Benpointer

They are very thick but very narrow slabs and the face nearest the camera is the top. They are laid like slices of bread in a loaf and the dimples are clearly to keep the butter grout in. Obviously.

A relatively quiet week this week - the lull before the storm (hopefully not literally!) The scaffolders arrived to put up a single-lift all around the exterior on Thursday and Friday (and Saturday morning as it turned out). I say single-lift but there were due to be a couple of hop-ups for the gables on the south-facing roof. However, at one end the gable is over a canopy roof which means the first lift is 2m away from where the gable will be. We've left that one off for now - I'm hoping the timber frame company (Turners) can work off the scaffold tower at that end, or I will get the scaffolders back and put in what the frame erectors would like (we may need a sky-hook to hang it off though). The site is looking spick and span at the moment; the groundworkers were really tidy, the weather has no doubt helped (dust is easier to sweep up than mud), and Mrs P. has done some sterling work this weekend tidying up the few bits of spare timber, pallets, bulk bags etc, left by the scaffolders. As they were packing up one of the scaffolders saw an empty bag (which they had brought) and asked "Is this rubbish?", to which I replied "Oh yes, thanks", thinking he was going to take it away, but no, he just threw an empty Red Bull can in it 🤷‍♂️. Scaffolders truly are a breed apart. The house has proved to be too wide for the CCTV camera, so we moved the camera back. Now we have the workshop roof in the way - grrr! Looking at the project finances, frighteningly we have already spent over 1/3rd of the budget 😱. Major spend so far has been on design and planning, the timber frame and windows are both paid for, a good slug of the groundworks costs has also been paid with an invoice for the balance expected soon. This week I ordered and paid for the MVHR kit (based around a Zehnder Q350) and the ASHP and cylinder (Panasonic L series 7kW + 300l cylinder). I ordered the latter through Air2Heat who provide an MCS umbrella service (Paul Thorney - really helpful) so we should get back £7.5k via the BUS grant scheme, which would leave the heat pump and cylinder costing a net £1,200 plus installation costs. Anyway, we're currently running about £500 over budget (excluding contingency) with some opportunities for future savings and a fair few areas of potential overspend. Time for Benpointer's three Laws of Budget Management: If you go over budget, that's bad management. If you come in under budget, that's poor estimating. If you come in bang on budget, you've almost certainly committed both 1. and 2. Next week is going to be very exciting - I hope in a good way. Tomorrow (Monday) our timber frame arrives from Turner Timber Frames, with a team to erect it. The weather forecast is good, so fingers-crossed the frame fits the footings and it all goes up smoothly 🤞.

Ok thanks - I won't waste my time then. Cheers

just resurrecting this one as we have to install FTTP to the house as a Building Reg requirement (RA1) "Dwelling to be gigabit ready for physical infrastructure." Openreach have quoted £567 + VAT but intriguingly they say "Please note that in some exceptional circumstances, the services Openreach provide relating to new build properties, renovations and alterations may be subject to either zero rate (or a lower rate of) VAT. Attached is an information sheet which provides details of where you can find further guidance from HMRC." (Though in true Openreach fashion there is no information sheet attached.) Since we are compelled to have the connection it feels like it should be zero rated. Any thoughts?

Hah yes, thanks Roger! Yesterday we ended up supplying cold zero beers to the roofers next door too. It was scorchio on their roof yesterday - we couldn't stand by sipping beers while they watched on roasting.

I think they are similar to some Todd have - and yes, very nice. Nice handles too. I think they have to be prefinished though. I'm a wheelchair user and with the best will in the world, our doors end up getting scuffed. If we finish with Osmo we can lightly sand and re-seal very easily to hide odd scratches etc.

Just picking up on this topic, we have looked at Todd doors - they seem nice enough but a bit uninspiring - c.£200 a pop with handles. Most of their doors are bashed out in a factory in Malaysia and, as far as I can tell, the same doors are imported and sold by lots of other vendors. We've also got a quote from Deuren and they work out at over £1000 per door for fairly simple oak veneered doors, and brushed steel handles. Does anyone know of any door suppliers in between Deurens and the mass market? We're looking for contemporary wood, ideally that we can finish ourselves with Osmo. Thanks

Great to read your blog, very interesting and witty. I'm mightily impressed by the hands-on approach, I am sure you are saving a lot by doing all that work. I'm afraid we are making a more 'desk based' contribution to our build, which is probably wisest in our case.

We’ve had another very good week of progress by the groundworks team and they are pretty much done now bar some further levelling of the paddock area and one or two other minor details. We are really pleased with their work and the Building Inspector is pleased too, thankfully, so our foundations are all signed-off 👍. Bizarrely, it’s only now that we can submit the “Commencement Statement” for our construction to Building Control, which I duly did this week. Also bizarrely, we are still on schedule - I can guarantee that won’t last! Once the block and beam floor was in and grouted with cement slurry, the concrete block upstands for the internal stud partition walls were laid. With hindsight, it might have been better not to pay the timber frame company (Turner Timber Frame) to supply and erect the internal walls but rather build them later on top of the screed. But we’re way past that decision point now - Turners will be installing those partition walls as part of the overall frame build, so concrete block upstands have to be ready in place. One minor issue that had to be resolved this week - the block and beam floor ventilation ‘periscopes’ are designed for 100mm cavity walls and weren’t going to fit inside our 50mm cavities between the walls and the render-board. The solution proposed by the groundworkers and approved by our Building Inspector is to run them up the inside of the foundation wall before exiting just below DPC level. That gives us a potential cold bridge at each vent (26 in total!) but I think we can mitigate that by doubling the PIR insulation upstands to 100mm where the vents are. It’s not perfect but I think it will have only a very small impact on the overall insulation levels. Next week the scaffold is scheduled to go up on Wednesday/Thursday, then the timber frame is due to arrive the week after - when the fun will really start! Meanwhile next week I need cut the five 150mm oak posts to size and chamfer the edges, ready for them to go in to support the roof canopies over the front porch and rear terrace. (Six oak posts in the picture - I’ll choose the best five!)

Thanks all, my Macbook is an M1 chip so I think I will just take @nod's advice and get some free quotes. I've lodged requests with Warmup and Soleheat so I'll see what they come back with. Any others I should try? Thanks

Hi there, the question is in the title really, does anyone know of a UFH design tool for MacOS other than IOS? LoopCAD seems to be Windows only. Being a devout Apple person myself I don't have any Windows PCs. Thanks!

A compromise between what and what? Wallpaper is a centuries-old technology, with no real mystique. Any competent DIY-er can do it. If you don't like it in a few years, take it off and paint.

Against the consensus on this thread, we will be going for big bold wallpaper on a few walls, having not touched the stuff since 1988. I should add, we are natural trendsetters - where we lead others tend to follow, we just can't seem to help it. 😉 Actually of course, this is a well-established trend (the wallpaper not our style-leadership) but still not quite mainstream. We were taken by this type of look on a house that was on the market last year.

Damn, never thought of that! Will check with the electrician if we can use the same duct, alternatively we do have two spares 😬

Hi Stoph, We used 50mm ducting for all the services - the electrician requested 100mm for PV panel feed or 2 x 50mm, so we went for the latter. They are all above the concrete footings with a lintel in the blockwork. You can see one on the right the attached photo (the other opening in the centre is for a waste pipe from what will be the kitchen). .