Olly P

Its all about the gable for me! ?

That looks fantastic and very similar idea to what we have in mine although we are going for a 3 rail sliding door arrangement. I'm impressed by how you've managed to hide the horizontal and vertical steels so they are virtually invisible. What size section steel are they? And I assume RHS?

Thanks.. I'll be living in the container if my wife has her way! ?

I'm looking for ideas for our master bedroom glass gable. We are now pretty much felted and batterned in so I need to get on with ordering the windows and doors. The glass apex is open from the floor to the steel ridge and I'm wanting to use aluminium frames. There is going to be a juliet balcony hopefully with sliding doors. I spoke to one glazing firm so far and they had concerns that I need to add a horizontal steel to split the glass up. This isn't a big deal as I've done all the steel fabrication myself onsite, but didnt want to go down that route. Who has done this and have you any pictures you could post to show me? Many thanks

Hi We are currently building the roof structure on our 430sqm dormer bungalow. We have gone with 150mm cavity to allow for 100mm pir insulation and have took our time taping the insulation together when installing. I am wanting to make the house as air tight as reasonably possible and I'm going to install MVHR. I'm just wondering how the correct way would be to seal the roof and insulation between the rafters to the wall plate? And without parge coating the inner walls, apart from making sure the pointing of the blockwork is good, what else can I do to help this?

We're half way through building the shell for our 430sqm dormer bungalow. Now after designing/altering and studying the plans countless times I've just realised that having the plant room to the front of the house may not be ideal in terms of external aesthetics, although for MVHR it is on the north side of the house so performance in summer will be better. So I'm looking for any pictures of external wall exhaust/intake vents so I can try and get my head around how I can make them look ok. Or, I'm wondering would it be possible to run them to roof terminals? The same issue will be for the gas boiler. In hindsight I should of located the plant room on another elevation but the layout wouldn't of worked as well.

We are putting the concrete slab in tomorrow morning 8am.. based 100mm insulation and 75mm screed on top with UFH. Can anyone reassure me that the UFH will work well in 75mm screed? It seems alot to me but too late to change unless I pour more concrete in tomorrow morning.

Yes but not planning on making excessive noise on weekends or evenings.

Official advice from Enviromental health is that because I have no time restrictive planning conditions, I can work any day but I must not make any noise before 8am or after 11pm! However They advised to be neighbourly and try to keep the machinery/plant work to the daytime which I would do anyway. Seems a sensible outcome to me.

At the moment I am setting up site, clearing ground, making parking/turning area as per planning conditions etc. I am in the process of securing site insurance, site facilities toilet/brew room etc and I have heras fencing securing the site. I am wanting to make sure that I have everything in place in regards to H&S and I'm led to believe by a developer that I need to notify HSE of the commencement via a form F10 . However when I looked on the HSE website the criteria states that the works needs to exceed 20 people on site at one time ( I can't see this happening) and exceed 500 working person days (again I would think my project will be done within this timeframe), to require a f10 to be sent in. So I'm confident this is not required for my self build unless told otherwise. I'm still confused with how to adhere with the CDM2015 rules. I have downloaded the app wizard but in my opinion it is not designed for self builds. Although i will be using some contractors during the build, I will be doing the project managing and a lot of the work my self, so in my opinion I am the "principal contractor". (??) But I am also the "domestic client". I'm confident that I don't need a design contractor as the planning is approved. What has everyone else done with CDM 2015? Confused!!

By reading this thread I think I have my answer but before I proceed with out structural warranty, am I ok doing this? There will not be a mortgage on the property and we don't plan on selling ever. Seems like a waste of 3k especially when building control are essentially doing the same job?

Hmm. No pleasing some folk. When I spoke to my neighbour i offered to give him my number so he could get in touch if there was an issue with noise in the future. He declined to take it and just kept referring back to the enviromental act. I'm still looking for any specific self build working time laws but nothing found yet. I've double checked my planning conditions and I definatly don't have and restrictions in there.

I take on board what your saying, but normally building sites run Monday to Friday 8-5 and Saturday mornings. The whole essence of self build is to "self build" and to me that involves working on your home after work and at weekends. I'm looking for any legislation that can advice me and my neighbour clearly so we can work within those rules for both of our benefit

We broke ground on Friday and had the digger and dumper going yesterday from 9 till 5. Think that may of tipped him over the edge but that's the way it goes sometimes. I can't see that the same rules. He said we shouldn't be working on a weekend or a bank holiday either. Surely these rules, if at all correct, only adhere to standard building sites not self builds, as my concern now is that because I work full time on shifts I was planning to work on site on weekends and evenings!

Sorry it revive an old thread, does anyone have a link or information to specific working times for a self build? We have no planning conditions with any working time restrictions however I have just had a neighbour angrily tell me that I shouldn't be breaking the "enviromental act" and shouldn't be working on a weekend or bank holiday. Does this apply to self build?

That's the point I'm thinking maybe difficult to argue. We won't be living on site but we only live 2 minutes around the corner. I'm wanting to do the groundworks and footings myself as I've bought a digger and dumper especially for that purpose. I guess I would have to go for it and see what happens. The worst is getting slapped a £60 fine I suppose.

We hopefully will have our reserved matter application approved any day now. We are so eager to get going as we thought we would be out of the ground by now. So as soon as the approval gets published and I sort CIL is there anything stopping me starting the groundworks, stripping the land and setting out footings in regards to the covid 19 regulations? Or is it classed as unnecessary work?

Yesterday I spoke to the planning officer that is dealing with my app and he was working from home. Looks to be business as usual although I can see it slowing things down due to being out of office. We were hoping to get started asap and watertight before winter but I don't think either will happen now.

We are hoping to start our build in the next few weeks and We are very lucky to be able to stay living in our current bungalow while we build our new one on our site around 2 minutes drive up the road. I would like to buy a fairly old 4 berth caravan that's in great condition and is dry to use as a place for my wife and I and 3 boys to use maybe have some meals in the kids coulld watch TV or whatever rather than have to go home from site earlier than I would like to. It has heating, a fridge oven toilet etc I would like to hear what others have done in a similar situation. Good idea or not?

Yes you are right There is a bearing cap bolts up behind the drive flange but unfortunately the gear oil is rusty water colour as water has entered the gearbox over the years past the gearstick gator. I'm concerned that there will be more issues apart from the bearing collapsed. Luckily I've bought another good gearbox for £200 so I'm going to swap the full box for piece of mind.

Apart from my digger all other machinery I own, dumper, compact tractor , generator etc is all very old as it's all I can afford but they are generally easier to repair when needs be. Plus I like old stuff!?

I am also concerned on the lack of outriggers, even though the smaller modern telehanders dont have them either. Luckily our site is dead flat so less risk of tipping over and we won't overload it. Also as we are building a dormer bungalow we won't be lifting to max height. I'm thinking of replacing all he rubber hydraulic pipes to reduce the risk of failure.

I have just bought this 1977 Sambron am10 forklift and as I haven't seen or heard of one before I'm interested to here of anyone who has used one before. I believe it has a 8 metre lift and has a 1 tonne lifting capacity. It starts and runs ok but the output shaft bearing on the gearbox has collapsed. However I have sourced and purchased a used gearbox I will fit this week along with giving it a service and grease up etc. It sure is wierd and wacky but i'm hoping it will be a handy bit of kit during the build for very little money!

I would submit a pre planning application to the LPA first, then speak to a good proven local Planning consultant. I would say that as approval has been given in a similar case to yours you have a good chance but a planning consultant would advise you better. Outline Planning would involve less financial input at this stage. Good luck

We have gone with 38 degree roof and a ridge height that will allow useable space upstairs to the wall plates set at 1.3 metre above the 1st floor level. Designed right, a 1.5 storey is nearly as spacious as a full 2 storey.