Barny

Hi. Could anyone please explain the requirements for baths? We have to have a bath less than 170l. How do I determine if the bath is 170l? Many thanks

Thanks. Did you do every wall? has anyone used anything like hempwool?

Hi. I was wondering if anyone can recommend an eco friendly material for sound insulation that isn’t ridiculously expensive? We are having a MBC twin wall timber frame with warmcell but it has only just occurred to me I need to insulate the interior stud walls for sound proofing. I completely missed this off the budget! any advice?

Thanks all. I was hoping a jet wash would be all that is needed. I will definitely draft a statement to share with contractors to make sure they clean up before driving off. We are very lucky we have a good site for hard standing. I completely appreciate the councils point of view as neighbours are building and there is mud all up the road from vans parking on the verges, not to mention the 2 flat tyres I have had from screws and nails on the road. I keep saying we will not be like that.

Hi. Our planning officer is putting a condition that we need to have a portable wheel wash system in place throughout demolition and the whole construction phase. Is this normal and has anyone had one? All I can find on the internet are big things used for capital infrastructure projects not a single self build. They also cost £1500per week to hire which is obviously completely mad given “construction” could take up to a year. Thanks

Currently we don’t have electric on site at all. National grid have quoted me to put a temporary supply in but I understand they have to change it to a permanent supply at a later date once the house is built and the fuse box/meter is installed. We would like to ultimately have 3 phase for EV and to ensure we can offload more than 3.6kw to the grid.

I was hoping I could ask a follow on question - we are starting building work in spring. Because it is so far off national grid won’t give me a quote to upgrade the temporary to a permanent supply. Should I budget for the same again or is it materially different? We are planning to have 3 phase on the permanent supply. Many thanks

Hi. We have appointed our timber frame manufacturer (and installer) and are finalising our building reg drawings. I am going to use a main contractor to do the groundwork’s, services, cladding and internal fit. Does anyone have an example or can point me in the direction of an invite to tender document? I was just going to send the drawings but my architect has said we need to include more detail inc what sort of contract we want to use etc. Whilst having no building experience, I had not planned to get my architect to do full contract administration, not least because they are not local. I appointed them as they are passivhaus designers and they were near to my old house - not the new one! My budge does not stretch to another layer of admin. Any help gratefully received.

Thanks All for your help. The fire department have now helpfully confirmed that the initial flow rate was just guidance and they only require a hydrant attaching to the local mains that supplies the house. Our water main is a 2” pipe (as we are quite off the beaten track) - is anyone aware if the water board can just put a hydrant attachment onto a pipe that small? I have a query in with AW but they are going to take 3 weeks to reply - just wondered if anyone knew if this was possible?

The water supply to the village is 2” pipe so not enough for 8lt per second for a hydrant. Anglian water also said even if they put a new main in thy couldn’t guarantee it would have 8lt per second due to other demands in the system. I have reached out to fire dept hoping we can agree storage and sprinklers as a solution. We will be the only house in the village to have means to put out a fire!

Thanks Carrerahill. 21000 lt tank would be preferable to the £1m for a new water main!! How big is your care home m2? Thanks

Hi all we have a planning condition to install a fire hydrant within 90m of our new build. Anglian water have kindly confirmed there is not the infrastructure to do this so we would need to pay for several miles of new water main. HELP!!! has anyone had this problem and come up with acceptable alternatives to a fire hydrant? seriously panicking now - fire hydrant would cost more than several houses!

Hi. Planners have kindly said we need to install a fire hydrant. The front door of the house is set back 60m from the road. The water meter is on the roadside. Would the fire hydrant also be on the roadside? As they are not metered I assume they should be on the other side of the water meter? There are fire hydrants on the road already - I assume they are too far away hence the need for a new one. Our architect has drawn the fire hydrant on the inside of the gate and I am just wondering if this is right. He has made other mistakes so I wanted to double check.

Hi all. I had thought I would use a warranty firm for my building controls but they need all contractors lined up and designs finalised before they will even give a quote. We have a design query so wanted to get building control on board now. Any views on using local authority vs private firm? For a small project I did I struggled to get the LA to issue paperwork quickly but then I have read bad reviews about private firms too. any views? thanks

So the claim that it is cheaper if the warranty firm does the building control is not true? I need building controls now to help with a design query but the warranty firms won’t even quote because we haven’t finished our foundation designs or appointed a contractor. I found this very odd as presumably many don’t use a main contractor at all?

Has anyone come across one that can be used with piles? I am liasing with Abbey Pynford re their passive home safe foundations at the moment (having not been able to use MBC as we need piling due to soil and trees). Would like someone who can engineer, supply and fit. thanks

Does anyone know of anyone else like Abbey Pynford for tree foundations? I am looking for a firm to do the engineer and supply of foundations like AP so I can benchmark their fees.

Thanks saveasteady. That is what I thought too. I assumed MBC would organise everything they needed for their SE but they don’t. It just makes me worry I am exchanging one risk for another.

Thanks Nick. Do you know if I need a special tree survey? I had a topology report done but it didn’t identify species or heights of trees or measure trees outside my boundary.

Hi. I am looking for a structural engineer to do foundation design on a problematic site (trees and clay). Can anyone recommend one? thanks

Thanks for all the comments. we wanted MBC to do the foundations and frame to reduce the risk and MBC only do raft foundations hence why we were going that way. They use an engineer in Ireland hence they don’t organise their own soil investigations. I am worried that a raft is not the right option from a structural (and cost) point of view and this remote engineering approach might miss issues. The site has 2 large poplar trees. Having read the NHBC foundation guidance I am not sure we can use a raft anyway (or it will be so deep it will cost a fortune). Any anyone built near large trees (about 10m away from trees 15-20m high)? What foundation type did you use and who designed them? Has anyone used MBC for foundations on a site that has trees? thanks

Hi. Does anyone have a more up to date cost for installing standing seam metal roof? The cost of everything has gone up so much! Many thanks

We are having a raft foundation and the UFH is going into the concrete. Do we need screed on top if the slab is flat? We are planning to either resin or tile the floor.

Thanks. I should say we are in Cambridgeshire. The plot is an acre but the actual house area is 200m.

Hi. We are having a raft foundation for our timber frame and need to get a soil survey done for the engineer. We had a quote for £3.5k which seems a lot. Can anyone recommend a firm for soil surveys for foundation design? Many thanks