mjc55

We are building single storey!

But would you want all rooms to be at the same temperature? I am just thinking about UFH and looking at different zones (very early in the process so open to anything). So would you want a bedroom to be the same temperature as a large kitchen/diner/lounge area or the same as a TV room? This is where I don't quite understand how it would work! I suppose our natural flow (us not the UFH!) would be from bedroom to kitchen/diner area to diner/lounge area during the day (with occasional trips to the loo). Back to the kitchen/diner area later, on to the TV room late on and finally back to the bedroom. There would be two spare bedrooms - although one would be for office/sewing etc functionality. We would probably want to keep the utility room a bit cooler (food etc.) So how would this work as a single zone? Obviously in a house that is near to passive as we can get it, it could be said that the UFH would hardly be needed. And we are also planning for a wood burning stove in the lounge area. One other thing to factor in is that we are fresh air fiends - we ALWAYS sleep with a window open (I do accept that this practice could possibly change in the new house) and we plan to have a lot of glass at the back (West) of the house and would, in all likelihood have this open in the afternoon. So, would the one-zone solution work given that?

generally 10mm smaller than opening = in both the x & y planes. That way should the opening be not quite square there should be sufficient leeway to fit the window in with packing where necessary.

Had a chat with a quarry on Portland today. Price currently around £60 per metre for 600 x 600 and £80 for 800 x 800. Thickness does increase for the larger size so he said around 40kg for the larger. Obviously a lot more expensive than the "Egyptian" variant but still is worth considering, if only for eco reasons.

OMG, really. I suppose that if people are that gullible but in reality it is about time that volume builders were bought to task over their claims.

I have been considering whether to go for a building notice application rather than full plans and thought I would take a straw poll on here. So how many of you didn't bother with a full plans application and how many a building notice? Who went for one and wished they had gone for the other?

Apparently most Portland limestone does come from Egypt! Supplies from Dorset is fairly limited (and regulated) and therefore very expensive. We are hoping of sourcing as much as possible from as close as possible for our build but early lesson learned here!

We are thinking of using Dorset Limestone throughout in the new build. Would like to use large sizes but at the moment it seems 600 x 400 is the max we can see online. Does anyone have any idea if we can get any bigger. Ideally located in Dorset. As an aside we just phoned a tile suppliers found on google to see if they could get bigger. You can imagine our surprise when we were told that their Dorset Limestone comes from Egypt! 🙄

when you talk about "local quarry", what exactly do you mean. Is this separate to suppliers of concrete? Sorry if that is a daft question, I was assuming that "ready mixed concrete supplier" was the best to search for!

Just looking at some more detailed pricing now we have plans in. Just been quoted £116 + VAT for 33 cube of concrete for foundations, I was wondering how this stands up against what others have been quoted. Thanks

How was the posi-joist sizing in relation to green roof loading? We got a quote for posi-joist some time ago but at that stage we were not specific on roof construction.

Just came across this thread and found it interesting. For the record, I retrained as an Architectural Technologist from 2009 to 2012 at UWE having spent a long time in IT. I had always had an interest in Architecture (having wanted to be an Architect from a young age only to be dissuaded by the careers teacher in the 70's) and we had always worked to varying degrees on our own houses. I stopped working in IT in 2005 and spent the next 4 years renovating a couple of houses (until the recession hit). When I say renovating I did nearly all the work, only the dark art of plastering and large scale brickwork was left to someone else. It was at that point I decided to scratch the itch that had been with me since I was about 8 and went back to Uni to study AT. I really enjoyed the course, and being in my 50's meant that I didn't have the callowness of youth and was happy to take full part in my course. I then spent 10 years or so working as an AT, working on relatively small scale extensions in our locality in Wiltshire. I had been self employed in most of my IT years and so the thought of going to work for someone else didn't appeal. So to the question in hand! I am of the view that you just cannot generalise in this arena. Titles play a part, education is not the same for AT as for Architectural courses, and as in any profession there are good and bad. What I would say is that my experience at UWE taught me that once the basics were taught in the first year (where the AT and Architectural degree students were taught together) that the courses diverged somewhat. There was a degree of pragmatism and practicality that was taught to us as AT students that gradually began to fall away in the Architecture courses, to the point that when looking at the Part II and III degree shows at the end of the course I was actually angry at what I saw. I suppose that there is no right or wrong in this discussion, its buyer beware in reality. Take your time in assessing the professional that you are going to use, look for and ask for examples of their work. The actual relationship with the designer is very important and like someone further up the thread said, one of the first things I said to anyone that took me on is that we wont necessarily agree on designs, it is an iterative process and as much as anything else I was there to guide people through the minefield of design to reach something that was as close to their desires as possible but was also possible both from a financial and technical standpoint. Some would come with plenty of ideas and others had no idea and simply left it up to me. One other thing to add is regarding titles! I spent so much time trying to disabuse clients that I was an architect, I was always very upfront about what I was qualified to do. On a scale of importance titles rank low, and as long as someone is not trying to pull the wool over their eyes with regard their qualifications then I think is low down the priority list of things to look for.

Yes, got those 👍

Thanks for that, I will probably work the numbers out anyway, I enjoy that sort of thing (I know!) There is the weight issue to consider, my oily rag wife wants to help as much as possible and lighter blocks to move around might be a consideration. As regards air-tightness, I haven't really thought much about that yet, I had very briefly considered external to the block (or insulation if I went that way) but as we are going with cladding puncturing that layer with fixings could be an issue! I will be looking at this in more detail soon.

Just in planning but am thinking of construction details. We are planning to use Ecobrix to construct the house and I have been thinking through the options. I haven't worked out u-values yet but will do that. I have attached a drawing of the two options, one using the 365mm width blocks, one the 300mm. The narrower has two advantages in that a) lighter, so easier to handle b) thicker contiguous insulation to outside Externally we will be going for timber clad on 3 sides, render on the other. I haven't worked out cost differences so that might have an impact but in the meantime would welcome thoughts. Please don't use this thread to discuss the merits or otherwise of Ecobrix, I know there are varying opinions, this isn't the place for that.

I meant to update the thread. The quote came back and was around £600 more than the single phase quote (£7.7k as opposed to £7.1k). Of that about £200 or so was to with 1/3 phase and the rest just look like general cost increases since last December.

Absolutely agree. Of course there is merit in the design principle, but in my mind the technical design is a completely different and more onerous task.

It's funny isn't it. I suspect architects tend to fall into one of two distinct groups, those that are not particularly interested in cost and those that are. When I did my AT degree at UWE we spent the first year with the Architecture undergrads, we were basically doing the same modules. After that we were split up and I think that it was noticeable that the thrust of their course was in a different direction. This was much more noticeable in the Part II and III Architecture courses which, it seemed to me, were much more removed from the practical. I did tend to refer to them as ARTitects I have to admit. This, of course, does not mean that they did not know what they were doing, more that the general direction of travel was away from the practical towards the artistic. Now of course I am not try to say that all architects are like this, however I think that one has to be careful when choosing the professional that is in essence in control of the whole design process.

If you are hoping for neighbours not to see what is happening I suspect that you are wrong! It would be obvious that some major work is going on. Have you taken any professional advice on what you are planning, that is a lot of structural work that you are asking about, it would be folly without at least structural input.

Hmm. Are you saying that from experience? Not sure I agree. However I would probably struggle to justify me saying that so it's difficult isn't it.

So I have some experience of this, albeit as an Architectural Technologist. I only worked on extensions never on new build, and mostly relatively small scale stuff. I retrained, having worked in IT for many years and so I didn't finish my degree until 2012, but having worked for myself anyway in my IT years, and having the confidence that comes with age I immediately set up on my own. What I found was that it was very difficult to price for work at anywhere near that which more experienced architectural practices did. As I got more experienced I did up my prices but once I got past a certain (relatively low) price I just did not get the work. I do think that t he prices charged by a lot of Architects are not based on their cost/profit basis, and I certainly think that percentage of build cost pricing is just not justifiable. There may be a tenuous link between the two but at best it is just that. The amount of work in designing etc. a build that will cost 200k and 400k (e.g.) will not be vastly different, so in that case I just don't see the justification for what would be essentially a doubling in price. I certainly do agree with @Dave Jones above that the costs for the design and planning stages can be vastly inflated, there is much more work in the technical aspects of a build IMHO. At the end of the day I guess that peoples expectations do come into it somewhat, if you are expecting to pay many thousands then the quotes received will not come as a surprise, and of course not all architects are alike, there are better and worse as in all businesses. I suppose I can count myself lucky that these costs will not be part of our own self build process.

This is what I had assumed. (pedantic note - sorry) It wasn't me you were responding to it was JohnMo!

Thanks for that. Makes complete sense. As an aside, Is it still a requirement to have meter in an external cabinet? They wont be coming to take a reading and it makes more sense to install the meter in the plant room!

But isn't more to do with how much you can draw at one time, especially given that electric car charging is coming more and more into the equation? And why are some suppliers only offering 3 phase? Note that I am not disagreeing with you just wanting to further my knowledge in an area that I am lacking in by the way.

I'm not sure I understand your reasoning here. You can control the use of electricity in your house by various means, most obviously in heating costs etc. A passive house by definition would require less input. Why would having a 3-phase supply change what you actually use? Surely input is down to requirement not the availability of supply? Am I missing something?