Bitpipe

I would not necessarily agree - we have two very large Velux (PK10) and a 4 MK04 but all east / south facing ones have their external motorised blinds which work really well. We have a mix of 240v Integra ones in inaccessible areas and standard manual ones. The blinds take a 24v feed so plug directly into the Integra units and work of their touchscreen controller. For the manual windows you get a KUX100 controller and use either the supplied remote or pair with the Integra touchscreen. The blinds do allow a degree of opening for the window, I normally put the blind down first and then open the window. Yup, I have the Roma venetian style blinds that work really well - they're powder coated to match the window alu frames and run off 240v, just wired into rocker switches in each room. They are never up, just tilted various angles during the day and mean no curtains are needed in those rooms also. Highly recommended. Having them come ready fitted to the windows meant install was a breeze, just needed to make allowance for the recessed blind box in the frame. I know @jack had a lot of grief with his blinds as they were fitted separately.

I'd love to join in but having ordered a new Audi eTron back in May, still no delivery date. May be Dec, may be Feb, who knows.

I stand corrected - never seen that detailed before.

That's good, sensible to be pragmatic. This may be your first 'didn't go as planned' self build event but it wont be your last and if you can roll with them then your stress levels will be manageable. I always used to say that I was pissed off about the last problem but only until the next one pops up

But you can't do the insulated raft style in block and beam.

That's bad luck - I mean who could forsee the driver having a stroke! Our basement floor was similar and we just used some self levelling compound ahead of laying Karndean. It's a fairly inexpensive solution. Were you planning to power float and leave as finished concrete? There are decorative micro screeds that give the same effect and resin (which we have on our ground floor) is a good alternative also - very hard wearing, nice to look at and gives you a continuous finish (no joints to get grubby).

I think the real problem lies with the ones that were approved, that is legally binding until it goes to judicial review.

You need to be careful, large vans are not particularly robust and easily damaged - a lot of the value of these experienced movers is their ability to get them though tight spots (like the small gap we left after building the house )

+1 for Ecology, although you do need to meet their SAP / PHPP requirements with your designs. Genuinely delightful to deal with all the way through the project. Plan B would be to somehow borrow the additional funds to demonstrate the required balance and then give them back as you don't need them.

I paid £500 back in 2015 to get our 40' x 12' van on site by a specialist mover who had a low loader and landy as a scout car and for final positioning. It did not come far (about 5 miles) but the cost is really at either end getting it on and off the loader, to final position and secure on blocks, balanced etc. Same guy took it away for cash at the end (it was pretty tired, we had little resell interest) and they took it to a farmer on south coast who used it to house seasonal workers. Could give you his number if you want to pick his brain, I think he goes all over to be honest.

Very pretty - we have two lifts of a a similar cantilevered 'stringless' stair system. It was not cheap and the wall needed additional bracing to support it (as it was timber stud). When do you think this house is actually getting built and how is your budget looking?

When we were doing plastering works, we had to pull out the temp stairs and looking down an unprotected 8m void into the basement was quite unnerving. Even though I enjoy climbing, I do not like heights and I remember just before the frame went up being unable to get past the second lift of scaff when it sat above the basement, there was one gable tier above which would have been a nice 12m drop onto the slab. Gives you a renewed respect for Tom Daley & co who regularly fling themselves off a 10m diving platform

I have an 8m high atrium also but only access from first floor. However when I was putting up the light fitting there it was a bit hairy. As long as you have 900mm ballustrade then you’ll be fine - you could increase to 1100mm if you want to give more feeling of security.

My sister lives in Texas, bought a house with a pool. Said that they've considered filling it in a few times as it doesn't get used that much and costs them a bomb in maintenance etc. Kids are all grown now so gets even less use. Now we are lucky enough to gave a big long garden and could easily accommodate a pool but have never been tempted. Got a cheap 3x2m free standing one from Amazon with filter and heater and it keeps everyone here happy for the few months it's hot & sunny. Wife chooses to swim in local river year round. Anyway, back to the OP - we have an 'eco' house with better than BR targets but no specifics. Insulated slab but no MVHR. Seems a bit muddled but MVHR is easy enough to design in - we only decided to go passive after getting PP but made everything work. The architect will have done SAP calcs assuming trickle vents & extractor fans to meet BR ventilation regs, get them to do it again with MVHR. Not relying on draughts for ventilation (taking your heated/cooled air with them) will only improve your 'eco' performance. Plus you have fresh filtered air year round.

We have external motorised blinds (Roma) which came fitted to the Gaulhofer windows as an option. Wired into mains and controlled via 240v wall switches. There is a wireless option but it's expensive. Look great and perform well. Can be RAL coloured to match your scheme. Ours are are never fully retracted aside from occasionally for cleaning. Mostly we adjust the angle of the blinds depending on time of day. Inside is always bright but they also provide a high degree of privacy so no curtains needed. @craig supplied them so he could give you more details.

I suppose it depends on how the quote comes around - for high value items like windows I fixed the material price first and then added installation. For plumber and electrician services, they just provided a quote that included all materials, we supplied any specific items (sanitary ware, UFH etc). Our landscaper did a day rate and got us his trade discount on materials which we bought in our name.

Materials can only be zero rated at source if they are part of a supply and fit arrangement. VAT applied to these type of invoices cant't be reclaimed. If you can get materials supplied independently on their own invoice, with you named as buyer (site address etc) then you can reclaim at the end of the build when complete.

Solar gain is usually a function of how much glass you have, the orientation and external shading. The frame fabric can help but usually requires a high decrement delay type insulation like blown cellulose. Once a moderately well insulated building overheats due to to much solar gain through the windows, it is difficult to cool it down, so effective shading is really important - be that trees, bris soleil, external shutters or reflective film/glass. Overheating can happen year round, not just in summer and is actually more prevalent in spring and autumn when the sun is lower in the sky and can penetrate deeper into the house. A stack ventilation strategy (e.g. high level velux) can help flush the house with cool air at night and good airtightness will keep that cool air in the house for the following day. MVHR will keep air fresh and humidity low. Also be aware that air tightness is the responsibility of all trades - great the the frame company seem to commit to it but this needs to extend to the window fitters and any trade that penetrates the envelope, like electricians or plumbers. All penetrations need to be taped and sealed, one careless trade can render the whole airtightness void. Your blower test will show the result but it can be hard to rectify issues if the house is largely complete and the problems are hidden. As Nick says, MVHR is a must if your house is anyway airtight otherwise you will have no fresh air without trickle vents in windows and then all your precious heat is freely leaving the house which will drive up running costs. MVHR does not mean you can't open doors & windows, it just means you don't need to (especially in winter). Your slab design does not sound insulated from the ground so cold bridging needs to be considered (as it does in the frame) and you should have an idea of the flow temp your UFH will need. Genuine low energy builds require low flow temps and usually no space heating upstairs as the heat requirement is quite low. ASHP can cool an insulated slab effectively. If you have plenty of PV then this is an efficient way to keep the house cool in summer. If your architect is genuinely experienced at 'eco' builds they should know all of this, they should also have a target SAP or better to understand how the house will perform and its space heat requirement etc. Have you seen that?

What low energy performance standard are you aiming for? Have you considered u values, airtightness, solar gain, MVHR etc..? Correctly designing & building the fabric to minimise the heating and cooling requirement (both energy consumers) plus understanding how the house will perform year round will be key to delivering on your 'eco' objective. Be wary of 'green-wash' tech that make unrealistic claims and have a very long payback times. Further to VAT comments above, you need to ensure that anyone who does work for you zero rates their invoices (you may need to provide your planning permission to satisfy them). You cannot reclaim VAT charged incorrectly on services. You can only claim VAT for eligible materials bought by you, in your name, delivered to your address and you can only make one claim at the end of the project when the build is considered complete (e.g. BCO sign-off). Therefore to optimise your cash flow, the best approach is to get trades to supply & fit and zero rate at source.

To be specific, teenagers. I built a whole basement for that purpose.

Can't wait to see the packaging on v2

+1 to covering with some self levelling compound and then painting that. Our basement floor was tamped flat and was still quite rough underfoot. The flooring guy poured a few mm of self levelling compound (aka laytex) and it looked like polished concrete. We put Karndean on the top but it was poker flat so it could have been painted.

Boris has obviously not got the memo.

It's the classic boiling frog scenario. Once the discomfort is evident to the masses they will demand action but will it then be too late - or take too long to have any impact? I skimmed the Daily Mail in the shop today - saw a glimmer of hope in their position of 'it may be expensive now but will be much more expensive if we do nothing' so maybe that message will start to resonate. The other challenge we face is that government policy making, globally, is inherently short term and selfish - the fundamental calculation is always let's do what is popular & avoid what is unpopular so we can stay in power. Climate aside we see this with education, healthcare, long term social care etc, etc.

They'll will all sell you a buildings insurance policy but you'll only find out if there is an issue if you had to make a major claim. We had a 2 year delay getting BCO sign off after occupation (balcony & externals issue) but got a bog standard B&C insurance policy once the site policy had finished and the major works were done. I suppose that could potentially have been troublesome in any claim but none arose. In that time we re-mortgaged, leaving Ecology for a high st lender and surveyor asked if we had a warranty (i said yes) but they never asked to see it. We did have one but it had not gone 'on risk' as they need the BCO completion cert. They then backdated it to the build completion date so effectively two years of the policy wiped out. Recently tried to claim against warranty but claim fell foul of the issue arising in the 2 year 'builder fixes it' period so right now was a waste of money. Annoying thing is, the original insurer went bust and I was offered the premium back vs taking the policy when I tried to activate it. Kind of wish I had now...