jack

I'm sure there was someone, ages ago, who'd set up an onsite test length where visiting trades could test out their tape measures before relying on them for critical measurements.

That's my starting point for trades of any sort around here. Get any sort of company (as opposed to an individual) involved and it's usually a lot more.

If it's a sealant rather than an adhesive, it may not be intended to provide a mechanical joint.

Have you seen the threads below? One thing that I'm less than happy about with going through the under-slab insulation is the transition from the ASHP feed and return into the ducts under the slab. We used Hep2O barrier pipe in a duct through the slab as described in a couple of the threads below, which meant a right angle HEP2O connection was needed just outside the vertical plane of the wall. Nothing wrong with that, but the elbow is very low relative to the surrounding ground, which made it a little awkward the insulate. Ideally you need to think about how you're going to insulate and protect this area longer term given its position. Other than that, this arrangement works well.

Even with a sealant, you have to be religious about wiping up spills to avoid staining. We have a large permanent mark in our kitchen where my wife took a rubbish bag out of the bin, put it on the floor, then went off and did something else. It wasn't picked up again until the next morning, and by then whatever had leaked out of the bag was well and truly soaked into the concrete. Oh, and stuff tends to break when you drop it onto concrete, but that's an issue with tile as well. It very fast to clean though - a large microfibre broom lets you cover a lot of space quickly. It's also heavenly in the middle of a heatwave when you walk in from a stinky hot day and the concrete sucks the heat out of your feet when you take your shoes off (the kids sometimes lie down on it when they come in). Underfloor cooling helps, and again, you'd get the same effects with tile.

13 June 2013 for me. Correct (my BuildHub signature mentioned that until a few weeks ago). The choice of NotNickClegg as a forum name came about because I'd just been asked a "prove you're a human" question like "who is the leader of the Labour Party" as part of the sign-up process. I assume people thought I was rabidly for or against some political thing or another.

The architect we went with was actually our first choice, but he baulked at being responsible for a passivhaus build. When we went back to him a year later, we'd found MBC. He looked into their construction method and airtightness guarantee, and that was enough to reassure him that he'd be able to give us what wanted, performance-wise. From the very first draft, his designs all took the construction method into account.

Sure, I know what "a" house looks like. Indeed, I know what several look like. I also know what elements I've liked and disliked in the 20+ houses I've lived in over the years. What I didn't know was how to design a house that would fit my family now and in the future, would work with the significant plot restraints that we had, and would feel amazing to live in. I get it, lots of people know what they want and can't see the point of architects. Personally, I'm really sensitive to my surroundings, and wanted to live in something that was a joy to arrive home to. We've accomplished a lot of that, I think, in a way we wouldn't have managed had we come up with something ourselves. The first architect we engaged I really didn't gel with, ideas-wise. She was a Passivhaus specialist, but I eventually got the impression that she wasn't great at residential houses (long story as to how we ended up with her out of the four or five architects we initially interviewed). The second architect couldn't have been more different. He nailed the design brief almost perfectly with his first shot, presenting a layout that hadn't occurred to me in the hundreds of attempts I'd made myself. We ended up building a tweaked version of that design. Incidentally, the external appearance was something the architect had surprisingly little to do with. He had various ideas for pitched roofs and materials, but in the end I came up with my own external treatment that we preferred to anything he'd done. He was cool with that (and why wouldn't he be). In the scheme of things, he wasn't that expensive, added a lot to the project, and reduced our stress levels. I know others have had different experiences, but that's ours.

As another data point, ours came packed in exactly the same way. My wife and I unloaded the truck with one MBC guy and the truck driver within about 15 mins, from memory.

Painting also isn't of any help if you don't want a painted finish!

It was nearly 5 years ago, but I'm certain we paid more for Siberian than was on offer for UK-sourced. That said, I also recall that we went for the higher grade stuff with limited knots (and maybe longer average length boards). Maybe that's where the premium was. Just looked at Russwood's site (that's where we got ours). Siberian is notably more expensive than Scottish: That said, I can't understand why would anyone pay a premium for less dense and less durable English larch when the Siberian stuff is of notably better quality (assuming similar grade)?

We got samples of British and Siberian larch months before we need them and left them outside to see what happened. The British (Scottish, maybe?) one curled up like a leaf. The Siberian one hardly moved. We paid the extra for the Siberian and were glad we did.

Interesting. He rang me a while back (6 months, maybe more) and mentioned a lot of this. I didn't realise it was serious enough to have him wind things up.

I would have gone for this but my wife didn't like it.

Yes, I think that's a major disadvantage with the sleek, pristine modern look. Next house(!) I'll be incorporating a lot of reused materials and going for more of a lived-in vibe.

Just NO, NO, NOOOOOOOOO! Against our better judgement and initial dislike for white surfaces, we were talked into a white Corian worktop for where our sink is. Our main request was easy maintenance for this area, but it's a bloody nightmare. EVERYTHING stains it. You can't leave anything steel (eg, baking tins and trays) on it or it gets rust stains that take a long time scouring with baking soda to remove. Tea will mark it quickly if not wiped off. It isn't heat resistant. We have a couple of scratches beside the sink that have turned brown and can't be scrubbed clean (probably needs a harsher abrasive than we've used to date). In short, white Corian is bloody horrible and one of the worst choices we made in the entire house. It didn't even look very good when it was first installed, in my opinion. In contrast, we were required to sign a waiver for the marble we have on the other surface in the kitchen, acknowledging that marble is a soft, porous material and that we won't hold the kitchen company responsible for it not looking perfect with use. Yes, it's etched and has acquired a bit of a patina over the last four years, but it doesn't seem to stain, and it still looks amazing.

I have a Loxone system running lighting, exterior blinds, heating, alarm, and some temperature sensing and display. I've wired for (but don't yet use) garage door and electric gate control. There might be a couple of things I'm forgetting. I don't have the music system set up. The Loxone branded amp is just a rebadged Dayton (I think it is) and seems a wildly expensive way of doing things. By all accounts there are cheaper ways of integrating sound into the system, although even then I'd only integrate if you wanted to actually do things using the sound system through Loxone. Their proprietary touch switches are good, by all accounts, but a very expensive way of implementing physical controls. We just have retractive switches for lighting and blinds, and that's fine. Like @joth, I'd consider them for areas where you want multiple inputs in a neat format (eg, in the kitchen, where you might want to control lights and music without using the app). If you stick to radial wiring of lighting (in particular), you shouldn't have any problems with moving to another system in the future. You do need to think carefully about dimming - there are many ways of doing this, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Their software is probably the best thing about what they do. It's insanely powerful. Basically, you can take just about anything as an input, do just about anything with it (eg, apply logic and/or maths functions), and then control just about anything with the resultant output. What sort of "last 10 to 20%" were you thinking about @dnb? If you can explain the sorts of things you have in mind I'll let you know whether I think they can be done (bearing in mind I'm not an expert, but I did do all the programming for my system). As @joth says, Loxone is increasingly moving to closed systems. They used to be very self-installer friendly, but I understand that's less and less the case. That said, there are mailing lists and forums with some very helpful people on them. if you have any sort of technical bent at all, you shouldn't have any problems.

Great list. There are a couple of ideas in there that we considered but didn't get around to (eg, warm water outside for car/dog). We wanted a secret room but it didn't really work with our plans. This is one huge benefit of having a home automation system run your lights. I've programmed the lights in the bathrooms, toilet, kids' bedrooms and the garage to turn off automatically after 2 hours (I haven't bothered with presence sensors, but if I had, I could significantly reduce this time). I also have a dedicated switch at the bottom of the stairs that turns off all upstairs lights, and the opposite downstairs. I can't tell you how satisfying it is not have to run around turning off lights. I don't know how much energy we actually save this way, but lights being left on is a pet peeve of mine.

We have a drying cupboard (or will do when I get around to finishing it) in our utility room. It has an MVHR extract above it, and the door will be ventilated at the bottom to allow airflow. It's also beside the plant room. I've left provision for a fan to blow warm air from the plant room into the bottom of the airing cupboard, but to be honest, I doubt I'll bother using it given how effective unheated air is at drying things.

Where does the quote say the money goes? Here's the current version of the 5kW Panasonic ASHP we installed a few years back: https://www.easyheatpumps.com/product/panasonic-h-generation-high-performance-55c-monobloc/?attribute_models=WH-MDC05H3E5 Just over £2000 (and you'd reclaim the VAT back on a new build).

I looked into these when we were planning the house and concluded that they really weren't "fire-like" enough to be of interest. The ones I saw had fairly stable (i.e., boring!) flames.

Without doing any research, I'd assume an open fire might be 10-100 times worse than a woodburner. The combustion process is less controlled/efficient, so you're likely to get more unpleasant combustion products, and a greater proportion of those products will escape into the room compared to a woodburner. Really, just don't do it. If you must have something "flamey", then Opti-myst electric fires are one option (there may be other brands).

Yes, ring shank for us too.

You need to use stainless, whichever you choose. We attached our horizontal larch using stainless nails. I discussed power-nailing with the guys who did it and they thought it wouldn't work due to the hardness of the larch. They pre-drilled every hole and then hand-nailed - a lot of work! For our soffits, I've been using good quality (Spax) stainless screws and they work a treat. I was worried they'd need pre-drilling, but they go straight in with little effort and no splitting. Torx heads help. One nice thing about screws is that if you need access at a later date, it's easy to do. I had to remove a bit of nailed cladding and it was a nightmare. The battens for the horizontal cladding were power-nailed with galvanised nails. For the battens for the soffits, I just used Spax screws (longer than for the cladding) and they've been fine, although not much is being asked of them in terms of loads.

Great post Andy.