jack

The main issue is that the wall it would go on is a very dark grey/green colour, so I'd need to paint anything like this to conceal it. There's also the issue of noise from the TV room escaping into the hall, although admittedly we don't have a home cinema or anything like that.

Not a bad idea, thanks, as long as it can be concealed.

I had considered hiding heat-producing equipment like the games console in a cupboard that had an MVHR extract, but that didn't really work out for the space we had. In any event, it's only the TV and console (which we use a DVD player and streamer) that're on most of the time we're in there, so I'm not sure how much better this would have been. Additional ventilation into that room would likely have helped alittle, as would comfort cooling via the MVHR (something I may well add in future). Even something as simply as a ceiling mounted fan might have been useful - I've considered retrofitting those in the bedrooms, although I'm not sure there's enough head-height for safety upstairs. For us, most likely we'll just get a nice fan to put in a corner for the worst days. I'm constantly telling my kids to keep the door open if they're using this room, but it always ends up closed. Not sure why - they're the ones making all the noise!

There's your problem right there. You should have attached them with a suitable adhesive!

The overheating effect isn't so noticeable in our house, as it's very open plan and has a decent volume with concrete floors. The one place we really feel it is the TV room, which is small and carpeted. We can't sit in there as a family with the door closed for very long in summer.

Jeremy, I don't follow why you're willing to prepare an EICR and/or pay money to upgrade a CU on a house you're selling. If I were a potential buyer who didn't know you, I'd consider this behaviour concerning, as it definitely isn't what civvies do in this scenario. At best it looks like you're desperate to sell, which might encourage a late, lower offer. Offering to prepare your own EICR, in particular, is something I'd counsel against. Again, to someone who doesn't know you, I think this would look highly suspicious, plus I don't think you want to be the one in court arguing about your competent person status in the (admittedly highly unlikely) event something goes wrong. If they want an EICR, why not just tell them that you're happy to give someone access to prepare one? That's what people without your background (ie, most of us) would do. If they're committed to buying and this is just a formality, offer to allow them to upgrade the CU at the same time to reduce costs. To me, that sounds like the behaviour of someone confident that there're no problems with the wiring (and perhaps you can then give them your background and explain to them why you know it'll all pass except for the CU). Just my thoughts - I appreciate that others will have a different view.

[Deleted my reply, as this is just getting silly now.]

You sure?

Repeating (and adding emphasis to) the quote from my edit made before you replied: "Always start the drum rotating before loading. Do not load a concrete mix into a stationary drum. Starting the mixer with a full load would be difficult and would strain the drum shaft." So can you do it? Sure, it's your mixer, do what you like. But the manufacturer says you're not supposed to do it, there are clear risks associated with doing it, and (as explained by @Russell griffiths) you don't have to do it, so... why do it? And will you pay for the repair of another member's mixer when they follow your guidance and something breaks, bends or melts?

To you, perhaps, but this thread will be seen by others in the future who may find that and the remaining 72% of his contribution useful when read in conjunction with your own contributions. Non sequitur. His point isn't that a small generator can't drive a mixer, it's that there shouldn't ever be a need to start a full mixer. That fact has clearly eluded you, since you acknowledge that you do restart a full mixer. The instructions that came with the bell mixer I hired said that you should only ever add materials to a moving mixer, and should avoid restarting the mixer when full. [Edited to add:] Found belle mixer instructions: "Always start the drum rotating before loading. Do not load a concrete mix into a stationary drum. Starting the mixer with a full load would be difficult and would strain the drum shaft."

Yes, but I'd known him for months by that stage, and trusted him completely. We didn't bother with accounts for electrical stuff, as we did a bulk buy for most stuff up front, and it was just bits and pieces after that. It was usually just a matter of him buying an odd thing locally at the last minute.

We had this with our electrician. In the end I just used to give him my credit card to go and buy things in my name!

Welcome to Buildhub! A couple of quick points. I'm also within Waverley council. I haven't been keeping close tabs, but you may be aware that their revised neighbourhood plan was rejected by (I think) the planning inspectorate a couple of times over the last few years. As a result, there was (and may still be) a situation where only national policies applied, which apparently made it harder for Waverley to knock back planning applications. Also, there's a lot of pressure to increase the number of houses being built in Waverley. You may be aware that Dunsfold (the old airfield) was one option for building a large proportion of those houses. I don't know what impact this might have on an application for a new plot in this general area, but again, something worth chatting with a planning consultant about. Finally, I think I read recently that Waverley's planning department was coming under some pressure due to the number of appeals they were fighting and losing. Again, worth trying to find out more, because if it's true, there's likely to be some immediate pressure to be more forthcoming in granting permission. Whatever the situation, it's definitely worth a chat to a local planning consultant. There's a firm just across the road from the planning office at Godalming who a couple of people we know have used with success. You get a free up front chat, which can be very useful.

I don't think there's confusion, but I agree it helps to have the different requirements set out explicitly. In general that may be true, but I'm less convinced about relying on it in areas that are less easy to access. The two areas I've had cause to open in our house (due to the roof leaks and while installing trims for our balcony fibreglass) have both had voids in the cellulose. In one case - and admittedly it's in a really awkward bit of wall - there was a void perhaps 100mm deep, most of the width of the wall, and stretching along nearly half of the width of the window under the cavity closer. Worse, the cavity closer had to be adjusted at short notice when the windows were being installed, so only had a very thin bit of OSB that definitely didn't seal very well to the frame in the area outside the window. Overall, if this region was relying on cellulose for airtightness, it was in trouble! I stuffed the area with some leftover rockwool I had lying around and sealed it up carefully before covering it with the fibreglass trim.

Jeremy, do you have a separate internal membrane in your build-up? I could be wrong, but I thought MBC went through a period of using taped OSB (or perhaps it was VapourBlock or similar) without a membrane. Whatever it was, I believe they found that it wasn't reliably airtight enough, so went back to using a membrane not long before doing our frame. I also read a discussion in (I think) an Irish LinkedIn post about OSB around the same time, where it was concluded that it definitely could not be relied upon for airtightness by itself. I seem to recall that the conclusion was you'd probably be okay, but there were no guarantees.

Plus by the time they've done the mist coat, they'll have loads of experience, and the top coat will look great! As others have said, virtually everyone who goes through this process has at least a couple of pain points where things feel like they're out of control and the problems insurmountable. It's rarely as serious as that with the benefit of hindsight, but it doesn't make the feeling any less real right now. I'd encourage you to speak with your other half ASAP. A large part of your stress seems to be to do with what his reaction might be. Get that reaction, whatever it might be, out of the way, so you can save your energy for addressing the real issue, which is where you've gotten to with the house. If you want help with identifying specific areas where you might save some funds, do post more details. There are plenty of bargain-hunters and serial self-builders who'll be able to point to cheaper ways of doing all sorts of things.

Unless you've been identified for metering, what you were estimated should be what you get, as the MSC installer generates all the paperwork upon which the payments are generated.

We ran two big SWAs from the consumer unit into the garage and have left then coiled there ready for when we get an electric car. Makes sense to have one to a convenient outdoor point too. We really should have run one to near where we usually park our smaller runabout car (which will likely be replaced with an electric fairly soon), but we didn't actually realise when we were building the house that this is where that car would end up getting parked!

I looked into this, as well as large insulated stores within the thermal envelope. Couldn't make the numbers work.

You'd better keep my secrets or there'll be trouble!

Personally, unless you're developing at minimal cost to flog to a mainstream buyer who won't really think too hard about what they're buying, I'd avoid off-the-peg plans. At the very least, what you build needs to take into account where the sun is, and the impact of neighbours, driveway, and landscaping needs. Beyond that, you should be thinking about whether the house suits its surroundings. If you can find a plan that does all that and suits your particular requirements for living, then in theory there's nothing wrong with this approach.

I don't know either. My guess is that gluing is slower than just dropping each board in place and running the nailer along it. I'm not at all surprised that glue gives a better result.

Ah, such an exciting time. I'm pleased to hear you have a solution to the electric cable problem. Can't see his face, but is that Darren in the blue t-shirt?

Just wanted to say welcome, and damn that's a nice looking house!