epsilonGreedy

I will explain using food as an analogy. Do you always dine out at branded franchise establishments? The new prospective self builder feels as bemused as would a hungry alien landing on planet earth in search of a restaurant. Knowing nothing about earth cuisine the alien will logically end up trusting the glossy reassuring corporate veneer at McDonald's. I suspect the same risk avoidance process drives first time self builders towards kit timber frame, the corporate branding showing homes being erected by people who look like computer programmers dressed in unblemished hi-viz vests and brilliant white hard hats, provides consumer reassurance in an otherwise alien landscape. Experienced self builders know the differences are as exciting as choosing whether to buy a 2-dine-for-a-tenner meal from Tesco or Sainsburys.

I feel the new entrant to self-build gets a biased view of the TF/B&B debate. The reason for the bias is that the 3-man brickie team in their tatty transit do not have a voice. The TF companies understand the media and how to influence the market. TF companies buy adverts in magazines and feed ready-made cut & paste narrative for free editorial coverage, they also buy space at industry shows. A prospective self builder should ask, why are so many block & block homes built in the face of such a one-sided debate.

The timber frame cost calculator at this web site illustrates how the costs build up. http://www.timber-frame-suppliers.co.uk/timber-frame-self-build-cost-calculator/ Maybe the fundamental issue is that TF attracts those who want something closer to a turnkey self build experience and so the industry has moulded itself to this market demand. The turnkey self builder is probably less price sensitive, time poor, cash rich and more risk adverse, as a result management costs creep in and create an impression that TF is fundamentally more expensive.

The problem with this debate is that pro TF posters use their own diverse definitions of TF to prove their point. At one end of the scale we have @ProDave who got a bare bones (I assume) TF structure fabricated 3 miles down the road in a rented barn prior to doing most of the build solo diy. At the other end of the spectrum we have wealthy Home County types who jump in their 17 plate Porsche Cayenne on a Friday evening drive out to a £300 per night boutique country hotel and attend a weekend Potton Homes self build advice symposium. On Saturday evening while quaffing an expensive bottle of red they tick boxes on the TF kit order sheet and debate matters like chrome-faced USB enabled sockets, then they drive home glowing in their new status as self-builders and wait for the front door key to be handed over. Quoting selective examples from such a diverse range of self build experiences will create an impression that TF is the superior option and obscure the fact that brick & block is the industry norm for small scale development.

Why then did @JSHarrisstrive for mm perfection with his passive slab prior to the TF erection team arriving on site.

I want a habitable house within 12 months that represents value for money created at low project risk. Going timber frame lowers project risk for a diy project managing self builder because much work is off loaded to the FT company but this comes at a ££ price. TF also telescopes onsite build times which reduces risk further. This is the main attraction of FT from my perspective, however costs seem to escalate as different suppliers and trades try to integrate and coordinate their work on a demanding schedule. Consider the foundations for my brick and block house. I phoned up Mr G last week on the recommendation of a local farmer, he said Mr G is the no. 1. man with a JCB locally. We met on site last Sunday just 4 days after I made initial contact, I gave Mr G my hand drawn foundation plan with linear calculations. He ignored my numbers and instead we paced out the location of the trenches. Mr G then sniffed the air for 20 seconds and said it would be £500 for the main house or £650 for the house and garage. Going low tech with a traditional build saves money. Mr G knows the local build control inspector , "she's a good un". We will dig and discover and if extra trench depth is required Mr G will do a bit free of charge otherwise there will be an extra charge. Going traditional means I feel confident enough to do my own setting out, so that is £500 saved, dig & discover means I have saved £3000 on ground condition exploration, tench fill means I will just need £300 of extra pro labour onsite on the day of the concrete pour.

The institute's web site uses both words, from 2002 an Architectural Technician is the pro qualification recognized by CIAT. For some reason they rebranded themselves as technologists in 1994, perhaps they are trying to compete with CORGI/GAS SAFE for name changes. https://ciat.org.uk/about-us/history.html

Thermal or sound insulation?

In my quest for Building Control drawings I have ended up with a quote from a firm of Architectural Technologists, their fee for the drawings is 70% cheaper than a proper architect. A bit of Googling leads to the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists created back in the 1960's. I have found 5 minutes on the phone with a CIAT bloke vastly more informative than dealing with a proper architect. Are CIAT members professionally up to the task of producing drawings for Building Control?

An update: It pays to shop around. I went back to the plot sellers architect and he was too busy to undertake the task of producing Building Control drawings. I subsequently discovered he is one of the last "quill & pen" architects in the region (the small ink overruns at plan edges were a clue in retrospect). Anyhow he recommended a local firm of Architectural Technologists who will produce the BC drawings for £1200.

The structural plastic crate thingys? I need 4.5 m3 of these and I was surprised how cheap they were, something like £200 all in. Even the variant that can cope with the weight of a vehicle were only 40% more. I fear I have overlooked something in my budget.

Ok I am getting a strong sense that my reference build is not a good example of best practice. Would you clarify what sort of adaptations are needed with scaffolding? Earlier in the thread you mentioned dropping down the two inside boards, does this mean customizing the working height by a few feet so that bricks are laid at an optimum body height? Having now laid 5 small practice walls in my garage at floor level my back muscles get the issue.

The tie-in points were not even, about 5 bricks between each pole. Anyhow I am now more informed about the recent history of scaffolding technique.

This point warrants more emphasis, the problem with timber frame is that more of your cash is handed out to middle class yappers and clipboard huggers. The very mention of a factory creating a bespoke manufactured item triggers all sorts of additional costs, lurking at the factory's HQ will be the Vice President of gender equal opportunities, HR managers, the director of social media reputation, the senior director of Microsoft Power Point corporate standards and don't forget the posse of H&S managers. The erection of a timber frame seems efficient but you are also paying hotel costs, for the secretary who booked the rooms and for the maintenance of an HGV vehicle fleet. What can be more efficient than 3 blokes who have never attended a 3 day workshop on gender sensitivity training, turning up in a tatty transit van to lay bricks in good weather?

It looks like a proper job with a properly dated and ID'ed installation tag, it went up two months ago and has had a couple of lifts since then. The ties I am referring to are about 30mm wide with the pole dry inserted into the brick course by guess 50mm.

While nosying around my reference build site the other evening I noticed a few chipped brick faces where scaffold platform horizontal bars were located within brick courses. I guess the brickies did not leave a large gap enough for the flattened end of the scaffold bars. Would a cautious brickie add an offcut of such a scaffold bar end to his toolkit and use this as a template to ensure large enough gaps are left between bricks for scaffold lifts?

Hmm yes this is a consideration. I am currently favouring electric because the price differential is £300 and it won't take a team of oxen to move. The pro brickie team next door only have their mixer powered up less than 25% of the time and I do not expect to outpace their daily brick rate. The mains consumer unit will be located in an attached single story utility room and I plan to advance the build of this in order to get mains power onsite asap.

You could ask your architect Taylor Tuxford how they propose to resolve their design error. Would it be possible to pump just the grey water from the kitchen up to the main foul drain level on the mid floor and let gravity work from there?

Best visit the optician and get these new classes customised for your eyes through an interactive sight test. I assume the optician will start by reducing the power of your distance glasses using an industry percentage and then fine tune with you through a standard interactive sight test.

Will do, I have yet to order the mixer. I am currently mixing by hand and finding this educational, the last splash of water has a disproportionate effect on mortar consistency.

An optician can solve this problem, just ask for mid distance glasses with the neutral focus point set to about 20 inches. Find a comfortable ergonomic typing position then get someone to measure the distance from eyes to screen. I use a large 30" screen hence 20 inches is about right for me, a laptop user might be happier with 18 inches.

Back to the OP... in such demanding situations I think it is helpful to be reassured your adverse reaction is normal. Coping with challenges is one thing, dealing with the same while doubting one's own mental fortitude will double the size of the problem.

Prior to mains power arriving on site I will need to power a 550w electric cement mixer, fortunately I already have a 1000w Honda suitcase generator. Will this cope with the start-up draw of the electric motor? The 2-man pro brickie team next door use a framed generator that is probably 2kw or 4kw.

Has anyone resorted to getting fitted with glasses with a focal distance set for arms-reach jobs around site? I ask because over the past two days I have started lying some training courses of bricks on the concrete slab of the garage at home. My regular general purpose glasses prevent me from focusing clearly on the quality of close up mortar joints and my computer glasses, which are set for 20 inches beyond my nose, leave most 3 to 6 feet objects slightly fuzzy.

To continue this theme, board a Brittany Ferry in Portsmouth or Plymouth as a foot passenger and do a round trip to Spain. Three days of staring at waves in the Bay of Biscay should trigger a beneficial brain reboot and free up millions of neurons that will be champing at the bit to crack on with your self build.