Dreadnaught

2000 x 800, triple glazed, installed directly above the galley of my kitchen. Natural light for chopping the onions.

No, not pre-produced by the manufacturer. It is for the customer to make their own up-stand. In my case I entrusted the up-stands (all nine of them, and complete with their 5º fall) to my timber-frame designer and the up-stands were installed along with the rest of the timber frame. All I had to do was plonk the rooflights atop with some glue and screws. It was an easy install. In fact the biggest challenge was not the up-stands or the installation. It was getting the biggest of the rooflights, at 152 kg, on to the roof in the first place. (I am sitting under that rooflight now as I type this.)

This is for my flat roofloghts (I have nine in my new build). Hope it helps.

Tangentially related to this is I read that one of the effective ways to guard against PEN faults on an EV charger is to use the piles of a raft foundation (which are connected to the steel rebar and mesh of the raft itself) as the earth. I might do this. It is superior to using any earthing mat to achieve an earth resistance way below 2.2.Ω, as required.

Thanks for your comments, everyone! I am still debating what to do. Whether to put conduits behind the cladding in advance. Or whether it will be easy to run cables later so that conduits aren't needed. Any other comments, or real-life experiences with cables behind cladding, would be welcome.

Hi everyone, any thoughts on this? ↑ 🙂

I have question about cables behind cladding, in the ventilation gap. I will be installing the cladding after Easter. It will be brick-slips cladding. The build up will be: 19mm battens, large cement-board backing-panels, and finally the brick slips themselves. Plus insect mesh top and bottom. The question is: in that 19mm ventilation void, how can I later run cables (for lights, CCTV cameras, maybe a WiFi access point, and so on)? I would run each cable vertically from the position down to the base of the cladding, then to underground ducts already buries that all lead back to my plant room. (I don't need to drill though the timber-frame wall.) And I'd prefer not to pre-select the position for the items now so its the general principles I am after. Should I perhaps run some oval conduit in the void in multiple locations just in case? Or not bother with conduit and just feed the cable through the gap later? What have others done? Photo of some battens on my build ↓

@thefoxesmaltings, 22 companies is an impressive number. Out does me. Your approach sounds good & thorough. Best wishes. An exciting journey lies ahead.

I know and have met some of the designers. And my architect was, I realised after I chosen her, an ex-TF designer for a number of the TF companies. And, as I mentioned, I had a very good relationship with the designer I ended up using. Most TF company use outsourced timber-frame designers that work between multiple TF companies (as they do with engineers). Only the biggest ones (such as MBC) have them in-house. But even they are all ex-freelancers and even they have a lot of turnover. The TF systems are actually pretty generic. Any good TF designer can design for any system. The downside of going by your approach in my opinion is that the some TF companies ration access to the designer. I found I wanted lots of access to mine to tweak the design over many months, and even went back to him during construction phase on a few small issues. I would not have been happy with restricted access via an "customer account manager".

May I offer a different perspective. I favour panellised factory-built frames, erected on site, not stick build. The next time I do a timber frame, I am considering not going to the TF manufacturers for tender. But instead going straight to the timber-frame designer. I I have found a good designer via the company that erected my current frame and I would then work with the designer to tweak the frame to my satisfaction and then tender it among the frame manufacturers (including ones recommended by the designer, who knows many of them). This reverses the typical process whereby the frame manufacturer chooses the designer for you. Are those drawings specialised frame designs? Or are you intending that the winning frame manufacturer translate the drawings in to another set of drawings of the frame design with their own chosen frame designer?

I will happily defer to @nod and others for the answers. I haven't started my metal framing quite yet, hopefully after Easter.

This? https://www.toolstation.com/stick2-contact-adhesive/p47790

I agree with the others. The manufacturer (Brink/Ubbink) designed my MVHR system (which I heavily tweaked). UFH-pipe supplier designed the UFH layout. In each case I paid for the design but that cost was deducted from the equipment purchase. Plant-Room in general, and DHW/space-hearing systems can be a little trickier. In my case, an M&E expert did give me (hourly-rate paid) advice on those.

New to me. How do you do such a thing? Where do you buy the bits?

Was recently looking for an air-tester near me for my build. A local builder offered me a name. He all but winked and said that the guy could do a certified test without a visit "if you know what I mean".

Buy some casters and build a wheeled dolly? Use timber levers to get it over the threshold? Does it need to go up stairs?

No you don't actually need a cloud key. You can set up the APs using a laptop, or even a smart phone and the app, and then leave them alone to do their thing. A Cloud Key is useful for remote monitoring of network performance, but who does that remotely in a domestic situation (only for professionals handling multiple sites and complicated setups, etc). With the advent of high frequency connections, especially with the forthcoming WifI 6E, the range of APs is reducing while the bandwidth/speed shoots up (2.4 GHz to 5 GHz and, for WiFi 6E, to 6 GHz). Therefore, in my 125 m² new dwelling, I will have three APs. And ceiling mounted too. I am not a fan of low-level APs mounted inside a wall. A rule of thumb is that a person attenuates the Wifi signal about as well as a wall. Overhead works best. I will have a fibre connection to my home capable of 1,000 mb/s. For the wifi speed to match that in the real world I will be needing everything that WiFi 6E can offer at 6 GHz.

They look stunning, but my word are they pricey, wow (!) Do you have them?

I wonder, how did you solve it? I was looking at pre-hung doors recently (I will need 8x) and nobody in the UK seems to be manufacturing pre-hung doors any more, or at least not for small manufacturing runs like mine. I contacted Jeld-Wen and they said no. And XL joinery don't make the door design I want. Predor, with their Speedset Plus option, might do but I am fully expecting them to tell me they only do those for large orders.

Could the turning place be required for fire regulations? The need for a fire engine to be able to manoeuvre if it is required to be a certain distance from a public road? Just a thought.

@TerryE, thanks for the post! Have you missed not having any cooling capacity for the summer months, which an ASHP could have provided via your UFH system?

Yes, it is down to heating demand. I was advised by someone experienced with UFH and he specified 125 mm spacing for 125 m² new-build well-insulated bungalow. Only downsides that I can think of are: pipe cost, cost (and space) of a bigger manifold, cost of labour to lay the extra pipe. Unless you are DIY-ing, labour is about the same as materials (if not more).

I used Roof Maker too, but for flat fixed passivhaus units (nine of them). Happy to share my experience.

From a timber frame company. She was their outsourced frame-designer. I did not use that particular frame company in the end but she impressed me. I visited a range of timber-frame companies while researching my build before I put a spade in the ground.

I am in the middle of self building. I am frame-up and weathertight, and now embarking on first fix. I did employ a part-qualified RIBA architect. She was a qualified Passive-House designer (which is something I would personally always look for in an architect) to do the CAD work and produce the design for planning and the D&A Statement. However, I managed the planning application and process myself and coordinated all the site investigations, etc., myself. And I am now project-managing the build myself entirely alone. My biggest recommendation to any architect from my own experience is NOT to stick to the RIBA steps-of-service. In my personal view, they are too rigid for a one-off small-scale self-builder-led project. Instead and more flexible iterative approach should be used in partnership with the self-builder.