G and J

Pinch of salt needed with respect to your architect’s comments. Our part O analysis was done by the same person who did our as designed SAP. All they needed to know was that there will be MVHR, not the details. We are now building and at some stage info will be needed by our BCO re flow rates, etc. but thats for later. Free quotes are easily available but they don’t give you a design for free. Methinks an interim design could easily be done by yourself if needed, you don’t have to implement it if later you go for a design and supply contract.

I’ll be interested to see how you do a raft foundation with a basement…. 😉

Busy week next week. Besides, I think for me monthly is too frequent. I need more than four weeks to gather catastrophes to have something to talk about. 😉

I wonder if a non return flap (anti rat thingy) put in the blue bit would stop build up.

With all these clever things coming in the market is there still nothing better than a standpipe for W/M or D/W connection?

Isn’t it just like putting a tent up and camping in your garden for a bit? If you get on with your neighbours and you ensure they know it’s not permanent living accommodation and you won’t be moving peeps in there permanently then I suspect you are highly unlikely to have a problem. Start applying for building regs so it could be permanently lived in would be more worrying for the neighbours I’d have thought. Love the idea of it bringing a hands on prototype for the house.

[Stands up as tall as I can] I am Spartacus! Oh hang on, no, let me try that again: I am Principal Everything - meaning designer and contractor. I'll let you know in a year or so if that turns out to be a mistake. Oh, I'm also the site cleaner and general labourer. And goods inwards manager. And logistics coordinator. And… We told our architect that as self builders I was taking on those roles, and simply telling your architect that you are doing it I believe is enough to absolve him of responsibility, and therefore the need to charge. Sometimes ‘professional’ types need gently reminding who the client is, but they are rarely ‘out to get ya’. In some ways the principal designer role seems quite simple: you simply have to know everything and keep the whole 3D design in your mind at all times. Fortunately you don’t have to have everything in your mind at the same time, I now twitch if I'm more than 7 paces from my stack of exercise books (a stack of blank ones from school circa 50 years ago, kept ‘in case’ they came in handy). I should qualify the word ‘everything’. We are having a panelised timber frame kit that I and an experienced joiner will try and assemble. As PD I think it’s paramount that I understand every single junction where that kit touches something that isn’t the timber frame kit, as it’s my responsibility to ensure it all fits and works together. But I can reasonably entrust the innards of that kit to ETE, the timber frame company in question. So it’s do-able. I think PC is a bit different. Early on I read that roles can be handed on but the documentary requirements to ensure nothing is missed appear huge - damn sensible methinks as building it seems is all about junctions, including junctions between peeps in the project itself. So whilst we will be getting subcontractors in, I never relinquish the PC role, I’m always in charge, and it’s always my fault. Simples. 😉

As a financial adviser I came across people who’d planned their financial futures with spreadsheets to several decimal places of accuracy. I think the belief was if there are enough numbers on the display then it must be right and should not be questioned. I think there was a ‘wood for the trees’ type thing going on.

Given that you’ll have a bloody great shed to house the panel saw thingy it’ll leave you with oodles of space to store all these ‘use once’ gadgets, so that makes sense.

Perhaps that’s why insulated rafts are so popular. Pace out a vaguely rectangular area, dump a load of crush on it and lay out the polystyrene tray….

Same, but with sand marking the centre of the trench. Ours did need manual alteration but that’s partly due to how tight our site is and the difficulty of getting the digger in the right place.

I didn’t realise that some spilt units connected hydraulically. I’ve been looking at the Panasonic Aquarea split units and they connect by refrigerant. Every day is a school day.

Goodness Im such a dinosaur. I use a water level, tapes, strings and profiles.

Bi bloc is a unit that sits inside the house. It connects via a refrigerant circuit to the compressor which sits outside. The two units make up the heat pump. (A split unit I think it’s referred to as). Put both units in your garden on the same concrete plinth and you have the equivalent of a monobloc. Split units are good at handling larger distances from the house to the heat pump. But they cost more partly I believe as you need an fgas installer. Are you looking at siting your heat pump a long way away from the house?

Out of interest why did you need a surveyor for ?

Don't think so, as could be interpreted as a fee for "professional" service, but would be interested as to what others think. We paid vat on the surveyors for our party wall agreement and architects fees even though you could "try" to claim they were associated with the construction! They are definitely not claimable.

I think technically they are correct because the pwa is more about the " how " I.e. how deep foundations.....the agreement is not about the " wall" in this case the boundary, but rather how what's happening is going to affect it.

As the one trying to keep track on the VAT....yes to the above so other e.g.s If we had hired a digger, and then someone to drive it we would not have been able to zero rate /claim back VAT on digger, as we hired the digger and driver (supply and "fit") the whole cost could be zero rated. We have had to pay haulage to get the bricks we (I!) want for the plinth, as long as it is invoiced with the bricks, the VAT can be reclaimed Finally, as our frame is not being installed, just supplied, it can't be zero rated (unlike our windows) but we can reclaim the VAT....... "Simples" or in fact not! J

Ours referred to items 4 and 5. However our context was different in that we are replicating the footprint of a previous structure, so we were also able to take actual measurements to the boundaries prior to commencement (we have done this for our own peace of mind).

👍

Interesting thread. We'd like to achieve as above, which kit/supplier did you use. @Nick Laslett busy researching the links you have provided....thank you

Can't open the images, but we had a 1963 sectional garage on our plot. We had to have a demolition survey done anyway (knocking down a bungalow), but that confirmed there was no asbestos, so it was successfully dismantled and "rehomed" via facebook. Although it will cost to have a survey done, even if you are just going to knock it down you need to keep yourselves safe and understand how you are going to dispose of it.

There is a small group of us on here currently undertaking projects in Suffolk, obviously not sure whereabouts you are, or how far along your project is, but welcome to the fray.

Presumably using the tables is tantamount to giving advice. @Benpointer Do you need a demo notice?

Will look that up. Thank you. Essentially that on EPDM upstands, etc. are fixed with glue like a pushbike tyre and properly welded single ply membranes are stronger. They also cited the fact that EPDM often ends up wrinkly. Problem is they don’t do EPDM so one suspects bias. Thank you Nick. Will read.