ChrisInKent

My favourite bit was where they tried to create some drama about a 5mm discrepancy and then sorted it with a quick plane shave!

@thefoxesmaltings beautiful job, well done! Loved the pergola. Where did you find those guys? We’ve been searching for a contemporary pergola but have only found ornate ones. We’re out of the ground, scaffolding going up ready for the timber frame arriving next week… seeing your build on GD has given us a bit of hope that one day we’ll have a lovely home too 😊

Is this for hand washing or for tea? We take two flasks to site each day, once it’s gone it’s gone. The toilet we hired is a hot water one, requires a generator on site which our groundwork team supplied. They can spark it up, yet to see them do it. We put alcohol hand gel in the toilet which does get used - but the water rarely needs topping up beyond the weekly service. We have a 10l canister in the van which we keep topped up. We had to prove to the TF company that we’d hired the hot water toilet. Their team is on site next month so I’ll see then if they use it or not… We got a Site Office sticker and put camping chairs in the shed so when it’s hammering down or they are on a break they can shelter. In reality they sit in their vans when it’s raining and anywhere when it’s lunchtime, even in the bags of sand!

I’m after some advice please. We’re just going up from the ground beam and have one course below the first damp barrier which the beam&block sits on. The gap alongside of the house will get backfilled with our clay soil. The ground worker is suggesting crushed stone up to this first block course and that we should paint it first with Black Jack. There’s a void inside so in theory the block can breathe under the house and the BJack will stop the outside edge getting as wet. Is this a good idea?

Have just paid £2k in the south east for exactly this - the solicitor acts to assure the mortgage company (on their behalf) but the costs fall to the self builder. New searches, registered the mortgage, posted the mortgage deed to us, forwarded them onto the mortgage provider and answered 3 emails. Nice work if you can get it.

Looks fantastic - love the bath!

I think it is - showing it’s affordable will be key.

I don’t know the answer to the planning question. My experience of converting a detached garage to one bed accommodation (with full planning in place) was that once we finished the local council classed it as an annexe they made us pay council tax on it.

My advice is start now. We started the mortgage process back in May and it’s still going on. Build Store gave loads of advice and we did use them as broker in the end. 50% cladding requirement was needed to have more mortgage companies willing to lend, we’ve got 100% metal roof/cladding so only a couple of lenders were happy with that. If you’re not going with an A rated house then Ecology probably won’t be interested. If you’re doing anything unusual you might struggle to find a lender. Get a solicitor lined up early - they’ll need to do land searches, certify the land is owned by you, and the first staged payment may need to be made via them. Ask what the warranty and insurance requirements of the lenders are asap. We needed warranty, £5m public liability and £10m employer liability in place. Make sure you include all these fees in your budget forecast - they add £thousands on Finally work out your own stage release requirements so that you know you’ll have funds at the right time - an advance rather than arrears payment schedule might cost you more.,

Even if you get this glazing through planning approval you should get a quick check done against Part O Building Regs compliance for overheating calculations. We had to revise our plans because the overheating calcs meant we couldn’t reach compliance - and we had way less glazing than on your design. Mitigation might be through cross ventilation (on opposite sides of the room) or external shading or the other- have a look at the link. It doesn't look like either have been designed in your house yet. Once you get the changes agreed you then have to do a material or non material amendment to the LA, it’s a few 100 pounds each time. https://www.futurehomes.org.uk/avoid-overheating

Do the predicted energy requirements for the house look right? It looks like the ventilation loss is skewing them - the kitchen/diner, hallway and landing seem huge to me. Overall per year of the 4-bed house (just over 200sqm) is calculated to be almost 20,000 kWh/Yr.

Sorry probably have been clearer that the green one is the MCS calculation at 7336. The white one below is the SAP at a max 3677.

It's timber frame with 120mm PIR rigid insulation factory fitted and 50mm rigid PIR site-fixed, Glidevale VC reflective foil ultra air tight barrier, Wallboard TEN plasterboard, aiming for 0.11W/m2K. Roof insulation 140mm factory + 40mm site-fixed PIR. Tiple glazed windows 0.8-1.1, solid door 0.7, triple glazed doors 0.85.

If I'm looking at the right area of the SAP the Heat loss calculations for Winter is between 3270 and 3677. The UFH and ASHP supplier have it as 7336 W,

We are new build, just about to break ground. Will have a look at the SAP to see if that helps…

I hope someone can help me make sense of this. Let me know if I'm not providing the right data to make a judgement. We were planning on a 10kW ASHP for a 4 bed 210SQM house over two floors, highly insulated, MVHR, UFH, air tight, triple glazed. I thought this was already oversized but the company has come back recommending a 12kW ASHP. Just two of us living there to start with. The overall MCS calc is 7589W for building heat load but because we have a large open sitting area (landing) on the first floor which they are calculating a 405W shortfall at -3 degrees C they calculate a requirement of 1136W just for this area for the heat pump and suggest upsizing. The landing is shown as '6' on the Heat loss and outputs attachment. Their estimate is the landing (which has a vaulted ceiling) would reach just 13 degrees C at an outside temp of -3 degrees (UFH Output calc is 684 / 63% coverage). This doesn't take account of any heat rising from the hallway down stairs (2117 UFH Output and 174% at -3). They also don't factor in the MVHR at all in the calculations. They acknowledge it would improve the efficiency of the 10kW ASHP but then say if it malfunctions or is out of action then 10kW wouldn't be enough. So my questions are: Is it right to suggest a 12kW pump is needed? Should we be getting them to factor in the MVHR and towel rails? Would we be better off fitting out for towel rails now and an electric rad if needed in future rather than upsizing to a 12kW ASHP? Thanks.

What a stunning house. What amazing work, you must be chuffed!

Thanks @AppleDown Our footprint is 108sqm. How does that compare to yours? We’ve got the loadings so I guess I’ll start calling round.

I’ve read the BH piling blogs and previous chats (which were really helpful). I’m after any SE recommendations and thoughts on timeline. We were working to a timeline of the timber frame going up late September but then we got the soil report back showing ‘high plasticity’ Wealden clay. As we have large Oaks within 8m of the build we will now need piling, a concrete ring beam, a 300mm void and a block and beam floor. We’ve struggled to find an SE who can give us a report before the end of August. Does anyone have any recommendations for SEs in the South East of England who are piling experts? Should we try and get ballpark piling quotes based on a wall plate design and loadings or do we need to wait for the final design? As we need a light rig (difficult access) should we be only looking a helical piles or other sorts? Is it completely unrealistic to think we will be getting foundations in Aug/September? Why did we embark on this crazy journey? (Don’t answer that one!)

Check out the Unika range. Used the spray weekly on our Silestone as a protector and it also got rid of food stains if left for a couple of minutes before wiping. Might work on watermarks. It was expensive but lasted ages.

@DTP1 we looked at Potton and Fleming Homes. We ended up going with FH because we really liked the team when we met them (at build shows and the national centre in Swindon where they ran a timber frame day). We’re new to this and they are guiding us through, the price was competitive to wind/watertight with AluClad Rationell windows and doors, they were really flexible with the design and don’t charge (you can have 3iterations free I think). We lost our first plot (don’t want to remember that horrible day). FH took it in their stride and moved onto the next design once we found a new plot. We’ve been working with them for over a year (because of the plot issues) and they’ve been great. The only payment we’ve made is the deposit for the TF which was paid once we’d finished the design and were happy. Hopefully starting on site in Autumn - so can’t comment on our build yet but we went to see one they’d put up nearby, chatted to the owners, they’d had a great experience, said the FH erection guys were brilliant and their build looked fab.

We used The Home Insurer for land and public liability when we completed (empty barn structure and one acre) - 12 months <£150. Currently getting quotes for the build insurance which is over 10 times the price (£1800 for 12 months was the latest).

The rules have changed on ASHP grants recently, if you’re a self-builder have a look. https://www.gov.uk/apply-boiler-upgrade-scheme/check-if-youre-eligible ‘If you own a self build property Your self build property is eligible if: you or the original owner built it yourself or you paid a builder to build it it’s never been owned by a business or organisation You’ll need to show your installer proof that your property is a self build, for example, a copy of the title deeds.’

That looks great, thanks for adding the pic. For the plant room we’re having MHVC, ASHP outside it, UFH and actually made it bigger than we had it because a builder told us it was too small. I’ll check out the forums to see if there’s one on it- but if you have an idea on ideal size then please share it.