G and J

An old software development maxim might apply here: “The first 90% of the budget pays for 90% of the project. The second 90% of the budget pays for the rest.” 😕

Crumbs I am learning tons on this site. So, @JohnMo, i think this is the arrangement you have: And I’m assuming you don’t have condensation on your door cill , which is where i want to be (hence the interrogation - sorry!). We will have facing bricks instead of the outer of the two thermalite blocks. Does this mean I’ll need to do something else to prevent condensation?

If I thought I could get a builder to do our whole project for £2k/m2 to completion I’d be tempted to make myself redundant and save me some stress. I agree with @Alan Ambrose, it would help to be much more specific.

Hmmmm. I’m hoping to get initial costings from an MCS plumber chap soon. We shall see.

Good grief. Thank goodness we aren’t in a conservation area. I’ve removed many laurel stems well over 3” in diameter and many over 12’ high. Laurel is generally thought of as disposable I believe, as it is such a thug, but better to be squeaky clean methinks.

Dangerous thing, logic. As is assuming that regulations are sensible. I think you’ll find each stove in each room is viewed individually. As you have said stove already why not hitch it up and see? You can leave the air supply pipe open at the back. My guess is that you are likely to discover that it works just fine. Mid century house with trickle vents I would guess won’t be that airtight. Alternatively, as a precursor to trying it you could test the draft on your flue. Shut everything, everywhere, including all other flues/chimneys, ideally on a cold and windless day, and see what a smoke match does in the fireplace below the open flue. The warmth of your house should generate a gentle draft (hence cold and windless) which mimics least draft conditions. Betcha the smoke slips straight up that flue. However…. having two flues connected does give the opportunity for a strong draft in one sucking smoke down the other (as I’ve experienced). If you’ve bought fires that shut off the airflow well then it should be ok using one then shutting the other off. I wouldn’t, however assume without investigation that you can use both at once. What stage are you at re flue liners?

Big time. We are committed to be good to the planet as best we perceive it with modicum of balance. But add £7.5k to our current budget and that would hurt. And whether or not that is the reality that is how I think it's perceived.

Please can they only stop after I’ve had my ASHP grant. Pretty please.

Ta. if I understand your wall build up you don’t have a cavity. So I guess the sub DPC wall is simply thinner across the doorways. What happens with a cavity wall? In some ways I don’t think it should be any different, but I don’t trust my intuition here.

So to check my understanding, is this what you are describing?

May I suggest you assume that they are reasonable, and also allow for the fact that day in day out they are used to dealing with unfriendly, p’d off developers who are intent on getting one over on them. If you read the posts on here you will conclude that East Suffolk planners are all anti-christs. Our experience is that they’ve been lovely, and very balanced in their views, which we in turn have respected. This stuff is often far more adversarial than it really need be. It may not work, but it would be good if it did.

Of course after the event one thinks of the things one should have put. To make self building easier: allow suppliers to zero rate vat for supplies, not just when it’s supply and fit. That would help our cash flow a lot and I suspect we aren’t the only ones.

Oh put a pic up now, why be bashful. lol And why hang about posting given that you are aware that you’ve got asbestos to deal with, get a surveyor in. Our survey only cost £350 and we had results from the testing in a week.

Done. @CemCet Once completed, it would be nice if you share your report/thesis/thingy with us.

And you get to check your welfare suite (aka downstairs loo) every day too. Lovely. :-<

We are about to start demolishing a bungalow and building a house, but not next door. Some things we’ve discovered so far that I wish I’d known earlier: Party wall agreements can be a real pain. Not so much in the cost of them, though that’s stupid in its own right, but more in the pain it them causes with site insurance. Sigh. Gas disconnection is circa £2k, and unlike gas connection is not subsided. Senseless. Bigger sigh. Having the lecky disconnected and reconnected for us means going underground, which for us meant going under the road. Should have allowed 12weeks to get this booked in, and it also cost best part of £10k. Huge sigh. An asbestos survey (called something less sinister but that’s what it is) is required before demolition, ours was done by a guy from our local demolition co. Why not get it done pre exchange if you can. We were lucky in that nothing dangerous detected, but one never knows. Grin. Demolition is stupidly cheap for what it is, but it’s wasteful. We are planning to do some of it ourselves to save money but just as importantly to reclaim materials that would be landfill with a demolition contractor. The roof timbers, as the best example, are long lengths of 4” by 2” and the wood quality is better than you can now buy. I can’t use it in the main build, I have to use inferior stuff with paperwork, but I can use it elsewhere. Chuckle. I would never have believed what peeps snap up when it’s free on gumtree or Facebook marketplace. The kitchen with cooker and hood went to a good home, they even dismantled it with me. We’ve a stand alone concrete sectional garage that’s been claimed and is awaiting collection. I’m told the plastic windows and doors will be snapped up too. And we are sort of selling the clay French pan tiles too. All good re-use and less landfill. Big grin. Being within a metre of a boundary imposes lots of fire related regulations on the design and the build sequencing. It won’t cost us silly money but there is a cost and it needs factoring in, and the earlier you start the better we have found. Small sigh. None of this may be relevant to you, but I thought I’d share in case.

What goes on top of that PIR upstand just inside the door?

Don't tell the architect that 😉

Buy the house. Then you get it for free. 😉

Ah I see. Ta for getting back to me. We’re using a 140mm stud frame.

Just had a quick Google on the Veismann Vitocal 151a. Is it effectively a dual heat pump system?

Ah, as we are. What material did you put on as the outer leaf? We are having masonry downstairs and timber clad upstairs and I’m struggling to work out exactly where to place the windows with respect to the frame.

Is your house timber framed?

I’m assuming this discussion is referring to gap covering type tape. When I visited @Nick Laslett he showed me the expanding foam tape he had used. Is that not an option? I think it goes between window frame and whatever the fabric of the house is, thus no tape showing issues.

Nudging us towards homes that help the planet a bit is no bad thing really. In some ways it’s no different from the increase in minimum insulation levels. In your shoes I’d build ‘em in, and be ready to put in for a variation of conditions after the event if needed.