epsilonGreedy

I spoke to the pro installer of a flowscreed job near me this week and he confirmed my advice posted in this thread i.e. some pressure should be maintained during the pour. He said the objective is that when the UFH returns to normal operating pressure post pour & cure the UFH pipes can contract and expand a little during heating cycles without creating cyclical pressure on the slab. Some pressure in the pipes during the pour would also reduce risk of the screed compressing the pipes though he added this is a low risk with a 50mm flow screed pour. The guy also advised me to think ahead while laying the footing blockwork and allow for a circuit that does not result in a Clapham Junction of UFH pipes running through a door threshold.

I watched 50mm of flowscreed being applied to my neighbour's plot this week. The installers spent time plugging such gaps in the perimeter as flow screed would escape round the frame brackets shown in your photo. No expert here but surely the solution is small insulation upstands around those frame foots if only to prevent cold bridges. The cost of the job was £4000 for 90 sqm including UHF components and pipe installation.

How many of these panels could I fit into a regular 2006 vintage transit van?

I contacted H+H today to ask if they run any demo or workshop days for folk interested in thin-joint masonry construction. The answer to that was no but they do have a demonstrators who go out onsite even in the case of a single selfbuild. At my suggestion someone from the H+H tech department said they would be happy if such a site demo was to a group of interested self builders. Would this be of interest to some forum members?

I know an arborist who works maintaining safe vegetation distances around power lines. They operate with large cautious safety margins and these are designed to cope with exceptional conditions such as hot weather when the lines can stretch and droop, also an HT cable can spark to earth over a larger distance when humidity is high. The industry is highly regulated and they don't mess around with the safety distances, the last casualty he encountered was a dead horse.

I am actually offering encouragement to the OP by suggesting there is no need to get that deep into mortgage debt. I also think that if a newbee self builder plucks a max budget out of the air and then sits down with an architect, then the architect will find a way to spend that budget.

As an online social experiment, could you try responding to one of my posts without an antagonistic string or !!!!!!!!'s or ???????????'s A little earlier in this thread you cast doubt on the national self build survey figures I quoted because of the low single digit margins. Now you claim it is a perfectly normal commercial margin. Which is exactly what I did through the link I posted but you then disputed the basic survey numbers.

If you looked at my figures in more depth you would realize that I was providing an example where the OP's final mortgage would be £90k less than assumed. I sometimes feel like I am dispensing advice on the dangers of class-A drugs in the middle of an opium den. This place is very tribal and the hard core of 20 regular posters who account for say 50% of the content plainly do not like diverse opinion or facts. I thought my original post in this thread was mild and understated though clearly I irked the forum's inner core. Going forward I shall refrain from forum posting and just maintain the blog which needs updating because I have progressed beyond dug foundations.

Assuming the figures in the report are reliable we can conclude: The average figure masks many self builder financial casualties regardless of the zero costed labour input. Most self builders fail to match pro builder profit margins due to their inexperience. My earlier assertion about typical plot value ratios is more accurate than yours.

How can the OP explore financial viability with no idea of build costs, it is absolutely essential information. I suspect the OP will be pleasantly surprised how low build costs can be to get to weather tight shell, providing the OP does not fall into the clutches of a big name architect who will up sell them to the limit of their current notional max budget. Let's talk specific numbers: 160 sq meters is a half decent sized house particularly when anything larger equates to a large mortgage. The OP should have a fully serviced plot for £100k The OP should find local builders proficient at timber frame construction. Given lower regional labour costs the OP might be surprised to hear that a weather tight shell of a house that outwardly looks like a finished house is within reach for just £110k. If the OP builds off a catalogue kit plan and maintains a cool head over interior finishing details there is no need to contemplate a £240k mortgage from the outset.

Yours if an impressive self build story and a yardstick that I use to measure my own self building attempt.

True but the OP is contemplating a large mortgage. Surely it is reasonable in this situation to encourage the OP to think such self build project financial fundamentals. My advice to the OP would be to hang on to the current house if travel time to the plot is under 30 milnutes. This advice is not based on tweaking for optimal interest costs, I am instead recommending a course of action that maintains a roof over ones head while undertaking a high risk costly self build venture that might take years to complete. The building trade is already gearing up for Brexit turbulence and so should self builders.

Self builders are not professional developers, so I am not sure what point you are trying to make. The self build financial survey I linked to supports my claim of typical plot value ratios and contradicts your claims in this thread.

I feel it is reckless to offer encouragement to the OP given the plan outlined so far. The OP has a mortgage free home and a nice wadge of cash in the bank and now seems to be planning to dispose of that home to fund a selfbuild with no notion of likely final market value, no idea of build cost and will end up with a large mortgage. I am surprised I am the only contributor to this thread who has said, whoa. All this rose tinted rhetoric about it not mattering if this is "your forever house" is the language of rich boomer generation retirees. If this forum is to survive in the long term it needs to provide useful advice to the next generation of self builders.

There is nothing bold about stating a broadly accepted truism that has been demonsted for decades. https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/how-much-does-the-average-self-build-cost Citing figures from land bank speculators or large estate developments is completely irrelevant to this discussion.

There is no official ratio but there are proven rational market forces. These forces dictate that the sensible price for a plot is: Estimated Final Market Value - ( Build Cost + Pro Builder's Profit). Houses are more expensive to build down south in the UK due to higher labour costs but final market values vary by a greater amount than these regional labour costs. Hence in SE property hot spots a plot might be 50% of final value but much lower on the Isle of Sky. It seems a shame of a little odd to me that with a starting personal equity of £220k and a keenly priced semi serviced plot of £95K you are planning on a £230k mortgage at the self build starting line. There is ooddles of evidence here that you will end up with a £300k mortgage. I believe your opening self build plan needs adjustment. How large a house by square footage do you require?

Two points: Scottish plot values are noticeably lower than UK averages. You have previously told us about the complex story behind your plot purchase Had you completed your self build within 2 years of plot purchase I assume your plot cost to final value would have been closer to 30%

You answered your own question in your second paragraph when you stated "the old "rule of thumb" for the commercial developers used to be equal thirds of land, build and profit.". Across a large swath of England plots are priced within a 30% to 40% band of the expected value of the finished house assuming the build is undertaken by an experienced pro builder who does not fritter money away. In your third paragraph you then proceed to agree with my warning to the OP regarding how a self builder can overspend with the result that the finished project overshoots its market value.

I like the concept of creative zoning with different ceiling heights but question the desire for reduced height cosiness where the sofas are. 9515mm by 5174mm is not that big and I feel the main living area is exactly where the ceiling height should be maximized to counteract the lack of regular window area. 2400 is defo too low.

From your figures your plot cost is 21% of the total project cost. This is an unusual ratio and suggests you have over specified or oversized the planned house so it might be worth going back to the original assumptions about your self build. The open market is rational and if your final project costs overrun the final projected market value of your house it suggests you are doing something odd. You might already be content with this outcome but before committing to a detailed financial plan, why not present you plan for some open scrutiny and validation here.

I understand the opposite, some pressure during the pour is recommended. If the formal pressure test is X, then the pressure to be maintained during pour is half X.

No. The ideal scrum team size is between 4 and 7 so no place for a manager in such small team. Such small teams could not incorporate a dedicated manager hence the scrum master will juggle another hands-on role within the team.

Have the offers complied with the "offers over" stipulation of your listing?

Which is such a generic observation on human social interaction it conveys zero benefit to a beleaguered software product manager or self builder contemplating another winter in the static caravan. When a stone age wife harangued her partner to go hunting or when a 21st century wife yells at her husband to switch off match of the day and take her shopping list off to Tesco, it is all just communication about need and delivery. However between the scenarios, humans advanced through two little things known as the agricultural revolution and the invention of money.

This is not about in-house technology. I am talking about the approach to creating a habitable home. I claim that the mainstream building industry is more Agile than the typical self builder. Commercial self builders pursue their minimum viable product goal with ruthless efficiency and do so in clearly scheduled sprints. Their trade sprint teams operate with light touch management. Self builders often amble along with highly elastic schedules and delivery dates slipping forever over the horizon. To compensate for slipping delivery, aspirations and dreams mount up to compensate. Such a process is highly analogous with many a failing software project in the old pre agile days.