Tony99

@JanetE Thanks-I'll certainly look at Mounmouthshire BS....can I ask if it was a prerequisite of the BS that they wanted the property split or was that something you wanted to do yourselves?.....yes, the shared drive does need a solicitor to sort-going to see tomorrow!

I suspect you're both right...getting a remortgage may be cheaper although there are often significant early redemption fees. I'll need to do some more homework/get a good broker!

Thanks... It was the BuildStore mortgage people that told me I should split the property deeds before I applied for a mortgage. Having said that, I may involve another mortgage broker as I have not been overly impressed with BuildStore so far...

Wondering if anyone has any advice/tips on the following: We have planning permission to build a house in our garden. Our current house is in joint names [mine and wife] and we own it outright i.e. no mortgage. We are are going to sell our current house and move into the new build [probably put the current house up for sale when the new house is near completion so prospective buyers are not looking out on a building site!]. We will need to borrow money for the new build [and plan to pay this off when we sell our current house] and it seems the best way forward is a self build mortgage...we will need to split the title deeds to create 2 separate properties and it seems that it is very difficult to put the new property deeds in both our names according to the Land registry. Apparently, the new property has to be 'transferred' to someone?! I think I'll need to have my name on the new property to secure the mortgage as I will be the main earner .... I am seeing a solicitor to get advice [we will have a shared drive so there will be that to sort out too] but has anyone been through this-particularly the issue with splitting a property that is owned and how did it work out. Any potential pitfalls [capital gains tax??] I should be aware of?! Many thanks!

@JSHarris I think I understand?! We have old bifolds-3 doors. the right hand side is traffic door which opens outwards. When we close the doors, the left and centre doors are pulled tight by handles and secured shut by pushing 2 latches into the frame-1 at the top of the door and the other at the bottom. There seems to be good compression between these 2 frames. But there does seem to be less compression between the right traffic door and the centre door....is that where the problem is? (if you managed to follow my description!). I did see some slide and turn doors at a show and they seemed to be very tightly compressed when all shut-do you think they are better in terms of air tightness?

Thanks for all the replies...so: bifolds are not intrinsically 'bad' but their weight and mechanics mean the seals wear out and air tightness is lost. So....perhaps if we only use the doors a few times over the summer (likely) we should be OK for some time if the windows are well made.... Is it obvious if the seals are not working well and air tightness is being lost e.g. would you feel a draft on your hand if held up close on a windy day or is the loss of airtightness more subtle than that?

I know what you mean! Our initial design had so much glazing, often full length windows that it was difficult to see where any furniture, bookcases or Tv could be placed!

I am looking at patio door options for a 5m wall in the gable end of our new build. Keen to have it open fully rather than have a sliding door option so that leaves me with bi-folds or the rather newer 'slide and turn' doors which do seem to be a neater option. I noticed that some of the popular window companies e.g. Internorm, Rationel, Norrsken etc don't make bi-folds/slide and turn doors and it made me wonder, why not? Looking at some threads on here I have seen various people stating that they have been warned against having bi-folds but I really wasn't too sure why. Apologies if I have missed the thread that explains this (I've tried having a good search) so could I ask the community: Is it an air tightness issue (we are looking at MBC Timber Frame-probably the blown cellulose option so should be well insulated and air tight). what about the slide and turn doors-when closed, the doors seem to be pushed/forced together so I would have thought they would be good in terms of air tightness any good 3G bi-folds/turn and slide doors recommendations-(Green building store do 3G bi-folds-anyone have them?) Many thanks.

We were looking at timber cladding with a small amount of brickwork for aesthetic purposes, on timber frame build and were told by Buildstore that it would significantly limit our mortgage options to just a handful of lenders. They were particularly interested in exactly what percentage of the build would be timber clad vs. brick. The explanation seemed to be that if the mortgage company had to reposses the house it would be difficult for them to sell on (as people would find it difficult to get a mortgage on a house that is timber on timber because mortgage lenders don't like to lend on these houses!). I know-proper Catch 22. We are know looking at increasing the amount of brick-partly to try and help with the mortgage situation but also we quite like the brick look! There does seem to be any major reason structurally with timber cladding on timber frame. Having said all that, Buildstore seem to have gone very quiet recently and I am losing faith in them! I have heard good things about Ecology (as above comments) though....

yes, I like the idea of electric blinds especially the ones that can be remotely controlled/timed. But, no doubt, more to go wrong with them!?

Yes-I presumed one of the issues is the fabric of the house being heated up rather than the air inside it....especially, if like many new builds, one has UFH which could keep the floor warm for several hours after the heating has been turned off. Thanks

Our build design will have several large unshaded south facing widows. I get the concept of solar gain and reading comments here it seems that it is often worse in Spring and Autumn when the sun is low and therefore the sunlight penetrates deeper into the room. Our house will, like many here, be built with a high level of insulation and airtightness (not passive standards)and MVHR so I have always been a bit concerned about over heating. My question-and I'm sure there is a simple answer (!): in the Spring and Autumn, when the air temp outside is lower than inside e.g. outside <20C, can't you simply open the windows to allow cold air in, circulate, and thus sort out over heating indoors?? Also-does anyone have any good 3G windows with built in or external blinds/shutters? Internorm windows seem to get a bit of a bad press on this forum! Many thanks!

Wow-what a great discussion-thanks @lizzie! We are looking at MBC and it is really reassuring that so many here have used them and are happy! We are getting loads of great advice here? A couple of questions @joe90-are the towel rads electric or part of the wet ground floor UFH system or totally separate? @jack-what is the advantage of screed upstairs-is it sound/heat insulation?? is there a cost implication?? and @lizzie-we have also wondered about lighting in our new build...how did you go about finding your designer? many thanks!

I do agree @Nickfromwales....! Of course one of the good things I've found about this forum is getting a pretty unbiased opinion about many aspects of self build for a complete novice self builder like myself. Posting on here and reading some posts is a bit like thinking aloud and having helpful comments/reality check coming back. So thank you all for comments ?. Isolated WBS it will be [and probably won't use it that much anyway!!]-and save a lot of cash!!

@Nickfromwales Yes-the wood available would probably last a few years/seasons just using it now and again for a log burner: certainly not enough wood to use regularley in a log boiler/gasification i.e. using wood as the main source of fuel if we were not on gas. I suppose what I was thinking of was having a mains gas boiler but also having a WBS that could be used sometimes in the winter to 'top up' a thermal store or similar so I wasn't using the gas boiler all the time. I appreciate it would actually be more expensive to have all the hardware/plumbing in place and that savings on gas would be fairly minimal. But it is a lovely idea-to be using wood as a source of heating!

I'll tell my wife-she'll say 'I told you so'!! But seriously, I very much do appreciate your honesty: it is very helpful to have your views as you are doing this first hand. I think with lots of aspects of a self build, pretty much anything is possible-it boils down to cost/complexity/and how much one really wants something!

@PeterW That's a big TS....the TS websites I looked at were stating sizes of around 300 litres.....I suppose something smaller would loose heat too quickly compared to 800 litres?? Our garage will be several yards away from the house so would be difficult, I imagine, to house the TS there but we could find a space for it in the utility room with a bit of imagination...

I recently posted about heating requirements and got some very helpful answers. They also mentioned a thermal store which I was unaware of before. We are building a well insulated fairly air tight house-mainly 2 of us in it but 3 or 4 in the uni holidays. We will be on mains gas and will be fitting at least 4 kW PV-possibly more and having UFH. Looking at previous posts, an UVC set up has been recommended. We are looking at having a log burner and I appreciate that we probably won't use it often (esp after reading posts on this site!) but we love using our current log burner at weekends etc. We are going to have loads of wood available due to trimming and cutting trees down for the build so I was wondering: is having a wood burner/back boiler with a thermal store a sensible idea or is it just feeding my 'fantasy' of using 'free' wood to heat water/the house?! There do seem to be various companies that specialise in thermal stores particularly for wood burners and PV but I get the feeling that they are mainly aimed at people who are using the wood burner as a primary heat source i.e. not on mains gas. We would be looking to use the wood burner to heat a thermal store in winter when there is little PV available but probably only on some days, knowing that we have the gas boiler to top up or use as the main heat source if we aren't in or forget to load the burner! And how much do I actually need to burn to keep a ?300 litre thermal store hot? I can't see myself using the wood burner every day in the winter-perhaps just weekends. The problem is that speaking to the guys selling the thermal store/wood burners (Chelmer Heating, McDonald, TMS etc) only results in them telling me how good the system is! I'm actually wondering whether it is an expensive, time consuming and complex way to use 'free' wood! As you probably realise, I am not a plumber/competent DIYer so any system would have to be fairly straight forward so that if it did go wrong, a competent plumber could sort out! Many thanks for any advice!

We were thinking the same- not having UFH upstairs and just using eg heated towel rails in the bathrooms...do you have MVHR? I understand that although it doesn’t heat the house as such, the distribution of heat in a well insulated, air tight house means that often little heating is needed upstairs.

Thanks for the advice...yes it will be well insulated, air tight etc. I hadn’t actually heard of a thermal store ? but have now done bit of reading about it and although I am now more aware of the various options, it is also more confusing! I presume a thermal store will keep its heat overnight? Just thinking of needing hot water in the mornings in the winter when the sun isn’t out yet.

Are there any precautions/tips for having underfloor heating with a gas boiler? Our village is on gas so we want our new build to have that service. Any advice on whether a combo boiler or system boiler might be best-mainly 2 of us in the house with visiting family occasionally, so not that common to need to run 2 showers/baths at the same time. We are also looking at PV solar panels-not that economical now it seems but something we feel would be good in the medium/long term especially as I am thinking of getting a small electric car in the next 2 years or so. Advice very welcome! Tony

Yes, you're right...I think I need to have another chat with him about this! I think my idea of whose responsibilities things are is not quite correct...

That's interesting...we too have designed an 8ft 'overhang' at the gable end of our single storey kitchen-partly for an outside patio area that is under roof but also to reduce solar gain in summer. Seems like we may need to put some 'louvres/slats' at the top to reduce the lower sun in spring/autumn! I presume you felt triple glazing had significant advantages over double glazing??

Thanks JS...I have just started reading your blog and have read the 'thermal mass myth' thread: I think I'll need to read it again for it to fully sink in [and I consider myself someone who understands science/physics!!]. The bit I have difficulty with is how much other factors such as how altering the size of a south or north facing window will have on how much energy one uses in the house or how constant the temp stays in the house etc. The relative effect of multiple factors e.g. type of wall construction, insulation, house orientation, site and size of windows, use of MHRV etc is still a little lost on me! Our house has been designed to have few north and east facing windows (partly for energy purposes but also because of what we would overlook) and bigger south and west windows. I'm starting to think that the issue we may have is not how to keep our house warm in winter, but how to keep it cool in summer (especially if we have a repeat of this summer's weather!!). I have been advised to make the house as insulated and air tight as we can afford....

Unfortunately, we are in south Leicestershire...quite a way from you! but thanks for the offer!!