divorcingjack

Very useful responses, @Temp and @CC45, thank you. I probably should have mentioned that we are in Scotland - any idea whether the law on this differs here? I know property law can vary considerably. dj

Ah, my mistake - I thought you had the whole package. I can imagine it is a nightmare - good luck with getting sorted

@PeterW I'll look up the spec and size - I have them in an email "somewhere". They are quite big, one is 2400 x 1200 ish IIRC - nope, even bigger than I thought! I'll update later, cheers. Sizes are: 2500 x 1850 and 1300 x 1850 Spec that I was advised from Internorm is as follows: Glass: 8ESG SunGuard 70/41-16arg-8-16arg-55.2VSG TF+TGI , Ug value: 0,6 W/(m²K)

Morning all, Quick VAT question for all you experts. In order to connect our plot to the most convenient location for sewerage and water, we need to cross third party land for about 5m. We have met the landowner and he mentioned a "small consideration" for crossing the land, which we were expecting. Turns out, his idea of a small consideration is quite radically different from ours. He has quoted £X0000, PLUS VAT and then legal fees on top. So, my question is - can he charge us VAT on this, and if so, is it reclaimable? Negotiations continue, but unfortunately he's got us over a barrel if we want to use that access point. There are alternatives, but they involve potentially digging up a large section of cobblestoned and paved public pavement and road .....

Gorgeous - thanks for the links everyone. Although, I cant't help noticing the lack of pricing ... Must mean I can't afford them dare I ask @Trw144 for an idea on cost before I waste my time sending in a quote request?

Morning all, So, our architect has specified two large fixed rooflights in the house. He has recommended a detail that he has used numerous times before which involves creating an upstand in the roof, fitting a metal angle into it and flashing the glazing in. This means that we have to source two panels of 3G glazing without a frame that can be fitted into the opening. I have a recommended spec from internorm that I have been punting around local glazing firms, creating a lot of teeth-sucking and slow shaking of heads. Does anyone have any recommendations as to an online supplier (or someone that will deliver to scotland) where I can source 3G panels suitable for rooflights? I finally found a local firm, but they are looking at 8-12 weeks lead! Before you all say, yes, I KNOW I should have ordered it earlier......

We simply told Trish what we wanted and left it up to them, as far as I know, it was a pretty standard mix. TBH the structural integrity and strength of the slab had to come first, over our aesthetic concerns. Just bear in mind, that if it does rain during or shortly after the pour, it will be pretty much ruined and you may have to allow for design and level changes (as well as budget) around door thresholds etc. It could be a nightmare. We were lucky, but there have been other MBC customers who have tried this and it really has gone wrong due to rain, so just be aware.

We also (against all sensible advice) did a powerfloated finish on our concrete slab. MBC just powerfloated it for a good bit longer than they would have normally and I think it looks great, but I am by no means fussy about obtaining a "perfect" finish. It is definitely not perfect, although no massive holes. The small holes and cracks that are there, we are thinking about filling with a brightly coloured resin to avoid them filling up with toast crumbs and dust and to make a feature of their "imperfect" nature. It is also not reflective - just smooth, but this is a plus point for me, as I hate shiny finishes. We bought a LOT of cheap hardboard (like the back of IKEA kitchen cabinets) and taped it all together to cover the floor. The bits (near window/door thresholds) where grit and muck have got in are noticeably scratched up and look rough. We may try and finish these bits off with a thin wood trim when the build is finished, depending how much they annoy us to look at. One unexpected bonus of having the hardboard down is that it got wet before the roof went in, and the dampness has slowed down the concrete curing, much reducing cracking over some of the larger areas. Good luck with whatever you choose! dj

We've managed to get hold of a load of wide reclaimed pitch pine parquet from an old primary school, so I'm following this with interest. Ours is going in the bedroom upstairs, so probably won't have UFH underneath. We are looking to just machine it to an even thickness and see how it looks. A lot of it still has the gym markings on various pieces, so we'd like to try and keep that history, rather than it looking brand new.

Righto, commuting again The plan with the 10mm return to a secondary manifold in the big cupboard makes perfect sense, pump on a timer. We’ll shortly have a second baby in the house, so occupancy will be much higher for a year or so. The calcs for insulated pipe also were very helpful, but given that the hot and cold supply will be running in conduit through the single storey ceiling, should we leave the hot uninsulated and use the losses to mitigate the missing insulation, insulating once we come down from the ceiling into the cupboard? Thanks again everyone, priceless advice as always. Dj

Hi chaps, I haven't caught up with all the replies yet, but just wanted to upload my shoddy drawing to illustrate the problem. Hopefully, this makes some sort of sense - I will try to add explanatory notes as well. As I mentioned, there are a couple of internal doorframes in the way and a large slider in the playroom, which leaves us very tight for space and almost impossible to separate the H/C. The other problem is that the section outlined in red is single storey, and the large kitchen/living is double height. So, the joint between the utility and the kitchen is actually a roof, filled with insulation. We have already had to put a load of MVHR pipes in here, so I'm very twitchy about adding more and losing even more space for the insulation. The location for a potential second manifold would be the big cupboard which backs onto the two bathrooms - we would run a 22mm H/C feed through the ceiling from the boiler to here, with a 10mm hot return as suggested by Nick. I have put dimensions around the wall runs so you can see the lengths of run we're talking about. Have to go now - commuting. I'll catch up at lunchtime with questions. Thanks a huge amount for all your help.

Very helpful responses all round, gents, thank you. Husband did his ankle ligaments in last night at the site so didn’t get a chance to upload the plan. Will do today after we get home - site working at a balmy -6 deg

Hi all, MBC are coming back next week to seal up the house and pump the insulation, so we are trying to get all the piping we need into the ceilings before they arrive. We thought this would just be the MVHR pipes (which are now done), but it looks like this may affect the plumbing as well. I had intended a UVC, buffer tank (for UFH), small system boiler, manifold system with supplies to each shower/sink/WC as required, but the location of the boiler and the manifold are proving problematic. If we have the manifold next to the boiler (as I have seen in the majority of pics), then I don't think the number of pipes we have to run to the 2 bathrooms (7 cold/5 hot) are going to fit into the service cavity as there are pinch points around a door and a full height sliding window. Even if they would fit, it's a reasonable distance from the boiler to the 2 bathroom locations. So, my questions: - Is it a problem to have multiple manifolds in a radial system? - Will a second manifold lead to the problem of a cold shower when a tap is run in the second bathroom? - If we go for a single manifold next to the boiler, will the length of supply to the bathrooms mean that we have to wait ages for the hot to come through? I'll attach a marked up plan when I get home to try and make more sense of this question.

We have our building warrant, FINALLY. I have a new job. The small one has started school. MBC are here. The glorious day of the 29th August arrived, and so did the vans, carrying Brendan's crew. The sun was shining, tonnes of sand were delivered and painstakingly spread out. It's amazing how much time the MBC boys took to make sure everything was exactly level before carrying on, I found the level of care that was taken very reassuring, and of course Sean was on hand with a terrible joke whenever required. Sometimes, also when not required. Our months of waiting for the building warrant were not completely unproductive as we now have a pimped out site office, including a cast-off white leather sofa (practical colour choice for a building site), high speed wifi, a gopro to capture the build, a desk (with executive chair), first aid point, filing cabinet, H&S kit storage, many many many copies of all the plans, and most importantly of all, a tea/coffee point with fully stocked biscuit drawer. "Luxury!", as the MBC boys proclaimed. Drainage channels were hand dug the next day - a nervewracking time with measuring and re-measuring. The brand-new-just-out-of-the-box Bosch laser measurer was ceremonially launched from the top of the rubble pile by the small one, landing with an ominous crunching noise. "That will hardly have affected the accuracy at all", we thought. Still, at least we know who to blame if all the drains are in the wrong place. Over the months/years we have had various thoughts about where the kitchen island should go, but now we come to decision time. The drains and conduit must go in, today, and they are non-changeable. The island will be all our workspace (the rest is floor to ceiling units) so needs an electrical feed and hot/cold water as well as a drain for the sink, waste disposal and dishwasher. So, instead of making a decision that will inevitably be wrong, we decide to put in the two final options. 1: The architect's recommended positioning that we think is too far away from the sunny spot 2: Our preferred option, closer to the large sliding doors We try and position the pop ups in such a way that the unused one will be under a sofa or table and hopefully not too noticeable. It is almost guaranteed that the architect will be right in the end, as he always is, but it's a struggle to commit at such an early stage. The unused one will be cut off, and topped with an official plaque set into the floor, engraved with "always listen to the architect". We're justifying it as a feature. The next day was the delivery of the EPS on a very large lorry. Our site is right in the middle of town and the access is surrounded by garages and illicit parking. This time of year, there are no students around, so although the lorry is a tight fit, there are no hastily abandoned cars in the way. Next month though.... The EPS ring beam is fitted and the footprint of the house becomes rapidly visible. Although pre-warned by our architect that the space would look small with no walls up, we are both thoroughly freaked out and convinced that the rooms are all too small. There is measuring, re-measuring. comparing against plans... but nothing we can do. Thankfully, on our way back to the rented place, we drive past a new build estate that is also just at foundation level. We slowly realise that the footprint for those homes contains a 3-bedroom house AND garage. Ours is generously sized in comparison, to say the least. The next few days are taken up with making steel reinforcing cages, laying UFH pipe and checking the drainage (again). My time is spent at work, obsessively checking the weather forecast. We have, against all sensible and knowledgeable advice, decided to attempt a smooth concrete finished slab. No tiles, carpet, wood, screed, diamond polish … nothing. Trying to explain this concept to the many people involved has not been easy. Reactions have varied between trying to convince us that diamond polishing to a mirror finish is hideously expensive (we don’t want a mirror finish – there are deliberately no shiny surfaces in the whole house, as I am obsessed with matt finish and hate polishing) to “but it’ll look like a B&Q warehouse!” (my dad). MBC are also not keen AT ALL, due to a problem they had with a previous job where the finish didn’t work and all the window/door thresholds had to be redone to allow to an additional screed to go on top. Showing people a photo of a farm shed floor that had been done by a friend by just powerfloating the surface for longer than normal did not help. The conversation went along the lines of the following: “This is the finish we’d ideally like, it’s a farm shed.” “…..? A farm shed? For cows?” “Yes” “But, polished to expose the aggregate? What kind of aggregate do you want?”. “No, no aggregate. Not polished. Just powerfloated.” “But it won’t be shiny, and that needs specialist tools.” “We don’t want it to be shiny. Just smooth. Like the IKEA warehouse. Or B&Q”. “………….really?” “Yes” “hmmmm.” (sucky teeth noises follow..) The process was somewhat wearing, but we rode confidently over everyone’s objections and doubts anyway and carried on. One thing we did know (from our farm shed creating friend) was that rain during or shortly after the pour would be bad. Very bad. It’s September, in Scotland. Could have been worse. Two week ahead forecasts are notoriously inaccurate. Right? Right? I had seven different weather apps on my phone at one point, all saying the same. Thunderstorms. A 14 day forecast went to a 10 day one, then a 7 day one .. rain all week, particularly heavy on the day of the pour. Just to put the cherry on top. The day before we poured the floor, it tipped down all day. Not 5 minutes passed without freezing rain. The next day, I left for work, having deleted all the weather apps and given up all hope of a polished floor. At the site – not a cloud in the sky. Brilliant blue skies, sunshine, tonnes too much concrete. The MBC crew powerfloated the slab for much longer than they normally would, and by the time I saw it at 8pm that night, it was as smooth as we could have wished for, and a beautiful mottled grey. If I wasn’t a rabid atheist, I would have sworn I heard a troop of celestial trumpets playing. So, a perfect end to a brilliant first stage of the build.

So, after the last entry - we had a clear site, filled with many, many tonnes of compacted hardcore. All was well. No more digging, the wobbly wall hadn't fallen down, angry neighbours had been pacified with cake. Onwards and upwards! Well, not quite. We still didn't have our building warrant. We had applied for a staged warrant for foundations and frame, naively thinking that this would be quicker that going for the full thing. We had submitted the MBC plans, MBC engineer drawings/calcs, SAP calc, double checked Scottish engineer drawings and the engineer certificate that is required in Scotland. We were ready! Our local council gives the building control department 20 days to respond to applications. 20 working days. We had worked with a chap in that department before on a previous house who is very nice, helpful and reasonable. He had been giving us informal advice and help throughout our nightmare planning process. Surprisingly, our application didn't get assigned to him. Nevertheless, we were optimistic - it was early February, and we had a provisional date with MBC of the 18th of April for starting the foundations. Everyone thought that was a reasonable lead time; helpful BC chap, the architect, the planner, the engineer, MBC..... After all, we had the SER certificate, everything had been checked and triple checked, and we were only asking for the Stage 1 warrant. I could say a lot more about this process, but I will restrain myself. Let's put it this way - towards the end, my husband and I gave up using words in text messages and communicated about the build solely in memes. We got a list back of queries (after the first 20 days). Fine, we were expecting that. This consisted of points such as why some documentation was printed in A4 when it should have been in A3, a page numbering error, the mention of a standard detail in the MBC drawings that is not standard in Scotland.....the list was 3 pages long. And not in an unreasonably large font. So, we responded to the points. All of them. Another 20 working days pass - we get a response to the first point, and another question. We send the answer back. Another 20 days - a question about the second point arrives. You can see how this went. Frustrating is not the word. There aren't really words to express the level of rage that existed within our house during this time. Hence the memes. We got our warrant on the 6th September. We eventually worked out that there had been a mix-up somewhere and our application was being assessed as if it were non-staged, hence all the seemingly irrelevant questions about electrics and MVHR points. So, the staged warrant was reissued as a full warrant on the same day as I got confirmation that I'd got a new job after redundancy. That was a good day, and the hashtag #ginforbreakfast was born.

Bit late, I know! But we went for an MBC passive slab, so the EPS sits on top of the hardcore layer. No more digging!

So, after the last entry, we were back to scratch again, having managed to secure an additional piece of land and an alternative access to our plot. Lots of measuring and pacing out later, we were able to basically take what would have been the 2nd floor of the planned house, and put it on the ground floor. The ground floor footprint was made considerably bigger by this, and the overall shape was much less "passive-friendly", but for our tight site, it really was the only option. After a lot of refinements with the architect, he came up with a design that we absolutely loved, gave us privacy from the surrounding buildings, parking AND a little garden. So, some pics at last! Before we got the additional land, we had bought two of the pre-fab 50's garages that back right up to our site and intended to demolish them to gain access. This photos shows a peek of the site through the first panel we removed. There was a massive step up from the ground slab of the garage to the soil level of the site. Looking back, this should have been our first warning of problems to come... The site was a former garden centre, so there was a large timber building (previously a showroom), a play house, a load of slabs, display boxes, plant racks, millions and millions of plastic plant pots everywhere, and 5 world-weary apple trees to get rid of. And a lot of topsoil. Did I mention the topsoil? It was a LOT of work and expense to get rid of all this stuff, as it all counted as "mixed waste" so the disposal fees were enormous. This is when we realised the importance of being on site to supervise. We'd had a holiday booked for months and months before we knew we'd be doing this work, so we briefed the guys doing the clearance (who we trust) who estimated the remaining skip loads. We get back a few days later to discover it had been over double that number and our digger driver had got into a dispute with the skip collection driver over what counted as "waste". So instead of the expected bill from the skip guys of about £2-3000 at the absolute WORST, we came back to a bill of over £10k. This necessitated a somewhat hasty trip to the skip yard and a "full and frank exchange of views" with the owner. After showing us a random picture of some rubbish on his phone and insisting it was from our site, our bill was halved. Left a nasty taste in the mouth though, that's for sure. So, we eventually have a clear site, and now another problem. If you're a gardener, you'll appreciate how lovely this topsoil looks. And it is great quality - this plot has been used for nothing but gardens and grazing since medieval times. Unfortunately, that leaves a rather extensive period of time during which the topsoil has nothing to do, but get deeper, and deeper and deeper. By the time we came to own the plot, the topsoil and subsoil layer was over 2m deep in places. Obviously, (after it was explained to us), you can't build a house on top of topsoil. Things grow in it. Things you don't want under your house. So, it had to go. BUT, we couldn't drop the level of the house by 2m, as the plot is surrounded by other buildings and dropping it down that far would cut out essentially all the sunlight coming into the house. If anything, we wanted it higher than the current level to maximise the light. Two options - piling with a suspended floor or simply replacing all the soil with compacted hardcore. We also (briefly, until we got the quotes in) considered adding a basement. That idea didn't last long. After speaking to Hilliard about piling, he mentioned that each pile would potentially be a partial cold bridge, so that was a little off-putting. But we got quotes anyway - they weren't horrendous, but a lot of piling companies weren't massively keen on the site, surrounded as it is by 3 storey blocks of flats, a listed street frontage, crumbling stone walls and potentially a LOT of angry neighbours. Despite this, it was an option we were considering, until every warranty company we spoke to said that they wouldn't issue a warranty for mortgage purposes if there was any black earth under the footprint of the house. So, many many many many tractors and trailers (and pots of money) later, 1000 tonnes of soil was dug out, and replaced with 1000 tonnes of hardcore. And not any hardcore. Due to our engineer (about which a LOT more could be said), it's all Type 1 MOT. All 1000 tonnes of it. Compacted to within an inch of it's life.

We had to have one as we'll need to mortgage the house once finished and after ringing round the mortgage companies, I found that they pretty much all accepted different ones, although there was a core list. We chose CRL in the end as their quote was competitive and they were understanding about the passive slab/MBC frame that we wanted to use. Not all the companies I made contact with were so flexible. You also get assigned an individual person to deal with who must have red-done our quote at least 5 times throughout the 3 year planning/building control period. He was always available on the phone and was responsive to emails, so that counts for a lot in my book. I finally purchased a few weeks ago, just before our build finally started and we had the first visit from their surveyor last week. He was also helpful and nice, so all good so far We paid £2400 all in for a 10 year structural warranty. House is 240sqm total, 3/4 bedroom, passive slab and MBC timber frame. I should add that we are on the lucky position of being able to borrow enough short term cash to finish the build initially, but then we need the standard mortgage to pay back the bank of mum and dad.

Hiya Naj, Fellow Scot here - about an hour from Edinburgh and currently watching the roof joists of our MBC timberframe build go up dj

Hi all, After a bit more looking at plans and head-scratching, we don't think the layout that @Nickfromwales suggested earlier (with the fall hidden by the glass screen) is going to work. I forgot that the shower backs up to the bath, so any fall in the tiles is going to be an awkward junction to detail. The shower is basically a 1mx1m square and then there is a slim dividing wall between the end of the shower area and the bath. So we won't have room for a fixed screen + getting in and out room, so it'll have to be a door or a slider, which would have to be on a flat surface. I've attached a plan in the hope that it makes it a bit clearer. So, the fall in the floor has to go from the middle of the room towards the wall with the bath and shower on it. I also looked at the website you mentioned @IanR, and unfortunately they don't do a plain stainless steel or tileable top, which is really what we're after. Gutting, because the prices are so good! Nick - can you buy the impey one without a former? As someone mentioned earlier - we'll need to run a 50mm connection from the waste into the drain, as unfortunately the 110 pipe is in slightly the wrong place (about 6 inches out), so perhaps being able to rod it is important? Lots of long hair in this house! What do we think about the mcalpine one? Are they generally a good make? Olwen & Ben Milne MBC Drawing_Rev C-GA GF Plan.pdf

Thanks Ian - is everything serviceable from the top? Just worried as it's all in concrete, so no changing your mind! I'll get the Google translate out later and have a look I looked at the gerberit cleanline and love it but it's so expensive

OK lads, as expected, this has not gone 100% to plan during the concrete pour as I was not on site. The pop up drain points are not exactly where we wanted then to be, so we're going to have to chase out a bit of the concrete to go from the shower waste to the drain. So, given that we wanted to use a linear drain - any recommendations for suppliers? Are the attached wastes normally ok (50mm)? I've been looking at the mcalpine channel drain, given that we were planning on a mcalpine top access trap previously. This one - http://www.plumbers-mate-sales.co.uk/mcalpine-shower-drain-gully-brushed-stainless-steel-4944-p.asp Any other suggestions?

Oh, I'm glad you're not at risk of losing your money then - although still a massive pain in the arse for you. Hope it gets sorted soon.

We had a supplier go bust pre-delivery of the goods - how did you pay? If any on credit card, you will probably get the whole sum back. There is also a scheme for debit cards, but not as straightforward. We got £11K back from barclaycard, after quite a lot of arguing. It's horribly stressful - I don't know how it works in Germany, but in the UK you should apply to be a creditor ASAP. Perhaps there is a similar system in germany? O hope you get your kitchen asap.

@Silage It turned out amazingly! It's not absolutely perfect like you would get from a diamond polish, but we didn't like that super-shiny look anyway, as well as not being able to afford it! I'd say it looks like a warehouse floor (B&Q/IKEA-ish). It's smooth but not shiny. We have a very few small holes where we had a couple of air bubbles, but we're going to fill them with coloured resin and make a feature. Overall, we are absolutely delighted. We got incredibly lucky with the weather though - it pissed down the two days preceding the pour and the three days after. Proper, heavy rain. On the day itself, not a cloud in the sky! Amazing luck. If it had rained, it would have been a write-off, pretty much no matter what you do. They just kept power floating the surface for much longer than they normally would - no special concrete, or treatment. We are going to cover it with cheap hardboard during the rest of the build, but we're not being too precious about it - going for the lived in look is very much part of the reason we chose the surface. It's a huge relief though, as if we'd had to change the surface, all the door thresholds and kit measurements would have been wrong, and considering our kit is already made. that would have been a pretty big problem. I've an early start tomorrow, but will try to post some pics for you