DannyT

So I have had a little play around with adding the en-suite on to the side where the foundations are for what would of been a bedroom on the approved plans. Not final but does free up space for a bigger shared bathroom, bigger utility, plant room and more cupboard space next to en-suite. En-suite should also be big enough at 3m x 3m to have a bath and shower in. window is just thrown in but could be a loo with a view? All modelled to scale 👍

I go 2100mm off FFL. A little thing I sometimes do is pick the frames up the thickness of the tile, wood floor etc so you can slip it under rather than cut around frames, architrave etc. I also lay wood and tile floors before skirting and again leave a 10mm gap between skirting and concrete for carpets to slip under. Are you using wall starters to tie in to exterior walls or have ties been left out to tie into? If the later your best following block courses best can. I’d also run some 100mm dpc under first course. Off FFL should be 9 block and a brick to box lintel. Upto FFL you could do your course of 100mm marmox and 2 course of brick bedded up slightly to get to FFL.

Nothing at the moment. Just the strip foundations in. I’ll be taking the brickwork up to dpc enough to get 300mm underneath the screed.

Views from south to north. I have window facing south but not straight at the neighbour in cottage across the lane. Main windows facing west and a couple in bedroom north. utility etc is facing east onto the 2 neighbours boundary and protected from the hill behind.

So that’s the thought now. We would have to dig a new foundation down the length but use most of the rest. I have had a meeting on site months ago with the original architect who was present when the current foundations were dug and poured. They are about 800mm wide, bonus as I’m looking at 400mm thick walls. Yellow is what we will use and red would be the new strip to go in. I think I’m going to look at what adding a room on to the left foundation off the bedroom and maybe using that as a plant room and the one off utility as more in house storage.

Current foundations in

Current design that was passed off before we purchased the plot

Just running a design past you on here before we go to the architect. We purchased our plot with concrete in the ground. Initially the plan were to rip it out and have a completely different design and orientation of the house. That has changed. The plot has planning in proprietary so if we keep the existing foundation with a few additions, life will be a lot easier. The aim of this house is to build a highly insulated, mvhr, triple glazed, heat pumped home with solar. This is not a grand design home, it’s not a mansion. I’m not wanting a house 3 x bigger than needed like you see on the tv that you can’t heat. Im a bricklayer/builder by trade and see it all the time. Now the aim is to retire here. Single floor living. 2 beds, no kids. Cheap to run, cheap to maintain be mortgage free and have a fish room for my reef tank set up 😂 Build budget will be £200k. Block and block construction with render 200mm full fill cavity 25mm IWI taped and sealed 35mm service void plaster board skim A full on self build, once the architect has drawn it up and the new design hopefully passes planning and all regs etc, we will part ways and I’ll carry out all the work i legally can and get trades in like sparky etc. house 140m2 garage 40m2 location, mull of Galloway. Nearly everything is slate roof and white walls. My only concern is storage in the house, I have utility, part of plant room and garage. Fish room will be all my fish stuff out the way which is a problem in house in now. Whats your thoughts? Sliding exterior wood shutters to break up the render and keep the sun out the living kitchen if required? sliding doors in kitchen living face west towards field views. Feed back welcome

Take your internal walls up to the underside of joist height. Even if they aren’t load bearing walls I’d still have them so the joists are sitting on them to take some bounce out of the floors. If your joists are not on yet, string a tight line from the outer exterior walls at each end at joist height and run your interior walls in to that height. when you eye through then from one end, all your walls should be same height through out the building. medium dense blocks are fine for internal walls. We use both medium and thermalite, just depends on the developers preference.

At work we make the door openings 930mm to leave the Chippy happy. That’s for a 838mm door. lintels are dropped on at 2100mm above finish floor. Again to give plenty of room on the height. Any gap between lintel and door lining is packed with insulation before been plastered over. 2100mm will also leave the decision of going 2040mm or 1981mm until another day. As mentioned, knock up some dummy frames.

450mm door is a standard sort of size for a double opening wardrobe or cupboard. 900mm of doors plus frame. I doubt you will get a smaller standard door. next one up is a 610mm. I have both. One is boiler room and other is cupboard off kitchen.

What’s going in there? Mine will be about half that for ASHP cylinder and solar batteries, inverters, etc.

Day rate for me is a no! Fixed price only. Agree, sign contract if you have too. everyone knows where they stand. Im a bricklayer on price work. Dropped on here and there day work rate. I only go at one pace and really winds me up when someone I’m working with tells me to slow down because we’re on day rate today!

Encounter this nearly everyday at work. lintel is more than likely right up against back of the block. Chop a slight chamfer at the back of the block where it meets the back/bottom of lintel. Add more compo to the front than the back so it’s not squeezing up behind the block and pushing it out. Place blocks dry across the cavity from front to back to hold the front in place until they go off. With the weight holding them in place you can knock the tops back to the line and leave until set. The thicker the DPC the more you have to chamfer the back of the block. On paper it’s a wonderful thing but using hyload DPC with a tight lintel is a pain.

Thank you all 👍 We will just crack on with it then! Dan

That was kind of the plan. However the current planning has an expired building warrant so theoretically not supposed to start any “building work” until it has been renewed. I see it as more maintenance. But I’m a common sense kind of guy and most planning officers are not!

duplicate

Yes and then to get some stone down in the entrance to park on. It would all be coming back out when building eventually starts. I can just imagine the neighbours at the sight of a mini digger questioning if the correct permissions are in place, despite it having nothing to do with the build. More like maintenance work. I think I’ll just crack on and do it. Just wondered if others would do the same 👍🏻 Thank you

Afternoon. Quick back story first. Purchased a plot with planning permission in perpetuity. Strip foundations are in but warrant has now expired. Looking to redesign with architect and go through the correct application processes. This will be a while off though. In the mean time the gate needs replacing along with 2 posts and I want to put some stone down to drive onto for when I go and maintain the plot. Emailed local planning and they said I should send the correct form and fee to see if I need permission to carry out the work. Surely not? Whats your thoughts? Im thinking of just cracking on as it’s improving the access and securing the site. Some photos below. Thank you Dan

Run some dpm up the back of window reveal and close the cavity off with 50mm pir insulation.

Blocks will be cheaper and quicker to lay. About £40m2 brick labour cost vs £18m2 block cost. On a good day 1 and 1 I’ll lay 300-350 blocks or 600ish bricks. 35m2 block vs 10m2 of bricks. No advantage what so ever using brick over block then applying external insulation.

So I have just finished a conversation with BC in Dumfries. He says it’s been a while since anyone did block and block construction as all timber framed now. I explained my reasons. He says nothing is off the table as long as I can prove a product meets the regs, can show them a BBA certificate that will prove it’s fit for purpose and show condensation calculations. Did say though that he doubts I’ll be able to find anything that won’t allow driving rain through hence why it’s standard for a 50mm air gap. Im just going to look at knaufs info whilst banging my head on a wall!

Thank you for all your replies. Ill take on board suggestions. First on the list is going to be to contact building control for their views on this matter. Secondly I’m going to drop the architect a email thanking him for the initial sit visit. I will then outline my reasons why I’m “adamant” I want full fill and he can come back with his reasons. However “the planning don’t like it around here” won’t cut it for me. This house needs to be done right first time. As far as I’m concerned, what ever is calculated for PIR in a cavity is way exaggerated. As joe90 also said, we also used ecotherm 32 on my uncles self build and that’s exposed to driving rain in Staffordshire with no Negative effects. I’ve been a bricklayer for 23 years, mainly on the mass produced house builder sites and I’m determined to build beyond the “norm” like many on here. I hate working on the poorly insulated and badly designed houses I build. It’s just a bit daunting going from the English regs to Scottish and their way of doing things. Thanks again Dan I have included below the 2 different wall build ups but I’ll start a new thread in correct section for that discussion. Close on paper though but I’ll never be convinced the PIR partial fill will ever be close to those figures in reality. As well as cost and time negatives over full fill.

Thanks for your reply moonshine Im going to send building control a email over next week to see what their thoughts are. With regards to wind penetrating rain, I would have thought a cladded exterior would deal with that as the air gap would be between cladding and outer skin of block. we are classed as severe (3) on the uk map. Just found a interesting article to argue a case though. https://www.labc.co.uk/news/full-fill-masonry-cavity-walls-and-exposure-wind-driven-rain Full fill is definitely something I want to push. I believe a much better wall u value can be achieved for the same cavity thickness. I’d rather sacrifice design over using rigid PIR boards and tape. Thank you

Hello. we have our plot purchased in the mull of Galloway and have just had our first meeting with the architect. Looking at block construction as I’m a bricklayer and that’s where my cost savings will come in. Mentioned to the architect I’d like building clad to allow full fill 200mm knauf eco therm 32 batts in cavity. He is adamant that we have to maintain a 50mm air gap and use rigid boards. Doesn’t matter if rendered or clad. I know as a bricklayer how hard rigid boards are to fit without gaps, even if I was doing it. Anyone have any advice on this with latest regs etc? Can I use eco therm 32 with their BBA certification? Im used of building in England so Scottish way is new to me. Thank you Dan