mjc55

you definitely need to open it.

So impressed with your progress so far. Lets hope that it continues in the same vein.

So a few months in to our build and I have to agree that self-build is hard work! It's also an amazing experience in which every day brings something new. It's difficult to say whether this is physically the hardest thing we have ever done because I think age plays its part, we are late 60's or so and even though we are both fit people building at this age cant be compared to the house renovations that we have done in our 30's, 40's and 50's. What I can say is that we wouldn't swap it for anything, we have promised ourselves that we would self-build for years and to be actually doing so is an amazing experience. Onwards & Upwards!

I will ask him.

managed to get hold of some 5 core 16mm armoured from Superlec!

Advice from electrician. It will run from meter to the "pod" that we will live in whilst building house. Will be part of 3-phase setup. Pod will have all the usual sockets and lights, cooker, electric shower, water heating of some form and electric UFH.

Don't seem to do 16mm 5 core armoured.

Anyone have a go to supplier for 16mm 5 core armoured cable? Going to need about 50m I think. Thanks

Hi Guys Don't worry about some of the comments that people on here make,you get used to it 😁 It is such a useful forum and generally very very helpful. There are some on here that seem to be very anti-ecobrix, fair enough but hopefully it will suit us. As @JohnMo states above, with a following wind and using the proscribed methods you should be OK. (Hint: if you put an @ before the name it will highlight as above and the person will be informed about the post) We are just about to start using the Ecobrix to build a "Pod" which is a bit of a mini-me of the house so that we can try out various ideas on the Pod before (hopefully) using them on the main house. The Pod has to be a raft foundation due to the proximity of some trees, the main house will be trench fill. A bit knackered now as we laid 14 cube of concrete for the base today. Pod build with Ecobrix to start next week and as Johnmo stated up to 6 courses for each pour should be manageable,any more and potential problems lie ahead!

Welcome! We too are using Ecobrix as our build method, will definitely follow your progress

Brilliant progress again, you must be so pleased at the way things are going.

Its the main house that I am looking at currently - not started the build on that yet.

So at what stage does this become an issue, if at all? I am just looking at detailed plans for main house (we are currently building a Pod that we will live in during house build) and looking back at the Planning drawings I would like to slightly modify some of the external dimensions! Maybe up to 75mm or so to account for cladding. Is this going to be an issue? The overall width is 18.8m. In my time as an AT it was never an issue (as far as I am aware at least) but all my work was in extending existing not new build. Any thoughts welcome

We are building a "Pod" a mini me of the house to test the various build ideas (Ecobricks - flat green roof etc.). Windows for Pod are being delivered early September and hopefully in Pod by Octoberish - depends as want to get main house footings in before the weather changes. There are a number of issues around this VAT submission CIL completion document Address - we have an address but it hasn't been propagated yet but will be required for post etc. Council Tax Water Rates It's a bit of a minefield.

Our water was connected last week, currently all we have is a standpipe. We have a connection into main drain as a spur was put into our site when they put the drains into the village 20 years or so ago and we have connected up to that although there is nothing connected to the drains on site and wont be for a few months. I have had an email about setting up a billing account but I am assuming that a) they won't/can't start billing for drainage yet and b) the water charge doesn't include a standing charge? (this assumption is because I thought I had read this somewhere!) Any advice/experience gratefully received.

Pretty similar I think @flanagaj. It is 2-3 years since I retired but I believe that they charged the same for Building Regs applications. Have a look on your local council BC web pages to see exact costs (which depend on what work you are doing)

Good question. Before I retired I worked for about 12 years as an Architectural Technologist in Wiltshire. All pretty small scale apart from a couple of bigger jobs and never a new-build. Always had a good relationship with the BC department at Wiltshire and had one particular officer that looked at my jobs. Now retired and doing a self-build in Dorset we were definitely going to use council BC. However, one conversation with the BC officer that dealt with our area really switched us off that idea. This was before we even had planning but I just wanted to touch base with them and ask a particular question. Well she was a tad difficult to deal with, did not stop talking for about half an hour and was very vocal in her views as to how things are done (which could be said is NOT their purpose - they are there to inspect not guide). We got a really bad feeling about this person and this was reinforced by other peoples stories of using council BC. So in the end we have gone with Spire, have had one meeting so far with him and seemed to really get on with him and he seemed to understand what we are trying to achieve. So the answer to your question I suppose is - it depends! Maybe try and get some views from others in your area about what they have done. Some would say that private BC tend to "phone it in" rather than visit so much, I don't know whether this is the case or not. Some people seem to be opposed to Council BC others opposed to private BC. YMMV and a bit of research will help a lot here.

Hmm @Gus Potter The Pod is indeed a raft foundation as it is relatively close to some trees. The house (currently) will be strip foundations.

Love to see a really clean and tidy site

Waiting for a quote, but in our situation doesn't seem massively more expensive. Of course this might change when we get the quote including delivery costs!

@Gus Potter How did you find the foam glass? Thinking of using it on our Pod (testbed for main house build). Quick calcs seem to indicate that costs are not too extreme and certainly easier to put in place. Would be interested in your experience of it.

I don't think that you have properly read my post. Its around £2k not £8k

I would actually argue that in least our case, that isn't the situation. We were initially quoted and paid over £8k to Southern Electric for our connection. Basically running down a nearby pole and under a 5 ish m lane into our plot. We did manage to reduce that (or be on a promise to reduce as we paid the £8k in January) when they agreed to share the works with water crossing the lane). However in the last couple of weeks the cost has gone sub £2k as SE have altered the way they cost new connections.

Really cracking on at a pace! Keep up the good work.

Ours is about to cost £5840. Road closure and cross over about 6m into garden. This is in North Dorset. Electric connection was over £8k quoted (and paid for). They are now using same trench as water and is now just under £2k!