Bitpipe

We had a cost plan drawn up by a QS - used that and they were more than happy.

Have you run the heat loss calcs on a ICF build to understand how useable your wood burner will be? We rejected even a small ethanol burner as the 3kw output would have lead to gross overheating of our house - given our high levels of insulation & airtightness. Also the govt direction of travel seems to be against wood burning due to the particulates - I see wet wood and coal outlawed this week. Makes you wonder how long before any kind of domestic wood burning is restricted.

We got a survey from an OR guy for free - wanted to know cost of underground to boundary (where our duct started) from pole vs overhead wire, which would have been std connection cost. No subs came out, just the OR guy. The way we arranged that was to put in a request for a new line (just signed up via BT on the web) and when OR came out to action, I collared the team and explained what we wanted. He went off to do quote which was sent to us a few days later. As it was silly (he did advise DIY) we just cancelled the contract and did not pay a penny. We paid a contractor to lay duct to the pole and pulled through our own multi circuit gel filled cable (BT approved, bought via TLC) and left it coiled at the foot of the pole. Then went back on BT.com, ordered a new connection and when OR turned up they were more than happy to shin up the pole to attach the cable and then installed the master socket at our end where the cable came into the plant room.

Behind a paywall but you get 2 few articles a week (per email) if you register. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-to-build-your-own-house-a-beginners-guide-to-self-builds-v6khqxsbd Quite banal really, most of the content from Jason Orme of the Homebuilder magazine and the article has GD style houses featured Usual tips on how to find a plot, work out your budget etc... Does give some details of the newly announced £150m scheme - Details of Help to Build are due in the summer but are expected to mirror the Help to Buy scheme available on homes built by developers. If the same rules apply, the government would lend up to 20 per cent — or 40 per cent in London — interest-free for five years on the land and build cost, capped at £600,000. You would need a 75 per cent specialist mortgage and a deposit of at least 5 per cent for the rest. The initial Help to Build pot of £150 million announced two weeks ago could fund 4,000 to 5,000 homes, says Raymond Connor, the chief executive of BuildStore, a self-build mortgage broker. To be at the front of the queue for the scheme’s expected launch in the autumn, here is how you can prepare now.

True but we reused the power supply to the van for the garage (put a kiosk in place when we first moved supply from old house pre-demolition) and only had a short run to the caravan from the new fouls which were needed for the new build anyway. Putting those in actually constituted a start on the build and locked in our building regs to older rules. Steps were a stack of staggered pallets, as was the walkway to hard standing. Gas bottles were a faff, especially ensuring they were securely chained to posts and could not topple or get nicked. Agree that you need everything checked out for gas and electrical safety by pros but that would be same for any temp accommodation scenario. If you want to build something semi permanent then there are insulated log cabins that would do the job but they are not cheap. You could also insulate a standard cabin. You'd need to price in the works for the base plus all services as per caravan.

We moved into our two bed, two bath 40ft x 12 ft static in April 2015 and moved out August 2016 - family of 4, kids were in last years of junior school. Caravan was bought of a local park the previous summer for £1700 as it was slightly water damaged and was nice and dry when we moved in, was hooked up to power, mains water and sewage. LPG for heat. Cost £500 to get it transported and located on site on a low-loader by a specialist firm. Interior was clean but tired. It was surprisingly roomy and we never felt tight on space. I recommend electric blankets in winter and a revelation was to run a small dehumidifier in winter also as the gas appliances (hob and fire) generate water vapour and this condenses out at night and leaves the floor a bit damp (and therefore cold) in the morning. The dehumidifier pumps a decent amount of heat also, just don't look at the electricity bill What you really need to prepare for is summer - it is hard to keep a caravan cool if it's hot outside. Also, don't entertain refitting the interior - as it says above, it will likely start to fall apart, the interior structure effectively holds up the roof. Challenging to crane them into place also as they have little structural strength and are liable to twist. We sold ours on for £1000 to the firm who moved it originally, believe it ended up on a fruit farm somewhere. Net cost to us was £1200 for 17 months accommodation - a good deal in my book

I looked into RWH to feed internal systems and saw all of the cons raised above, you do need quite a bit of kit to meet WRAS requirements. There are some concerns over bacteria and virus from bird droppings being washed from roof into your system and not filtered out due to their microscopic size. RWH systems do not typically have UV treatment etc as the water is not intended to be potable. However flushing a toilet will generate an aerosolised spray which could introduce these into the air. We built a 4000 l tank using IBC in a covered location next to our basement and use it for garden watering only. Helped towards our water calculation signoff.

Jelly crimps are even cheaper £2 for 20. Still surprised that they did not terminate to a BT Master socket. I get that it works now but would be concerned if an issue occurred in the future and the next OR engineer to visit threw their hands up !

Depends how often the cooker hood is in operation I suppose and also how sealed off this new part of the house is from the others. Given those type of vents are rarely airtight (and the rest of your house is probably equally leaky), you'll likely get some cross ventilation from other part of the house - more so if the skylight is open.

Wet = heated by hot water from heating system. Not Wet = heated by electrical element on local fused spur There are hybrid models also.

Assuming you mean electric and not wet? We have a full length wet towel rad that sits inside the curve of the bath (freestanding style) but wet so no electrical issues. However for electric, assuming it has the necessary IP rating then it should not be an issue?

As long as it has all of the VAT details on it then you should be fine. I sent in all manner of receipts and invoices, some I had to annotate with the VAT number and had no issues.

Pros of a single contractor is that they have the experience, access to trades and you do all the work under one contract & price. Downside is that you are reliant on their trades (good or bad) and there will be not much scope for cost reduction, however you do get input on the visible elements (kitchen, bathrooms, fittings etc). For a house refurb, I would suggest a single contractor and be prepared for them to price in 'the unknown' as there may be some surprises when they strip back the fabric or have a contingency reserved. I'd normally advocate to PM the project yourself but a refurb is not a self build from scratch and you may struggle to get trades to even quote never mind take on the job in the current climate.

The other half planted hundreds of bulbs in the lawned areas to the front of the house and we let the grass grow long there, currently full of bluebells and daffodils, some others poking up. When that season is done I mow it. Rear lawn has needed a lot of attention this last few weeks - been aerated, scarified & treated. Rain over the next few weeks should help it come back to life. The old self propelled petrol mower, which I bought on eBay 10 years ago and had serviced once, has now had it so upgrading to a mulching Stihl that uses the sale battery as the hedge tools I bought end of last year.

What I can't understand is why the neighbour (8/10 sad face) didn't take notice when footings and gf wall started to go up. Roof is shocking though.

We have Gaulhoffer - the slimline 92 profile. May not be slim enough for your requirements but much less chunky than Internorm.

We have external motorised venetian style blinds on east aspect so morning sun is reduced. Velux external blinds on east & south roof lights. They both work great. Big sliders on west aspect so external blinds would not work so well and it's less of an issue so I have linen panels clipped to a tensioned wire which act as a translucent shade. Have considered pergola etc but surprisingly expensive. Did notice this in CostCo which may help... https://www.costco.co.uk/Garden-Sheds-Patio/Garden-Structures/Gazebos-Pergolas-Conservatories/Yardistry-11ft-x-13ft-34-x-4m-Cedar-Louvered-Room-with-Aluminium-Roof/p/1333257

This is exactly what we did. The specific practice I used has gone but the lead engineer (Tara) now works here https://www.buildcollective.co.uk/

I can recommend the SE who I used, ICF specialists, if you're not satisfied with the advice you're getting. Is the whole dwelling above ground ICF?

Similar ground conditions to us. I think you have been badly advised on using membrane, sump & pump, it will likely never see much ground water. It can make sense when you have a high water table, i.e. above the floor level of your basement or if you use a system like casting piles in situ which are hard to make contiguous. BTW I'm not surprised, basement construction (aside from retrofits under existing) is still something of a rarity in UK so very little working knowledge out there amongst architects. Ours was dead against the whole idea - it will be damp and smelly he said. Turns out he'd never worked on a project with one and it was 'what he had heard'. A wet site / surface pooling is likely due to poor percolation and heavy soils (clay). When you dig a basement, you have a working gap of about 1m around the basement perimeter that you backfill with something free draining like clean stone. At the bottom of that space, next to the edge of the slab, you have a land drain (perforated drainage pipe, wrapped in teram and covered in pea shingle that drains to a soak away below the level of the basement slab. Ours is a ring chamber that's about 6m down. When it rains, water will run down that to the land drain and never touch the basement walls. I think your instincts are correct, it's not that it will not work but it sounds inappropriate based on your conditions. Feels like someone is 'specifying what they know' rather than what is needed. You can use WPC with ICF - you can't see the quality of the end pour but it it's poured and pokered by an experienced crew then there should be no issues. However you may want to add an external membrane for additional peace of mind - you then have your two systems (A + B). We only used WPC as it was given a 15 year insurance backed warranty from Sika which our warranty company accepted. We cast in situ vs using ICF as that's what the contractor offered. I would be amazed if a drop ever made it through, you will however have paid for all the expense and will need to maintain two pumps for redundancy plus alarms for power cuts etc. Go talk to a contractor (not a 'basement expert' but an experienced ground-worker who does sub surface structures like parking garages etc) and/or a SE who has similar experience.

I had a contractor suggest similar (sump & pump for both services) but in end I used an alternative waterproofing system (concrete) and don't have any wet services down there aside from plant room. It's your build, so do what feels right but maybe ask building control for their opinion. What's the rational for the membrane, sump & pump waterproofing system? What's your ground water level in relation to the basement depth?

Having done both, I'd recommend seed. We laid ours in December and it came up really well. The turf looks great when laid but then shrinks (especially down here) and never looks quite as good. Seed also heaps cheaper. Prep is same. Get a rotovator or Turf rake from here, highly recommend them. I hire an aerator every year to give the lawn a good going over. https://www.hirestation.co.uk/tool-hire/Landscaping/Rotavator-Hire/140013/ Rake flat, add some top dressing, rake flat and then scatter your seed. I made a 1m2 frame from offcuts and plonked it down, scattered the recommended amount of seed (was about a handfull) and then gave a gentle rake.

How about this. You'll need an air rifle or large hat pin for the descent.

You'd need to have a way to get the genie lift into the basement and back out again. The Genie's themselves are 140kg. I used one to lift 150kg stone baths up to the first floor as I wasn't chancing using the temp MDF stairs with two of us on it as well.

Was going to suggest an airbag but that may actually work so will ignore it.