ultramods

I will be getting my Siberian Larch cladding from Russwood. This will be my first time using them. They appear to have a good reputation. They are supply only.

Thanks for the tips.

Thanks @Nickfromwales, I asked as I have started "studying" ahead of my DIY installation later this month.

I was going to ask the same question regarding the insulated MVHR ducts..... Can I ask how long it took to do all the plasterboarding and how many people were doing it? I ask as we are currently doing first fix.

@AliG It's looking great, I like the combination of traditional and contemporary.

@Pete I can't offer any tiling advice. Just wanted to say that I really like your floor plans.

The plan for my new house was to connect to the mains foul pipe, however Scottish Water Still haven't adopted it, which means I may need to install a septic tank. I asked our ground worker to provide a quote for installing a septic tank. Can you give me feedback on the proposed costs please as the actual cost of a septic tank appears to be fairly cheap and I thought that the installation wouldn't require too much work?

Best thing to do is contact southwest water and they will tell you if they own it or not. For my new build I applied to Scottish Water to connect to the public drain. They advised me that they don't currently own the sewer that I wanted to connect to and that I would need to get permission from the company that does own it. For data protection they couldn't tell me who does won it. Turned out that it was still owned by the house builder that had built a large number of house next to my new build. The are currently in the process of transferring ownership to Scottish water, however they won't let me connect until the transfer is complete . I was told this in May last year and the transfer still isn't complete.

I used light fitting's as just one example. As you are doing most of the work yourself if for example a wall needs moved or altered you can do it for free. Or if you select a fixing that is more expensive to install your additional time is free.

You might not charge more, but you might not know this until you appoint someone. What you could do is before your appoint electrician etc is ask for the cost of adding additional lights etc. My brother is a project manager for one of the energy companies. He works on new substation construction projects and told me before I started to try and include as much detail as possible in tender documents as otherwise from his experience you will pay more for variations. Contractors quite often bid low as they know they will increase their profit from variations.

If you haven't done so already I would decide exactly Kitchen Layout Kitchen appliances Kitchen Style Bathroom Style Bathroom Layout Type of heating Bathroom sanitaryware Interior/Exterior lighting Interior/Exterior Power sockets Utility Connections - find out where they are all physically located. Floor coverings The more details that can be included in the spec that is provided to potential contractors the less variations (which may be more expensive) during the build. As an example I spent a couple of hours with the architect going over what should be included in the building warrant drawings in terms of lighting etc. However I hadn't really thought about it that much. We are about to start first fix., so the wife and I studied the lighting design over the xmas period and decided we need more lighting. As we had already appointed the electrician the additional lighting will be a variation and probably cost us more compared to if we had included the extra lights in the original spec. choosing floor coverings, kitchens, bathrooms etc can take a long time (we still can't decide on flooring), so allow yourself plenty of time to think about these items. Otherwise you may be rushed into making decisions that you will later regret. Also spreading out the decisions over a longer period is less stressful and leaves you with more time to focus on unexpected decisions that might need to be made during the build. Also if you haven't done so already let the forum members see your plans. I didn't do this initially, but then asked a question about a bathroom layout just before we were going to order the timber frame. When seeing my plans forum members made a suggestion regarding the first floor layout. I made the changes, however they changes required updating the architect plans, structural engineering drawings before the timerframe company would manufacture the house - This led to a 3 month delay.

Personally I would not take this risk, what happens if no lenders will lend to you? You will be left with an expensive hole in the ground. If you need money to finish the build and therefore the house will be no use until you have the mortgage then why not just apply for it now? You decide when you draw down the money (based on the type of mortgage, accelerator or arrears) so get mortgage arranged then you could start but don't draw down the money until you need it, therefore you won't start any mortgage repayments. My mortgage is also interest only during the build stage. Securing a mortgage took me 6 months!

What I’m thinking might ‘be the best idea is to move the outside position-joist further back towards the centre of the landing, then place a solid timber joist or plywood at the end. At this stage there shouldn’ttoo much rework required.. thanks for for the advice

The person that is going to be fabricating our cantilevered stair was at the house today measuring up. One measurement I wasn't sure on is the extra depth required for the landing to take into account the side fixing of the glass balustrade The finished stair will look similar to the photo below. I would like the glass (17.5mm laminated) to appear to be frameless so it appears to have no fixings. I think the fixing would be similar to the drawing below. Can anyone tell me please how this fixing should be attached to the landing, can it be fixed directly to the edge/side of the posi-joist or would I need to attach say ply-wood to the edge/side of the posi-joist and then fix the glass rail onto the ply-wood? Obviously fixing directly to the posi-joist would be the preferred option as I would like any extra landing depth to a minimum. This is a detail I forgot about and is needed now as the stair fabricator is working throughout the xmas period.

I am very pleased, other than the timber frame company I have been very impressed with the builder, joiner and plumber.

Liquid screed. I wish it was resin....

A quick photo update, I will do proper blog posts over the next few days...... The ground works were started back in August, however there was a long delay with the timber frame being manufactured (partly due the the first floor layout changes), which meant that the TF kit wasn't delivered until November the 18th. Last week the house was made wind and watertight. This week the ground floor UFH was laid and the screed poured. We are hoping that the steel for the cantilevered stair will be fabricated and installed over the next 2 weeks.

I have an accelerator mortgage from Furness Building Society arranged through Buildstore. Buildstore (Build Loan) have an estimator that estimated the cost of building our house including the cost of each of the following phases: foundations, wind and watertight, first fix, second fix and a final completion stage. Furness building society then appointed a surveyor to visit our plot to be able to provide a value for the finished house. Furness need to be satisfied that the house would be valued the same or greater than the land and build cost (including all professional fees) Next Buildstore created a plan detailing how much money will be released before each stage, e.g. 20k to complete the foundations. They would only provide a maximum of 80% for each stage, however this was fine as we already owned the land which means you get 80% of the land cost at the beginning which really helped up to get going. After each stage is completed our architect completes a report and submits it to Buildstore. A technical audit is then completed by the surveyor that was previously appointed by the building society. Only once the technical audit is approved can we obtain funds for the next phase. During the build we only pay the interest on the mortgage. Once the build is completed the building society will transfer us onto one of their normal mortgage products.

Here is my master bedroom suite. As you mentioned with you and your partner waking up at different times it's worth thinking about sound insulation at the design stage. Even if someone is getting ready in another room the noise of a hairdryer will still travel into the bedroom. I am looking at using 2 x 15mm sound reducing plasterboard on each side of the wall, plus 50mm insulation. There are various posts on the forum where people have mentioned even more effective sound insulation than I have mentioned above. This house isn't going to be our forever house, so I have designed this space to be flexible. For example the master ensuite could become a family bathroom and the dressing room could become a bedroom.

@PeterW i'm not sure exactly, maybe 400mm, you can see them and the of the photo below nearish the digger.

125mm

150mm kingspan then 70mm screed. The drains exist straight out at the nearest visible external wall (next to the shower drain)

the basin and toilet will both be wall hung. I want the bulkhead to be flush with the wall. The shower room layout is similar to the photo below.

worst case I can just move the wall, however would like to explore all the options as the shower room isn't the widest.

I think the drain stacks for the toilet and sink are in the wrong positions. The current positions are where are have circled red in the picture below, however they should be where I have circled. Without having to dig up the concrete would it be possible to move the position slightly using an angled pipe since the insulation, UFH and screed haven't gone down yet? If I would need to ask to builder to move the position by digging up the concrete would this be a big issue for them?