so with contingency of 10% I would be looking at £40k. If you want to use parquet then beware it can be expensive to both buy and lay. You can soon spend £30/m buying second hand and then £30/m laying and £15/m finishing it. Ask me how I know ..... ?

Usually sat on something like Marmox to mitigate against cold bridging. Either way the packers need to be synthetic so they don’t bridge damp. Saw one clients build where Norsken fitted all the sliders on top of offcuts of wooden battens. Client cemented the remaining gap internally and I bet it’s sucking in moisture and cold like Monica Lewinsky.

Harry. I know this might sound daft, but the enforcement officer is only doing his/her job, and will have to answer to people higher up the chain. As you will know, the best, and cheapest way is to attempt to get the enforcement officer on your side. If he/she has a "quiet" word with the planning officer, you might be surprised to see your retrospective application sail through, and be an end to your hassle. I once had one where a detached double garage was built 250mm to high. One of the neighbours kicked off, and complained that the solar panels that sat on the main house crown roof were not shown on the application, and that that made the whole main house to high. We had a couple of meetings on site, including tea and biscuits. A retro application went in, and sailed through.

These show the black architrave, skirting and window boards from tev door s

I would guess this will be about a third of what you have spent to date.

Yes, or No, depends on the 'something else'. Energy cannot be created, it can only change its form. So, stored energy has to be created first, and this is where the confusion comes in. If, for instance, you need to raise the temperature of the building by 2° C, and you have 10 tonnes to heat, assuming brick/concrete, with a specific heat capacity of 0.8 kJ/kg.K, then you need 16,000 kJ (4.44 kWh), while at the same time as heating say 100 kg of air, that has a SHC of 1 kJ/kg.K, so an extra 200 kJ (0.056 kWh). But if you have a timber/insulation combination, you may be reducing the 10 tonnes to 2 tonnes, but the SHC may be higher, say 1.3 kJ/kg.K, then that initial heating load is reduced to 5,200 kJ (1.44 kWh), while the air heating load is the same. Now people argue that you get that difference (3 kWh) back when you turn the heating off, except some of it has leaked out to the atmosphere/ground. So by having a larger store of energy, you have a larger amount to loose, and as heat loss is non proportional, the larger the temperature differences, the larger the losses, and the faster those losses happen. Controlling losses, and gains, is the key to temperature stability, this is why people put blinds on oversized windows and have MVHR fitted. In the UK it is a rare day that the weather conditions are idea of stable passive heating, or cooling for that matter. Spend your time and money on insulation and airtightness, not on large windows, tonnes of concrete and aftermarket fixes.

I've just had a play with a few approaches. Recall that the way my heating calcs go, I compute how much heat I need the following day each midnight. The best algo seems to be to split this into ½hr slots so let's say I need N slots tomorrow, then pick the N cheapest slots in the next day's ToU tariff and run the heating during these slots whenever they are. Depending on the month this can reduce my heating bill by 25-60%, so cancel my comment about the OVO E7 tariff being cheaper. PS. The price can go negative, so I need to think about what I do on these days!

I would consider that for sure. Thank you.

I’m on this and should be on the Agile Outgoing by tomorrow. I’m using the cheaper overnight rates for the Sunamp and UFH. Here’s today and tomorrow’s prices. They release the following days prices at around 16:00. PV is starting to offset the peak periods. Batteries one day should help even more, charging at the low rate and using at the peak rate.

There's a localish waterjet company, no idea if they offer suction too, but going to phone them tomorrow. Kitchen sink has slowed down already, no idea if it's same issue or we've been over zealous with washing dirty pots and bits of food down there already.

I've had a bit of action since I mentioned selling the broken down dumper ?

The stack is made up of McAlpine 40mm BSP fittings with the odd size adaptors for different hoses from Ebay.

Would do again Timber frame build with render / cladding exterior Passive standard - means low energy costs even though we don't have solar panels Triple glazing - so quiet No heating upstairs apart from UFH in ensuites External electric blinds - a godsend to keep house cooler in summer Aluminium trim around base of house for a finished bottom "edge" - looks smart Larder (but would do it a bit better as it isn't perfect - gets too warm still despite being accessed via an insulated external door, and on a north facing wall with no sunshine). But it is useful extra storage, hidden away and I do like that. MVHR Still might do Solar panels (cabling to the roof is there just in case) Wish we'd done Two dishwashers Some way of cooling the house via the MVHR ducts. Got way too hot last year (though have since fitted solar film to some glazing so will see if there is any improvement this summer) Insect screen on door to patio Wouldn't bother with next time Huge architecturally pleasing windows in upstairs bedrooms. Requiring juliet balconies or safety locks. Complete waste of money - could have set them 300mm off the floor or higher, had a similar visual effect from the outside, would've been cheaper and easier in every way.

Careful measurements. You will need to know the exact floor finish, what this floor finish is fixed down with etc etc, you then mark FFL on the wall and fit doors to match that. Easier to do if your tiling as you can alter adhesive under tiles a little bit. Also better to be low with the screed as it’s easy to bring the screed up 3-4mm with a floor leveller than it is if you are too high. So I would side with caution and go 4-5mm low and allow for a few mm of wiggle room.

When it goes wrong you want exposed, ideally with all gubbins freely accessible including brain and joints, pump etc

Welcome, I am in west devon. Insulation insulation insulation, you only buy it once and it works forever, fuel (whatever it is) always goes up in price and payable forever ?. Yes do lots of research, I changed my mind many times about how I wanted my build. Don’t be afraid of asking questions , loads of knowledge here (and practical stuff, not salesmen!!!). Some said I was OCD about my build but it’s exactly how I wanted it. Best of luck?

Digital is fine, you just need to print them off for the submission. We had about 50/50 digital vs printed invoices. Golden rule seems to be you need the VAT number of the supplier. You also need the VAT charged to be shown on the invoice / receipt OR need to calculate VAT charged (remember there are different section on the form for these two scenarios). Depending on value, your name & deliver address need to be on the invoice. A few of mine, online ones mainly, I had to write in the VAT number which I found elsewhere on their website.

Ignore @jack - use my method instead. 1) Get a big shoebox - I used one that my rigger boots came in. 2) Put everything that looks like a receipt, including delivery notes and the odd instruction booklet, in the shoebox. 3) Do not print out email invoices, just leave them on email. 4) Now and again plan to sort through the box. Do not sort through the box. 5) Keep the box in a safe place. Occasionally forget where the safe place is and have a massive panic attack. Find shoebox and consider step 4) above. 6) Finish your build, get BCO sign off and feel smug. Realise that you now have 3 months left to deal with the shoebox. 7) Open box, riffle thought it, close box. 8 Open box, and sort into invoices and non receipt chaff. Feel a bit queasy that the invoice pile is smaller than you imagined. 9) Realise that most of your receipts are on email and spend the next month tracking them down. Using a hypnotherapist to aid recall is not mandatory but will help. 10) Wake up at 4am remembering a purchase that you have not found - get up and search email for it before you forget. Go back to bed at 6am happy that you've found another £3.75 11) Find the BH VAT thread, download the forms and start to fill out the spreadsheet. Realise that the two months you have left will not be long enough. 12) Familiarise yourself with the scanner you last used eight months ago. Allow at least 1 day to find and update scanner s/w on your computer. 13) Start scanning, printing and typing. Repeat for an eternity. 14) Realise you don't have a hole punch, card sleeves or treasury ties - spend £15 acquiring and debate of you can claim the VAT for these. 15) With about a week to go, finish the whole lot and feel smug at the neat bundle of filed receipts. Last time you felt this good about paperwork was a school project on volcanoes in yr 6. 16) Discover the back up shoe box with more invoices. Panic. 17) Take your VAT reclaim baby to the post office. Hope that the claim amount is enough to cover the postage. 18) Wait. 19) Panic again. 20) Get confirmation of claim success and receive funds. Entertain momentary fantasy about what you could spend it on before reality bites. Easy...

I have worked as a site manager, on several expensive new builds of £2 million +...... It's difficult. One the One hand you need to keep things moving along, and i'm telling you now, you can have all the drawings in the world (I've had over 400 for a 4000sq ft house). At some point, on a practical level the drawings just won't work with the actual building taking place. The skill is the speed at getting it sorted quickly. Hold-ups cost money. I did Two houses in 2014. If i had had to refer back to the Client, Architect, Engineer everytime somebody waved a bit of paper at me, and said this don't work, I'd still bloody be there. I looked at a job for the Saudi Royal Family, and just at the quote stage i realised that every single time there was the slightest issue,it would have to be held untill the weekly site meeting, so that everybody could sit around and debate it. I knew that this would end up costing the client money, and me money. I'm not saying you are wrong, but wanting to discuss everything with the whole team, builder, architect, engineeer, interior designer, etc, etc, will be costing your builder money, because it's all a delay to his schedule. If he tells his guys not to come in for a few days, he still has to pay them. If he is organising any sub contractors, he will have to advise them that the site won't be ready for when he has them booked. There is then the risk that when he wants them they won't be available. From the sound of your post, you are having to get some underpining done. Get your engineer to get his butt to site pronto and talk it through with the builder. What is the architect going to bring to the party ? Another nice bill for you, that's all. builders build and engineers make sure it won't fall down. When your builder says to you, that detail, in that corner, don't work, but i can do it like this is that ok ? Be ready to make an instant decision, so that he can get on, and you can get your project finished. Listen, i'm not saying your builder is perfect. I'm just saying that it doubt it is all his fault

@Kiltmmm, interesting conundrum. The builder we ended up using sounds a bit like your Builder A - He was at times frustrating to deal with in regards to meetings and communication prior to actually starting work but his "work" and "reputation" for me, outweighed those niggles. Once I had pinned him down we agreed a start date and the rest was left to "trust" which interestingly enough, was something he mentioned to me at an early stage of our "relationship." Ironically enough, that agreed start date was put back a week! Yes frustrating but these are the things one will have to accept perhaps when venturing on a self build project. I guess you have to consider such things as "personal" relationships in this equation as well as just areas that are black or white. PS - Also things like locality may come into play - Local reputation is "king" in our area, whereas in more urban built up areas, some builders may not care for that as much.

He never even bothered to quote, after coming out for site visit. ?‍♂️

I agree with once a timewaster, always a time waster, however - do you have any idea on the availability of Builder B or if he's as equally poor at communication? If you stick with A and August turns into October, are you going to wish you'd appointed B? I'd be asking builder B his availability and make a decision based on that. If he says he can't get to you until the end of the year, you are no better off. I had pretty much the same experience with my groundworker. Visited in June and took a couple weeks to 'quote'. Asked for that in writing which took another couple of weeks - which is absolutely fine, I realise people are busy and that part isn't what frustrated me. When he initially visited I asked on availability and was told 8/10 weeks. Turned out to be double that. Not an issue per se, but it was the poor communication and constant unknown as I would ring him and ask how many jobs he had in before me, and he couldn't (or wouldn't say). I was no doubt being pushed out for other jobs. I could accept that if it was actually communicated to me, not 'you're next I am just finishing a job' to then a few weeks later hear 'just doing a patio and then be with you'. Towards the end I was contemplating going elsewhere, but this guy did come as a recommendation, I had seen his work and was learning that communication is commonly poor and I'd no doubt have faced the same issues and even more delays so stuck with it in the end. EDIT - Skimmed past the fact he hadn't returned your calls or emails - sack him off in that case. Cynic in me wonders if people come crawling when they are otherwise light on work. These people are always on the ball enough to get home and ping out your invoice within an hour of leaving site on the last day aren't they

It’s quite normal to get at least 3 quotes. There is competition out there and it’s good to hear from various people about your project. When I was a builder, after giving the quote I would say there was x jobs in front of theirs and would be about y weeks but I promised to ring to give a date when half way through the job before theirs and promised I would not put more work in front of theirs in the queue.

I don't feel getting builder B out for a quote is messing anyone around , i would be looking for builder C to quote as well .

Bin builder A, if that’s the level of communication shown while trying to impress/quote/win contract , it’s only going to go down hill once he’s appointed

Builder A sounds dodgy to me, whatever your work load you don’t ignore customers, tell him as he ignored your calls you found someone else. Gut feeling about people is important in my opinion.

Why should a contractor take ANY risk, it’s your project, all he wants to do is earn a wage and go home. You want to build your dream but let somebody else take the risk. He could do it another work out how many days and put 25% on top for risk, then put 20% on top of all materials. This is what I would do. Price it as as high as I could get away with, he probably is doing you a favour.

I didn't think water boards could refuse surface water to combined foul if site conditions did not allow for soakaways? I had permission for rainwater into foul as recently as like 5 years ago

I prefer medium density aggregate blocks. They are inexpensive, easy to fix to, easy to render / plaster. Have you worked out the difference in heating costs with the aero ones? I suspect insignificant.

Glenn and other buildhubbers, I would suggest proceeding very carefully with regard to CIL and starting without discharging conditions. I have got myself in quite a situation by starting before discharging all my conditions. I also have a Section 73 variation of conditions (different drawings going on) which will impact the CIL. It is not looking good for me to be able to claim self build exemption. I demolished a building when there was no active planning permission (there was a lapsed permission and my current one was going to appeal) and I was renovating a garage under permitted development. Both of these could potentially make me liable for CIL. Am having to pay through the nose for legal advice to find a way forward. Am sure most people can get away with it, but I am in Waverley in Surrey and our CIL is a mouth watering £455.44 a square meter!

That requires planning and knowing things in advance ! . That needs organisation and structure . Why change the way my project has been run now ! ?

unless its walk on glazing (forum joke)

Hmm remind you of anybody??

we have requested, but are waiting to hear. since we asked these guys for their company name and registration number we have had radio silence, that is after they only took 5 mins before to reply for each question we asked.