curlewhouse

In the last blog entry I was putting down insulation and the UFH pipework in the smaller of the 2 main downstairs rooms. In the end I decided we would do the smaller (3.5m x 7.5m) sitting room ourselves. So with myself and daughter levelling, wife and friend mixing and super fit farmer friend on the wheelbarrow we mixed the requisite 4 tons of screed and ton of cement and laid it in a day. Fish and chip lunch provided of course to helpers! All in all we didn't to too bad a job. Not as smooth as the pros but more than sufficiently so, and I may just run a very thin layer of self levelling over, more to fill in little voids than anything.

"It reminds me of the Fracking Protesters sent to prison last week who maintained that they had been sent down for ‘peaceful protest’ when they had actually blocked a public road for 4 days by camping on top of a convoy of lorries and been found guilty of ‘public nuisance’." - By coincidence I just listened to a report about this only this morning. The reporter made the interesting observation that when he looked into it the very same judge who jailed them, on record repeatedly gives paedophiles suspended sentences - whatever the rights and wrongs of what they did in protesting (apparently none had previous convictions and all 3 were employed) there seems to be a loss of proportionality. Or one could be cynical and wonder if money talks in our courts..

If you've read of my experience with a Warranty provider, or to be accurate, the Inspector and his boss, then tread carefully if your build is anything but mainstream (mine made clear for example, that SIPs were an wildly unknown quantity to them and have questioned everything to the 'nth degree, making me contact various firms to ask if their products were compatible - even where it was embarrassing for me to have to ask as it was so obvious) slowing the build by weeks and weeks) and make sure the Inspections you get will be by someone who has worked with that system before. Obviously if your doing a mainstream type build it shouldn't be an issue.

You never see this stuff on Grand Designs ?

So, in the small sitting room, or "snug" as we are now calling it, which is 7.5m x 3.5m I have 100mm of Celotex type PIR stuff (from Seconds & co) as a first layer, then to keep costs down went for EPS70 for the upper layer in the end. Oddly I found some of the pallets from Seconds & co of Celotex/Kingspan type, worked out more expensive than new, so I did a lot of shopping around. For the difference in u Value, because the whole is 200mm, using the EPS over PIR for the top 100mm proved irrelevant really, but saved me a lot of money at a point in the project where this is beginning to matter greatly. We are still talking massively over and above code and I think the reality is in real life use, the difference between using EPS or another layer of PIR will have no measurable effect. Your definitely well into diminishing returns I think. So next was to get the UFH pipes down. In this photo I'm half way through, with the first 100 metres of pipe (96 metres actually) down and the second loop going down. I did get a quote for the screeding of the entire ground floor (though I did the downstairs bathroom and utility room (currently functioning as a temporary kitchen) myself with dry mix), I am considering doing this room myself. We have 2 mixers available and myself and at least 2 other men to mix and barrow, so I'm considering taking a few days off work and doing it ourselves. The large room I'll definitely leave to the pros as it is A. large and B. "L" shaped. The advantage would be that we'd then have somewhere to put all the stuff currently in the large room whilst its floor is being done, whereas at the moment it would all have to go outside for about 48 hours! It's quite a physical undertaking though as I learned from the bathroom and utility, so I'm going to give it a bit more thought! ?

Hi, if you do a search on the forum there is a dedicated post for this: https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/801-books-for-the-self-builder/?tab=comments#comment-9669

So for out the front I've managed to scrounge another 2 stone gateposts free of charge! (making 4) The beauty of these is that now I've concreted them in, they will be entirely maintenance free for the rest of my life. I plan to add a third one beside the gate to make a small "wicket" or pedestrian type gate alongside. Fortunately a farmer friend had a massive machine on loan which was capable of picking these last 2 up in one go and carrying them down for me (another reason I love living in a rural community is how much we all help each other - in the winter whilst living in the caravan we were very genuinely offered accommodation if we wanted it from no less than 5 different people. It is amazing how kind people can be, and even though we did not take them up, I'll certainly not forget who they were should I be in a position to help them in the future). One has an old "bench mark" which was how the old ordnance survey system was done with spot heights. The post had long fallen out of place and was more than half buried in the soil when we found it. It makes you wonder how many of these are slowly disappearing into the soil. I know of several, but having the machinery on hand to move them is the problem since they are too heavy even for most farm front loaders on tractors to manage. I've also seen them snap when lifted! I really like the character and story of using recycled materials like this. We can only begin to guess at the age of these posts for example, but what is nice is I know exactly where each has come from. It also makes the development feel "organic" to the place I think.

Square feet - in a way, if you can live with the time scales etc, and can build it without a mortgage then go for it. I know someone who did that and although it took several years, of living in a static caravan they got there in the end mortgage free. Not being in a National Park (unlike us) probably helped, as it meant the outside of the house did not have to conform so rigidly to the norm for that area (basically he built a genuine log house) which obviously translates to big savings as you can take advantage of different materials and such. Though even for us, although we could only have natural stone and slate, I managed to save easily 50% on the cost of those by using recycled - which of course feels better as it has quite huge environmental advantages, means even your materials have a "history" (our stone apart from the Saxon one, was from an old convent school which was being demolished, and the slates too - the slates are recut one size smaller so have new holes put in, immediately look aged, and are double the thickness of modern slates... for half the price - a real no-brainer really). The fact is, the stress has been caused entirely by office dwellers, not the tradespeople we've used or "real" issues - just entirely manufactured issues which simply do not need to happen - sometimes it feels as if no one in the UK ever built a house before and the officialdom is doing this all for the first ever time! Well, a spare 100k in the bank would lessen even more stress of course, but hey ho - if we had that, we'd have had custom build, not self build. Lesgranepotato - the Unready could indeed be very apt! ? Well it's not particularly glamorous, or a new rosetta stone, but here it is - it is roughly hexagonal but obviously you only see 2 sides now it is built in. The mason deliberately made it stand proud of the other stones so it can be seen - I think he really liked the idea. Excuse the quality, but I smashed my phone lense! A better camera would probably make it a lot clearer as to why it stood out when it was amongst other stones. As for the house name, it was to be Curlew House, since you see and hear them here and it is also my favourite bird (the call of the bird just fits into the Northumberland moors perfectly) as well as the symbol of our National park, but then I found someone had given a twee holiday cottage the same name. So we went for a historical name (Todcroft - meaning Fox house) as the next house down was called that in about the 17th century before becoming the village school, so the name has a historical connection. Interestingly, we also found a Henry VIII coin on the site!

I have the same issue. I've got a good number of rolls bought for a project that never panned out (a house empty since the 1970s which we offered to buy and which at the last minute fell through - 6 years later it's still stood there empty slowly deteriorating. But they did us a favour in the long run as it turned out). I've been wondering about their possible use for sound deadening between floors or even walls (though I know it would slump over time even cut into "batts")?

Actually, I found they pushed in easily enough, and I'm just doing it by hand, not with one of those tools. However, I am doing it by pushing the point in and tapping them very gently (barely any force needed) with a small rubber mallet as I found that just easier on the hands. Did 2 loops of just under 100 metres each and pressure tested overnight. All fine.

Always amazes me when you see fires where there were smoke alarms fitted but no batteries in them - unforgiveable. I've noticed that this mostly seems to happen in rented properties for some reason. Naturally we have had to fit a mains system being a new build (already bought and waiting to be fitted), but for during the build I have put battery ones in place in the house as soon as the SIPs was up. Since initially we were alongside in a caravan I found when testing that we could hear the alarms too and being in a rural area its otherwise utterly silent at night apart from the owls and the odd sheep. Given how cheap alarms are now, I can never understand anyone not having plenty of them. Fire extinguishers on the other hand are not really that cheap for decent sized ones so quick access to a hose is indeed useful. Our nearest fire station is a retained one 11 miles away so it definitely is wise to be prepared ourselves as help isnt coming very quickly.

Well it has been some time since I did an update. Really busy at work and of course with the house. Things have slowed now as money reaches an end, and as time goes on the finishing will be on a "when can afford" basis, but we always knew this, and one of the points of this whole exercise was to end up with a house we could never have afforded to buy of course. So the stonework is all done and looking great, and I have built the stairs and gave them a temporary coat of paint (they will be carpeted and the outer wood stained and varnished). We even have a stone from a Saxon church incorporated into the house wall. This was found incorporated into then old drystone wall on the site which had collapsed and identified by the archaeologist we had to have on site. He said use it maybe as a garden feature but I felt that it would one day be lost so had it incorporated into the house wall - I plan to get a little plaque made for future generations to know what it is (there had been a Saxon church on the village green about 10 metres in front of our house before the "new" Norman church was built). Next job is to finish the floor insulation. This is to be 200mm thick with a 100mm screed and just under a kilometer of UFH pipes laid in. So far we have the first 100mm in and I saved a fortune by buying seconds for that. At the end of the day it doesn't matter how pretty it is! Also, I've struggled to see why most of it is even "seconds" actually - one lot had a makers date of only 3 weeks earlier, was still shrink wrapped and immaculate. It is not foil faced, and initially I bought some "proper" foil faced Celotex for the top layer. But I did wonder about the function of that foil in reality and what if anything it actually adds to the function. Reading a post on Buildhub suggests nothing in fact, with the poster stating that he believes that foil facings only serve a purpose with air space in front to reflect "into". This kind of coincides with my own thinking and so I'm planning on doing the top layer in "seconds" too. I'm not convinced that even if the foil does some reflection of heat, that it would make a measurable difference between 200mm with foil facing or 200mm without. There being a polythene sheet of course over the top of the insulation before our 100mm thick concrete screed. The 50% saving on buying first quality from the builders merchants will buy us one hell of a lot of gas heating anyway, and if I've calculated correctly, several years in fact. The panels we got have a thin glass fibre covering which also makes them if anything stiffer than the purely foil faced ones. In total, they've allowed me to do the insulation for about half the price by buying them by the pallet load. In the photo is the "snug" room, which is about 7.5m x 3.5m to serve as a sort of second sitting room with the large TV in it. The beauty of this room is that should we need it in years to come when maybe stairs become an issue when we get old, it will make a downstairs bedroom quite easily. Shown here, it has the first 100mm of insulation down.

Taped the overlap - so the DPM comes up behind the DPC overhang with the blue Visqueen tape in between. I guess you could also then tape over the top of the join too if required but I didn't see a necessity and I found by doing it that way, when I forced in the insulation boards in tightly, as the overlap was "downwards" it did not then pull the joint apart.

If I understand the correctly, why not just use DPC joining tape to connect the 2? Thats what we have done. It also means a fully waterproof join. The blue Visqueen stuff is really strong. I've found the black bitumastic type, though cheaper, harder to work with and if cold, not very "sticky" - in fact I've even had the rolls sitting in front of a fan heater on a low heat setting before to improve things before use.

I've actually had that! Put stuff on Freecycle and been asked if I could deliver (free of course!) to someone 20 miles away. Talk about taking the mick!

My super fussy warranty inspector said nothing about where I've already put normal plasterboard up in the downstairs bathroom and this is the guy who has had me writing to various different companies to get them to put in writing for him that their products (in use in buildings nationwide already) are "suitable" - and to be honest, if it was remotely possible to find an objection, my guy would have done it! If you check the manufacturers web sites and sellers like Jewson, B&Q, wickes etc (because sometimes they've beaten trade prices for me on some things!) they actually describe their standard plasterboards as "suitable for walls and ceilings".

This has answered a question I've been thinking about re floor insulation beneath my UFH slab actually. I'm putting in 200mm insulation then a 100mm slab above the the UFH in. Now I got the first 100mm insulation down a lot cheaper by buying "seconds" (I use inverted commas because I can find nothing wrong with it - in fact one pallet load had a manufacturing date on of only 3 weeks earlier!) . This stuff doesn't have a foil face, and I've noticed from photos that everyones seems to have a foil face usually. But I could save quite a lot by using the seconds on the top 100mm layer too - the only difference is they have no foil face but rather a thin GRP coating (lovely stuff when you cut it! Mask and goggles an essential) which makes inserting the plastic UFH staples somewhat harder but still do-able. I couldn't get my head round the foil actually doing much when covered in black polythene then screed anyway and your comment about an air gap being required makes sense.

Sorry, just seen these requests re roof makeup. SIate - membrane - battens - breathable membrane - SIPs osb.

Because they don't do self build mortgages any more unless via Buildstore. Quite a lot of the bank/building societies have now gone this route as it saves them having self build experts on their staff for probably less than 0.1% of their mortgage business.

Big Clives channel is great. I have to say that I've bought loads of stuff from China over the years but steer clear of safety critical and am very careful with mains powered stuff. I would never buy a smoke or Carbon monoxide detector from anything but a known brand! The classic is some LED spotlights (outdoor type) where thanks to Big Clives channel I opened them up to check and found the earth wires present but for some bizarre reason not connected to the metal body. Easily resolved. Of course lots of the electrical equipment we buy from UK and European brands is actually made in China but usually under supervision and subject to quality checks.

Yes, I've found literally hundreds of people mobile phone companies have done this to. In fact the guy at Buildloan said he has seen it lots of times and it is almost invariably telecoms companies for some reason. I've had a go at Experian pointing out they have a duty of care to stop taking reports from companies they know have repeatedly sent them bogus bad credit reports - but of course they don't care as these companies are paying a fee to them (Experian). We are still going through the usual Buildloan delays where again nothing ever gets progressed until I phone or email asking why I've not heard anything for days/weeks. Every step has had to be forced. Its really unpleasant to be constantly arguing with people when all your asking is they do their very simple job. Basically, I send them a payslip/statement/form and all they have to do is put it in an envelope or scan it off to the building Society yet it will sit there until I ring and complain that nothing has happened. Usually until its out of date so I have to send another. It took 6 calls even to get someone to answer the phone the other day. It's just completely stressful dealing with them - its horrible. They've taken a system which can be a little stressful for people and made it hugely stressful at every turn. My heart sinks when i see i have an email from them as you know it will be some delaying tactic or asking for something they could have asked you for weeks ago, so is adding yet another delay. Its almost as if they'd never done mortgages before and were just learning themselves at each step, yet they've done thousands as we know. There appears to be no system. The top and bottom of the problem is that they have a monopoly and know it so don't have any incentive to improve.

Well, all the outside is done now except for some weird small bits the builder has not yet done for no reason I can work out - the stone above the porch window (1 layer about 6" thick) and the ground floor bathroom window sill, and the bottom of the porch doorway. They are coming back which is fine and there is no panic, but I don't quite know why they left those bits undone. Anyway, as is the way of these things, we ran over by a good few thousand - mostly because both the independent QS costings we paid for and Buildstores own costings people, omitted parts of the stonework (quite a lot of stone mullions as well as stone water tabling). I contacted Buildloan and explained we'd need more dosh. First advice was that it would be cheaper to get a loan - so, knowing we have a 999 score credit rating and more than double the equity in the house & land, we applied - and for the first time in our lives were refused! It made no sense, so we tried another - same result. Reasonable income, its affordable, whats going on? On a whim I checked with Experian and found Talkmobile (who I've not been with for about 2 years) had wrecked my credit record claiming unpaid bills! Simply not true! So I chased them - they apologised and said they'd get the incorrect information removed by Experian "in 30 days" - I offered to sue if they didn't do it immediately for the extra thousands it was going to cost me having to go the mortgage route - rates plus Buildstores £500 + fee for filling a form in. So, I check and sure enough, my credit record was restored a few days later. Next day we apply again, - and were refused again! I check and find TalkMobile have done it again ! This time adding a completely bogus claim of a late payment "within the last 2 months" - for an account which has not existed for about 2 years! So back we go, and they apologise again and within 48 hours this one is also removed from my record (I've looked online and they've done this to loads of people - to one guy for a supposed £1 debt!). But now we have several "refused" records showing, so they've absolutely stuffed us, even though they admit error and we are back to a 999 maximum credit rating. So, with heavy heart we've had to go back to the nightmare that is Buildstore/Buildloan, and yet again, they are dragging the application out for as long as they can. First time round their game was to ask for say 3 months bank statements, then once you'd sent them, wait a couple of weeks and then ask you for the previous 3 months to that - this went on with payslips, P60s going back about 6 years and on and on - but never just asking for what the Building society wanted in one go, just one document at a time, even when I called and said "look, tell me *everything* you need and I'll send it all in one go" - oh no. (we should have known really when our initial application to Buildstore sat on someones desk for a month with nothing done until I rang and asked what was happening. I then had to chase them every single step of the way to make them get on with each step otherwise they just sat on the documents until they "expired", at which point they'd want the next months document, then the next months payslip - by which time a new statement was due and so on and on and on. I had to find how to contact the Chief Exec in the end to get them to actually just submit the damn application! A job which if i could have done it myself was all doable in maybe a week maximum. To my horror, they are doing the same again - they asked for 3 months (cunningly sent them 6 months so they couldn't play the same trick) payslips and bank statements, and already they've sat on them so long they are asking for the next ones! They have to be the most stressful way of getting a mortgage by far. when I rang the Building Society they assure me they send out a sheet to Buildstore at the start and list everything they want in one go (Buildloan tried to tell me it was the Building Society asking for one thing at a time - which made no sense to me, as why would any building society or bank do it that way?) . So I've just read an email asking me for a statement they *already have* and for this months payslips (which we don't have yet of course). I've written back pointing out that this will go on indefinitely if they don't just submit the paperwork and keep waiting until the statements and payslips are a month out of date. So I've also asked for a definite date when they plan to submit and have said if they cannot give me one, and do not plan to submit it this week then it makes sense for me to send all things in future direct to the Building Society, telling the Building Society why, rather than them being sat in someones desk at Buildloan until they expire. Give me strength!

Here is a thought - and gets you thicker , nicer looking slate and at *half the price* - recycled Welsh slate. That's what we've done. We were specified to use only Welsh slate and after having a near heart attack when I discovered the price (which is plain profiteering when identical slate can be shipped from Canada who have similar wages to us, and costs thousands of gallons of fuel oil to get get here for far less), I looked at second hand. I also used it in my application saying how "green" it was to reuse slate. The price turned out at 50% of new and we got really thick slate compared to the modern stuff. It was re cut to size, and because it's already weathered looks lovely straight away. What's also nice is I know exactly what buildings it came from and I did the same with our stone walls, so ticking lots of "green" boxes but happily also slashing the cost (our stone came from a convent school!)

You know, one of the biggest unexpected costs (and angering) for us was this joy the office warriors have of spending other people's money. It's the easiest thing in the world to pontificate from an office and say "I want you to get this, and this, and this" when it's someone else's money. The fact that you can get tests done for £16..... or £3k shows what a racket the whole thing is really.

I know that for our archaeological "watching brief " it was plainly a ready made boilerplate document with our site details cut and pasted in by the archaeoligist. But the various firms all quoted about the same amount for that part of the "work" & since they would be doing the watching brief there was no way around it as we had to have a qualified archaeologist on site (and the national park wanted to know his qualifications and had to agree he was acceptable before we could proceed!) so although the brief could pretty much have been copied from any other site it was useless without the archaeologist himself and of course they wouldn't work with someone else's. I can't see the council accepting *your* say so that nothing untoward was found to be honest. Is there reason to suspect contamination in particular?