Benpointer

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). .

Great progress by the groundworks team in sweltering conditions this week - laying concrete blocks in the sun when it’s 30deg C and 80% humidity can’t be any fun at all. Despite the heat, by the end of the week our foundation walls are in and ready for the block and beam floor this coming week. We can really see the house take shape now, although quite a few of the foundation walls are just there to support floor beams and won’t appear as internal walls above the floor. As expected, it all looks a bit too small at this stage. It always seems to be the case that the foundations make the rooms look small. They’re definitely the right size on paper, so I’m sure it’s an optical illusion at this stage (hopefully!) The foul and rainwater drains are also now in place. Our Building Inspector ideally wanted the SVP to come out through the roof above the bathroom but since that roof is covered with Solfit PV panels (https://solfit.co.uk/domestic-solar-panels/) that can’t be penetrated, we eventually agree to put the SVP up the outside of the north facing wall. This is the wall that isn’t really going to be seen from the entrance, front parking areas or garden and we’d really prefer not to penetrate the roof with a soil vent if possible. So, everyone’s happy. The ‘spaghetti’ in the bottom left corner is where all of our external service ducts come into the plant room. 17 ducts in total, including two spare at present, (I may have over-catered): Power to ASHP Power to garden Water pipe to garden Water pipe to workshop Power to workshop Lighting circuit - switched external lights Data to workshop Live power supply in (SSE - single phase) Fibre in (Openreach) Water mains in (Wessex Water) Power to sewage treatment plant PV panel in PV panel in Power to EV charger Data for CCTV Spare 50mm duct (to workshop) Spare 50mm duct (to workshop)

We did try a wild flower meadow in our last house. It looked lovely in the spring but moving into the summer it looked increasingly messy each year. And then we had to mow it, let the seeds drop, and then gather up all the cuttings. After a few years we had a huge, ever increasing pile of cuttings. The range of flowers was always a bit disappointing too - quite a lot of the seeds we planted never seemed to take or thrive. Maybe it's because we were (and will be in the new house) on heavy clay? Anyway, we decided to try a different approach this time - a robotic mower rather than ride-on. We might leave some swathes of wild grass and have someone come in and cut and remove the cuttings from those areas once a year. Apparently there are robotic mowers that can be programmed to cut different areas for different periods of the year - further research needed. Once Mrs P. tells me what we have decided, I'll let you know.

Resurrecting this one. We have the same challenge. Architect felt the B&B floor could vent into the external 50mm vented cavity between the timber frame and the render boards but the BI says they must vent to 'fresh air'. I was thinking something like Rytons Periscope vents https://rts.vents.co.uk/blog/product-details/rytons-periscope-underfloor-ventilator-pufv/ but they seem to assume an outer masonry skin, we will only have renderboard + a through colour render, say 30mm in total, so no room to fit an air brick. Others must have encountered this issue before, any ideas?

The groundworks team have been putting in the Sewage Treatment Plant and drains this week. We’ve chosen the Klargester Biotec+ 2 STP and that arrived on schedule from Tanks Direct on Tuesday. Also this week the concrete pads were dug and poured for five oak posts that will support overhanging roof canopies - the Building Inspector asked us to put in 1m x 1m x 1m pads which seems excessive for 150mm x 150mm oak posts taking point loads of 5-10kN but it was that or pay the SE for (possibly the same) opinion. The team also started reshaping the paddock area - losing a huge amount of spoil and burying a lot of rubble that had been dumped by previous occupants. We'll probably wait until the autumn to seed it - not much chance of seed taking right now. At the end of a busy week there is not a lot above ground to see for all that effort but we needed to get this all done before the below-DPC block walls go in. Access to the rear of the plot will not be possible for the big machinery once the blockwork starts. The wooden garage mentioned at the end of last week's blog came down over the weekend (in the pouring rain) and has disappeared off site. The extra space created has proved vital - the photo below shows the concrete pad that's left after the garage was removed. (The wooden building that remains is a 5m x 9m workshop which is staying, though it will need re-cladding at some stage.) No new issues this week - hurrah! Fingers-crossed for that happy state of affairs to continue. The timber frame is due to arrive from Turner Timber on 7th July, so just three weeks left to finish the foundations and get the scaffold up. No pressure!

Norrsken asked us whether we wanted to reduce the window sizes or make sure the external cladding comes up lower than the window opening. We opted for the latter and they provided us with this helpful diagram for the amount of cill clearance needed.

They pinned it into the clay. You can just about see a couple of pins in the extreme bottom right of the second pic. Not sure what they were tbh thin plastic rods maybe.

The excellent SE we contacted on Thursday to design the depth of our foundations came back on Friday with the answer - deeper than we wanted at 1.95m in the corner closest to the neighbouring oak (15m away) but his quick response has saved the schedule. We need to add clayboards in the corner nearest the tree but overall it could have been a lot worse. His rapid turnaround was brilliant and it meant we were able to crack on this week. The groundworkers had already discounted Monday as I suspect they thought they’s be waiting for the SE but through the rest of the week dug all the trenches and on Friday we had 7 lorries of readymix poured. The only issue was they hit a shaley layer at the bottom of the deepest trenches, so with the BI’s agreement they poured a couple of loads of concrete in on Wednesday before digging out the rest of the trenches. So now we have all the foundation trenches filled with concrete. Next week the groundworks team plan to concentrate on the drains, installing the sewage treatment plant (we’ve gone for a Kingspan Biotec 2) and ‘losing’ the massive pile of spoil we have, across the paddock. Block and beam floor to go in the following week. Target for completion of the groundworks is 27 June, so three more weeks allowed. I’ve checked in with the timber frame company (Turners) and they are still on schedule to deliver and erect the frame between 7 - 18 July. I have also finally managed to get some quotes for scaffolding and that’s scheduled to go up 1 & 2 July. The company we have always previously used have singularly failed to respond to my repeated requests, so I gave up on them and got a couple of other quotes in, and selected one. Windows, roofing, screed, plumbing and electrics contractors all lined up - I need to sort out some plasterers. The first indicative price I had for boarding out and plastering was… Ouch! Hoping that might be an outlier; it’s certainly more than Homebuilder’s Bible was suggesting £ per m2. In other news, we’ve found somebody who wants the timber garage, which we need to remove to create enough space for deliveries. He, his dad, and a friend are taking it down today.

Thanks for the quick replies. It's a very quiet rural area but there are houses each side so I'm not sure about acoustic boards - but probably will go for them. The reason for the odd mix in the roof is the rafters are 254mm easi-joists which we're having blown with cellulose, VCL below, then we will have 100mm PIR below that to give the 0.1 u-value we want. Also going to run the MVHR duct through channels in that 100mm PIR. Service cavity below that and then the PB. Might have to go for 15mm on the ceiling then as the joists are 600 and the service cavity battens will need to be below them.

Am I ok to use standard 12.5mm plasterboard for the walls and vaulted ceilings throughout our single-storey timber-framed new build? I was planning to do just, that with a skim, however one of the plasterers we have contacted for quotes has suggested we should use blue acoustic PB throughout. However the Building Inspector has insisted we fit acoustic insulation to all internal stud walls and the vauled roof make up includes 250mm blown cellulose + 100 PIR, so I feel we will be fine on the sound front. (Plus it's just the two of us most of the time.) Also, I thought I saw somewhere in the building regs that we need to use fire rated PB on the external walls - but I can't find anything about that now I look again. Our external wall build-up is PB + 25mm service cavity + 50 PIR +140mm frame (with 120mm PIR) + 50 external cavity, then a mixture of timber cladding or render on render-boards. Thanks!

Are those diagrams the Aquarea L series or just illustrative of similar ASHPs?

Thanks, I've sized the heat demand using Heatpunk at 5.3kW so a 5kW is not technically quite big enough. But you've got me thinking: You sized at 6kW and it's twice what you need... so this sizing business is not necessarily that accurate. I might be sizing too high, I might be sizing too low. How would I know? Overall, I'd prepare to pay for a bigger pump and some over-capacity than risk having a cold house during the next 'Beast from the East'. I am told by the guy that's going to do my MCS certification that these Panasonic units modulate down efficiently.

Looking for some more advice please guys. I am looking at a 7kW Panasonic Aquarea L series but finding their literature less than clear. https://www.aircon.panasonic.eu/MT_en/model/kit-wc07l3e5-wh-sdc0509l3e5-wh-wdg07le5-kit-wc07l6e5-wh-sdc0509l6e5-wh-wdg07le5/ These units seem to be 'hydraulic split'. Presumably that means the refrigerant (R290 - aka butane?) passes through the wall and the part of the heat pump that releases heat sits inside the house (a plant room in our case). Does that mean noisy machinery inside the house? Is having R290 inside a timber house a great idea? Also what is Bi-bloc versus, presumably Mono-bloc? Sorry for the dumb questions - I seem to be having a bit of a Mental-bloc. Thanks for any help.

Re pocket doors. I realised I posted an out of date plan - we've made some tweaks since then, in including losing two pocket doors. We may potentially drop some of those yet. One reason for using them is that I'm a wheelchair user and pocket doors are easier to open and shut in some situations. @SteamyTea Vaulted ceilings are u-value 0.09, see below

Geoff Cole from PWCR in Shaftesbury. Comparable price to WDA (we spoke to them too). We felt Geoff listened and understood what we wanted, and built on that with some ideas of his own.

Demo notice?? Thinks... are we planning a demonstration? Ah, a demolition notice, for the timber garage (nothing else is coming down)... Eeek!! The council website says: "Exempt work No counter notice is required for the following work: ... a greenhouse, conservatory, shed or prefabricated garage forming part of a larger building" I'm classing the timber double garage as prefabricated, so I'm going to assume not. But good shout.

More likely sticking his spade in the ground surely? 😉

Not sure why the BI can't use the tables any more but the SE was more cautious than the NHBC tables, see below. We haven't done any plasticity tests - was hoping to avoid the cost, which I guess we have done.

Our groundworkers arrived on site as promised on the Tuesday after Spring Bank Holiday. Raining all day of course! Though tbf it’s fairly light rain. They made a good start removing a concrete slab left over from a long-demolished, clearing the oversight and creating a temporary spoil dump site on the paddock. Three issues this week: An unexpected armoured cable is discovered on day two - our groundworker Marcus is unsurprisingly cautious. Quick call to our electrician Nick. Nick thinks it’s probably the a redundant feed from the neighbouring house to what was their workshop - should be fine. He comes to inspect it and concludes it is dead. We explain that the groundworkers have asked him to cut it if it’s safe to do so. “You want me to cut it?” he asks, slightly incredulously. Yep. Nick angle-grinds through the cable - cable is dead, electrician is still alive - problem sorted. Second issue: We found out on Thursday that the Building Inspector unexpectedly wants a “Structural engineer to design depth of foundation due to clay soil and the nearby oak tree”. Both our architect and groundworker expected that the BI would be happy to agree the foundation depths based on the NHBC tables. But no, the BI is no longer allowed to do that he says. So, we are in a hole so to speak but just not sure how deep a hole... A rapid scrabble to find a SE who is able to help and help quickly, as we want to dig the trenches next week. On Thursday we got hold of a chap we used for another project 15 years ago - he thinks he could help in short order. We await a result. Third issue: We had hoped to keep the existing timber double garage for the duration of the build, for storage through the build. But the groundworkers are worried about access and off-loading our beams for our B&B floor. The timber frame and window companies also think the space is very tight. I conclude the garage will have to come down - now. It was a mistake on my part to try to keep it; we could have dismantled it carefully during the ‘phoney war’ ahead of construction proper. Annoying. Fortunately our PP includes demolition of this garage so, we are fine on that front. Our chippie knows someone who may want it and will dismantle and remove for nowt at their expense, hopefully in the next two weeks. Failing that the groundworkers will knock it down with a digger, but it would be a shame not to recycle it. Edit: The SE has come back with the foundation calculations over the weekend (what a hero!) so we should be all sustems go for digging the foundations next week. Hurrah! Pre-start "One day my son, all this will be yours" Making a start. In the rain obvs: End of week 1. Happy with that!

We’re starting our build so I thought I’d attempt a blog. I can’t promise to keep it up throughout the build but I start with good intentions. Apologies for the inevitable typos along the way. A bit of background: We have previously done a lot of alteration and refurb projects for our various homes over the years, the most recent a major eco- refurb and extension of a 1960s bungalow. Last year we decided to bite the bullet, sell the house, buy a plot and build. We sold in October, bought a plot in November, and engaged some local architects to create a design to our brief. The plot is 0.85 acre on the edge of a Dorset village. It already had PP for a conventional 3-bed chalet but we wanted a near-Passivhus contemporary single storey house with vaulted ceilings - incorporating low u-values, ASHP, UFH, 3G windows, MVHR, PV, batteries... just about everything we could think of to make the house comfortable and sustainable. We’ve opted for off-site timber frame construction, clad in a mixture of timber and render, zinc roof. I am sure more of the construction details will get covered if and as I keep the blog going. I am a retired IT project manager so have decided to self-manage contractors rather than employ a Principal Contractor. I’m also a wheelchair user so, much as we would like to*, we won’t be doing much of the hands-on build ourselves (* Mrs. P. may not agree with that sentiment). We applied for fresh PP on the 28 January 2025, received permission on 1 May, and our architects submitted a building regulations application a couple of weeks later. We broke ground last week (see the next blog entry for details). For now, I attach a floor plan and some elevations to give you an idea of the build.

Last time we had our chippie and his mate fit our 3G windows. Worked out ok but not sure it was much cheaper overall and I am sure if we'd had any water ingress issues* our warranty would have been worthless. (*We didn't as it happened)

For comparison, our final cost also from Norrsken: Windows & doors £ 32,306 Sills & trims £ 747 Installation £ 5,560 Delivery £ 780 Total ex VAT £ 39,393 We're borrowing a telehandler from our groundworker, hence no Access cost - so that was a win!

We said no to the silicone - thought we'd do that ourselves. Late on in the order process I said I was thinking of changing my mind and asking them to do it... But it turns out they seal the windows with plain silicone anyway and the 'Silicone' quote is for external RAL colour-matched finishing silicon. Since we're cladding with timber and render after the windows go in we'll be doing the finishing silicone ourselves with clear at the appropriate time, knowing the structure is watertight anyway.