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We have to choose between a 10 year Structural Warranty or a 6 year Professional Consultants Certificate soon - ie before site inspections start, and need help with the decision. What are the Pros and Cons of each? Our architect is saying get a Warranty. Price £7000 Our mortgage broker says a PCC is fine. Price £2500 We have good quotes from ABC+ Warranty (https://www.architectscertificate.co.uk/) and they have great reviews. Obviously the Warranty is an insurance policy that should (?) pay out if there are issues with the built house - but there are exemptions for the flat roof part, etc Some questions: 1. Does anyone have knowledge of a warranty paying out for anything at all? 2. What happens after the 10 or 6 year point if we want to re-mortgage? Thanks in anticipations...... JAS

Well, it’s been quite a while since my last blog post but we’ve not been idle but I do admit to having been slack in updating the blog. At the end of the last blog we had a superstructure and the roofer was about to begin his journey up the scaffolding. This is where that tale begins….. ’Twas a sunny November morning when all was quiet that a white van man arrived at our site to felt, batten and slate our sloping roofs. And he wasted no time at all in cracking on with it after the site orientation was complete. With his dad along to help with the battening it didn’t take long for the membrane (or ‘felt’ if you’re a roofer) and battens and counter battens to be done. After discussions with our BCO it was decided that we would fully fill our rafters and use a breathable membrane (Proctor Roofshield) attached to the roof trusses and then 25mm x 50mm counter battens and then slate battens which gave us 50mm ventilation. This allows us to not need soffit vents (or indeed soffits) which fitted in to the design of the house better and also meant we don’t have to worry about creepy crawlies living in the soffits. We started with the southern elevation so that the solar PV array could be installed and the roofer (Chris) fitted the first few rows of slates and some flashing leaving it ready for the solar team to arrive before moving on to the northern elevation So while Chris was busy working on the north side of the house the solar installers arrived and fitted our GSE trays. Once done they started to fit the panels. But it was then discovered that the company who did the ordering ordered the wrong size GSE trays and the panels wouldn’t fit. So the solar installers took all the trays down and left site after wasting a day’s work. Meanwhile the flat roofers attended site to single-ply membrane our flat roofs and balcony. A great bunch of guys from a company recommended to me by Chris so I had every confidence of them doing a great job, and they didn’t disappoint. DPM, PIR, OSB then single-ply membrane. First roof which will have a wildflower green roof being overlooked by our bedroom balcony Second roof above our utility room which links the house to the garage which will have a sedum roof They will return a little later on in the blog to install the green roofs. Meanwhile the solar installers returned after the correctly sized GSE trays had been delivered and managed to fit it all in a day. We think it looks brilliant. 28 x 375W LG panels, each with Solaredge optimisers as we have lots of trees around us. And when they’d finished each panel was giving out 1V and was confirmed each was working by being shown the 14V on each string in the loft. Job done for now until we get electrics first fix done and they can come back and fit the inverter. The only real issue we had with the solar is that the panels were resting on the slates making them lift up in places. I created a thread about them (https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/24530-slate-tiles-lifted/) and after much discussion and deliberation I decided to simply use black CT1 to stick them down which worked nicely. A bit of a bodge but you can’t tell from the ground and a lot less disruption to timelines than other solutions. While all of that was going on Chris was busy slating the northern elevation and it was all coming along nicely. During that I had another discussion with the BCO about vent pipes. I asked if I could have one by the STP but she was adamant that I had to have one through the roof. When I mentioned I didn’t want a pipe sticking out the top of the roof she said that they do slate vents. A quick google search revealed what she was talking about and I purchased the item and it was installed. Looks fab and from the ground you can barely notice it which is just what I wanted. And now the solar PV install was finished he could move on to the southern elevation. But while he was doing that the flat roofers came back and installed our green roofs. The wildflower material So that’s those finished although we were still waiting on a Velux roof light for one of the roofs which was delayed but the flat roofers came back to install that for me and finish off that roof a bit later. They also installed our patio paving slabs which we think look ace. So, back to Chris and he’d now finished the main house roof slating and it finished off around the PV panels nicely. He did make a start on the garage roof but as we were still waiting on Velux windows he couldn’t finish that so he left site and would return once the Velux’s were delivered. During that period our windows and doors arrived! We used Norrsken for these and went for alu-clad triple glazed windows and sliders. The majority of our windows are fixed and we had quite a small profile for the frame which means more glass. The installers, Elite Installations Nationwide (https://www.eliteinstalls.co.uk) were brilliant and Jim and his team were a joy to have on site. They brought their spider crane with them which made lifting our windows up to the first floor a breeze for them. We decided to be bold and went for a red front door. We love it. As the window install was done the week of Christmas the installers couldn’t finish them all in time before the Christmas break so we wished them a safe trip back to York and would see them in the new year. Happy new year!! (Belated). With the new year came the return of Jim and his team to finish off all our windows and doors. Once they were installed it made the house feel so much more like a house. Closing the front door had a feel of shutting out the outside world and we were (almost) water tight at last. We also eventually received our Velux roof light and sloping and vertical windows. So the flat roof was finally completed and so was the garage roof. So we are very nicely watertight at this point. All that’s left now is the time-lapse video for this period of time. Sadly our camera only shows the south side of the building so we only get footage for stuff that happens on that side but it still makes for an interesting watch and I hope you enjoy it. Until next time.

Second that for the heavy duty tools. I 'treated' myself to a Makita DCE090ZX1 2 x 18v 230mm Brushless Disc Cutter mainly because I was choking on the dust thrown off by cutting concrete patio slabs with a 240V disc cutter. The Makita being low voltage has a water jet like the big boy's petrol cutters. Trouble is, it does about 10 slabs to the charge! Still, 12 x 18V 5AH batteries = roughly 1kWh for ~ £840 is interesting to compare with current solar battery storage at +£1K/kWh. Not worth the hassle though.

Progress seems to be going backwards.

As an aside-you are putting an admirable amount of thought & effort into detailing. With that in mind,I’d suggest ditching the PIR cavity insulation. Search the site here for others’ experiences. It’s too complex to summarise in a sentence why it’s such an impractical solution for masonry construction,but if pushed for a one liner I’d say the real world performance is NEVER anything like what it says on paper.

ahhh...man. you're quite convincing in your argument here and you might be winning in getting me to spend money!

I have to question why, but then again most things I do someone would quite reasonably question why If this is "just because I want to prove we can build this thing without concrete", then that's fair enough and crack on with it. However, if you want to reduce the carbon footprint etc. it's not as clear cut as just cutting out concrete completely. So if you want to proceed without concrete, just look at how houses were built 300 years ago, and repeat? Dig down strip trenches until you hit hard ground, then use bricks or (if you're made of money) large stone over a wide footing, build up to ground level with lime mortar, then have a suspended timber floor. This can be easily insulated from below, and you can overlay a UFH system in either boards, or if you want a bit of thermal inertia, you can simply fit the pipes between joists in a layer of sand. Alternatively if you're okay with lime, then do the same for the footings, but instead of suspended timber floor, whack down some glapor (or equivalent), membrane, then UFH in limecrete.

I am seriously thinking of doing like @ProDave as I have a south facing garage roof at 30’ that will take the panels, as many of you know i don’t do “tech” (Luddite me), but have been wondering if I timed the ASHP to only work between 10 am and 4pm then it will likely use excess lecky if it’s sunny and dump heat into my slab (if the room stat requires it) or the DHW cylinder( if the cylinder stat requires it.) Any excess after that will dump into an immersion in the DHW cylinder. I don’t fancy batteries yet but want to use or store as best I can without them. 🤷‍♂️

My original prediction was to self use £250 per year giving a 6 year payback. Last year that was up to £300 and this year post April is likely to be £400 per year, so is likely to bring payback to perhaps 4 years.

Very possible. I've seen dumber behaviour from eBay buyers!

@Onoff

Think I went through every possible solution for our roof including multi foil. I ended up spray foam, reflective airtight vapour control and 50mm service void. If I had a clean sheet of paper I would consider just having external insulation, no cold bringing to think about, easy enough to install. All you wood is within the heated environment, so no condensation risk.

Which is about 5.5 W/m².K.

I didn't anticipate there would be a cavity liner.... that's a good point. I should check that.

We bought our shed racking in 2010 from Rapid Racking and it's still going strong. We bought the basic grey metalwork and fitted our own chipboard. It fits together quickly with a mallet, no bolts needed. https://www.rapidracking.com/en/rra/rapid-shelving-range#productBeginIndex:0&

In a masonry cavity wall the thermal resistance of the residual cavity is set at 0.18 m2K/W.

But the air in the cavity will not be at 20 deg unless you have a huge depth of insulation on the outside wall. The cavity assuming no other insulation will be midway between inside and outside temp. So 20 deg inside and -2 outside, it would be at 11 degs, a lot less if a ventilated cavity. On a cold winter day do you choose an insulated coat or a thin single skin rain coat. The single skin will trap air, but you will be very cold. The trapped air the installation keeps you warm.

Air circulates and flows... And so the heat with it. That's the principle of wool type insualtion. It holds air, and therefore, heat in place.

Only works for still air with no leaks - 50mm EPS is so cheap why would you not bother putting that in …??

Picked one up on my way in today

Thanks for the responses to my question. I think I will also then go with them even though the general consensus is that any warranty is virtually worthless from a claims perspective. I start my build in 2 weeks, hopefully, and it will be touch and go as to whether I will need a mortgage. Hence the need of a warranty that's accepted by the major banks.

I tried and failed. Render system issue (carrier board cracking) but as defects were noticed in first two years (even though root cause was not clear) they 'declined' to help.

Some thoughts...not tried either as yet but wish I'd thought about it / she'd asked for it before we laid the floor! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4jShqK6qNQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-TrFIcxPjU Though to be honest for 30 m2 and insulated well might you just... https://www.saturnsales.co.uk/Panasonic-Etherea-CS-Z20XKEW-Inverter-Air-Conditioning.html More than 1 metre from the boundary and less than 29.9 m2 largely solves building control I think. Dig down (scrape off topsoil) then pop your screws in and suspended floor above if you're trying to keep overall height down? This is chuffing heavy and hasn't sunk yet FWIW. I think (I hope!) they're fine for houses not just Screw piles and ratings from here: http://pamataisraigtiniai.lt/en/ 0.75 tonne each for sand; 1.5 tonne in better soil; for the larger screws In a UK context I'd look at how you make block paved driveways. Scrape off mud. Geotextile. Wackerplate crushed rubbish / hardcore. That in itself isn't moving. Some blocks on top to lift the wood off the ground. DPC. Then wooden building on top?

Anyone wanting Makita LXT batteries this is a bargain https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dhp453ste-18v-5-0ah-li-ion-lxt-cordless-combi-drill/487kg Pair of 5Ah batteries for £139 with a drill and charger thrown in for free.

And look how calm the place has been. He has liked a couple of my posts since the upgrade, I did not feel I needed to write a thank you note.

T'was just my silly way of excusing repeating what I suggested earlier 🤪 Like @Onoff says SBR can make stuff go off a bit quick but as a slurry it stays workable for quite a while. Bedding mortar may go a bit quicker but at this time of year it shouldn't be an issue.

I was finding it hard to find the British Gypsum Site Book and Good Practice Guide so thought I would upload it here for anyone else who wants it. British-Gypsum-Good-Practice-Guide.pdf

I’m an Octopus customer in exactly this situation. I have 3 phase PV, 3 phase smart meter, 1 x Tesla Powerwall and net metering is real, trust me 😬

During lockdown I had to pay £35 a sheet at one point

Only yesterday was I reading an article in the Guardian about the cost of house renovation and extension and how you can maximise your return on investment. Sadly, there was absolutely no mention of energy performance but singled the biggest benefit being to do the bathrooms and kitchens. I wonder how long it's going to take for the priorities to change in light of this huge bump in prices? I have to say though, I abhor the focus on economic payback associated with energy performance upgrades when they actually add so much value to day to day comfort and pleasure which makes the house a much nicer place to live. I'd much prefer a basic plain kitchen and bathroom and a warm and cosy house. When will the penny drop not just for the population but the government too, I wonder?

You need to use a geotex fabric, so water can flow through and it keeps soil away from the wood. Something like this https://www.toolstation.com/heavy-duty-landscape-fabric/p62380?store=LJ&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dm&pcrid=560261087208&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=CjwKCAjwloCSBhAeEiwA3hVo_adwDwbVNE8xNkoiWkx6ky62xEYICLbShGHgpgoIgWhBrU8P9DNjDxoCI8oQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

What power oil burner has been suggested?

Unfortunately, after 2026, when their existing oil/LPG Boilers break down beyond reasonable repair, and they are in the market for a new boiler, oil or LPG will not be an option. Biomass is currently an option and that includes bio-fuels. I've never looked at the latter, so do not know if that is a viable option. A 500l UVC coupled with a 12kW ASHP will handle the Hot Water requirement. Depending on energy losses, you may not need to go any larger for space heating as well.

Exactly. Nothing like the complexity of the James Webb telescope. That is much harder to put right now. I am sure they will it all the spots lined up on sight.

I have always gone full plans, cannot afford any surprises throw up AFTER work has been carried out ?

How are building warranties dealt with if built under notice? Quick look on the planningportal.co.uk seems to show little difference. If the architect has done their job, then no need for full plans. If the architect does not trust their own work, then full plans. Seems to say more about architects than builders. Building Notice You can apply for Building Regulations approval from your local authority Building Control Service by giving a building notice. Plans are not required with this process so it’s quicker and less detailed than the full plans application. It is designed to enable some types of building work to get under way quickly; although it is perhaps best suited to small work. There are also specific exclusions in the regulations as to when building notices cannot be used. These are: For building work in relation to a building to which the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies, or will apply after the completion of the building work. For work which will be built close to or over the top of rain water and foul drains shown on the 'map of sewers' Where a new building will front onto a private street If you decide to use this procedure you need to be confident that the work will comply with the Building Regulations or you will risk having to correct any work you carry out if your local authority requests this. In this respect you do not have the protection provided by the approval of 'full plans'. Once you have given your 'building notice' and informed your local authority that you are about to start work, the work will be inspected as it progresses. You will be advised by the authority if the work does not comply with the Building Regulations. If before the start of work, or while work is in progress, your local authority requires further information such as structural design calculations or plans, you must supply the details requested. A 'building notice' is valid for three years from the date the notice was given to the local authority, after which it will automatically lapse if the building work has not commenced. A local authority is not required to issue a completion certificate under the building notice procedure and because no full plans are produced it is not possible to ask for a determination if your local authority says your work does not comply with the Building Regulations. Full plans You can apply for Building Regulations approval from your local authority Building Control Service by submitting a full plans application. An application deposited under this procedure needs to contain plans and other information showing all construction details, preferably well in advance of when work is to start on site. Your local authority will check your plans and consult any appropriate authorities (e.g. fire and sewerage). They must complete the procedure by issuing you with a decision within five weeks or, if you agree, a maximum of two months from the date of deposit. If your plans comply with the Building Regulations you will receive a notice stating that they have been approved. If your local authority is not satisfied you may be asked to make amendments or provide more details. Alternatively, a conditional approval may be issued. This will either specify modifications which must be made to the plans; or will specify further plans which must be deposited with your authority. Your local authority may only apply conditions if you have either requested them to do so or have consented to them doing so. A request or consent must be made in writing. If your plans are rejected the reasons will be stated in the notice. A full plans approval notice is valid for three years from the date of deposit of the plans, after which the local authority may send you a notice to declare the approval of no effect if the building work has not commenced. Your local authority will carry out inspections of the building work once it is in progress. They will explain about the notification procedures which the regulations require you to follow at various stages of the work - e.g. in connection with foundations, damp proof courses and drains. In addition, if you request one when you first make your application, the local authority will issue you with a completion certificate provided they are content that the completed work complies with the Building Regulations. A further point to bear in mind is that, if a disagreement arises with your local authority, the 'full plans' procedure enables you to ask for a 'determination' from (in England) the Department for Communities and Local Government or (in Wales) the Welsh Assembly Government about whether your plans do or do not comply with the Building Regulations.

I wasn’t even aware you could build a new dwelling via a BN. Are you building over or within 3m of any public sewers? The main difference is the FP procedure means all your details are checked and approved. It’s that added piece of mind that the information wholly accords to the BR’s and there are no sudden hidden surprises when the BCO turns up on site.

@zoothorn, we had a hard frost last night and when out feeding the chickens I noticed my ASHP was beginning to frost up a little due to the high RH, It went into defrost mode (rare fir us), no more noisy than running normally, went indoors and had to turn the radio off to hear it running. This is what a monoblock ASHP does, even with a buffer tank and pump!!,

Yes my classic has no seat belts, the crumple zone is your face (but it looks good)

I have had various small Peugeot’s and done high mileage in them, yes I get it. Recently saw a 205 in a local garage and considered it fir my daughter, low tech, easy to maintain .

Ok. The defrost cycle requires heat to be conveyed from one place to the other. So; To heat your house the external heat exchanger ( big box with fans that lives outside ) is utilised to collect low grade heat energy from outside air. That is collected and transported by the F-gas in the gas lines which travel from that external box to the internal compressor unit ( inside the bedroom ) eg the unit where all the current noise and pain emanates from. The F-gas goes into the compressor and it chugs away producing the higher grade heat which is then pumped around your radiators and DHW tank to make them ‘hot’. That is “heating mode”. So, after doing heating mode for a long time in adverse external conditions the external heat exchanger starts to get so cold it starts to freeze up, continuing to do so until the brain box realises this and takes action. This is called “defrost mode”. In defrost mode the whole process is reversed. The water gets circulated around the heating system so the heat energy in that water, even if it’s cold, can be sent to the internal compressor unit to have that heat energy sucked back out. That heat energy gets converted and sent back to outside via the F-gas lines to the external heat exchanger. That elevated gas temp in the external heat exchanger causes it to melt the ice. The brain box waits until the F-gas temps tell it that icing is no longer present and the system resets. If there is still call for heating it will then do the whole process over again……possibly more than once per evening. If it is doing this when heating is turned off then it’s a design or software fcuk up, plain and simple. Nothing external with an F-gas heat exchanger needs antifreeze to prevent ‘freezing’ and there is no need for frost protection as outside air temps won’t make a toss of difference to this system / cause damage in extreme weather ( if as I said the heating demand is off at that time ). Regardless of whether the external unit is at 0oC or lower, the system should not boot up to to ‘defrost’ it, as that is not necessary. If the heating was called for at that time, whilst the external heat exchanger is Baltic cold, the brain box would just check to see if the F-gas temp suggests the external unit is indeed an ice cube and would then initiate a defrost cycle and initiate that reverse of heat energy flow as above ( eg start your radiator pump circuiting water to steal that heat for the purpose of defrosting the external heat exchanger ). To now answer your actual question. The water in your heating circuit MUST circulate in defrost mode. If it didn’t then the internal compressor would just absorb the heat energy in the slug of water that was in that heat exchanger and then have no more access to the heat energy from the heating circuit water. You see it must circulate that water, or when in reverse ( aka defrost mode ) it would have nowhere to get the required heat from to send back outside via the noisy compressor. I have not gone balls deep in scientific facts here, so the rest of you don not nit-pick please!! Ok #2. This unit and all its ugly attributes, characteristics and annoyances will be leaving, ( if you just give the order ), so essentially this was a waste of my time typing out. However; As you felt hard done by with some of the previous comments, ( and I genuinely apologise if any of mine actually offended or upset you in any way, I was just trying to add some joviality in my own ‘quirky’ way ), I have made this final effort to try to help you move on with your life snd to understand how the current sack of shit is functioning. I highly expect you to reply to say that at 02:54 there was no need for this to go into defrost mode, and none of this should be happening, but I honestly don’t care anymore about what your current setup is doing because it needs ripping out and binning. Simples. It’s already dead and buried afaic so PLEASE move forwards and end this madness. I would have used more capital letters but one of my previous replies used up my 2022 quota of capitals……so, to type the above I had to buy a £5 add-on to my capital letter allowance. Hope I don’t need another lot until my allowance refreshes 01 jan 2023….. sorry, not enough left for a capital j in jan. Get the new system fitted. For the love of Christ.

You are allowed to drive ?

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.

Fixed price all the way. Time and materials contract will spiral out of control fast. Unless you can financially incentivise the project manager to meet targets. say basic weekly wage for PM and then a bonus for meeting targets like meeting cost, time and quality targets. I don’t know how you would set such targets without professional advice from a QS. Be very careful not to allow contractor/PM to load payments towards the early payment. I have seen some horror stories Where PM has been given too much scope basically stealing materials and defrauding his client. Don't do it unless you are actively involved and very careful and remain suspicious/vigilant

jewsons just put all underground drainage up 45%

Plus one Get a price He shouldn’t be charging for managing himself You will have to agree to material price rises throughout the build Even on a fixed price Though most materials seem to have peaked and timber is coming back down

I too am a full plans advocate, best get the detail sorted before you start and no nasty surprises.

That’s a lovely design! Please post more updates as you build? I would go full plans, that way they can sort the detailing out in advance. To my mind, the longer you spend in design the better the result.

My buffer tank is underneath the hot water cylinder and integrated with it. I had assumed this was a commonplace solution but perhaps not.

A couple of weeks back, I noticed there was nothing being diverted to my immersion heater. A quick check in the shed revealed the main inverter was showing "Grid disconnected" further investigation found the 32A mcb feeding the shed had tripped (but not the 16A inverter MCB in the shed) So I reset that and the main inverter powered up again. The cause of the trip was the little cheap Chinese inverter connected to my 2 spare panels had blown. Having failed at just under 2 years old I was not particularly liking the idea of buying another, but there is nothing else available anything like as cheap. So time to take it apart and see if a repair was possible. Inside a PCB mounted fuse was blown and some basic testing found that 2 of the transistors that make up the H bridge that synthesises the output waveform were blown, short circuit. So i ordered 5 of them from ebay from China for £5 They arrived yesterday and i fitted them and cautiously powered it up and it's working again, so this morning I put it back into service. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts before failing again. What I did notice is they were very short on the heat sink paste, with it only applied to one side of the insulating washer, so it's pasted up a bit better now.