Susie

I can recommend bamboo/bead door fly screens £20 on Amazon JVL Provence Hanging Wooden Beaded Door, Zig Zag Curtain Screen, 90cm x 180cm Approx, Multi, 90 x 180cm We have two one at the outside door and then another after the hall to lounge. we very rarely get any flys in the lounge, the odd one gets through the first set and turns opposite way to lounge and we have to coax it back out a window. Lots of flowers and bees in my garden but never remember having a bee in the house. So can recommend two stage defence. Not tried the full screen you mention as we have a dog who comes and goes as he pleases from bed to bed, in and out all day, a Greyhound, very lazy dogs.

Try advertising the barn free locally to anybody who can dismantle it. I got loads of people wanting mine I couldn’t believe the interest. campervans might be good for parts I presume not the old ones with lots of windows they are still worth £ try a vw forum. I gave my tin sheets away advertised locally they are a compost bin now I believe. Metal can be weighed in, if you have enough sometimes they will come to you.

The rinse or just scrape might depend on how often the dishwasher goes on. Ours goes on most nights economy 7 so actually about 3 in the morning but can miss a night sometimes. Also depends on pets helping to clean plates, always rinse after the dog. Husbands rule was no pets feeding from our scraps at the table 3 months that lasted, he is the biggest feeder of us all.

Glad you found the spreadsheet. I got a pass with mine and BC are happy with the spreadsheet. We’re a bungalow so have to sort some night time security out for the bedroom windows that are open at night. future homes also have template examples for recording the SAP as you build. You saved a bit by doing it yourself and can put the dynamic modelling money (+ VAT) towards something else. well done. 😀

We won’t need the connection for some time but they still gave us all the ductwork and a great drawcord used for all the services. The guy who came out understands we’re self building and could take years as we just wanted everything in one big trench. and he just said that’s ok by the time you’re ready to connect we will probably be on the better cable.

My previous blog entry ended at submitting the building regs in March, although they were not validated until 5th April and then refused on the 31st May. I believe my architect had complained on them taking too long so I am guessing when they found he had not included a turning circle for a fire engine they refused them as giving the architect extra time would have hit their own time targets. We resubmitted 1st June and finally had approval on the 5th July. A few conditions but nothing unexpected. In the meantime we submitted our amendment to planning for our window changes this was to increase the airflow through the house to pass Part O more on this later. This was submitted to planning on the 21st March and approved on the 12th May. When the BC plans were initially refused I decided not to contact our architect as he obviously had something wrong and as it was all out of my hands, I just presumed it was not my Part O spreadsheet as he never contacted me. You can not rush anything in Cornwall it will all be dealt with dreckly, (eventually no time limit). Instead I got on with jobs I could do, mainly starting a new vegetable plot as the old one is in the way of the new build for plant access and will eventually become garden. My potting shed is only a few years old so it will be dismantled and stored indoors until we have walls and roof on and can position the shed close to the new build. My netted tunnel is also now down and will not be going back up instead I will create new smaller structures to cover individual groups of crop and re-use the larger netting just for my new strawberry beds. We have had a hosepipe ban on here in Cornwall for a year now so it’s not been a bad year to not be growing anything new and instead concentrate on the soil and new beds. Top photos are the early days of my vegplot and below as it is now, looking a bit sad but better things will come. Before it sounds like I’ve lost the plot and writing a gardening blog I’ll return to our build progress. We advertised our existing barn as free locally and received many offers to remove it. A local couple will be taking it down in October and rebuilding it on their land. I’ve sold a lot of paving that I had kept just in case we wanted it in the future but finally decided it’s not required. The problem with having land and outbuildings is it’s difficult to get rid of things we just move it to the cow shed but that has to stop. So all the wood in the old cow shed is moving to the old pig sty. We started keeping the wood because we wanted a stove but eventually decided our listed barn was never going to have a wood stove so a few trees that got cut down were given to neighbours but now the new build is going to have a wood stove so we’re saving wood again. Emptying the cow shed also involves giving away corrugated tin roof sections that have been saved just in case, moving a pile of nice small stone I was going to make a rockery with and finding a new home for our Christmas wooden reindeer. The cow shed is now nearly empty. We also hired some plant and shifted some spoil full of weeds from around the cow shed and took down two more trees, the Ash tree had Ash die back and it had been allowed to self seed much to close to the fir tree that had grown one sided. They were also in the way of the new field access that we are making wider for easier machinery access, and will also now provide a hammerhead turn for a fire engine. The spoil and tree stumps were moved to the lower field, the useable fire wood stored in the old pig sty with a few large pieces left as temporary seats for the builders. Top row left cow shed surrounded by weeds, right new wider access cow shed on the left with stables in the distance. Middle row clearing in progress and the better access. Bottom row me in the sun and heat while husband is in the Air Conditioned digger, some of the larger stone put to one side no boulders so far. We still have not got our ground-workers or builders sorted out, a few have been to look, some you never hear from again others give a quote that’s ridiculously high with so many provisions. Some will do this and that but not that, they suggest somebody else who is not interested. I think it's partly because we want an ICF build and also to dry shell stage only, excluding windows. We still hope to start next year but are now thinking to just get the groundworks completed as that is the most unknown quantity, and we are still saving up. The build is being partly funded by the sale of a Jensen FF but we have only just got round to advertising it last month and finding the right buyer could take a while. Part O Unfortunately my architect did not think ahead and design the house with Part O in mind and it took quite a while for me to work out what I had to change to pass the simplified method. A local company was approached and discussed the simplified method and the dynamic method but from what they told me there was no guarantee in passing either and to pass the dynamic method more changes to the building design and further dynamic modelling could be required so no set fee was offered. Instead I designed my own spreadsheet that initially proved our ventilation of just opening windows would not be enough to pass Part O but after reading up more and few window swapping ideas I got a pass on my own spreadsheet. I also stumbled upon the future homes site which has a spreadsheet that can be downloaded. As I’m a Apple Mac user it meant using MS Excel online but it was a far prettier version than my nuts and bolts spreadsheet and one that I thought my BC would be happier with. I input my window measurements and how they opened, and obtained a pass. Anybody reading this and wanting ideas on how to pass the simplified method first depends on what you fail on e.g. too much glazing or the free flow of ventilation although one can impact the other. I don’t think anybody looking at our plans from the first blog would think we would not pass as the southerly view is not overly glazed but by removing 3 windows on the northerly side and adding 6 roof windows that open 50 degrees and slight changes to bedroom windows meant the northerly facade was the most glazed and we had better air flow. We also changed all windows that open to open inwards to meet the arms reach criteria, enabling a wider opening. The spreadsheet is not perfect though as my bedroom windows are tilt and turn but you can only have the same hinge for day and night on the spreadsheet e.g. side hung. I could have adapted the spreadsheet but that would mean its not as trustable as I was hoping it was going to be or I could have created two one daytime side hung and one for night time opening when the windows are top hung. I decided to make the one spreadsheet work as explaining to my architect who would then have to explain to BC would be like learning and then teaching a foreign language. Happily we passed the simplified method with a condition about night time security when I get my own named BC I will be able to talk them though the spreadsheet quickly change the side hung to top hung and get a pass and if I still need a security grill it will only be for the lower half that opens at night and this can be made to measure by my talented husband out of rebar. The changes to windows did mean we had to make an amendment to the plans but as it was due to my architect not thinking ahead about the new regulations I suggested to him that I shouldn’t have to pay for this and he agreed. https://www.futurehomes.org.uk/library#Guidancetoolsandtemplates SAP When you start out on this journey there are so many new things to learn about and discover the pre build SAP being just one of them. Unfortunately this area seems controlled by a piece of software probably not much more than a spreadsheet but no free copy for us self builders to play with to see if we change x how does it effect y etc. I was in the hands of my Architect and if you haven’t worked out by now I am usually in charge of everything so taking a back seat I found very hard. The initial SAP needed a few tweaks here and there but Im happy with the result. For those of you who don’t know what one is I am attaching mine and if anybody wants to dissect it feel free to do so but the pages long report is quite boring as they all are and it comes down to insulation, air tightness and your chosen method of heating. We plan to have a minimum of 11kw of Solar on our virtually perfect south facing unshaded roof in Cornwall. This and together with an ICF build and good window air tightness with lots of added floor insulation hopefully will mean low running costs. You will not find a ASHP mentioned I’m not having one. I don’t like them for my build. I’m near the sea where everything rusts, and if I need a plumber because its broken it will be 6 weeks before one would be available who knows enough about ASHP to fix it. In the 6 years I lived in Cornwall I have seen the lack of trades people first hand in waiting for returned phone calls that never happen, quotes that take ages and waiting lists for the good people. In winter when you most need good heating then all the trades are busy working in the holiday homes out of season and are booked up. We have no mains Gas so are going to be a mainly electric home. To ride out the peaks and troughs of solar we will have as much on the roof as we can fit and rather than export to the grid we will export to our other working barn and lower some of those summer electricity costs. In winter we will have to buy some electricity but hopefully very little at peak costs. Quick guide to the SAP The first 3 pages are our planned u-values, expected Air permeability results, space heating, hot water etc and MVHR. The following 30 pages look very similar but have different headings and figures. Calculation of dwelling emissions for regulation compliance Calculation of target emissions Calculation of fabric energy efficiency Calculation of target fabric energy efficiency Calculation of energy rating Calculation of EPC costs, emissions and primary energy page 18 perhaps the one to read first Calculation of energy rating for improved dwelling Calculation of EPC costs, emissions and primary energy for improved dwelling Finally the predicted energy assessment on page 33 (96A0 and the estimated energy cost for the property over a year £103 That’s all for now, my next job is getting a full online estimate of the build now we have all the building regs and SE calculations completed. Build Costs b/f from first blog £12660 Building regs submission £345 Hired in plant and fuel £890 SAP £300 Part O Free VAT element only on building regs, and SE (Not included in first blog totals) £430 Total to date £14625 SAP.pdf Part O.xlsx

The link is below to the spreadsheet Template I used it’s also on the first post.

Update I finally have BC approval of my spreadsheet. They accepted my first spreadsheet and the only condition was security on ground floor bedrooms, that are open at night, which I expected. The approval has dragged on due to a very slow architect. I shall write more in my blog.

Update I finally have BC approval of my spreadsheet. They accepted my first spreadsheet and the only condition was security on ground floor bedrooms, that are open at night, which I expected. The approval has dragged on due to a very slow architect. I shall write more in my blog.

I read everything through and initially thought a French drain would work and unless your cabinet is plastic it will rot if wood sat on gravel. but then I came to your interior picture which looks more like a plant pot had at some time been placed in centre of window and the poor plant overwatered perhaps there was a hole in the pot. do you have any other damp areas?

Since it sounds like condensation…. Sometimes we miss the obvious so just asking have you brought anything in to dry out e.g. wood floor, wet boots or coats or have a newly plastered wall.

You only need chlorinated once you have over 100m ready to connect up. you also need to do it a maximum of 24hrs before connection if it’s chlorinated more than 24hrs they won’t connect. sounds like you can plan ahead and use the host house supply as long as possible. we were given 3 names from our water company and one, a small company, was happy to do it in 3 stages. They also made the trench wide enough for elec and BT. We only have the middle section dug in trench at the moment. wording from top of our invoice is ‘City & Guilds Qualified & Water Industry Approved Groundworker’ if that helps.

We are going to be building with ICF and have similar access problems often a smaller concrete pump can be sent. We have had concrete deliveries so luckily know that’s possible if they reverse in all the way. Search the blogs on here for ICF there are a few good one. The roof was going to be a normal looking triangle truss roof but due to access we have changed to a mono truss which is basically two smaller triangles that are fastened together on site to make the full truss. We struggle with labour here so less time on site helps. have you been through BC yet or warrant. Do you need access for fire. Our plans have gone in and we needed a turnaround as they can’t reverse more than 20m.

Welcome to the forum you will find lots of help on here.

Thanks for this link to great site I have bookmarked for a few jobs.

Your cold water at basin probably comes from mains as it’s drinking water and not stored. can you find the isolator for the water coming out of tank for the hot water, no use just turning off what fills it unless you want to drain it

No it’s the foxes and rats etc I tried the bird proof sack we can buy but my drive is 150m long so the wheelie bin is easier. we don’t have as many gulls up here on the north coast as we have less tourists eating fish n chips and pasties. 😂 I get your point on the steep roads though and they can be a pain for emergency vehicles getting through.

Yes that’s the style but bigger. We have industrial use one. It was too big to go inside a long wheel base transit so always went on the roof which was a pain so in the end the lads were given telescopic ladders or hired in plant. We keep the y ladders in the barn. They are too heavy for me to move around and set up, so husband does the moving and setting up and I go up them. The fact they are heavy adds to my comfort of using them, they always feel sturdy even if not always on great ground e.g uneven floors or wire stair treads, the stabilisation base comes off ours. The ladders are great for vaulted ceilings or stairways, we use quite a bit without the 3rd section just folding them over at different angles against walls etc. the join on the two is an adjustable ratchet type for various angles. The ladders are years old now and still great no problems or wobble. At the time they where expensive but worth it, probably cheaper now, can’t find an exact image. Work out the maximum safe working height you will need and buy the best you can afford, a long as you have room to store them they are an investment in your safety.

Depends on how you feel at height and how high you need to get. a good investment for safety. I have tall step ladders and y ladders 3 way but they can be a little unnatural if very big and it takes confidence to go up and then do anything with one hand. I sometimes use both the steps I put small tools on or the paint roller to save going up and down all the time on the y ladders.

I like your first option a bit smaller for getting in corners and difficult places. Also this https://www.toolstation.com/club-hammer-bolster/p14764 Are you taking any plaster off walls going back to bare brick or stone if so hammer and bolster are good. are you removing skirting board carefully to avoid replastering and then just replacing with new skirting. Then a small hammer for taping the bolster or similar. lots of rubble bags recycle for free soon or a skip. and hand cream your hands dry out a lot with plaster.

Depends on location, in Cornwall we still have black bags and most people in the countryside end up buying a wheelie bin to stop vermin scattering rubbish. We are also still on small coloured sacks for recycling so I use a wheelbarrow to move them all on recycling day. once they are camouflaged they will be great and can nearly put themselves out.

Welcome to forum lots of helpful ideas on here from other self builders.

Sand paper, pencils and masking tape ae also not allowed so doubt the marking out paint is either, most consumables are excluded. the wooden floor under lay is allowable as the theory is the top wooden floor becomes part of the fixtures and fittings but carpet and carpet underlay can all be removed easily. think of selling a house and what you would tend not remove v what you could remove.

I would go back to them and ask for a receipt or invoice that doesn’t just say custom item, explain why that’s its too vague.

Under the order number is ‘show details’ if you click on this do you get a better invoice/receipt.