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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/05/22 in all areas

  1. Ah Indy… I think people are saying it for your benefit, and I hope it’s constructive criticism. This is fixable, don’t worry. I’ve fixed far worse than this and I’m sure you will get it sorted once you get a plan in place. Why don’t you think you can build something with architectural merit? I’ve heard that from other people too and what I hear is ‘I want something rubbish’. Architectural merit just means someone with some skill has thought about it. No one expects *you* to become a designer, it’s actually quite hard and requires skill, practice, knowledge and flair in that area. If you can’t do it yourself (You can’t. And I’m not saying that to be cruel) you need to have someone figure out your taste and make the design decisions on your behalf. That’s the point of the design process … and I blame the designers for giving you what you want and not what you need. so, get yourself on Pinterest and pick out three 1.5 storey houses you like, a feature porch, a living area that *works* for you (a family needs quiet spaces not open plan. …then find a new architect. Sorry guys if you’re reading. You’re not a good fit for this project and client.
    3 points
  2. i've read this thread since it started and kept my peace, but since you've asked,? start again with a blank sheet, it's a pigs ear of a design, stop with the wow factor and build something that looks nice, is pleasant to live in and is energy efficient. as it's been mentioned before https://mcmansionhell.com/
    3 points
  3. I don't usually comment on these sorts of threads, and I'm not sure whether you have just worded that comment poorly. If I was paying to have a house designed I would want it to look like I wanted, not what somebody thinks I would like. If @Indy likes this design then what's the problem, he's going to be paying for it and living in it.
    2 points
  4. @indy. I'm glad you're not a troller. How about you just press pause for a few days. Have a solid think about your budget. Get a de- identified Google maps aerial shot and a few anonymous Google Streetview pics of the existing street and throw it open to the forum to have a look and make suggestions. Most of us are really enthusiastic about self builds and just want to see others getting as successful a project as possible.
    2 points
  5. Ffs get a new architect. If the architect can’t glean from you what you like and take that into account to please the a hole planners then he is just happily taking your cash . Remember you are the boss - you are paying him . Go in your local planning portal find approved planning designs you like - usually you’ll find an architect mentioned multiple times . Also / or ( at more cost ) look which architects design for the wealthiest areas in your town - talk to them . Will they cost more ? Yes . Is it worth it ? - probably. A fantastic but expensive design is better than a crap cheaper one .
    2 points
  6. That actually emphasises the worst parts of the design, it’s quite the worst design I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some very bad designs. So these changes and ideas are coming from you? What are you paying a designer for exactly? Scrap this terrible design. Make them design you something nice and for heavens sake, stop letting them waste your money because sounds like they will quite happily. Your 1st floor windows need to be 1200 or else you won’t be allowed to open them. No. I’m starting to think you are just trolling us at this point.
    2 points
  7. I designed a branch system using rigid plastic ducting.
    2 points
  8. There is nothing like making a plan and sticking to it, is there? And it's a bit of fun for a quiet Saturday after long week of software testing, 1st fix wiring and plasterboarding. I originally planned to fit a large water based thermal store but since the 4th gen Sumamps appeared and the control system "gremlins" appear to be resolved maybe it is time to reconsider the plan. Nothing in the house has got to the stage of preventing such a plan change. I know the new Sunamps have only been around for a few months, but does anyone have one (any size) that's currently in use? The choices of new Sunamp are a little odd. Why so many different options for very similar prices? e.g. what does the "ePV" do that the "e" doesn't given that you need an external PV diverter? I suspect the answer is that there is no difference in hardware other than volume of PCM but the controller has some different parameters. I've developed a Matlab model of hot water use based on a Monte Carlo simulation of 100 years of random usage of hot water given some parameters e.g. occupancy and sizes of bath etc. This indicates we will on average need 18kWh of hot water energy per day, with a fairly tight standard deviation. I suspect the mean is an over estimate but it does align fairly well with the gas usage for the past few summers (i.e. when the bill is DHW only). I have used the model to find the ideal number of solar PV panels based on payback time for the roof (although I didn't forecast energy prices rising quite as quickly) so I have a 6.5kW system that should yeild 7000kWh per year. At face value the usage model indicates that the house should have 2x 9kWh Sunamps. This gives the right amount of hotness per day on average based on one "charge" per day and sufficient immersion heater wattage to use most of the solar power but two sunamps is an expensive option, and there are actually two "charge" opportunities most days - over night and during the day. So perhaps we could just have one of the 12kWh versions? I put a bit more effort into the model and made it generate annual costs for a 12kWh store and an 18kWh store (assuming low standing losses - way better than the thermal store case) and get the following charts: For the 12wKh case, average running costs are £770 per year for importing electricity from the chart on the left using the random usage model and the random solar irradiance model. The chart on the right is the amount of solar PV not used for DHW so is in theory available for other house uses should they happen to line up in time. (No surprise that the numbers are similar when the PV provides 7000kWh over a year and the DHW requirement seems to be around 6500kWh.). This run of the model assumes we implement a scheme to put heat into the Sunamp via the solar PV driving an immersion heater external to it - e.g. something like subverting a Willis heater driving an UFH heating loop I like this idea since it is very simple, especially if the Sunamp internal heaters are difficult to drive - they only appear to work with the Eddi controller that doesn't appear to work properly with my PV array since it's too big. Does anyone know details of this? The next chart shows one year from the simulation illustrating key performance measures. Waste is where the system uses grid electricity when it was sunny the next day and the store wouldn't have been emptied by the days usage. Excess PV is obvious. Input shows grid electicity use. The store values show the contents of the store at 6AM and 8PM for each day. The fact that they sit at a constant level indicates that the store might be a bit small. This is the 18kWh case. Yearly running costs are down by £300/year. So the second Sunamp will break even after around 6 years at current usage unless the excess PV was actually being used extremely efficiently. A year from the 18kWh store case. The parameters are the same as before, but now note that there is an excess of storage so the PV use can be more easily managed - waste is considerably reduced. Increasing the amount of storage beyond 18kWh results in dimishing returns as is no doubt fairly obvious. A 24kWh test shows imported electricity cost drops to £320 per year, but given the cost of a Sunamp doesn't seem particularly linear it might be a good option. That's tonight's analysis job. All in all a Sunamp solution compares well with the 500 litre thermal store - standing losses are much easier to manage and I can make considerable savings in not implementing an extremely well insulated cupboard for it. But this doesn't quite get me to the point where a Sunamp is only a small capital cost increase. More research is needed to create a viable solution - has anyone got two running in parallel? Did it present difficulties?
    1 point
  9. Ahh….so 16mm fittings do exist! I’ll try my local plumbers merchants next week. im not ready for the manifold yet and I’m happy to take the hit on the fittings. Self-building is stressful enough without trying to rush too many things before you’re ready. I’m learning that a more “que sera sera” attitude is healthier but does lead to a slower build!
    1 point
  10. The more I read the more I'm thinking "bulldozer renovation time." Unless you have a specific sentimental attachment or its of particular architecture or historical merit and you are willing to throw cash at it hand over fist. I don't like knocking down old stuff on principal but in this case it'll be unrecognisable anyway with EWI. Save yourself years of heartbreak, a ton of VAT and demolish.
    1 point
  11. JTM sell them too Carry on as you are, and this is what I did when I wanted to fill and test at slab level. I didn’t want to fit the manifold in that instance as I feared it getting damaged. If you think you can mitigate then buy the manifold now and fit it, saving the loss of the cost of the fittings
    1 point
  12. That is EXACTLY the wrong thing to do. Where on earth did you read that? Before you ruin your house, you would do well to aquaint yourself with these: https://www.heritage-house.org/ https://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=1
    1 point
  13. 1 point
  14. get your gas and electric disconnected and KEEP THE METERS. When you get reconnected you will need them.
    1 point
  15. I can't recommend highly enough the slates we bought. After lots of research including a phone call to the owner of the company I found out that they come from the same quarries as the CUPA slates but are a LOT cheaper. They were the Mont Azul Lombeiro slates which are exclusive to Jewsons. I've attached the data sheet I was sent by the guy I spoke to. I had another builders merchant come to site and he was very impressed with the quality of the slates (I believe his words were "Jewsons are on to a winner there") and our roofer said that they were great. needed very little grading as they were very consistent thicknesses. check them out. I am one happy customer. my next blog will be about our roof so I'll go into more detail and have some photos when that is written. although, after writing all of that, I notice that you're after more of a matte black slate! doh! Lombeiro MA 12 Mont Azul Intro copy 2020.pdf
    1 point
  16. It was a while ago now but IIRC the metal silencer had a rubber 'O' ring on the outside which sealed against the inside of the ducting and I don't remember any problems. I bought all the ducting etc from i-sells. I used Titebond PU gel adhesive to to glue the ducting together. https://www.axminstertools.com/titebond-greenchoicetm-polyurethane-construction-adhesive-311ml-952217
    1 point
  17. Ultimately @Indy, if you would love to come home to this design after a tough day the go ahead and build it. It’ll be a safe warm environment for your family, which has to be the most important thing. Everything else is just taste. Not everyone likes Gaudi buildings, but he built them because he liked them. As long as your sensible with glazing/insulation etc. so it’s a comfortable place to live then you build what you want. If this is a design that you like, then go for it, despite what others are saying. Having said that (and caveat with I don’t know what your brief was) it does seem underwhelming for an ‘architect designed’ house. I’m sure you could go from something you like to something you LOVE. I wish you the best of luck with the project whatever you do, when it’s done I’m sure you’ll be proud of the achievement whatever design you settle on.
    1 point
  18. Knackered but getting there. New gutters, ridges, roof panels and some cedral required. Still a lot of tree to cut.
    1 point
  19. Mixed units. £1938/m². Could build a proper house for that.
    1 point
  20. there's always the option to put these drawings on hold and go and find another architect to get basic concept drawings done. shouldn't cost too much and might be cheaper than multiple iterations of redesigning this one?
    1 point
  21. Why take them apart, cut both sides with a saw and throw the small bit and metal work on a bonfire, retrieve the metal later.
    1 point
  22. Quick update - bricks & roof tiles approved yesterday, just as well as I ordered the bricks a month ago & the roof tiles in November. I called the roofing supplier to get the latest on delivery - tiles still not expected till May so even if that happens it's a 6 month lead time; if I'd waited till approval before ordering that amount of delay would have caused a massive problem with the build schedule - as it is I'm looking at about 10 weeks between felt/battening the roof & tiling it.
    1 point
  23. That’s a bit of a blanket statement and I would disagree with you for the areas I have dealt with over the years (Bristol and Devon).
    1 point
  24. But you will need a controller. The way UFH works is if one zone calls for heat from it's thermostat, then the manifold pump starts, it calls for heat from the boiler and just the actuators for that zone that needs heating are energised. I am not familliar with this Tado system but I hope it does all that, and if it is that clever can it not cope with one more valve for the towel rails?
    1 point
  25. We used an Isoquick raft foundation. We had an I-beam frame with an I-beam sole plate. The installers fitted the sole plate around the whole perimeter and then when the frame was up they cut out all the openings in the sole plate at ground level. Even though the slab was power floated it had lots of dips and we used a latex self levelling compound. A picture paints a thousand words as they say.
    1 point
  26. sounds like someone who’s read their profile ..! We do ask members to update their profiles when they join as it’s useful when answering questions about building regs and other country specific items. And the list of all the forum staff is here as it always is.
    1 point
  27. here is the problem with day rate and DIY'rs. No offence but as your clueless on how long anything takes on the building so you are very easy to be taken advantage off. 99.9% of all subbies will take you to the cleaners. They wont be getting repeat work from you so wont care. Get the whole job professionally QS'd (its dirt cheap) and pay in arrears to the the QS for work done. Make this clear from the get go to whoever you pay in the form of writing which they sign. So when you inevitably have issues its all in black and white.
    1 point
  28. I remembered that I had an old Kasa TP smart plug that works over wifi. I found it and rigged it up to my bedside table light to see if it works okay. It works well and even has a towel heater (well radiator) icon in the app I can assign to this plug. So I guess we will use this.
    1 point
  29. @Dave Jones you've evidently never dealt with the guys this side of the Irish Sea then...
    1 point
  30. 1 point
  31. Yes the sole-plate height is generally set on top of the Slab, but windows/doors are best outside of the slab, sitting over the insulated perimeter, or at least partially sitting over the insulated perimeter (to avoid a cold bridge), with the height adjusted to meet your Finished Floor Level, not the top of the slab, unless you are have polished concrete. Something along the lines of This actually has a mat well recessed 20mm into the slab, and the door frame is set over the EPS upstand on a 9mm thick GRP "L" Profile. The door threshold is set at a height that brings it flush with the FFL, which is a 5mm thick poured resin over the power-floated slab. Edited to add: What's you planned wall build up, and does it insulation layer of the wall sit over the insulated perimeter of the slab?
    1 point
  32. I would work the spans out - tbh 6x2 would be fine here - and go the long way across so the 4m span at 600mm centres and you will need to just drop in a row of pillars at each end and one in the middle if you turn it into a ring beam. I would use 2 blocks on flat and then one on the top of them to lift the base but unless you’re on very odd ground then you won’t sink as the ground pressure from 9 pads will be negligible.
    1 point
  33. Have a good look at the timber joint. You'll probably see the timber has cupped a bit and there is a tiny gap. If so I would treat yourself to a Sable saw and buy some stiff metal (hack saw) blades for it. Also get some wood blades at the same time as you then use the sabre saw for a whole load of other stuff. Get in about it and cut the nail at the timber interface. If you try and prise it apart you probably wreak the wood. Up in the air will be tricky as as soon as you cut one nail it will jamb the saw. Or use the chain saw and use the offcuts in the stove!.. the stove / chain saw is probably the way to go. You still will recover some good lengths for use in the garden and so on. Before you put it aside for garden use examine the timber as some could be really high quality and worth using for decorative purposes internally. Yes interesting. I think there is a bit more to this. Some sketeches would be helpful.. just some line diagram stuff on a few sheets of A4. These old roofs and traditional type design often need a bit of finesse. Sometimes the solution is staring you in the face, but you can't see the wood for the trees. The next trick is to know how to prove it using modern calcs.. but this can on occasion be time consuming as you need to convince the checking Engineers that the design is valid.
    1 point
  34. The good thing with the system is the insulating layer is also the sub base. Total depth is 225,, Piccy of freshly installed floor.
    1 point
  35. as @Wil says, I'm not sure this is a lending requirement. Air movement is your greatest enemy when it comes to interstitial condensation so an airtightness barrier is your primary concern, which in older properties and masonry walls is typically either a parge coat or full plaster. Lime plaster is an ideal candidate here You'll also need to look at floor to wall and ceiling to wall junctions and detail those appropriately. Plasterboard and battens would not be sufficient on their own. Not necessarily. @nod is referring to the type of render applied to the outside of the EWI, which is typically a thin-coat render of about 8mm. You can apply ewi to the outside of bad existing render, but you may need to level coat so that you don't end up with excessive voids and thus air movement behind the ewi. This can easily be dealt with by using the correct ewi system. Where you mention soft bricks, that may not be too much of a problem as again, if you did end up with a wall full of voids, this would receive a levelling coat prior to applying the ewi. With this suggested buildup you introduce a non-breathable layer on the inside - the insulated plasterboard. If you then fill the cavity with woodfibre, once moisture gets into this area, it's likely to condense against the cold wall, which can lead to problems. You need to either have a breathable buildup internally, like woodfibre/hemp etc. which is then lime plastered, or use a non breathable buildup which has a fully ventilated cavity (top and bottom vents) between the insulation and the wall - it used to be the case that non-breathable iwi was place against the wall without ventilation but this is no longer recommended practise. With iwi you also need to carefully consider cold bridging at all internal walls, ceiling and floor junction, as well as the loss of space to your rooms. With ewi this is less of a problem. At your 'dpc' level, you can overcome damp concerns by using, for instance, eps or xps ewi boards for the first 30-50 cm up the wall followed by a small break and then use woodfibre ewi above there. You can even run this insulation down into the ground and if you have solid floors, the depth of this (e.g. if it extends ca. 60cm below ground) can actually provide you with a small amount of heat mass advantage in the soil below the house. Either way you do it, you really do need to talk to the technical department of a system manufacturer or distributor and get a condensation analysis done. That way you can make an fully informed decision on which system you're going to use and whether you need to remove the existing pebbledash.
    1 point
  36. @Indy I've been plugging away at this for a couple of hours on sketchup. First here are the elevations continuing in the style as before. As before I have no idea if the neighbours will be overshadowed or overlooked badly with this design. The council may be dead set against it too. Obvious points to note are. 1. Same footprint as your existing design. 2. Simplified roof. Just a hip roof with a flat GRP rectangle in the centre. 3. Fake chimneys only. 4. Open porch/balcony added to the rear. BEFORE AFTER Now for the floor plans. BEFORE + AFTER The foot print is the same I;ve done my best to keep the positioning and sizes of the rooms as you had them. Changes to note: 1. I've added side windows to the porch. 2. The hallway is more defined and has built in storage. 3. The study has an additional south facing window, built in book shelves and a glazed door with sidelights to brighten the hallway. The Storage opposite is symetrical. 4. The generous sized WC (wheelchair accessible size) has a south facing window and the door into the hall has a fanlight to do the same. Symetrical with the door to the visitors suite opposite. 5. The Visitors suite enters into a large dressing area with a tall window. The bedroom has an extra window and some shelving. It is further removed from the hallway for privacy and noise. 6. The central hallway is the part of which I am most happy! The staircase is much more of an event, fitting of such a larger house. Storage underneath. The South facing tall window will give tremendous light. Above is a surrounding wrap around landing and in the flat roof 3no 1m2 velux flat roof lights. 7. I've removed the niche for the ASHP. it would be more effective in the front garden with a stylish screen. Where it is it's awkward to build around and might be continuously defrosting due to lack of airflow. Also I'm not too enamoured with such a high current device enclosed on all but one side by the house re fire. Domestic bliss calling here............................................ I'll finish when I get a chance!
    1 point
  37. Mark the manholes and say that drains/sewer sealed temporarily in the manholes with drainage bungs and left ready for reconnection probably only need one of each pink are irrelevant if house being demolished
    1 point
  38. There’s a lot of victim shaming on BH. These c**ks are supposed to know what they’re doing. Self builders, householders and laymen clearly don’t so the onus should be on the c**ks being paid to clearly communicate what is and isn’t covered. JMTPW.
    1 point
  39. I misread that as a portal, presumably to a parallel world where all the houses look like this design.
    0 points
  40. Good answer! I started typing and then realised how many variables there are
    0 points
  41. Sounds like you’re a ‘mod’ from that post. Are you a mod?
    0 points
  42. Thats is surely the point of a private BCO. To get a certificate regardless. Money talks. Mind you, our council BCO does the same. Stevie wonders brother it seems. Whole system is pointless and broken.
    0 points
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