ARC Guitars

That's good advice - thank you!

North 4m South 2.1m East about 44m West 6.1m We're under the protected areas allowed on the North and South so long as it's just the glazing that counts. It's the North and South elevations that have the steel cladding.

Ha! Fair enough Pocster! I can't compete with that!

Ah that's helpful - thank you. We wondered if the rules change was behind this. On the drawings - the level of detail is pretty high. There are now over a hundred drawings right down to the specifics of all the build ups and junctions so there's no ambiguity about what we're proposing. It's a timber frame from one of the big factory framers with 140mm studs and 9mm OSB sheathing, mineral wool fill and 50mm PIR on the inside. There's a 35mm service cavity then plasterboard and plaster inside. Outside is 50mm cavity then 20mm timber cladding on two elevations, and a 145mm cavity with corrugated box profile steel sheets on the other two. (The cavity's so big on the steel sides because we've got hidden gutters at the top and the framers recommended making the cavity bigger rather than notching out the top corner of their frame.)

I feel like I've finally found my people.

Hi all - first proper post on here so apologies if the answers to this question are out there and I’ve failed to find them!! I’m trying to work out if we should change our building control officer as the one we’ve got hasn't been super helpful. But then I’ve not done a self build before so worry it might be me not understanding what they're allowed to do! Backing up a bit: we’re nearing the end of the detailed design phase of a self-build house, and appointed a registered building control approval firm (one of the fairly big ones) a while ago. They moved us from their original chap (who was quite helpful) to a new guy about 6 months ago, as the original was too busy and they’d changed the areas they cover. The new guy’s completed a plan check for us and there are a couple of areas we need to address, but he says he can't offer any advice on how to address them. Is this right?! I’d always understood that your BCO should be able to advise you on what they want to see / how to comply. An example: the plan check report said “Part B… The following details do not appear to achieve compliance: Alternative exits; Inner rooms.” We went through the regs and concluded it was just our proposed snug that wasn’t compliant, so we asked if that was the case (it was) and if he could offer any advice on achieving compliance, to which he said he wasn’t allowed. (We think we’ve now got a solution to this issue, although we’ve only got a one word answer from him as to whether it now meets the regs so I’m not totally confident!). Similarly, he’s asked for evidence that the external walls meet the required fire resistance (they should as it’s a standard construction), but when I asked for advice on how to demonstrate this, he again said he’s not allowed to help. I’m worried we’re stuck in this cycle where he says something cryptic about a thing not being compliant, then we spend ages working out what he means, then we have to propose loads of solutions until we stumble on one that he’s ok with. Seems pretty inefficient and likely to leave us with some solutions that aren’t the most sensible / cost effective. It’s worth saying he’s also quite slow to respond on emails if he replies at all, and when we rang to chase him, his reply was “I’ll try to squeeze you in” which I find a little annoying since we’re paying for this service!!! So have I misunderstood how much help / advice a BCO can give? Or is it worth us sucking up the cost of switching to another firm before we start the build? Grateful for any advice!!

Hello all - just joining the forum today although we're nearly 8 years into our self-build journey!! We're hopefully starting construction this summer and I'm currently buried in the detailed design work. Lots of questions coming up so hoping to get some advice on here! A quick note on my display name as I'm aware nothing commercial is allowed on here: back before we had kids and were trying to build a house, when I actually had time for hobbies, I used to make guitars for fun. Out of habit I picked my display name as it's one I've used on some other forums. Didn't want anyone to think I'm sneakily trying to sell guitars! No time for that! Anyway, looking forward to chatting. Andy