Bozza

I had this very discussion with my local bathroom showroom/supplier recently as in the new year I’m going to be renovating my parents bathroom for them. they currently have aqua panels and want me to replace them with tiles as part of the renovation. The aqua panels function fine but look bad. undoubtedly they - aquapanels- are easier to clean and easier to live with, however my parents had the whole (small) bathroom done with them and it’s quite overbearing. Kind of a marble / granite effect with silver joining strips every 1200mm. The install was pretty ropey too a bit rouge. My parents, my supplier and I are all in agreement. If you are to use aqua panels they can look good but don’t overdo them eg just use them in a shower cubicle. When you go over 1200mm wide and you need to join them with a strip it doesn’t look good. My supplier advised there is a product that is effectively a waterproof tongue and groove system but they no longer sell them because of problems at the joints, unsurprising water ingress. Both aqua panels and tiles will need a silicone sealant which is subject to mould of course. Plumbers like aqua panels because they’re easier and quicker to install, and they often do that themselves rather than bringing in a tiler. This helps their costs significantly, whether that saving is passed to you is another thing. It certainly wasn’t passed onto my parents they paid a fortune for what they had. Aquapanels can look ok if done well I think if you avoid the hospital shower/caravan look. Tiles can look bad too though if you have a bad tiler of course. When I self built my house, aqua panels were never considered by me personally on understanding tiles would require a bit more maintenance, which they do. Hopefully other members can post pics of successful aqua panel installs.

I think it would. But not in my case as I didn’t put MVHR in

You are 100% spot on @Onoff. Plonking an ASHP on the back of a tiny standard UK mass new build is just not going to work. Some of these mass developer houses are sooo small where are they going to put big rads anyway. They will take up an entire wall in every room. My self build had to get a airtightness test before sign off so I presume that will be required by major builders. Mine failed because is was too airtight & we had to install trickle ventilation which was a nice problem to have TBH.

@GrantMcscottwhat is your daily KW useage for the ASHP and for the rest of your electricity. As a opposed £cost as that is a difficult thing to assess due to varying tariffs and high current tariff v locked in lower tariffs. eg I’m expecting my costs to double next year but purely down to tariff cost not that the system is inefficient. what is the EPC on your house. what is the sqm size of your house. are you happy that your settings are good and you are running the system effectively.

So your house size & your EPC are almost identical to mine. And we’re obviously experiencing same outside temperatures being local. I’ve looked at my overall electricity bills, and ASHP stats to help you make comparisons: overall household electricity usage in July 22 - 11 kw per day. Over past three weeks - 41 kw per day. house occupied pretty much 24/7. in terms of ASHP annual useage etc please see below. Hope this helps.

Welcome. Funnily enough I may have been inside a 206 in AB51 area when considering building with Danwood. Might even have been yours. @JohnMo & @ProDaveasked all the relevant tech questions & are more knowledgeable than I with such issues. Your house has a big open plan living hallway area double height space. Very nice but is that going against you as the heat from your UFH rises up it’s not getting trapped within a standard space or is it that area that you don’t use UFH with. Also if I recall the Danwood windows aren’t 3G or am I mistaken. Is that a factor, also do you get any solar gain. I take it you don’t have window vents due to HR system. Yesterday I had my ASHP serviced and talked through setting etc with my helpful engineer in light of weather. Ultimately the very cold weather will inevitably affect demand on system. In summary though, no to having system running constantly. Danwood houses are well insulated. So there are 3 relevant things. 1. Optimum settings 2. High demand on system due to current weather. 3. High electricity prices. 2 out of 3 are out of your and our control. I’m fairly certain that running your ASHP constantly will not be the solution. Is the ASHP running when you’re not asking for heat etc. are you trying to heat water at same time as central heating. I think it’s most likely a settings thing TBH. Don't forget you need to consider your average annual useage - during the summer it will or should be very low. What’s your annual KW useage on your system.

-10 outside here the other night. House is lovely & warm and plenty of hot water. ASHP working fine. In fact a bit too warm at times so might need to turn down heating a bit. Perhaps the snow is acting as an extra insulator. So glad that when self building made sure budget went into fabric of building, 3G windows, UFH etc as opposed to designer branded appliances, expensive landscaping, furniture etc - the showy things. Perhaps that could be a good self build mantra “think snow, not show”.

Surely using the immersion to heat water uses more KW than the ASHP? And thus more expensive on a non variable rate.? That’s what I’ve always been told. Certainly my installer advised me to use the immersion purely as an emergency back up should the ASHP break? Or am I missing something? in our case having the ASHP heat water for a few hours late morning is not a problem as we retain existing warmth from the heating being on before that , plus solar gain we bet from being south facing? Obviously if using the immersion is cheaper that using ASHP but like I said difficulty in understanding how that could possibly be?

I feel sorry for you. Just one thing to consider. My ASHP system, also Ecodan, where there is demand for both hot water & heating at same time, will default to hot water. Is yours the same? Is your system seeking demand for both hot water and space heat at the same time? My system is set up so the ASHP will generate HW into the tank late morning, on the ASHP timer. The ASHP is on a constant run otherwise, but only actually runs when the space heating thermostat demands it around its own timer being on, If that makes sense. So the only runs when it demands actual heat to the required room temperature. So the HW is only generated at a time when the ASHP is not being used to generate heat for the central heating. Just ruling out your settings are ok and ASHP is not trying to heat water & space heat at same time.

When we did the same as you a few years back we were able to plan the build to use the old dining room area as a temp kitchen. Divided it off with plastic sheeting and temp stud partition. A bit grim as expected. Do you have another room in the house you could use as a temp kitchen, even a bedroom? We were quite surprised at how small a temp kitchen(ette) we were able to cope and function with with TBH. Basically a 6ft table as a worktop with microwave, single hob & kettle, and a f/f. If you must use your garage, I don’t know, but would imagine building control would have requirements. On top of that think about any implications regarding your buildings insurance.

So this would be keeping your existing structure, inserting a beam across the rear to allow you to glaze it with folding doors or whatever to bring in light & feeling of space. The brown bit is decking (or whatever) linking indoor space to useable outside space as you’re in the sunny south . Point being that you might be able to get what you need without an additional extension. This would involve a new kitchen likely, the fridge can go into the units on the right hand side your oven can go there or into the large island. I'm suggesting this not because extending again is not impossible, but will be very expensive and you are likely to end up with an oversized dark space and though creating extra sq m you’re not actually creating extra rooms which would add value to your house. Extending from a corner is always going to be pricey due to structural issues. Space & useable space are quite different things. I think what you’re proposing extension wise would end up a lot of space but could feel a bit disproportionate for the size of the house, would be extremely expensive easily £50k min, dark and possibly too big & Expensive to heat A well designed smaller space using what you’ve got with excellent materials might work. Difficultly is we don’t know your budget, don’t know why you’re doing it etc etc all very relevant to give you best advice possible.

Size isn’t everything…….

Couple of things: 1. Huge mistake not to have far more storage, or vestibule, near front door UNLESS you and your family will be using the back door and front door will only used by visitors and is effectively a decorative entrance. You are making exactly same mistake I did, by not having vestibule and sufficient storage near front door. It will look great on plans & when you move in but unless you have somebody on hallway patrol and very disciplined children, you’ll find stuff piles up in a real living scenario. I’d put more hallway storage from hallway by using some of the cupboard space in the snug. Unless you like the lived in messy look which I suspect you don’t. If you have visitors where will their coats and shoes go ? Please see my attachment photo - this is tidy for us 2. Agree 100% about putting large walk in shower in master en suite, like the main bathroom Especially if you are likely to shower a lot. You have a big en-suite and a corner shower in there would look naff and function even worse. A lovely big walk in shower is one of the decisions I got right in our house. 3. Plant room store. The pumps and internal grubbings of an ASHP system can be quite noisy. Yours is underneath bedroom 3 . Ours is under our master bedroom. If you can’t move the plant room to underneath non bedroom, please put proper designed acoustic insulation in the plant room and ceiling/floor area. I like your design as I’ve previously stated, and I think your trying to build something with similar to us in terms of use, and design “sharp and neat”, but just wanted to let you know your are likely to be making a couple of layout errors that I definitely made - if you decide to progress exactly as is.

I am definitely seeing timber prices reducing from their peak. Cement is up. A landscaping contractor I know was telling me that requests for quotes are reducing from their post lockdown peak. Agree 100% that shopping around can save a small fortune. Also think about auctions, other non obvious suppliers. Eg direct to wood mills, quarries, existing sites, Facebook market place etc etc. And lastly don’t forget cashback credit cards, Quidco, Topcashback etc. It all adds up if you have time not just to rely on easy option of local builders merchants.

Your cash savings are currently devaluing by circa 10% per year (inflation) minus whatever interest rate you are getting after tax. So effectively if you “hold off” for cheaper house prices / plots they need to fall by about 10% to beak even which I think is unlikely. In Jan 2020 I put my house on the market in preparation for my self build being completed later that year. I received an early offer at valuation which was pretty good at the time. I had the choice of accepting that offer or holding off for a better one. I decided not to be greedy and accept the offer as it mitigated any risk to me. Then covid came along and if I had held off I probably wouldn’t have received any offer nor sell the house and be screwed financially. The point of my story being you cannot predict what’s round the corner. The perfect scenario for you of a dramatic price crash on great plots and a massive reduction of the cost of building materials and labour I think is fairly unlikely TBH, especially in the London area. My own area has seen localised price crashes in recent history when the oil price tanked a few years ago. The great houses etc , and plots which are rarer, seemed to still sell ok. It was the crappy houses on estates, and flats that took the worst hit in our price crash.

+1. My invoices and receipts had a few things that were not claimable. I just made a note on the paperwork and in my covering letter and claimed the relevant reduced VAT amount. I picked up a few bits and pieces at middle of Lidl that were VAT claimable, light fittings etc, alongside my spuds etc. I think I got my utility room tap from there, or Aldi or whatever I can’t quite remember. Just crossed out the groceries etc. The way I saw it was the admin officer at HMRC probably interpreted this as being (a) he knows what he can and cannot claim and (b) he’s being honest and not trying it on. my claim went through no bother.

Cheers. Unfinished inside I’m afraid - have spent the summer on landscaping - will post pics once finished possible circa 2026

+1 Rationel aluclad. We were £20k for 24 units, including front & back doors, but no big slider etc. 3G. That was supply only in 2019. Extremely good windows and no quibble warranty claim when paint bubbled on front door. +1 Do a full detailed schedule & send to manufacturers. That in itself will make them think you are getting other quotes. Your build design can save a fortune with windows, eg less windows that are bigger v lots of smaller windows. Fixed glazed panels where you don’t need openers.

sorry if this is a sucking eggs comment but if going for gravel “chuckies” (as they call them where I’m from), get a quote direct from quarries in particular independent ones. I paid £22 per tonne, including VAT & delivery, for a lorry load of loose tipped 20mm granite a couple of months ago . Avoid 1 tonne bags from builders merchants unless you only need a small quantity.

@jimmyharris80can I just advocate a couple of design ideas for you to consider/further feedback. If you were able to compromise on the seating area at top of staircase, you could vault you ceiling there from ground floor. That would be a wow factor. Yes you’d lose your library / seating area but you have a massive study in a big house. We have a seating area at top of our staircase and nobody sits there. Stuff just gets dumped on the chairs eg laundry basket. Also keep your downstairs hallway large, you won’t regret that in a busy family home. Sometimes creating space, as opposed to more rooms, can make a house feel bigger. Make sure you put the best staircase joinery in that you can afford. Re your brickwork. Have attached a pic. You have big gables/lots of wall, that could easy take a bit of contemporary brickwork design. Cheap to do I presume and could add a real top end design feel, if you like it. Don’t go high with protruding bricks though, if you have kids Wire the three downstairs rooms D,F & G for future interchangeability as offices, lounges etc. if you do change uses makes things much easier. Just swap furniture depending on future need. I’ve had a wee look at your original house design you mentioned. Though you changed design for budgetary reasons, personally I think the new design is much, much stronger. I took forward to see how your project progresses.good luck.

Firstly I rarely comment on the style of a house as that is personal choice, but that said I do like what you’ve done. I can see how the design is more efficient budget wise. The house is definitely a bold and honest design. Can’t tell from the pic but looks like you might be looking at contrasting individuals bricks in the brickwork, or protruding brickwork which I think would be a nice considered (low cost) design feature. Looks like steel roof too again that is a nice idea for that type of house. Just a few minor suggestions: 1. As a family home I’d ensure more storage in hallway. Also think about bringing the front door to the right, creating a small vestibule area. I think that area as it is with bottom of stairs and entrance to kitchen will be a pinch point for a busy family home. 2. Master bedroom door needs reversed. 3. Bedroom 2. Door/wardrobe door clash. Easily resolved.

Cheers everyone this all give me the steer I was looking for

@SimonD’s proposed solution is the best. sink, dishwasher etc under big window, hob between both windows then right turn for your oven & FF. mid run high level oven unit is bad. I agree losing the wall units if possible perhaps replace with shelves to keep more open. Found the attached image which is effectively a mirror image of what he’s proposing re high level oven. Not ideal to have FF behind door but you’ll have to compromise. If you were happy with oven below hob, you could have larder unit behind door, then FF. All depends on what you prioritise.

Cheers Nod I’ll give that a go. I thought the hydrated lime was pricey at £17 per 25kg bag but I supposed that will make 150kg on the ratios you suggest.

I am currently building a loose stone granite retaining wall in the garden. I am considering pointing it to gave the effect in the attached pic which is likely to be lime mortar. It doesn’t need to be lime mortar, which is quite expensive, so I am consider dying cement based mortar a lighter colour using white pigment dye. I have zero knowledge or experience of dying cement, or using lime mortar, etc I would appreciate any advise of anyone with relevant knowledge. cheers ! Bozza.