Bancroft

I'm certain I saw the ad as it appeared in the magazine month after month. But, I will acknowledge that my TB and GB might have got mixed up over time (memory not what it used to be - if you'll pardon the pun).

Back in the mid-eighties, I saw an advert for a 1Tb hard drive for a computer. I remeber thinking two thoughts: Who on earth would need that amount of data on a hard drive, and Who would pay £6000 for a hard drive?

We will have some windows that can be opened, particularly some big sliders to the terrace/outdoor kitchen but the biggest issue might be getting my wife to change her habits and perceptions after living in a 'normal' house all her life.

If you're planning a modern, well-insulated and ventilated house, the likelihood of wanting/needing to open an upper floor window are pretty slim so, personally, I would see this limitation as being of minor importance. I'm actively trying to make more windows fixed closed to stop my wife from randomly opening them and ruining the MVHR efficiency!

I've heard/read of people having issues getting buildings insurance for self builds that are fully clad in timber. Most of the posts I've seen on this site are a few years old and so quite soon after Grenfell when the insurance market was still in flux. We're planning on building a 210sq m single storey house in ICF with a metal seamed roof. At the moment we're planning on 100% timber cladding but I am considering the option of about 40-50% seamed metal cladding on the rear of the building instead for ease of getting insurance. Has anyone got any recent experience of how insurance companies are reacting to buildings totally clad in timber?

And suffer the abuse of everyone telling you you're a Festool Fan Boy! I take a pragmatic approach to tools - generally speaking, the greater the accuracy required and the closer the tool is used to the final/finished product, the more I spend on it. So I have everything from Festool down to Machine Mart Clarke tools.

Car EV batteries are generally said to decay by 1% per year so I would have thought that would be a good figure to start with. Recycling? I asked this question to a friend who is in the EV car world and he said yes. There is a cascade of ways they get re-used (eg they go from car to static storage, then to less important storage facilities etc until finally broken apart for parts) and I imagine that the options for re-use and re-cycling is only going to grow. Costs generally seem to be coming down - at the same time as efficiency is going up. So the chances are in the future you'll probably pay the same cost but have something 2-3 times more efficient.

From my limited experience I think this could be a key area for you to focus on. A few wider thoughts: You will need to be clear about your niche. How are you going to differentiate yourself from a planning consultant or normal architect? Most new self-builders won't know what they don't know. Human nature makes us fell safer doing what we see others have done so they will naturally gravitate to the norm - ie an architectural firm. Perhaps a survey of Buildhub members to find out their experiences of their journey and where they felt they would have benefitted from some independent help. Have you considered working alongside an architectural firm (or firms) as their self build expert? Taking Mike's point from above you might be able to create a symbiotic relationship with a company that works for both of you. In my experience, and reading of other's experiences, architects get very excited about the design stage but interest drops at an alarming rate as the project approaches the point where a spade hits the ground. You could work alongside them in the early stages then take over as the project develops. In practical terms, although you say only 2-3 clients at any one time, will that give you sufficient income and how are you going to be able to service them? The chances are they will be spread across the UK so you will need to factor in travel and time away which will eat into profits/make you more expensive. Regardless of the route you take, running a small business is as much (if not more...) about marketing and sales - especially in the early years until you have built up a reputation. With a business such as the one you propose you will need to maintain that marketing/sales effort because the likelihood is 99% of your clients will not be repeat customers so you will always be searching out new opportunities. (An alliance with an architect(s) as suggested above might help this issue). Apologies if that all sounds a bit negative but I've worked with a lot of embryonic businesses and these are just some of the realities. Despite the negativity/realism I do like your idea and think that if you can crack the niche and find a simple, powerful way to market to your ideal clients this could be a really good business idea.

Water can drain too quickly for the percolation test. We have a clay cap about 3m deep above a bed of chalk. This excludes a normal drainage field so we're looking at a concrete ring soak away. In the clay, water sits there for days. But, once we did down to the chalk, it drains too quickly. The solution being proposed is to dig out the clay down to the chalk and then put a layer of sand at the bottom. This will allow percolation into the chalk but slow it down sufficiently to be within the correct range.

We bought a trendy tumbler composter many years ago (not this model) - complete waste of time and money. The benefit of having an open to the ground Dalek-type composter is it allows worms and bugs to naturally get into the composter and do their stuff. A tumbling type with no connection to the ground does not. So, either you manually introduce worms/bugs or add in some special fluid from the manufacturer (for a small £££ of course...). Just get a Dalek from B&Q and, if you feel it necessary, add some foam around it to help heat it up. Our Dalek has been fed with all our household waste and some of the garden trimmings for nearly 2 years now and has never needed emptying (laziness has stopped me removing the mature stuff to use as compost - if I need that I'll go to the stables next door).

Apologies - missed your post. Solar conduit is just the cable in from solar panels into the house as we're mounting them on the carport roof rather than the house. Broadband is Openreach. I haven't spoken with them yet in detail but, talking to others, it seems that fibre and electric can go in the same trench. Two things to be aware - they still do need to be about 300mm apart and also check that the fibre cable isn't sheathed in anything that is metallic (apparently some are but I can't verify that).

Does it really need a dedicated software package? I think I'd be tempted to take a screenshot of one of your other plans which shows the whole plot, put it into PowerPoint, then add lots of different coloured blobs to denote trees, bushes, flowers, and other elements of the landscape. Put a key on the side of the drawing to show broadly what each area is (eg flowerbed, driveway etc). Then add an accompanying text document explaining what's in the flowerbed etc. similar to the attached document. (I know nothing about plants but a bit of Googling filled in the gaps between 'I want a wildflower garden' and a long list of impressive sounding Latin names...). I strongly suspect there's a lot of 'bullshit baffles brains' when it comes to planners and their Conditions. If something looks like it's been thought through then they're less likely to question it. Plus, to be fair, spending a bit of time on research (as opposed to learning a new software you'll never use again) will be useful and quite enlightening (who knew apple trees had different rootstock types which impact size of tree and harvest size?). Landscape layout details.docx

I presume the pump they supply is their own (ie you can't pick and choose)? If so, does anyone know if theirs is a copy of any of the more popular/common ones - most ASHPs seem to just be re-badged versions of the same thing.

I haven't looked closely at the depth of Surecav so thanks for that heads up. Given the choice, I'd rather go a little OTT and make sure everything stays stuck to the building rather than find it peeling away (or, worse, pulling the ICF foam away from the concrete).

Wouldn't have thought the load would be an issue as we're only looking at 300mm but I was wondering about how deep the battens for the timber cladding above would need to be in order to ensure the flint was inboard of the cladding. Do you mean faux flint? We're looking at real flint as a first choice but I am aware that flint brick slips are available and might be an option.