epsilonGreedy

You are using slightly confusing terms. "Sign off" is the major end of build event that often triggers a VAT reclaim and at this point you can consider your house complete even if there is incomplete landscaping, some unpainted rooms and the bathroom tiles are still in the box they arrived in. Submission is the technical review of your plans (diagrams) that must be done before starting to dig out the foundations. This is a far shorter review step when compared to the original planning.

That is impressive for a brick & block home, are there any other sources of heat? I recall your cavity was more than 100mm.

Is your mitre saw out of action?

Decrement delay is an observed outcome. Thermal Mass is an attempt to create a unit of measure that can predict decrement delay before a build commences.

Could this be explained by the presence of 2.5 mobile bio heaters in your middle sized house that generate enough heat to match the low heat losses of your excellent insulation.

Living in a static caravan is the quickest route to comprehending thermal mass, or lack of it. I liked the paper linked to by @recoveringacademicbecause it illustrates how for a given U-value the thermal mass can be varied with different building materials. Surely the combined wisdom of this forum can arrive at a definition of thermal mass. I will start: And having thought about thermal mass for 15 minutes I propose a more useful additional measure, I introduce "Effective Thermal Mass". Effective Thermal Mass = Sum( Thermal Mass over a 10 hour cooling period ).

Building control involves multiple on-site inspections at key stages of the build, about 5 to 7 inspections I think. The mortgage company will release funds in stages as the prior stage is approved by building control. I am at step-3. Step-1 was after the foundation trenches were dug and step-2 was after the foundation concrete pour.

Having decided to compete for business in the self-build market why would they then reduce that market size based on nothing more than a "because we can" ego trip? The original business strategy conversation would have gone like this. "Any other items on the agenda?" "Yes sir we have not decided whether to enter the self build market." Yawns around the table, people look at their watches. "Why bother it is only 0.000000001% of the mortgage market? "I am hearing rumours that big bad rival bank sees self-build as a high margin business with growth potential, look at all these TV programs". "Do we really want to be exposed to all these mixed ability self-builders, they are cranks, loonies and dreamers, I don't want us offering mortgages on tree houses like the one on grand designs the other week". "Well sir if we stipulate independent third party warranties that will filter out filter out the ex. hippie shanty town segment of self builders". "Ok we cannot let big bad rival get ahead of us, let's run a 2 year trial. Warranties only and I don't want the self build book to grow north of £50 mil during the trial".

I imagine they are using the absence of a warranty as a signal to filter out potential trouble rather than seeking reassurance in the event of actual trouble. p.s. I will not have a warranty and think the whole industry is a sham.

I think you have misunderstood the advice from your architect. He was not suggesting you can effect a major change to the outward appearance of the property by switching a slate sample to a metal roof panel example as you satisfy the existing slate roof condition. The architect is indicating such a significant change will require a new planning amendment application. From the perspective of the planning department the dialogue between you and the mortgage company is irrelevant.

Tricky isn't it. The first question is what level of accuracy is required for your site. In general I reckon the larger the plot and the more rural the location then the lower the accuracy. The other extreme would be a tight urban plot where a 1m error could adversely affect a neighbor or create a manifest aberration to an establish building line along a street. My plot is in a semi rural village position and before doing my own foundations setting out I had a chat with the local planning office and was told they would not act on a positioning error of less than half a meter. In the end I had to use a portfolio of reference points to establish the house position, I had one tree, a road with an indistinct verge and an old cottage 10m beyond my boundary shown on my site plan. In order to cross check my positioning I resorted to celestial navigation after establishing that at 12:44 BST the sun would cast a shadow along the front wall of my house.

Is that deemed not suitable according to the Regs or was this your preference? I ask because the official front of my house faces west. The natural principal approach is in the SE quadrant to the back door. The simplest external door to approach via a ramp faces north and would require a longer access path a bit like the @JSHarrisimplementation.

Eeeek, that is a lot effort for a 220mm ? height difference.

No doubt a recognizable brandname like Philmac produces reliable connectors, what I question is: do they create an extra degree of fitting hassle to achieve reliability. That is strange because when I asked my pro builder neighbour what he used, he showed me a light blue one and said these are what are supplied from the local BM.

That was part of the problem for me. Given the inherent loose fit of the Philmac before the compression collar starts to bite I wanted to understand how it worked and unlike the Plasson it was not obvious. With Plasson there is moderate resistance as the pipe passes the O ring then a reassuring clunk as the pipe seats fully home. With the Philmac connectors the pipe just comes to a slack end stop and the fitting then demands constant binding force with two hands while hands 3 & 4 screw in the collar. It is interesting to note that the Plasson installation guide states their 25mm connectors do not require a wrench whereas one is recommended for Philmac. Tactile feedback when screwing in the collars for Plassons v. Philmac confirm a nice progressive build up for resistance with Plasson as compared with Philmac which offers high resistance all the way, this suggests a poorer design to me. A word of warning about Pipestock. They do not routinely stock Plasson connectors so orders including these will often sit on back-order for a few days and thus fail their < 3pm next day delivery promise. Their very well designed web site does not indicate this stocking distinction.

My first mains water job before Christmas was a breeze with MDPE 25mm pipe and Plasson compression connectors, as recommended on this forum. Today I had to abandon phase-2 of my underground mains water extension because the Philmac connectors supplied seem second rate due to their design. I accepted the Philmac connectors as a substitution for Plasson on the reassurance by Pipestock they are just as good. When attempting to fit the Philmac compression connectors I was underwhelmed by the wobbly fit, Plassons by comparison have a reassuring tight fit even before the compression collar is cranked down. I checked that the new connectors were for 25mm pipe and pipe inserts had been fitted. Before deciding to give up with Philmac connectors I walked across to seek advice from my pro builder neighbour, he recoiled on horror at the sight of Philmac and stated his dislike of them. Eventually after much wrestling we managed to get a semi reassuring joint with the Philmac bits. Have others encountered the same problem? Maybe Philmac require a different fitting technique.

A good point that I should double check. Our attenuation pond has an overflow exit grate that leads through a pipe to the original water course drainage for the paddock. The plan to create a year-long wet habitat is going to require some planning because last spring we had an algae bloom before it dried out completely.

There is a large house 10 miles from me on a main road with an impressive entrance gate and an illuminated house name in stone = "Effemhall".

Mine was completely dry for months last year which has prompted discussions among the self build neighbours about lining it with a membrane. I supported this idea but now I am worried it could become a mid summer mosquito breading ground.

Ah ha mystery solved. Today I looked into the 5 mud sumps I dug over the winter to facilitate pumping out the flooding of my exposed footing trenches after rain and thought the puddles at the base of these seemed to contain frogs spawn. The shared drainage attenuation pond is just 10 meters away and is an ocean of oozing greeness, so I guess it has an amphibian population that explores the site at night.

Please do because when we have all hunkered down for winter and are staring at large puddles onsite you can inspire us with sunny self build positivity.

I was going to ask if it is possible to enforce a contract that an anonymous has never seen but that might lead to a policy popup page interfering with every anonymous user visit. There is always basic copyright law as a fallback.

I have a legal point of order. Would the T&Cs apply to an anonymous visitor assuming that is how the supplier gained access to the blog photos?

I have happy memories of living in France in a house with a kitchen that had direct access to a terrace through a pair of double doors, it works even at a Paris latitude. That house was larger so maybe the OP has to think through the practicality of storage/working space as you suggest.

Is this a green field project or are you renovating an older structure? How far south?