jack

I've lived with MVHR in our new build for 9 years. I love the year-round air quality and wouldn't be without it if I ever built again. For comparison, I've lived in about 20 flats/houses over the years. The current one has far and away the most pleasant physical environment. Unsurprisingly, it's particularly noticeable during cold weather. When you come in from the cold, the house feels warm but the air is still fresh. It's a qualitatively different feeling from walking into, say, a Victorian house during the peak of its evening heating cycle. All that said, MVHR isn't the only contributor to how the house environment feels. It's well insulated and uses low temperature UFH under polished concrete flooring, so it's evenly warm with no hot spots. Triple glazing means no window-driven convective drafts. Personally I think you need the combination to maximise comfort.

Welcome to BuildHub. For many, this is one of the biggest challenges of self-build, especially if you live in more built up areas with not much space and a lot of competition for houses. We got lucky by buying a small, tired old bungalow on a plot that needed some imagination to get the most of, back in 2012 when the housing market was still in the doldrums after the 2008 financial crisis. I'm not sure whether the economics of that make sense any more, but it's worth considering. Buying to knock down and rebuild costs more but is arguably lower risk than a lot of other options. You have utilities in place (don't underestimate how much that it can cost to get them connected in some places) and can at least be sure that you'll almost certainly get planning for something, especially if there are a lot of larger houses around it (as was the case for us). You also aren't competing for the rare building plot that comes up. Around my way (Hampshire/Surrey borders), actual building plots tend to be expensive, because you're competing with people like us but also developers. Good luck.

If there are concerns about longevity of this wall, your neighbour ought to be even more concerned than you are. I'd start by talking to them and offer access to your side for the builder to improve it.

How common is imperfect fitting of windows and doors? Judging by my own experience, what you see on shows like Grand Designs, and the number of posts in this sub-forum, I'd say it might be more common than correct fitting As frustrating as it might be, I doubt you have a cause of action against the installer. You're well outside the standard six years for starting an action. Even if you try to rely on the "three years from discovery of the problem" deadline for action, the problem is that the absence of a cill was apparent from the day it was installed. I can see a good argument that since the cill's absence was apparent from day one, you can't claim that the problem has only just become apparent. You also need to show negligence. Some damp after well over two decades isn't necessarily evidence (by itself) of negligent installation. If you were talking about ten or more times the amount it might be worth looking into. But for £1000, you're far better of cutting your losses and getting it fixed yourself.

Very kind offer thanks. Unfortunately, I can't think of any brick-related questions at the moment! 😅

Welcome! Sounds like quite a project. Did you cost knocking down and replacement? Much more predictable costs, you get the VAT back. and obviously a lot more flexibility with layout. The downside from here would be more delay and fun with planners, but the principle of significant redevelopment has been established, so the council can't insist on a bungalow (not that it should have been anyway).

Just FYI, edits are only allowed for half an hour after the original post, so you won't be able to come back and add to the placeholder posts.

I'm not sure which seems less likely to me: that you wanted to be Father Christmas or that someone hired you for the job.

This has been my life for the last ten years. Can't see it changing until the sweet release of death. Who was it who said that getting older was just saying "I have a few busy weeks coming up but then things ease off" for several decades until you die?

I know you were very early Jeremy (possibly even before full production had ramped up?) Is it possible your purchase pre-dated the 10 year warranty?

Same, more than happy to come over and help with lifting. Great to see you back after such a long time @Jeremy Harris

You're definitely not the only one to have reached this conclusion by way of a difficult path. Hope it worked out for you in the end.

Please be nice to each other guys, the internet is a hard place to read tone.

Welcome! Quite a project by the looks!

Welcome to BuildHub! Some of the regulars will certainly give you "odd" help, but on overall you'll generally get some sensible answers.

You wish.

Wow, strong first post!

Welcome to BuildHub!

Hopefully most people no longer suggest that a PassivHaus doesn't need heating. It certainly needs less heating, for less of the time. When it's very cold outside (near or below zero) for long periods, the weather compensation means that our floor does feel slightly warm underfoot. It's nothing like the warm/hot feeling you get underfoot with UFH in a house with less insulation, but I find that sort of heat very uncomfortable. It's also important to understand that a house with PassivHaus class insulation and airtightness is not necessarily a PassivHaus. While our insulation and airtightness are PassiveHaus class, I suspect that we wouldn't meet the full formal specification. The shape of the house isn't ideal. We have a lot of glazing in places and several north-facing windows probably need to be a lot smaller. I therefore find that our heating comes on earlier than many others with similar levels of insulation and airtightness. That said, we use less energy to heat this 290 m2 house than we did to heat the 90 m2 bungalow it replaced, and we're a lot more comfortable, so I'm not complaining! I'm sure you've spotted this in your research, but zoning generally isn't needed in a PassivHaus class house. Most on BuildHub with that sort of insulation run their entire downstairs slab as a single zone with a single thermostat. Some temperature variation can be achieved in different rooms with UFH pipe spacing, with fine tuning done by manually adjusting flows at the manifold (no need for electronic controls).

The guys who did our build used one of those. Super fast, easier to use over a wide area without having to move around so much, and waaay less stress on the wrists.

I was whizzing through this on my phone when I answered and didn't realise three of them were affected, or that they'd used the wrong fixings. A one-off might be unlucky, but three suggests a pattern. No way I'd be happy just repairing the cracked stuff - the fixings need to be done properly. Can they not go back and add fixings at this stage? Leave the ones currently in place and put the correct ones in the gaps between them. These are what was specified (and used) on our house. I don't like the idea of shot-fired fixtures into concrete that has shown a propensity to crack, so perhaps you could have a word with your SE about using something like this instead? As others have said, it's the SE who needs to be your guide here. The builder is reponsible for rectifying the fixings.

Epoxy repair mortar isn't that expensive and might work here (although maybe check with the tech department of whichever brand you buy to make sure it's suitable). Not sure who's responsible - I can imagine both sides blaming the other. I'd be tempted to just crack on rather than worrying about blame.

My inlet filter can look very dark after a few months, and we have no houses near enough to us for that to be soot.

Intros aren't required, but are appreciated! Find the right sub-forum(s) for the particular damp issues you're facing and ask away.

Awesome work again @nod Your numbers are always amazing. I realise a lot of that is because of your trade contacts and experience, but I also know that you and your wife are insanely hardworking people, so kudos to you. Do you have one or two pieces of advice to people who've started (or are considering) a selfbuild and would like to keep costs under control, especially for those of us without trade contacts and experience? I can't remember whether it was you, but I remember one person saying that when they found someone whose work really impressed them, they asked them for recommendations for other trades.