newhome

The problem I have is that I have no way of knowing how it was set up. All I have is the wireless control to switch the lights on and off. What ‘gear’ would need to be pulled out and would that be easy for an electrician to identify and address?

My husband lived in a (large) touring caravan for 9 months. It would not have been feasible for us to both live there in that tiny space but luckily I had a flat in town for all but the last 3 weeks and I just used to go to the plot at weekends. It would have been much easier from a build perspective to carry on without living in the house but as soon as the main kitchen / family room, and the downstairs shower room were complete we moved straight in. It would have been intolerable for 2 people to live in such a small space longer term. Might have been just about feasible for 1 I suppose.

I’ll use an analogy that’s a bit closer to home for me since the worst you are going to get with a rubbish meal is something you don’t like or gives you a bad stomach afterwards. In an IT delivery sense you can take more of a risk with something non essential, such as adding a utility for example, so you can let someone quite junior do the work with little experience. At the other end of the scale with an IT change that puts billions of pounds of funds under management at risk for example, risk avoidance is paramount and takes on a whole different nature, so there is no way that a change of that criticality would be allocated to the same individual. They might well be able to do it but the risk would be too great to take. Most self builders don’t have endless pots of money to risk on getting things wrong and having to pay again, so containing the risk is all important. It doesn’t mean that there are never unexpected costs or issues of course, but TF provides some risk mitigation in my view even if it means paying a bit more for someone to carry some of that risk. Plus it’s quite a decent construction method too with a proven track record! And there are far less ‘experienced’ self builders than those who do this as a one off, once in a lifetime thing. If you are building multiple houses (ie more than 1 or 2), it surely moves you into the small developer category rather than self builder? And most self builders get pleasure from choosing the construction method, materials, design. It’s what makes it worth doing, so definitely not a simple Tesco vs Sainsbury’s choice for me. Anyone who feels like that about it probably shouldn’t do it in my view.

I have kitchen / living / informal dining all in 1 room and never use the other rooms, although I have a separate lounge that I call the “visitors’ lounge” as it’s where visitors get shown to away from the general mayhem of the main living space. The main issue for me with everything in 1 space is that it looks untidy pretty easily. I find the fridge freezers most annoying from a noise perspective rather than the dishwasher as they are on all the time whereas I really only use the dishwasher a couple of times a week with just me here. Never switch the TV on lol. Not used it since the Olympics in 2016 ?. Occasionally watch something on the laptop with headphones.

Our TF contractor hadn’t used the system before either and said how impressed he was when it arrived and went up. We didn’t have anything that was 10m but it was pretty impressive nonetheless.

I have dogs, not cats but scoop it from the garden into a drain outside as I am on mains drainage. If I wasn’t I would bag and bin it or look at one of the dog loo composting options. I haven’t researched these but I would probably look to see if birds eating worms that have digested cat poo presents any sort of problem initially.

Unless you know the brickies in their tatty transit why would any self builder take a chance on them for what is likely to be their forever home? Now I’m not saying that all brickies in tatty transits do poor quality work but track record and some of the risk being owned by the TF company will be important to many of us.

Mine too, and it is the only experience I have but it went up to the watertight stage with almost frightening speed and we had no issues with fit. It was like building an Airfix kit!

They are selective because they are personal examples and most of us on here as self builders will only have our own example to base our experience on. I believe that both clearly have their merits and I wouldn’t rule out either method if I was doing it all again, and I might consider other methods too. Originally we were going down the SIPS route but back in 2008 when we first started to engage providers SIPS was relatively new territory and as inexperienced self builders the TF option just felt like a more mature model with lots of case studies under their belt. Plus when it came to quotes the SIPS option was quite a bit more expensive even when we upgraded to a sort of hybrid SIPS method provided by the TF company. The OP asked about noise and heat efficiency rather than costs but I still have a very hard job visualising how I could have built this house for a lot less if we had chosen brick and block. So in summary, TF was right for us at the time, and derisked the build to a degree which was important to us. It got the main structure up and watertight very quickly that was also key as my husband was doing some of the build on his own so it was slower than a whole workforce being on site for a relatively short period. Plus it came in on budget too. TF also seems very traditional in Scotland

But the TF company would have invoiced all their costs by then so things like internal doors, skirting, window cills, coving, fitted wardrobes, linen cupboard shelves etc would all have been paid for by that stage in the TF example. In my case anyway. Now I know that doesn’t add up to 40k but you’re not comparing like with like, and ultimately from a pure cost perspective the only figure that counts is the final figure at the end.

I liked the fact that the TF company covered quite a lot so we didn't have separate architect or SE fees to pay for example, and we had someone assigned to 'project manage' it from the TF perspective who worked with us pretty well, took our wishes into account, and made some good suggestions. We were given different options to choose from, so we said oak skirting for example and were then sent options to choose from in relation to skirting style / height. Brochures arrived to allow us to choose the internal doors when we didn't like the ones in the original spec, and then when we still didn't like what was on offer they sourced more brochures and sent those when we explained in more detail exactly what we wanted. We also wanted a different staircase so they sent options for that, and then it was down to them to ensure that the dimensions of the staircase fitted etc. And when we changed our mind re the layout of the staircase mid spec so that we could fit 3 tall units into an alcove in the kitchen they were very accommodating and just changed the spec and the drawings without charging any extra. So yes, they may have been a bit more expensive than us ordering all the separate elements ourselves and either having the frame made on site or choosing to build in brick and block onsite, but any issue with what was supplied by the TF company was down to them and not us. If the staircase hadn't fitted for example it was their issue to address so it took some of the risk away. We didn't use the TF company at all for the construction (in fact they didn't offer it - they just gave us the name of a preferred supplier) so the main coordination of trades / scheduling was all down to us to get right. It just removed some of the risk of ordering the wrong things / sizes for some fairly major elements of the house. Working with someone who clearly knew what they were doing when we were both novices was a good experience too. Of course it helps if you get someone you can work with easily but we were lucky from that perspective. And they couldn't have been uber expensive as even with choosing some of the more expensive options from the TF company we still managed to bring the build cost in at under £1000 per m2.

I hadn’t really thought about it before you posted, so now I have a choice to make. Carry on in denial and hope they never go wrong, or try to get them sorted before a future issue occurs that would make all the ceiling lights in here worthless ornaments (25 downlighters and 3 pendant lights). Hmm. What’s the most likely place where the controller will be? Any suggestions? ?

Probably not in lath and plaster walls I imagine. It was used extensively in the 50s, 60s, 70s so depends how old your house is too. I’m no expert however, just had a bad experience with asbestos tis all.

I would just split that into handy portions and freeze it. You should be able to cook that (steam, microwave or whatever) straight out of the freezer.

?

I think his Mrs was wanting a black gloss one rather than chrome ?

I bet you just got it out to check! ? ?

I didn't pay the council for the original building warrant as it was in place beforehand but had been paying £50 every 6 months to get it extended. When I had the (small!) extension to pay for I thought the council's view on building costs (given that I know how much it cost to build as I paid for trades to do every part of it!) was far too high, but my argument fell on deaf ears, and as I was on a sticky wicket as the building warrant was a retrospective application I just paid up.

Please please ensure that you have no asbestos anywhere.

I think so much depends on the building inspector. The first one who came round wasn’t here all that long and things we were concerned about he wasn’t really bothered about at all. Things they were hot on (Scotland): SAP and U value calcs Electrical certificate FENSA compliance for the windows ‘Form Q’ for SER scheme All those were completed offline via emails to the office. Things they looked closely at while here: Any gaps round windows and soffits. Smoke alarms (position but did not test) Drain pressure test (wanted to witness) Disabled access (were happy with the ramp but not the smallest bit of height difference as you came through the front door). Fencing near a ‘drop’. We had a temporary fence (sheep netting) up outside that was put alongside a retaining wall. Said fence had to be replaced by a solid fence of a certain height to get sign off. Wasn’t an issue as it was in plan to replace anyway but I was surprised how much notice they took of it. If you’re not ready to do the VAT reclaim ensure there is something that is a definite fail (eg hold back the electrical certificate or something) or you might find yourself with the completion certificate ahead of when you want it. I know someone (neighbouring council) whose electrician put every single light switch at the wrong height for building regs The building inspector picked it up in his report but then unexpectedly turned a blind eye and signed the house off. So it just depends.

I had my test done in November and BC wanted to witness it here. The plumber came out, capped off the soil stacks, completed the test, and then we confirmed to BC that it was good to go. BC came out 2 days later and witnessed the test. I don’t know what quotes are like where you are but I paid £234 for the plumber and his mate in total and he dealt with the BCO who came. Was well worth that to get it all covered.

He says that was all you

@Nickfromwales is an accommodating chap. He just traveled up to Scotland to sort my heating disaster

I would go for the stuffed animals And I can only imagine what you were actually doing to have called me a perv!

I imagine there are endless good options these days. I have a similar room to yours by the sounds of things (large kitchen / family room with an island for casual dining) and have a simple 4 zone control with dimmers that controls all of the ceiling lights which comprise 20+ downlighters, 2 pendants above the island and 1 in the sitting area. Looks like the system I have from 2009, the GET Smart wireless system, is discontinued so if it ever goes wrong I am in trouble, as I then have no way of working the ceiling lights I think especially as I have no idea where the controller is . So more than a recommendation as to a make ensure that yours are future proof in some way, that there is an alternative way of switching them on, and how they are set up is written down somewhere. Apart from the pendants over the island I don’t tend to use them much as it happens as I prefer to use lamps, and the lights under / over the kitchen wall cupboards.