Bitpipe

I can't recall if it was said on the Mark Brinkly Self Builders Bible (you should own this ) or on eBuild but the priority of the contractor is cash flow and credit, not discounted prices. So, assuming they charge everything through to you (or have budgeted to do so), they won't waste time haggling or deal hunting - the real value of a BM to a contractor is credit and payment on account.

A large number of the self builders here started out with zero knowledge but do not assume that professionals know it all and will make good decisions on your behalf or want to save you money - not because they're bad people but they all have a set way of doing things and know what they know - architects are as guilty of this as anyone, ours designed a pretty house but was adamant that a basement would be a disaster (best feature in the house) had had zero idea of low energy building principals or exposure to materials other than brick and block. If you really want to focus on controlling cost then you need to understand and if necessary question every design decision, why they have been made, what the alternatives and tradeoffs, are you're getting a good deal or being ripped off etc.. Also, a main contractor will also charge you 20-30% premium to effectively manage the sub-contractors and cover his other overheads, you may consider this value for money but I did not. You also have no control over the quality of the subs and may not see what's going on day to day. With some commitment (wife and I both work, have kids etc) we acted as the PMs and chose competent subs to undertake the works - helped by using packages for the big critical complicated elements such as groundworks and frame to watertight / airtight. Is occasionally stressful but probably no more than watching a contractor build your house and make potentially expensive decisions for you!

It's cheap to make provision during first fix and then decide if you need it later. When you have finalised your u values, I'd advise calculating your heat demand as that can be quite revealing. Jeremy has a simple spreadsheet that will give you a good idea, you can also do SAP or PHPP modelling if you want to get more precise figures. Also, don't fall into the trap of only thinking on heating - it's the obvious concern (especially in NI) given all of our experiences with poorly built and draft homes. I can guarantee that if you build to the standard you're planning to, overheating will be just as big a concern and this is more difficult to counteract (opening a window in a hot house on a hot day makes no difference). Think also on your likely solar gain, house and window orientation, shading (trees, neighbours etc) - all of this can be modelled and mitigation planed. For example, we have electric external shutters on all east windows (where we face the street) and on east and south Velux. Makes a big difference to preventing overheating. There is one ground floor south window we omitted to get blinds on as we though the neighbours gable would block the sun - turns out that when the sun is low (spring & autumn) it shines right in so we now need to mitigate that another way.

Our bathroom UFH was a bit of an afterthought, first fix was almost complete so electric was the only option - floor deck had been laid at that point. I'm sure that a wet system would have worked fine, we did faff about a bit with the bathroom layout after the frame was complete but before first fix so would not have known this in advance - would have caused issues during first fix with foul runs, cutting into floor etc. - you also don't want UFH under baths or shower trays as it dries out the trap and can cause smells.

There you go that's your interior design sorted then.

They are Roma blinds, but were supplied through Gaulhofer and arrived pre-fitted to the appropriate window units which made installation a breeze. MBC made allowance for the blind head in the wall so that when fitted it was flush (windows were recessed about 100mm into the frame). We then rendered over the top and you'd never know they were there when retracted. There is a 4 core 240v control cable that our electrician wired to a fused spur with latching rocker switch in each room next to the light switch. The blinds have a pre-programmed auto stop (up and down) and you control the angle by reversing the direction of travel of the blind. They do a wireless remote control but this needs to be specced from the outset as it's a different internal motor. Very pleased with them. Interestingly, we kept them 'up' for a long time until we had power to test them and then realised that the blinds themselves were not the correct colour. Our supplier arranged replacement of the slats and the installer was able to swap each set out in about 30 mins each - so although the head is permanently fixed in the cavity above the window, the entire blind mechanism, motor and all is accessible and serviceable. Have given serious though to retro fitting one on the troublesome south kitchen window but I think it would be a messy job.

If you want integrated external blinds then yes - you'll need to make an allowance in the frame / external wall to house the blind head, and make provision for power and control. We did this for the front 5 windows and they look amazing and are highly effective at reducing solar gain plus give privacy without compromising natural light. Did similar for the front four Velux windows and two on the south facing utility (using their external roller shutter, controlled through the same Inegra panel as the windows themselves). For the rear Velux we just used internal manual Velux blinds as they are accessible. Omitted to similarly spec the single south facing kitchen window (which we thought would not get that much direct sun due to neighbours gable, but it gets plenty when the sun is low) and it still irks me. Would probably not have been practical for the two 4.5m sliders at the west/rear but still get evening glare so either need an internal voile or simple external blind (would need to be solar / battery powered as I haven't made any provision for power. Even for internal blinds, if they are to be powered then you should make provision, same goes if you want them to be recessed.

Once you have a few soft items (sofa, curtains etc) then you'll be fine. In our first new build, we had a separate dining room that had wood floor, wooden blinds and wooden table and chairs, dresser etc - all hard surfaces and it was a bit of an echo chamber. Solution was to knock up four 600x600 wooden frames and stretch & staple some fabric over them (we used an old pair of silk curtains that didn't fit anywhere). Then we hung them on the wall as a bit of home made 'art'. Was actually quite effective at softening the dynamics of the room.

We went for venetian style external blinds for the street facing windows (East) that recess into the lintel so are invisible when retreated - that said, they're down most of the time for privacy and solar control, still let in loads of light when horizontal. Need a solution for one south window and the rear (west) sliders that are allowing more glare than we anticipated - looking for a low profile external roller blind that is solar powered. For the rear bedrooms we just put curtains on a pole across the reveal like IanR. Have to say, they are rarely opened apart from cleaning - a tilt is about as much as they ever get.

We did this on our ground floor, which is suspended timber over the basement. We struggled with the loops that had to span the joist before someone had the bright idea of just bringing them over each joist and securing with a pipe clip, then cutting slots out of the 22mm OSB where the loops ran. Because we were putting another ply layer on this floor before the resin went down, it wasn't an issue. I know HerbJ found a small bore wet system for his first floor that incorporated a soundproof board but it wasn't cheap. He mainly put it in for resell purposes. Forgoing upstairs heat can be a bit of a leap of faith to go without so I had a few plan B's in play. The bathroom towel rads each back onto a bedroom, so a small rad could have been retrofitted back to back if required. It would also be easy to add a switched fused spur to each room for an electric panel heating system, in fact our bathroom UFH was a last minute addition (we'd already started tacking) but it was easy enough to get boxes and conduit in for stats, controllers and the spurs themselves. Really, if your house is well insulated and airtight, then bedroom heat requirements should be minimal.

When we were in the caravan, the broadband went a bit flakey. The modem was in the site office and we were using power line plugs to squirt it to the van. BT came out and it turned out that one wire in the pair was broken but making an occasional connection - apparently this was enough to keep the broadband live but the associated voice line (which I never used) was dead. Still trying to figure out how that worked...

UFH upstairs is dependent on how warm you like your bedrooms - our preference is on the cool side so we have no wet UFH upstairs and it was perfectly comfortable last winter - however this is in SE England, would expect NI (where I grew up) to be colder. We have wood floors upstairs so they feel warm underfoot. We did however put electric UFH in the bathrooms under the tile and wet towel rads that are independent controlled. Our house is near passive standard so we can get away with running the GF heating for only a few months of the year, bigger challenge is preventing overheating the rest of the year, even a cool sunny day can have you sweltering if you don't manage the solar gain properly (shading, window position etc). I echo all of the above, many architects and builders work they way they're used to and don't worry too much about saving you money. If you want a good spec on a tighter budget then you need to do research, shop wisely and be prepared to do some jobs yourself where it makes sense (DIY MVHR is a popular one on this forum).

All our kitchen and utility wastes (sinks, dishwasher, washing machine, water softener) all go into the same drainage stack and then into the main sub floor foul stack.

Here's my suggestion (based on personal experience) - don't tie yourself in knots trying to get hold of OR in advance, it's practically impossible. Firstly, just call up BT, act dumb and order a new line - their operatives can't seem to deal with anything complicated, so just keep it nice and simple. Make sure you get a deal where the install is free (usually involves taking broadband). Then, when the OR team comes out to do the work, you can corner them and understand what really needs to happen on site. They should then get the surveyor to come out and you'll get a proper quotations plus a recommendation on what pre-work you can do yourself (in our case, trenching across road and pulling through cable), some may even give you supplies of duct & cable but this seems to be rarer now, in any case it's not expensive stuff (try TLC). You may need to cancel that original BT order and wait a few weeks for it to clear from the OR system depending on what they advise. This should incur no cost. Then, when the prep on your site is done, just call up BT, act dumb and order a new line...

Might be the angle but the former looks to be just proud of the floor. When we did ours, we worked out that after 6mm backer boards, electric UFH and latex, the Impey former needed to be 12mm proud of the floor. We had the joiner cut a support out of 12mm marine ply and screwed and glued (Sikaflex) that over the pozi joists with additional support all round. Tray similarly screwed and glued to the former, with a few bags of plaster sitting on it while it cured. Then, after the tiler laid the 6mm backer to the rest of the room and UFH and latex, the membrane went down on the floor and up the wall edges, I also tanked the shower area (with corner tape) before tiling. Now about 9 months later, I have a few hairline cracks in the grout on the tiling in the shower, presumably due to movement, but not that worried as I know it's bombproof underneath.

Been there and done all of that in Berkshire. Can't argue with any of the advice above. Just to summarise what we did: - Water : just ran new services (32mm MPDE) back to boundary stopcock. We struggled to find this initially but the local water firm sent out a nice chap (for free) who found it deep in a hedge. - Electricity : got a quote from the DNO to move to a permanent koisk. I did all of the onsite DNO cable location, trenching and ducting to the new kiosk and then got my spark to run temps from that to the old house and caravan & site office. DNO only had to do the jointing and meter installation which minimised the cost (about £500). Note, we planned that the kiosk be the final home for the meter - some will only have temp supply and take it back into the house on completion but this means another DNO callout and fees. - Gas: got our GS engineer to disconnect back to the meter and then National Grid came to disconnect the meter and cap off supply at site perimeter. This cost £1500, non contestable and given they were onsite for about half a day, a bit of a rip off. Your supplier will want to collect the meter to cancel your account. NG then charge a subsidised rate for re-connection depending on the length of pipe needed, you need to trench and supply the yellow duct. - asbestos: got a survey but were lucky in that there was very little and it did not require specialist removal. Also give thought to your foul drainage, if you are on mains then you should have this surveyed and/or get plans from your local water firm with invert levels etc so you can ensure that your new services are appropriate. It is a bit to get your head round but think it through as some co-ordination on services now will save you cost later. A good groundworker will take all of this in their stride and can advise on how to minimise costs.

Great news ! Now give some thought as to where you want your master socket.

Yes, we did this on a few door linings as we couldn't get enough of the pre-routed versions. Don't see how you'd surface mount the strip - they are quite chunky, about 4-5mm thick and 15mm wide. They're also only in white or brown so would not look that good in a door.

I had the same requirement and found that fd30 metric linings were hard to get hold of, Howdens only ever had a few in stock. But I believe that the intumescent strip and appropriate thickness of stop are the key requirements in addition to the door itself - not the material itself. As Terry says, just check with your bco.

Yup, I disconnected and reconnected mine quite a few times before being happy. My tip is not to cut the ducts too tight to the distribution box initially but when you're happy with the final arrangement, do get them in tight as excess duct will push your box out, especially if you have them coming in both sides.

We spec'd the door openings as 900x2100 to accommodate metric doors (826x2040). Many of these had to be FD30 and we had to hunt about for suitable linings - Howdens do a metric FD30 lining but rarely have it in stock - from memory it was 32mm thick so it just worked, allowing a few mm around the door for tolerances. Have to admit, while our joiner did a decent job, there was a lot of labour involved (especially hanging the fire doors which are heavy). Pre-hung door sets could have worked out cheaper in the long run, although we saved a few £ buying the equivalent door hardware elsewhere. Also, we'd probably have ditched the architrave in favour of the one we used that matches the skirting.

Looks great - we love our resin floor (Sika comfort floor) and it attracts a lot of comments. Ours took 3 applications of the resin to get a good finish though, never got to the reason why - the installer even had Sika reps on site for the pour and we monitored the RH and temp (was last summer), he suspects it was either a dodgy chemical batch or perhaps that the house was too airtight, combined with a muggy conditions (we had heavy rainfall after a sunny day). Prep for us was crosslaid glued and screwed ply (9 +12) then the installers glued a 4mm rubber crumb mat. The resin is a two part mix which is poured onto the floor and raked into place, then run over with a spiked roller, it then self levels and cures over 24 hours. Topcoat is applied with a roller - it can be re-done to return to the original finish or if you want to change colour etc. You can't have any use of silicone products for weeks before hand though as the very presence of that in the air will cause fisheyes in the finish, luckily we used Sikaflex so were ok. Ours now has about 6 months wear and still looks great, comes up well after a steam mop too.

We also had one - needed to commission a written scheme of investigation from an approved firm to discharge the planning condition and then have a junior on site for a day, plus follow up report. All cost about £1000 from memory. To be fair, we were excavating about 450m3 for the basement and there had been previous neolithic finds a few 100m away so no wriggling out of it for us. I'd talk to an Archeological consultant and get their view, given you're having a raft and not deep trenches, plus prior disturbance.

We had the sliders wide open today and the mvhr running, I don't see an issue and the energy loss is minimal. MVHR is still pumping fresh air into the rooms that are not naturally ventilated and extracting foul air from the bathrooms, so not a total waste of effort, although I accept that the efficiency literally goes out the window when its open. MVHR comes into its own in the winter when you need fresh air but don't want to let heat out. Also in the summer when the external air is warm, we will be keeping all doors and windows shut to minimise overheating but will have fresh air in the house and will use summer bypass and nighttime purging to keep the house cool. We noticed this effect last summer just as the house was being finished - keeping the east blinds down in the morning and all windows closed kept the house nice and cool even on a very hot day. The decorators took some convincing and prior to this, kept opening all the doors and windows and then wondering why the house was so warm...