ultramods

Thank you all for the feedback, it has reassured me that the plumber is OK to go with,

Looks great. All the detailing (cladding thresholds etc) look very sharp

@Dave I just wanted to check that the plumber wasn't trying to shirk away from something that the plumber would normally do.

The plumber that is going to be doing all the plumbing work in the house said yesterday that he would fit the wet room former and then the tiler would do all the tanking. Is it normal for the tiler and not the plumber to do the tanking? He is also being slightly difficult in terms of supplying the wet room kit, i'm not sure why. I ad already provided him the architect plans and a spreadsheet of all the sanitryware etc that we have selected. Here is what he said yesterday. I assume you are looking for the bathroom floors to be tiled and flow into the shower area as a wet room? Wedi do a 22mm proforma tray that is sunk into floor onto the joists which are formed out and fitted with plywood to support the tray. This height can be adjusted to suite electric UF heating etc if that is fitted. The tiler then uses the tanking kit to seal all joints and you tile on top of it from there. If that makes sense. Have you had your bathrooms designed and picked your ware, showers etc? Are the layouts to be as per the architects drawing? We would require this kind of info prior to 1st fix so we know what we are working too re setting waste and copper pipe work. We can quote on the wet rooms kits but would be better designed and done by the bathroom designers and supplied with the bathroom ware per room.

Thank you all for the suggestions. Providing the Structural Engineer/ UFH company says it's OK I have decided to go ahead with the UFH in the garage.

Thanks @Ferdinand The only reason I thought radiators might be a better solution is from a cost perspective, the radiators could be turned on 30-60 mins before to bring the room up to a suitable temperature before I use it. Whereas would the UFH need to be on all the time which seams a bit extreme for a room that would be used 1 hour a day max? What do you mean by this?

My new build will have UFH on the ground floor and radiators on the first floor. I have been thinking about putting UFH in the attached garage (36 sqm) as I will be using the garage as a home gym. However i'm not sure if it's a good idea since I would only be using the gym for say 1 hour a day. Should I just go for radiators instead? The garage walls are timber frame and have same insulation levels as the rest of the house. The garage door will be an insulated sectional door. I also thought putting in the UFH now along with the required floor insulation etc would mean the space could be easily converted into habitable space easily at a later date. I would also need to check from a technical perspective that the UFH pipes would withstand the additional load of a car in the garage.

I gained planning permission for a new build in a conservation area at the end of last year. Our first planning application was refused. After that refusal I arranged a meeting with the case officer, conservation officer, me and my architects. The 1 hour meeting was far more productive than possibly months spent with emails flying about. Each of the issues that the planners had we were able to provide alternatives and agree on solutions. If you have only been dealing with the case officer I think you should push to meet the conservation officer as well. I would be very wary pinning your hopes of going to appeal if it's refused simply because it's a conservation area. Having good quality 3d images might also help you out, I was very close to getting this company https://www.facebook.com/touch3dvisualisation/ create some exterior 3d renders, however we managed to get the council on board so that wasn't necessary. In terms of your design I would ignore the mediocre newish (10-30 years old) houses that you have show above. The council may have recently changed their planning policy therefore what has been allowed previously doesn't set a president. Can you upload some photos of the newer builds? I would be focusing on the best of the architecture in the conservation and drawing inspiration from that rather than trying to reason that because your design is better than the worst of the architecture that it should therefore be allowed.

@sjk can you show us the other elevations? Is the case officer the conservation officer? Also have you had a sit down meeting with the case officer? Have you done all the plans yourself or have you engaged an architect? Are there any other new builds that have recently been built in the conservation area?

it's still worth telling us the main points even if they do contradict each other.

can you show us the design and also photos of nearby buildings?

I paid £700 inc VAT for the attached survey last year APP_2017_2596-TREE_SURVEY-7829936.pdf

which make/model of boiling water tap are you going for. £450 sounds quote cheap, do you know anyone that has the same make/model or seen reviews of it? I have used a couple of boiling water taps in holiday houses that have splutter the water out a lot which would be very annoying to live with. Regarding worktops, yes price for worktop then additional price for the templating, cutouts and fitting. Have you seen this company before http://www.sheridan-uk.com/? You can sign in the view all the prices and they also appear to regularly have special offers.

what FIT company will you be using? I will need 2.5Kw fitted. I have had two quotes so far £3850 and £4500.

I would say it's achievable, however a lot will depend on: Type of door finish/style Worktop Appliances Number of Units Type of Units Type of Installation: Dry (don't need to move services e.g. plumbing ) or Wet (need to move services) Who is doing the installation: DIY, Kitchen shop etc See below the costs of the kitchen I am planning. Note that because it's a new build 0% VAT is paid on the units, worktop, tap and sink. I was quoted £1500 for a dry fit by the kitchen company. I am still to push for a discount on the units. I have also had a similar quote for Pronorm.

Thanks. I thought the mechanism looked very similar.

Thanks @Dudda I think a frame might be the best way to go. Are you going to make the whole door as one piece and than mount the whole thing or are you doing it in sections? The mechanism I was looking at is: https://www.coburn.co.uk/product/straightaway-180/ What sort of ply would you recommend if I am painting it white? Also how are you fixing the ply to the frame?

The house has a large internal flush white sliding door 3200mm wide by 2400mm - 2700mm high. I have been quoted £4k for one to be supplied and fitted, so I have decided to make it myself. I have found a top hung mechanism that requires the door to be between 35-55 mm thick. Can anyone give some advice please on how I should construct the door? I was thinking about 2 or 3 35mm thick birch plywood sheets vertically jointed in situ, however I am struggling to find a company that sells plywood over 35mm thick The two other options I have thought of are: 1: Make a 35mm thick timber frame and then clad it with thinner plywood 2: Glue two sheets of 18mm plywood together, however i'm not sure easy it is to effectively glue sheets together, especially when then top hung mechanism will screw into the centre of where the sheets meet.

@epsilonGreedy Are you using any materials that need to be shipped from China for example, as these can have long lead times? The granite blocks for my build have a 12 week lead time from China.

Are you sure Scottish Building Society only lend LTV of 60%? I haven't spoken to them however had done some research and saw this https://www.scottishbs.co.uk/images/stories/Mortgages/SelfBuildMortgageLeaflet.0815.pdf I have just arranged an accelerator mortgage with Furness Building Society in Scotland, might be worth a look. However you would have to go through a broker. If you don't want to deal with Buildstore I think you can use a local broker who would then possibly have to go through Buildstore if they can't access the Building Society directly. Buildstore need to provide the local broker services within certain time scales, so it might be a more efficient way of doing it.

@recoveringacademic once we get the building warrant we wont need anything else from him. And once we are into the build if we experience similar from any of the trades I will be getting rid of them immediately.

We have thought about withholding payment a few times now, however we know that with the architects personality he would probably deliberately drag things out even longer.

Sorry I don't know what the colour is, it's an off/grey white. I really liked it especially against the dark woodwork and slate roof. Also sorry for poor image quality, I took it during a "drive by".

@newhome none of the issues will lead to changes to the design, just delays the building warrant being issued.

He won't be charging to fix the issues. However I am left thinking that right now we could have had an approved building warrant if he hand't been so lazy when submitting it.