Bitpipe

We signed a JCT with our groundwork for the £120k basement stage of our build - I agree that it was a bit wooly in places. Thankfully we never needed to look at it - I did write an appendix with specific items called out that were not clear on the engineering drawings and some agreed site logistics and behaviour. For MBC and the windows, I used their contracts but made a few edits in my favour. A few contractors required a return of a signed quote with some basic Ts & Cs and the rest are more or less here on a handshake. The golden rule is to always agree ahead to keep a reasonable amount of money in reserve until you're satisfied with the work /goods, the best incentive to get them to complete the work to the agreed standard. I've also tried to be as aware as possible as to what's happening and what's planned to happen and to ensure that the spec is being followed and being quick to politely but firmly call out when there is a deviation. We have had a few issues but I've found all contractors willing to sort out issues if discussed rationally.

We have real switches too Went one step further and put PIRs in the hall with low level LEDs so if someone nips out at night they don't need to find the lights.

Watergate Bay - old favourite of ours, kids love the surfing and we love the food! Should have thought to say hello but hey, it's only a few hours away for us and I'd love an out of season visit...

We have PIR for the bathroom lights - also used to activate the MVHR boost...

Just back from the family holiday in Cornwall - raced into the house on arrival home and spent 10 mins playing with the light switches that the sparky had powered up while we were away. Small pleasures. Now coming to terms with the still sizeable to do list before we can move in...

Our joiner has created a beautiful double airing cupboard (hotpress to the NI) and will do the same for hall storage - however while the materials cost is not that much (18mm MDF), it's a 3 day job for each one at his day rate so Ikea wins as each run is about £5-600 depending on the door finishes. Also, all the sundries (shoe storage, drawers etc) are so much cheaper from Ikea vs buying from Hafele or similar.

Its not eligible - only built in wardrobes, where the back wall is uncovered are ok. We had the joiner build the airing cupboard and hall cupboard from MDF so they'll be OK. We're considering using Howdens kitchen cupboards for the basement storage, as our kitchen was zero rated at source (so won;'t be in teh reclaim), we may be able to sneak those in.

Have got a 100cm PAX wardrobe carcass assembly down to 25 mins after 4 - I glue the seams and dowels to ensure they stay rigid.

About £3.5k I think, but we got a lot for the money, 4 bedrooms (3m each) plus a dressing room (1.75m), nice high gloss doors and lots of useful bits inside the wardrobes. Shame we can't get the VAT back on those... We went for the shorter version (due to ceiling height) and will get joiner to box them in to get the 'built in' look. 4 built this evening, just 14 more to go...!

I've just taken delivery of 1 metric tonnes of IKEA PAX wardrobes - 13.75 linear m of wardrobes for 4 bedrooms and a dressing room. Was the cheapest option vs getting the joiner to make them from MDF or using other brands. Just need to put it all together now...

OR have no issue terminating a line to one, but moving it yourself may be a challenge. Obviously it first depends where it is on your site in relation to the finished property - i.e. if you have enough cable. Ours is in front so the existing drop wire would be too short to reach the house (not that we want a DW, rather an underground duct). If it was behind/along side then in theory you would be able to move it but legally you're not allowed to interfere with the cable before the master socket - considered 'trespassing on the network'. You'd probably be OK but not sure what would happen if it didn't work and you needed them to fix it.

We replaced a 160m2 two storey 3 bed detached with a 380m2 property over 4 floors. 100m2 of that is a full footprint basement that the planners did not even blink at, the rest is 100m2 over two floors and a 80m2 room in roof So the basement approach can be a cost effective way to add space and avoid planning issues.

Not much to add to Jack's excellent post. The approach you take may depend to the history of the site and what's gone before. Our plot had had a few previous rejected schemes in the past (for the rear garden, not the main dwelling) but there had not been much street front development recently so we got a lot of attention. We'd lived there for over a year before submitting plans. Some neighbours (who had made no effort to be sociable, despite our efforts) we ignored completely, those we got on with better we discussed the final plans in more detail. There was one polite request to consider a more sympathetic exterior (brick vs render) but we equally politely said no - they put the request in their objection anyway. We also had a neighbour with professional planning expertise who completely went to town with their objection. First time round LA rejected due to ridge height and overall design complexity but they approved scale, position and finish which were the neighbours main complaints. Second time they were leaning to reject again but were talked round by our planning consultant. We did a third app to address some basement design items (light wells) that did not generate a single comment. I'd say that 90% of neighbour objections were rejected by the LA as immaterial - if they generate enough noise they can get it to committee but that's really it. By contrast, we've over communicated with everyone during the build, irrespective of previous relationships, and been very responsive to noise complaints outside of official hours etc.

We've just done a wet room style floor with electric UFH in our FF ensuite and the total build up was about 30mm including tile. The Impey former we used was 22mm deep, same as the OSB deck that we cut out to locate it. We put 12mm ply under it to allow for the 6mm tile backer board, 3-4mm UFH wire and a coat of latex. Adhesive & tile on top. If this is on your heated GF UFH slab then you wont need insulation boards or UFH so I'd guess have the former flush with the slab, so allow 22mm + the adhesive underneath, probably about 25mm recess. The Impey tanking system will go on top (allow 1-2mm) and then tile and adhesive. Nick will no doubt weigh in at this point We have engineered oak flooring to the perimeter of each bathroom and this came up short even with underlay. The flooring guy laid a gentle ramp of screed to ensure that the wood meets the tile at the same level and we're using a low profile metal T bar trim to fill the gap. The effect is pretty seamless. We also have Karndean in the basement and it needs a very flat surface (our non-power floated slab needed latex screed) - 6mm sound high for Karndean itself, ours was closer to 3mm and it's glued on so no real depth added by that.

I bought a converted container that has a 10' site office with secure door, window, laminate floor, insulated & plastered walls & ceiling and power & lighting. The rest is 15' of general storage (I insulated the ceiling with 50mm EPS to prevent condensation) and the traditional container doors to the rear. Was about £1600 on ebay and I paid £300 for one way HIAB transport to site (was about 30-40 miles away). The site office has been great for me and also all the trades and a secure place to store tools & materials overnight. I have the BT line terminated there with our DSL router there using powerline to transfer it to the caravan and to the house itself for the PV monitor. We packed the rear part with our own possessions, saving a fortune on storage costs. Have been using damp sticks to control humidity, all seems fine. May actually get to unpack it all next week if the painters are finished in the basement - that will be a red letter day! Hope to sell it on for pretty much what I paid for it.

Very early on in our build, I paid a prospective PM (who specialised in low energy building) to do a full QS costing and PHPP analysis of the project, we were considering using him to manage the build as back then we were looking at ICF, not a TF package. It was a useful exercise, even if the QS estimates were easily 20-30% over what we ended up spending. Definitely gave me a framework to budget against and target prices to beat - also was used when getting finance from the BS. Helped us make the decision to go for a package TF from MBC and PM it ourselves, as most of the risk was removed with that choice and we could not afford the PM fee anyway. We paid £1800 for both services, which I'm not sure was great value for money but it got us of the blocks.

Found this thread on the GBF - to quote...'i buried an ibc for my collection tank . I dug the hole slightly larger than the ibc poured concrete into the base and dropped the ibc with its cage in. then filled it up with water and filled hole with concrete'

I understand that an IBC will get crushed underground unless protected by some other ground retaining structure - we will have some inside our sunken patio but that has 300mm RC walls around it as it forms part of the basement stairwell construction. A rain-water harvesting tank designed for burial would be a better option.

Not done cladding but had a similar experience with tling, oak plank and karndean flooring did the raw measurements, rounded up and then added 10% - just squeaked it in all cases and needed to buy another pack of floor tiles. Barely had a scrap of Karndean left in our 4 room 100m2 basement. Have since been told that for larger format items (such as our 600mm square floor tiles) 20% is a safer option as wastage is higher. Trade off seems to be whether you can balance under-ordering with getting additional material of the same batch (v important for tiles) at short notice (and extra delivery cost)! edited to add - have already undershot a bit on architrave and waiting to see on skirting!

We've just had our resin floor laid (107m2) - it's not been plain sailing but we seem to be there now. We used a firm who use the Sika comfortfloor system which has a 3mm rubber crumb mat under the resin and make the floor wonderfully soft underfoot. Substrate was two layers of ply (9mm and 12mm), cross laid and screwed and glued to the 22mm OSB floor deck. The first sub layer pour did not cure properly and neither did the second - lots of imperfections and a hazy matt surface both times - no clear reason why but some suspicion that the humidity may have exceeded tolerances or issues with the chemicals. The house is a MBC passive build so airtight and highly insulated but we ensured that the property was ventilated. Anyway, third time has appeared to work fine and they are now top coating it, I have been hugely impressed with their professionalism and determination to get it right at no additional cost to us - happy to share their details via PM if anyone is considering similar. We also looked a micro screed which, although 3mm thick, gives the appearance of polished concrete so that's an alternative for the OP.

See my thread here - It's not impossible to get rid of PB, just more expensive. If feasible, you can dispose of it on site - it's not a harmful substance per se (obviously since we live with it) but it reacts with normal landfill. I looked into the industry PB removal schemes but they're geared towards developers and new PB off cuts and don't work for domestic or self builders. As Nick says, some disposal is done by weight, the local firm we use (who have supplied all our skips so far) went by skip volume. When our old house was demolished (a year ago today!) the whole lot, brick, tiles, timber and all, were carted off in two of those huge skips - presumably to be crushed and sold on as type 1. I'm sure we got some of it back a few weeks later (spotted very similar parquet floor pieces)

I think you're referring to Ecology, we used them for our recent finance and they are a delight to deal with. I just checked their page and saw this - "We are currently focusing on self-build projects aiming for Passivhaus or EPC A or above as they result in the greatest carbon reductions. Please bear this in mind when you read our mortgage discounts page. If your project meets these criteria, we would be pleased to hear from you" Obviously a building can't be certified as EPC A or PassivHaus compliant until it's completed but I guess they would look to see modelling under FSAP / PHPP to get some confidence that it is designed to comply. Their fix term is 2 years and their discounts only apply post completion so it's arguable whether you'd ever really feel the benefit given you'd be likely to re-mortgate asap to get a decent rate. Have you run FASP on your build design? If so, where are you coming out at and is there any scope to improve?

Wow, that's a first. Where do I claim my £5?

No idea why, is there a preferable drill speed? They were using plenty of water and it was taking them ages. Tiles are not fancy, own brand from our local shop (£33/sqm) but very decent quality.

I don't know, there's still quite a few mistakes made when building from scratch with the inevitable 'I should have thought about that'! I was obsessive about photographing every inch of the house before plastering but every time we get to a tricky area and go to the photos, it's either not there or burred or under exposed etc