MikeSharp01

Welcome to THE forum from the other end of the union - Kent

Snubbed we was

Surely Jeremy you will get an invite - as the chief test pilot and all that, if you are not careful people will be calling their pets after you - we, my brother and I, called a goldfish we won at a fair in 1970 'Trubshaw' after the UK test pilot Brian Trubshaw who first flew UK Concorde very topical then - all forgotten now.

Yes not knowing what it is you don't know, Donald Rumsfeld was a genius in making this a topic for discussion , is a risk for us all and perhaps might be a summary of this whole topic. You can do it all yourself but watch out for what it is you don't know you don't know!

I may have a perspective on this one. We were (still are hopefully) going for a passive house so we needed to close a lot of the loops before we went planning as the permission might have been granted for a house that could not be a passive house. Things like window sizes and orientation had to be tested against the PHPP (passive house planning package) to ensure that we got a working design through planning and would not need to go back for alterations. As it stands we may need to go back to planning as I am contemplating increasing the roof area to be covered in PV from 8Kw to 12Kw (Won' be 12Kw peak as some are east and some west facing) and that will require a planning alteration. Interestingly such modifications do come a bit more costly if you use an architect - not for the design work its only replacing some tiles with PV cells but because we used one for the PP every change costs more.

Makes perfect sense - she is now 11, so in 7 years she will head off to university to do a 7 year architecture programme - complete with the matching section and then she will be ready to give you a hand - does 14 years feel like your kind of timeframe?

Yes our neighbors did that and got a great home, highly insulated, lovely to live in I suspect but there were compromises they had to make. I suspect that compromise is what its all about in the end. We gave our architect a brief and then free rein until they started coming up with options then we started helping them close in on one we were happy with, features came and went - critical features stayed and in the end we arrived at with the design we have. Interestingly although we started with this as a house for us and our old age (a long way off I hope - but scrabbling around this morning doing some plumbing does make me wonder) we did hold in our minds the idea that if our children needed to sell it how would prospective buyers see it but we didn't let it control much - its for us to live in an entertain in nobody else - if you want it when we are gone, or can no longer live there, then you take it as it is.

Hmmm - not sure where to start with this one - so lets just say I am not sure this view is wholly accurate and may mislead people dangerously. I feel it very much depends on what and where you are building but primarily why you are building and your background. Coupled to this the concept of 'expense' is just a world view thing and has little interplay with the cost / value equation you will need to deploy across the whole build. If building for oneself then getting it right for you probably moves the cost / value equation about quite a bit in terms of professional support as would building in a sensitive location / conservation area / green belt etc. There are some aspects of professional support it is very hard to avoid. Structural engineer (I am not one so have no axe to grind here) for a start although a set of plans may contain all the calculations the building control people will need to be convinced that they are relevant today and that any alterations as might be required to meet current building regs have been reworked by a competent person and at the very least the roof structure will need a set of stability calcs. The architect question is also tied up here, and they are a costly aspect but the value balance in the equation is critical. I can only speak from personal experience as in the three build cases I have been involved with we have always used one to ensure that in getting what we wanted, not what we thought of, and we swept out all the corners of the possibilities by relying on their professional experience and challenging them to match our expectations. In the first two cases we did and we are happy with the result. In the third case we won't know until we get the building finished but I suspect that its going to be good - I can build it well I think but designing it is a whole other ball game - speak to @caliwag he will have a view I am sure. There are of course some lucky clever people who can design and build a house without any professional support at the design end (SE accepted) but you can never know just what a difference that professional front end work would have made - engineering optimisation is after all not aesthetic optimisation and a home / house is a machine for living in but there are a lot of aspects to living.

There are a load of books of house plans you can look at the design is there but not the detail - they all tend to be a bit 'house' like so if you want something a bit edgy you may need to look further. If its details you want, such as might be needed for building control, then I doubt there are many plan sets out there at that level.

Depends on how much insulating you want to do. If you have a solid base to work off and the BI is happy to have them below the DPC then you may get away with it BUT it looks complicated in that you have to fill those blocks, surface the tops of them then fit the dpc and find a way of connecting the upper and lower blocks to the DPC - the tie in to the steels looks complex also. On the whole a timber frame with blown in insulation might be your best bet as @Mr Punter says.

OK so perhaps not the best idea then!

Yep looks v smart - self builder bible is great but for an unconventional build, as this appears, helical screws and all, there must be other books out there. I got the latest versions of the building regs from the web (all free) and those coupled to the costings bible (spons - defo not free) should be enough to keep you amused through the next few stages of the process. If its going to be a passive house then there are several great books out there EG this one.

Thanks @Nickfromwales

I made a set of plastic plates on a cnc machine with banks of close fit holes for each group then sealed this plate to the DPC and then ran a bead of polyurethane adhesive around each pipe to make a perfect seal. The Bi was happy.

Very sad day. We still have Ecowin on our list of possible suppliers and I have spoken to Thomas many times getting the details of the quote correct, he was very pleasant, patient and professional.

I didn't ask for cutting as I am not sure they can cut them accurately enough and most of them have angles on the end. However when the job goes in for quotes it will include a cuts spec so they can price it provided that can meet the tolerances.

Yes - sensible approach but I don't yet know how many of each standard size need so at least my algorithm will tell me that approximately I worry that just dividing the total length needed by the standard length will result in more wastage as I will have to order extra to be sure to be sure!

Yep just spotted that, cutting will take place on site, for the garden room we used 10m lengths and that came on a pretty standard lorry I thought although no HIAB so had to move them all by hand.

My initial forays in prices seems to indicate that the 10m lengths are the cheapest per meter - could be something to do with transport, but I will check that with the competing suppliers, thanks for pointing it out.

Thanks Peter, I think that will be a lot of typing as it does not seem to accept mass entry (CSV etc) - interesting roots though in cattle markets and it seems to roughly apply the algorithm I suggested!

We have 312 lengths (elements) of timber in our frame mainly I-Joist (FJI) and Kerto beams but some 38 x 89 C24 and some Gluelam. I have exported the details of each element from the frame drawings to a spreadsheet and now need to opimise the order from standard lengths (8m /10m / 12m) anybody come across an algorithm for doing this? Can write it in any language but VBA is simplest given everything is in the spreadsheet. I have had a look at the commercial packages and they seem mostly focused on flat sheet cut optimisation which is not my problem right now. I don't want to go to the work of creating a Genetic or algebraic optimiser so I am hoping a simple algorithm will get me close enough as I would like to keep the costs in control and I will add a few standard lengths of each size to the order My basic approach is going to be: Settings like: Cut margin (The amount to add to the length for cutting - 10mm perhaps) Then Repeat Set cut length to Zero Seek longest remaining element and set element spec IE '58x220 FJI' or '75x240 KERTO'. Add to cut length Repeat Define Waste from standard length(s) Find nearest fit, allowing for cut margin, from remaining items Add to cut length Until cannot find any more that can fit in the waste Add standard length found to order sheet Record final waste figure Flag all elements assigned as not remaining and mark them against the standard length code (So I know what I am cutting from each length) Until all elements assigned to a standard length Add up final waste figures Feels about right, will run it three times, once for each standard length and see what the waste is on each - sure not perfect though.I guess there is always a chance the supplier might optimise it for me but thought I would have a go myself. Any thoughts anyone.

Hi Christine. Sounds like a very challenging time a few things you can rely on though - You are not alone we are all rooting for you. Self building is very challenging but the sense of satisfaction when you come through it makes it all worth while. Just to start a self build takes a lot of courage and sticking to it takes even more but in the ends its your goal that matters and the pain of apparent mountains in the road when you hit them will look like bumps in the road when you look back and see what you have achieved. You have come an awful long way already, just a bit further and the sunlight uplands will be all yours. Keep on keeping on and you will come through it.

That's interesting, our UFH is in the slab and as we now intend to Tile, as the power float polish failed, do we need it?As things stand I was intending to tile directly to the slab after the failed polish is scabbled off.

@nodWhat us the orange stuff under the adhesive, looks like a great job and you are a brave man taking that amount of tilling on or are you a closet pro!

Don't forget the rules on supporting the sides of excavations more than 1.5M (IIRC) you don't want it falling in especially if you are down the hole fettling the corners with a spade IE head down not watching the sides.