epsilonGreedy

Bulb were competitive when I looked a few months ago and @Jeremy Harrishas set up an introduction link with leads to a welcome £ bonus.

p.s. In my answer I am assuming the "patch bay" is elsewhere in your house? p.s.2 The term "patch bay" is ambiguous in home LAN cabling. The core components that connect up a LAN are (1) Hub, (2) Switch and (3) Router. Big commercial networks often have racks filled with things that look like an audio patch bay but these are really cabling configuration access points to the hub/switch deeper in the rack cabinet.

To me these alternatives mean the same thing. Perhaps you meant "ring fashion"? I don't think ethernet can we wired in a ring configuration so you will need seperate lan cables running back to the hub/switch or hide a small local powered hub somewhere in the office with a single cable running back to the main hub. IBM sold a pre ethernet technology called Token Ring 30 years ago which rivalled Ethernet for a time.

My local BM emailed this morning to follow up an order enquiry I submitted last week. I can now collect in person once a pickup timeslot has been booked.

One of my local BMs is taking orders that will be supplied direct from their upstream manufacturers. The scheme is only applicable to a few building materials brands such as XL Joinery. Another BM emailed today to say they are considering taking orders next week for customer collection only, which is an odd decision, surely using their delivery wagons results in less human contact. How many m2 of 100mm cavity batts will I get in a Vauxhall Mokka? 20 at a guess.

Should the external intake and exhaust cowls be further apart?

I got a 2.5% weekly overrun rate on my scaffolding. With the threat of regular sites closing you could try for a much better overrun deal.

My index finger under the downhill end of my long spirit level gives a fairly consistent 1 in 80 gradient. A tip given to me by my nearly retired building advisor.

Things should move swiftly from dig to pour for conventional strip foundations, so I think it unlikely a pandemic crunch point will arrive during those few days. You could consider opting for a maximum trench fill with fewer footing block courses, this is a relatively cheap trade off between cost and advancing your build quickly. Once the first course of footing/trench blocks is in you can relax and no longer worry about 6" of water pooling on top of your concrete fill.

How good is your site insurance? I am thinking personal accident should someone fall in.

Do you know the square meter size of your home? Also what energy performance score did the property get on completion?

Finding available and competent trades is the greatest problem facing a self builder. Economic turmoil will tip the situation in your favour so if you have the cash on hand, go for it. It would be advisable to plan for sensible pause points though this must be more of a problem for an extension then a new build.

In the present situation that concerns you, the best and simplest security system is a local community you can depend on.

Ah ha I had not considered that a room air draw stove would fight with the MVHR.

Ok good to hear this is an option otherwise a fireplace on a solid floor slab would form a large cold bridge.

I just consulted the Building Services Handbook, defo very bad form to take a long route through the house foundations, cavities and voids. @joe90's builder did the right thing going around the house outside, then into the internal point of delivery via the shortest path.

Is it standard practice not to run floor insulation under the hearth? We have allowed for a 2" to 3" thick hearth plus say 65mm of floor flow screed across the whole room, even so I do not want to worry about insulation sheets below the fireplace melting.

Yup all part of the plan. The sitting room wood burner will draw air horizontally through the cavity wall because there is a subwall mid way down the room that bisects the fireplace where the stove will sit hence through the floor is not viable. Clearview manufacture custom air ducts for their stoves to be supplied externally. The Snug stove is more problematic because the fireplace backs up to the rear hallway. I hope when I scrape back the builders crud on the floor I will find that the beam spacing permits me to core drill a 75mm hole down into the suspended floor void which will provide a fresh air supply. I thought the smaller 5kw stove could draw air from the room without an air brick but apparently that is not allowed in a new build.

Given some of the strong views on his subject expressed here I have at times wondered if I should just plonk 3 false chimneys on the completed house. However earlier this week we drove nearly 4 hours across country to visit a specialist stove showroom and when sitting in the kitchen exhibition room while one of the staff sketched out a design I could hear the background sound of the stove drawing air and was convinced again I want a working wood burner. In practice I doubt it will be lit more than 30 days year.

Yes an RM78. I just looked at the product spec 78Kg... no wonder I struggled to carry that across the site. I must admit getting the design of the chimney right is taxing me and my lead brickie. I have already demolished the first 2m high chimney breast because it intruded too far into the room, my error. A timely technical chat with Clearview Stoves clarified that fitting our favourite stove design with its 14kw output was absolutely nuts. Apparently the quoted variable ranges of wood burning stoves should not be relied on, they achieve their optimum cleanest burn at maximum rated output. Now we are designing for a smaller stove and ClearView confirmed the external air draw kit does not require additional fireplace depth, we have been able to knock 200mm off the chimney breast depth. After viewing the many working stove displays at ClearView's fabulous showroom in Ludlow we also discovered that a wood burning stove looks quite attractive when set 50mm forward of the chimney breast face, so that is another 50mm clipped off the chimney breast. The main design challenge we have is that my external chimneys, which stand 1.9m proud of the hipped roof, have an old fashioned wide look. We have to settle on the external chimney dimensions now because it simplifies the chimney build if the flue base dimensions continue straight up through the roof line. I have dry built a small demo chimney in facing bricks and 5 bricks by 3 seems about right.

Oh too late, I had previously phoned my now regular BM and they quoted for their standard 175mm off the shelf flue parts. I actually have two working chimneys to build and have enough flue sections onsite to build one. I could revise my plans and fit a larger 8" flue in the larger fireplace if there is a good reason to do so? The smaller fireplace is being built to accommodate a 5kw wood burner stove with a 6" flue outlet. The other fireplace will have a larger 8kw stove ( yes I know far too much for a new build, it is an aesthetic choice for the room size) and according to the Clearview brochure this also has a 6" outlet. Your post prompted me to review chimney flue sizing and this following site suggests matching chimney flue size to stove flue size or the chimney flue can step up a bit in size but not too much. The same site also goes on to say the fireplace opening should be x10 to x12 the flue size though I do not anticipate ever operating an open fireplace. https://www.mychimney.com/blog/chimney-fireplace-sizing/

I found this installation diagram on the ClearView web site which suggested a 12 to 1 mix. Not sure what Leca is, a brand name for vermiculite? https://www.clearviewstoves.com/useruploads/downloads/Pg10. 07 drawing Pumice Liners.pdf

Ok. My local BM supplied a base lintel concrete plate from the Torterra Red Bank range which simplifies starting the flue I hope. One downside is this positions the flue a bit too far out from the inner block wall hence we will need some bends to curve the flue in at ceiling joist level otherwise the chimney breast intrusion into the bedroom above is excessive. https://www.forterra.co.uk/chimneys-roofing-flue-systems/chimney-air-brick-ducts-flue-product-selector?cat=175mm-internal-diameter-circular-flues After visiting ClearView and handling their preferred flue parts made by an outfit with a German sounding name starting with "S" I am concerned the pumice content of the Forterra parts is quite low.

I hope not! I should clarify the vermiculite is poured into the cavity between the masonry box that forms the inner chimney and the flue section. The inner flue remains open. I think the vermiculite helps protect the chimney from high temperatures of the flue and it also allows the flue to get up to operating temperature quickly which promotes a healthy air draw up the chimney from the fire place. In addition to that I now appreciate the hard set vermiculite fill also helps physically brace the flue within the larger chimney structure.

Thanks. Is it usual to churn the mix in a conventional cement mixer? I have been told the flue cavity should be filled progressively as the chimney goes up, so I am assuming this involves mixing small quantities just enough to fill a vertical meter at a time.