epsilonGreedy

I have ignored them all on the basis email scammers will exploit this period when people are click happy.

Best assume no PV. The architect showed an airing cupboard upstairs, I will retain that space for a later DHW thermal store upgrade in say 10 years time and ensure it would not be too problematic to connect up with spare pipes and high current wires. Brick & block construction just meeting current thermal regs but hope to exceed air permeability by a large margin. L-shaped 2-story house 10m x 6m + smaller 2 story block of 4.5m x 4m. All dimensions external. There is in fact an even smaller 3m x 4m single story utility room/toilet block attached to the far end of the 4.5m x 4m block, however given the relatively large perimeter to floor area of that section of the house I feel that a couple of small rads will do there. Current plan is that the upstairs will be heated by 1 small rad in both bathrooms plus 1 mid sized rad in the master bedroom. No science behind that thinking just a hunch.

No. It is more like saying there is a time and place for hot air ballooning e.g. best done 2 hours before sunset and try not to land on the main runway at Heathrow.

I have been watching a lot of Skill Builder material recently and feel they pitch at my level. In the bathroom video I "discovered" that a wall-hung bathroom was assembled from the outer wall inwards whereas previously I imagined the reverse where the finishing step was to plasterboard the far side of the wide partition wall. There were little info gems for me such as the importance of rubber feet on the wallhung toilet frame to reduce noise transmission. One convincing message from the video is that a diyer like me will have fewer head-scratching delays or trips to a BM for the reverse angled thing-a-ma-jig because of the benefit of integration. If true this would justify a price premium for someone in my situation though deep down I suspect this is just a staged demo illusion.

You have confirmed my suspicions. I still think Roger B is one of life's good guys even if economic necessity means he occasionally lowers his standards and sups with the likes of Abacus.

Skill Builder released a 1 hour video 4 days ago which is a deep dive on fitting out a whole bathroom exclusively with Abacus products. I got a lot of value watching the video even if I never buy any Abacus stuff. During the video Roger Bisby constantly eulogizes the wonderfulness of an Abacus system bathroom and the plumbing synergy derived from the integrated system. Is a best of British Abacus bathroom really streets ahead of misfit continental stuff as Roger claims over and over in the video? https://youtu.be/vNYNigge1C0

Hmm yes I see the general point being made. When I was going through my anti UFH phase I mentioned my concern about excess heat in bedrooms, the pro UFH lobby contended that even with UFH downstairs and MVHR, the bedrooms will still be a few degrees cooler. I hope the same will apply with a 2-zone system downstairs i.e. mid-week there would be no need to heat the formal sitting room hence a few pennies can be saved running it a bit cooler with that UFH zone off. Life style in a not quite passiv house requires some guesswork on my part and my judgement is probably clouded by my current rental property that guzzles 2500 liters of oil per year and still needs localized top up heating with a portable electric radiator.

And so will I if I can comprehend the diy steps ProDave took, at these prices UFH is nearly the budget option when compared to plumbing in 3 decent looking radiators.

Peer pressure has led me to rethink my plan not to have UFH which is now causing me to question my original plan to fit an LPG combi boiler. Overall build cost concerns mean I want to keep the heating system as low tech and simple as possible hence no DHW tank/store is planned. In the past week I have read that a combi boiler is ideal for UFH because the low water temp of UFH fits the condensing temperature range of a modern boiler. An opposing view is that constant cycling to top of the UFH slab will work the boiler inefficiently. I remain a little circumspect about the advantages of UFH in my self build situation e.g. both of us will work for another 10 years and so heating a UFH slab all day in a less than passiv house feels wrong. In view of this I will regard the UFH as a winter/long-weekend heating source with a few radiators and a couple of wood burners for occasional quick heat autumn and spring. There will be just two ground floor UFH zones with 30 m2 and 33 m2 slabs sitting on a typical 150mm of sheet insulation.

Noted thank you. What final budget did you achieve by sourcing your own UFH materials/components? I am currently waiting for my Nuheat quote following a chat with them at the Swindon self build show 10 days ago. At the other end of the scale my self build neighbour seemed happy with an all-in price of £4k for 90 m2 of ground floor screeding over beam & block with UFH supply & fit included in the same job.

Our budgets and house size sound similar, I also intend to do as much internal work as possible. In my case with some extra conservation area material costs I hope it will be possible to get to a weather-tight shell with a staircase, commissioned LPG boiler and a powered up mains CU for under £100k.

There has been some mission creep already, for example she did not originally contest the notion that we could shower at a local gym prior to getting a finished bathroom in order to advance the move-in date a month or two. I have now added a free standing bath with cold and hot water to the move-in specification but so far she has neglected to clarify that the bathroom will have 4 walls 😄

Thanks, I need to investigate further before my foundation dig.

This oak framed garage is close to my notion of a perfect garage and going for a timber framed garage would kick start my self build while waiting for a competent brickie team to become available. Was there a discussion about mounting the main vertical supports on special pad stones? What is the roof covering? I ask because I would like an open roof structure but I am conscious that in the absence of regular spaced joists the roof covering weight is important.

I have been looking for the official name of that buttress type feature, does anyone know what it is called? I like the example in this image http://www.yorkhandmade.co.uk/files/myimages/heroprod/Kilburn/Kilburn_redwood1.jpg