G and J

One of the things I like about buildhub is that I learn from others mishaps, so I’m grateful to you for sharing as I can easily imagine me doing that. So I’ll sleep soundly in the knowledge that I’ll make other, perhaps worse mistakes. 😕

Noted. Makes perfect sense.

Reduced batten spacing makes perfect sense. As for the latch, we are thinking we’ll get it delivered treated for both fire resistance and this sacrificial coat stuff that helps it age prematurely (much like the self build process does to us all lol). We are of the perhaps naive belief that it will be maintenance free thereafter. No high level painting either, I’ve done enough of that over the last third of a century.

Thank you JohnMo, will read up.

One thing I have been pondering. Lots of peeps appear to include service voids - I’m looking at 25mm and it will have cables only in the main. But no one talks about stuffing insulation in those voids. I think the cable ratings will be fine even allowing for insulation, but is there another reason why it’s not done? Perhaps it’s just not worth it (I can’t work out how to drive ubakus yet but I’ll will!).

Can you imagine how awful it would be to be a planning officer? Bet you get a lot of nastiness thrown at you.

Oh no! Party Wall Agreement! We need these on both sides!

We’re softy Suffolk southerners in a sheltered location, so the general benefits of the enthalpy exchanger sound limited. The only possible factor is that I use a CPAP machine with a humidifier (sleep apnoea). Might just mean I have to turn up the wick on that and fill it up a bit more. Small price to pay for a comfortable, dry house.

Thank you, one of the issues with building is that one has to make many, many decisions that are so hard to reverse later, but MVHR seems like a no brainier. Where I’m less confident is whether we’ll need an enthalpy thingy which can be sorted later. We get used to nicer environments very easily - do you now notice when you go to houses that are more humid?

Oh crumbs good point. Are you thinking flex too much at fixing or otherwise? As I’m fixing the vertical battens to the cement board presumably I could double them up to reduce the span for the horizontal battens. This is the profile we are looking at….

That’s not the look we are going for and it would reduce room sizes by a fair bit too. And it wouldn’t help construction fire risk.

1m from the boundary I believe.

Are those humidity levels comfortable ?

We knew pretty much exactly the layout and 85% of the external design and we then shortlisted two architects from looking at lots of their websites. We then met the chosen two on site and broadly talked through our plans. One was right on our wavelength and was happy to do just the parts we wanted (site survey, planning drawings and application support, then building regs level design and liaison with structural engineers). We got a quote for each bit and then went with it. We figured the relationship and matching values and attitudes were too important to shop around on price. Why not work out what you want then go meeting?

Our understanding from our architect is that we will have to sheath in cement board if we timber frame and have the larch cladding treated. I stupidly assumed that as I received enthusiastic quotes from SIP companies for builds sheathed in osb that SIPs were somehow different. That was dumb of me.

We will be building well within a metre of our boundary and literally just under a meter wall to wall from neighbours house. We’ve been told we will need to use something like cement board for the sheathing if we go stick built, rather than OSB3. I now realise that that will also mean we cannot have PIR outside of the sheathing board - please correct me if I’m wrong. So I think our build up might look something like…. 1. 3mm ish plaster. 2. 12.5mm plasterboard 3. OSB/ply to stiffen, solidify the walls and enable stuff to be hung wherever…. 4. 25mm service void for cables only. 5. Plastic sheet stuff of some kind. 6. 50mm PIR. 7. 140mm timber, completely filled with insulation, unsure what type but maybe rockwool. 8. Cement board 9. Water vapour permeable membrane. 10. Vertical battens (25mm) 11. Horizontal counter battens (25mm). 12. Vertical larch cladding (20mm) All adding up to circa 330mm, which is a bit more than target but on reflection and applying the stuff I’ve picked up from working out what a SIP wall build up would look like I think this maybe a good starting point for analysis. So folks, does the above look sensible? How can I improve it either from a buildability, insulation, cost or any other point of view?

Ouch. I got a couple of quotes for an MVHR system as a result of contacts made at the NEC self build show. I found them rather unsatisfactory. They were happy to give a price but no details, which tells me there’s a big fat margin in there. It’s like the SIP companies, they seem to work on the ‘you don’t need to worry your pretty (or in my case, otherwise) head about all that nasty engineering stuff, just sign here and trust us (wink)’. That’s so not me. So I read up a lot and concluded that designing our own system would boil my head but it would yield better results and would mean different kit from different places, so it would be worth it. Oh and it would save one or two k. I think they trade on the fact that most peeps won’t do hard sums and don’t have time anyway, but if you are ok with the numbers and you’ve the time it would pay off big time. Probably one of the most productive uses of my time in fact. Seeing past all the hype is difficult, it’s a slick and practiced industry, but I think, with the backing of the peeps on here, we can do better. My latest thinking is vent axia unit, part rigid duct then manifold then plastic flexi ducts, then in most rooms https://www.ventilationland.co.uk/en_GB/p/frameless-square-ventilation-valve-ø-125-mm/18709/

So this hepvo can be mounted horizontally or vertically? Can it be used for the kitchen sink too? If so that’s brilliant, could reduce the space taken up with the traps in my cupboards. Or is there a downside I’ve not thought of?

As Transmission Vamp sang : But you know that some things Are best left never said

Hmmmm. West Suffolk peeps. East Suffolk peeps. Me on the border. Who do I choose? Jets or Sharks? 😉

Are you saying that RobboBog has a combi boiler built in? Wow. Maybe it’s worth that many thousands then.

Noted.

We’ve the dreaded folding sliding doors where we are now. They’ve done us proud but they’ve taught us that in a restrictive space sliding doors help. So we are going for patio doors (as I call ‘em, where one pane slides over the other fixed pane to open) as we are trying to get the greatest feeling of space we can out of the limited width of plot that we have.

We’ve not started investigating yet but I foresee a fun time trying to sort the patio doors at the back of our great hall (it isn’t, it’s a combined lounge/diner/kitchen/conservatory type room with a choice of places to sit, but it will do as a name). The hole for them is just under 12’ wide, and the plan is to have two sliding panes and two fixed panes, to give a nearly 6’ wide opening. That means looking through both the fixed and the sliding panels on each side when open. If triple glazed that would mean 6 layers of glass. Will I notice the difference between that and the kryptonite filled double glazed version?

Interesting idea, and had such been available in 2006 would have been perfect for a full refurb we did in a small cottage in Norfolk. Gut feel is that a central ducted system will prove more suitable for us and our preferences.