Iceverge

Welcome to the forum. I really like your layout. It works well and should lend itself to a practical modern house to build and live in. Credit due to your designer. My 2p, a small window in the NE of the study will make the room feel a lot larger. Assuming there is no overlooking issues etc and it doesn't compromise the furniture layout. Alternatively move the window away from the internal wall to give more balanced light inside. I would ditch the underfloor heating upstairs. You won't need it. Be cautious of the south facing roof light for overheating. Like Tony says a good model will pay for itself many times over. I used PHPP, if you have the time and interest it's realitively straightforward to DIY.

After playing with various layouts this was my preferred option. 1. separate driveway access. 2. attached garages to keep cost down and provide future options in terms of conversion. 3. Floors area similar to before. 4. maintains building line. 5. Privacy to neighbours maintained with appropriate glazing and fencing 6. access to midday sun for rooms at the east of house. 7. identical house plans for ease of development. 8. narrow planform to keep ridge height sensible, or allow for a 3rd story or extra high ceilings. What do you think?

Option 1 for me. Given that the days of domestic labour are long gone I can't fathom the continuing trend of separating dining areas from kitchens. Very few of us bother to trundle off to the dining table is a closer seat is available to chow down on our morning toast or super sugar flakes. As @Ferdinand alluded to the kitchen table is the original Island, a prep space and dining area. Romantically I see it as the heart of a home, a place where relationships are mended through food and interaction. It's about the only place in the house I seem to converse with my wife any more! With that in mind in our new build I vetoed any thoughts of acquiring an island given its role of diminishing the importance of the kitchen table and my mrs vetoed any TV connection points in our kitchen living area. I had an interesting idea of a height adjustable desk to use as a standing worktop for prep and a sitting table for grubbing!

Alas, Local authorities, the bane of all our lives. Otherwise the countryside would be filled with buildhubber's moonbase replicas all accessed from minor local authority roads. Maybe off setting the houses slightly or altering the design to an L shape would allow the kitchen/dining/living to be bathed in that lovely daily sunshine?

Rotate the entire plot design 90deg clockwise to bring your main living areas into the midday sun and orientate most of your windows south. Access both houses from minor side-road with separate driveways, its safer for drivers and kids to avoid entrances onto main roads if possible. Square up the house designs as much as you can and simplify the roof plan. This will prove a large cost saving and make a house that is warmer, lower maintenance, less drafty, faster and easier to construct. Aim for 2 identical houses to save on design cost, and if you can scrape together the cash to do both simultaneously, give you greater buying power for materials and labour. Pretty house designs though and looks a great plot. Good luck.

Consider bolting a ledger plate to the wall and then nailing your joist hangers onto it. Much easier to achieve good air-tightness and achieve a level first floor. As per the excellent green building store videos.

Sorry for the delay. My builder sourced them through a locally builders merchant here in Ireland. They were manufactured by http://www.vartryengineering.com/products/extra-long-wall-tie-large-cavities.html. Perhaps they have a stockist near you or can supply direct.

I remember reading somewhere that plastic wall ties were discontinued due to the risk of wall collapse in the event of fire in the cavity. I came to the conclusion the overall heat loss of ties was minimal due to the diminutive cross sectional area ( 64mm2 per m2 ) or 1mm2 per 15000mm2 of wall area for a >250mm cavity. Also the wider the cavity the less the effect of tie material. Stainless steel was a fraction of the price of basalt and the heat loss was counteracted by an extra 10mm of cellulose in the attic according to PHPP.

In my experience most builders are happy to do as good a job as they can manage given the right motivations. A self builder is a great position to be in as you control the coffers and can simply halt progress any time you wish, provided you are willing to pick up the cost of lost time. Settling out a clear standard before the job starts, checking in shortly after it starts (often a cuppa and a lion bar helps) and tidying up any misunderstandings. Finally, making sure whoever is doing the work doesn't scarper off site never to be seen again but actually checks with you before leaving that everything is OK. Sometimes if you want things to be completed to a more exacting standard it'll simply take more time. Be sure that the tradeperson knows you're willing to pay for this. Lastly don't expect the impossible, building is often physically difficult. Working at height, outdoors on a blustery wet day or crouched under an awkward stairs will never produce cleanroom like results.

Hi Brian, Don't forget you'll need to have a good windtightness layer to ensure your insulation performs optimally too. Alas "breathable" is too oft used interchangeably with "ventilated" creating much confusion about the topic. A build up of moisture in a wall is bad news for a structure. Breathability means that the wall can dry through the material It's composed from, or in other words it's somewhat vapour open. Ventilation means there's holes involved. Holes can carry heat out of the wall and moisture into the wall, best avoided. Our wall was externally to internally as follows: 1. Sand cement render with lime for flexibility and breathability. (Windtight layer) 2. Concrete blocks (not airtight) 3. EPS blown bonded beads. 4. Concrete blocks ( again these are not airtight!) 5. Sand cement lime plaster. (Airtight layer) The wall is fully breathable but in no way ventilated. We had an airtightness test result of 0.31 ACH. Having an internal airtight layer removes the risk of interstitial condensation and importantly makes it possible to test and remedy problem areas too. Good luck and there's plenty of details here as to how best achieve your aims . Jonathan

A quick look at the structure suggests you're not going to achieve any substantial level of insulation without great effort. To stop the drips, a thin layer of closed cell spray foam, Or just tack a roofing membrane under the joists supported with battens or something like chicken mesh to catch the drips.

Welcome. Smashing house! When I looked in detail nothing could come close to a concrete block cavity wall terms of price. Lots of your design is sub grade which rules out timber. ICF was very attractive initially given the supposed lego like buildability and excellent continuity of insulation . But I decided it was too expensive, tricky to prop and pour, and needed additional external insulation to reach passive levels. Of course many on here have great success with it so I'm willing to be corrected. Durisol certainly looks an attractive product. If you are going for a redesign, given your tight budget perhaps ask your architect to square up the building a little. After 3 sets of planning permission and many hours pouring over the costs I came to the conclusion my blocklayer mate wasn't far out "every extra corner adds £10 grand" Best of luck anyway!

@tonyshouse A picture painting a thousand words and all that. (BTW I took a lot of inspiration from your blog!Thanks) m

@MortarThePoint Apologies for late reply. My observations on Full Fill Bonded blown Beads, Are they Full Fill: Yes very much so, in our wide cavity at least. I drilled a few trial holes around windows and doors to check in awkward to reach places. All full with beads. Are they Bonded: Kinda, a little hit and miss really as i found out when coring ventilation holes and lost a few buckets. The remaining question: Will they settle.......? Time will tell. Would I use them again? Yes, but I would core all holes in the wall first.

Hi Joe, Those pictures look excellent. A perfectly continuous gap free insulation layer. Are you framing on site or purchasing a kit? What are your target U values? For a kit build an MBC 300mm twinwall or similar is a very elegant option as long as care is taken at the window+door openings. For a stick build your options are endless but something like @ProDave with rendered woodfiber as your weathering layer might save on the complexity. As with your rock wool duo, any external insulation does an excellent job of managing bridging at openings. A wider, mineral wool insulated service cavity can be a cheap way of improving u-value also.

I considered this but was turned off the idea as it would have been tricky to manage economically. The single 100mm inner leaf would have been too unstable to take it to wall plate without the outer leaf. This would have ment parging it's external face as it was built which would inevitably have ended with a cavity bottom full of sand cement parge coat and a load of half dislodged cavity ties. Now if you were to build the inner leaf as a 215mm " block on flat" wall with cavity ties built in, use a spray on airtightness paint and build the external leaf afterwards you might be on to something. It is the ideal place for the airtightness layer as it's away from all internal services yet still at the warm side of the insulation. With passive insulation levels you might be heading for a rather Bastille like 650mm wall though.......

Hi Alex, I've given this a little thought. Although initial impressions mightn't stun, the house isn't actually that bad. Just wearing the wrong frock. I think on a modest budget you could make huge improvements. There is no visual break from the hard brown surfaces running from the driveway through to the low wall, the rockery/garden and the walls. The expanse of plain brick above the door also jars. I suspect this was done for ease of maintenance but lends to the "quarry floor" appearance of the whole thing. The windows are flush with the external wall giving a caravanesque, depthless quality, lacking the 3D appearance of solidity and quality. The roof and the dormer are what they are, but the combination of weathered tiles and various shades of brown give that feeling of putting a three course meal into a blender. My suggestions: 1. Simplify the colour pallet, choose 3-4 main complimentary colours and stick to them. 2. Improve the appearance of the house openings by adding some depth. 3. Break up the hard surfaces. You could remove the roof and replace it with 400mm I Joists, pumped with cellulose, externally insulate with 300mm rockwool with a modern thin layer render, new triple glazed windows €100k plus etc etc etc Meanwhile back in the real world with bills to pay, and if your primary objective is aesthetic improvement rather that comfort/energy upgrades, I've made some suggestions below, see what you think. Jonathan I don't think brick and a contemporary aesthetic are mutually exclusive. Buy some tile paint, and give the whole roof, including the shingles on the dormer a new lease of life. Consider some contemporary window mouldings to give the windows depth. Paint the windows and the fascia+soffit a tasteful colour. Update the front door to a more modern design. A coat of paint,some new glazing and some ironmongery might do this. Add a tasteful porch overhang to break up the large area of brick above the door and provide shelter. Change its colour as required to achieve the contemporary aesthetic. Dig out the area of limestone and plant lawn or tidy shrubbery in this area. Take up the last 2-3m of brick paving nearest to the house and replant with lawn or similar if space allows. This terraced effect would settle the house into its surrounds and reduce the feeling of living in a parking lot.

Maybe I'm late to the party but I've bought 2 of these for different saws. Even I seem to be able to get a respectable edge. Pferd is the brand but you can also get a Stihl branded one.

We've had a 250mm Cavity done this week with blown eps bead. I climbed into the attic earlier to have a look as I was sceptical the beads would fill right up to our cavity closer (450mm DPC). I checked the entire perimeter of the house and was pleased to find the beads had billowed up the DPC everywhere. Its given me confidence that around the windows and doors there's a tight fill as well. I may do some trial holes if I can find the time but thus far I'm more impressed than I thought I'd be.

No idea if that’s the right term. Just seemed appropriate. Beautiful house BTW

Hi Geoffrey, How thick are the walls? I had a quick peruse of this paper. https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationId=16d0f7f7-44c4-4670-a96b-a59400bcdc91 They measured old stone and rubble walls in situ . I didn't read too deeply but it suggests a conductivity of about 0.72 W/mK although they varied to about double this ( I suspect for walls with higher levels of dampness). If you were confident your walls could be kept dry and were say 600mm thick could you expect a U value of 1.2W/m2 K. Well short of the regs but maybe with very high levels of floor and roof insulation, good air-tightness and triple glazed windows you could create a very comfortable home with your exposed stone walls. Failing that, externally insulating would work nicely and allow you to run all your services from the outside-in avoiding conduit or pipes showing inside. If there was no proper footings, insulation wings as shown joining to the external insulation would do the trick. Jonathan

I'm still not 100% as to the layout of your site but on reflection would my plans be inline with what you were imagining?

Hi Bob, Here are our plans. This was the final of many iterations but the fundamentals were. 1. Simple rectangular shape - Cheapest, easiest to build, easiest to make airtight. Less insulation needed as less m2 wall per m2 floor. 2. Water + wet rooms all grouped in one corner. Cheapest, less pipe runs, less waste pipe runs. 3. (almost) All rooms with at least 2 windows to allow for a natural light + cross ventilation etc. 4. Old age proof - Living room can be converted to bedroom and we will have level threshold access ( as per regs ) and an accessible shower room/toilet downstairs. 5. Hip roof to ease the insulation of the eaves and provide a large overhang of the walls. 6. A realistic view of the total number of rooms we'd need and minimising the floor area and house size to this requirement. 7. A balanced handsome exterior. ( although beauty is in the eye of the beholder!) 8. No unnecessary complications. I'll have a quick blast of sketchup and see what I can come up with.

Hi @Amateur bob, What a lovely opportunity. We are in a similar situation in Ireland, currently at first floor level. For reference price wise, we are expecting to pay our builder €230k for taking the house from a field through to pre final interior fit-out for a similar sq meterage. I don't think your build only price is unrealistic given the £/€ rate and the fact you can reclaim VAT in the UK. I did pay a lot of attention to value (amateur)engineering the project however. Obviously profession fees/levies and final fit out will all add up. Couple of questions. 1. What is the maximum ridge height likely to be acceptable to the planners? 2. Is this likely to be a lifetime home? 3. How many bedrooms do you need ? 4. What direction from the house is/are (i) The Farmyard (ii) The nicest Views (iii) the access road 5. Is the farm dirt likely to be earthy or somewhat smellier?!! 6. Will you require a room that could be used as a farm office/study? 7. How proximate are your neighbours? I'll see if a similar house design to ours (below) could be adapted if you like..................................... Cheers, Iceverge

Passive House Mag has a article on this, https://passivehouseplus.ie/magazine/new-build/ireland-s-largest-passive-house-scheme-shows-way-to-nzeb Their quote about the hollow (cavity) blocks was " The use of single leaf walls of hollow blocks – which use some 30 to 40% less concrete than a comparable solid block, and are relatively quick to build with " I assume that as it was commercial development the cost was a deciding factor. Another thing that sprung to mind was the reduced weight of the walls, approx 454kg/m2 for 1m2 of block on flat vs 264kg/m2 for hollow blocks. This could bring savings by reducing the foundations needed.