patp

Thank you for the personal experience side of things @JSHarris We, too, had heard that GSHP's were noisy. The engineer we spoke to recommended them being installed in the house too. Said something about them being easier to service ??? We had thought that we would put it in an outbuilding because of the noise. I think we may well go down the ASHP route now. Any recommendations?

Thanks for the reply. We asked the Finn Geotherm chap which was "best" and it was his recommendation that sent us off down the route of GSHP. Also we had heard bad reports of ASHP from our friends who moved into a house with one fitted. Firstly, the house was cold and secondly they had all sorts of electrical problems with it. As it turns out they were using it like an oil fired system and turning it off when "not needed" and the whole electrics of the house were crap so probably not the fault of the pump?? Once heard, though, an experience like that is hard to forget

We live near the Finn Geotherm base in Norfolk. I managed to collar a worker and asked him for advice on heat pumps. Unsurprisingly, I now know, he recommended Lampoassa (they are the sole suppliers I believe). Has anyone fitted one of these? I did a quick search and found a site where there were lots of complaints about faults in the boiler and about Finn Geotherm's response to the those complaints. Any recommendations of any other GSHP's?

Thanks so much for all the above replies. BCO has been and has advised a 1.6m foundation trench along the side nearest to the site of the now removed trees. He has also said that we may need to use clayboard. Most interestingly he has said that he would, if he were building a house, always use a beam and block floor. As the foundations have not been dug out yet he is not saying that is what we have to do but nevertheless I am keen to listen to his expert advice. What do others think? Is there a big cost difference? Will we need someone expert in the field of do groundworkers generally know about them?

There is no shortage of trees in the vicinity. Just across the track to us is a copse of mature mixed trees including Oak, Ash, Sycamore etc. There is a mature hedge bordering the Western boundary and a lovely Silver Birch a short distance from the Eastern boundary. Once I heard that Sycamores were shallow rooted I had to deal with them. Imagine every time there was a "strong wind warning" I would be in fear of one of them toppling onto the bungalow. BCO has mentioned Clay Board and Block and Beam in our chats but will see what he thinks when he comes.

It is chalky clay. The BCO has not seen the plot as we have owned it for over 30 years and knew its history (farmland). Sycamores are shallow rooted and take up a medium amount of water. Hawthorn are very, very deep rooted! As soon as I heard that Sycamores are shallow rooted I went into panic mode about them falling on the bungalow.

Well, we have had the earth scraped off the site prior to digging the actual footings. It has given us the idea of the size and shape of the building. Next came the bother over the trees. There are some Sycamore trees on the site's Southern boundary and a hawthorn hedge. Now most people know that you have to be careful with trees close to houses but do you know why? It is not, as I thought, that the roots would creep under the house and cause problems. it is because they suck up moisture and, therefore, dry out the land underneath the foundations which can cause cracking and subsidence. Some trees are worse than others. We all know about Willows. The Sycamores are close enough to cause such problems. They also cast a lot of shade and will shed a lot of leaves. Also, they are shallow rooted and so could, in high winds, fall on the house. We decided to enlist Farmer Mark next door to remove them. If you have ever tried to dig up a hawthorn then you will know what a job we had. An ordinary JCB was not man enough! He had to bring his 12 ton massive beast. It was a shame but, we thought, necessary for all the reasons given above. I was in constant email contact with the Building Control Officer about the coming works and the tree problem. He was advising that we dig deeper where the trees were and pour more concrete into the footings. Over the weekend we decided, for all the above reasons, to dig them all out (about five massive Sycamores and four hawthorns) but could not notify him of our decision until the deed was done. He now informs us that removing large trees and hedges can cause the land to become suddenly wetter which brings different kinds of problems! He has scheduled a site visit for tomorrow to discuss our options. I still think we made the right decision but I might change my mind tomorrow when he delivers his verdict. Eeeek!

Glad I am sourcing locally where possible. Oops! Apart from the German Bricks that is. But they were already here. Then there are the German roof tiles - again should already be here.

Has anyone had a kitchen made by a carpenter? We are buying our oak windows from a, very, local company. Run by two guys who are so passionate about their work it is scary Amazing quality and attention to detail at a competitive price. One used to be a kitchen designer/fitter, the other was into bigger stuff. When quoting for our windows they mentioned that if they acquired more of the work on the house, such as oak framed porch, cart lodge garages etc then they could offer a good discount. Our last kitchen was Howdens, fitted by a good carpenter, and we were very satisfied (apart from our choice of wooden worktop which is already water marked ). One of these guys showed me some amazing bespoke kitchens they had done but not sure how much they cost - eeek! I suppose the only way to find out is to let them quote. Just hope that once I see what they can do (as with the windows) I don't get hooked!

We are hoping to finance the build of the shell ourselves. We then have the option of selling our house, moving into a caravan, and finishing the build with the equity we acquire from the house sale. We own the plot and it has planning permission. I would prefer not to move into the caravan if at all possible. Would we get a mortgage in the above situation? We are both retired and on very modest pensions but debt free. I am thinking that they could use the existing house as security on the loan. We could speed on with the build, sell the house, and pay back the mortgage fairly promptly.

We are planning an underground heat source pump system. Where do people site their boilers. We have heard that they can be noisy. We did away with the integral garage in favour of a large utility room. The utility room is a fair distance from all living areas. There will be a workshop as part of a triple bay garage a short distance from the house. Would the noise be invasive when using the utility room? I am quite noise sensitive. Would there be heat coming from the boiler in the summer? The dog may sleep in there.

Plumber husband, who worked on the sewage side of Anglian Water for 25 years, searching out many a rodding access, says this - You may have to have a "sealed manhole" within the house. The only other alternative is at the base of the soil stack. He would think that this might be acceptable depending on physical access etc.

We are starting to dig the footings on our Bungalow soon (eeeek!) I am sure that I have read that, in order to reclaim the vat on the detached garage it must be built at the same time as the main build. First question - is that correct? The garage we fancy is a 3 bay timber framed cart lodge type 9m x 6m. Will we need planning permission? Will we need Building Regs? Would we get away with putting foundations down at the same time as the foundations are going down for the bungalow i.e. with no planning or building regs in place? This would mean that footings could be dug at the same time as the bungalow and the concrete poured at the same time etc. If we then applied for and got permission to put a timber frame garage on top of that slab would they want us to expose the footings for inspection? Seems daft not to put both foundations in at the same time if possible.

Our planned utility is 5.7 x 2.4 with a wet room included for the purposes of showering of a not so big dog. I read a blog, somewhere, from someone who had a managed to complete a very nice build and they quoted that the large utility room was the best thing about it! Some high spec, new build, bungalows near here have "utility room" in the sale details. I, being nosy, viewed one of them and was gobsmacked to find that the utility "room" quoted was just big enough for a sink with a washer one side and a dryer the other! It was positioned in the hallway with no room to step into the so called utility room so should, really have been called a utility "cupboard".

Following with interest.

Our brickie, who comes highly recommended, is pricing up our job. We gave him the detailed drawings to work from. The architect has specified, on the drawings, that the Durox Supablocs are 3.6Nmm2. Our brickie says that they haven't used that spec for years and always use 7.3Nmm2 now. I have queried with the architect over who is right and his answer is that either is fine but we should only need 3.6mm2 as we are only building a bungalow. Firstly what is the difference? I assume it is density and strength? What do others think? I haven't checked the difference in price by the way.

We have been on a Self Build Course run by Potton who are timber frame manufacture/errect suppliers. Our project is traditional build but we still learned a lot. One of the big things the chap running the course stressed was to take time off to re charge the batteries. His terminology was " at this stage you jet off to Torremolinos ". He had been through a couple of self builds. There were several couples there who had full time jobs and the strain was already showing

It is 12v and used infrequently to prune trees and maintain the house. Quite fancy the idea of a constant supply charger. It has run on a 32 ah 12 v battery but this does not last very long.

It is, at the moment, powered by a battery. As it is used infrequently I have been toying with the idea of using a transformer with either my Honda generator or mains electric if available. What do others think?

Great answers, as usual £9000 + VAT is, of course, the asking price. Not sure if they would take an offer? Then we would have to bargain and, just like above when we come to sell it, we are not very good at that side of things. We nearly always make a loss, or they stay here and rot. We also have the problem that we probably have just enough money to build the shell before we have to sell our current house. Buying a digger might scupper that and force us to sell up in the Autumn/Winter

Farmer's one does come with a negative. While out on hire someone put the wrong fuel in and it has some sort of algae growth in the tank. This means that the filter has to be changed regularly. Not a problem for us as Chris is very mechanically minded. Just another little negative. It is just a few hundred metres away on the farm so that is a positive. Chris hates bothering people so he would rather have his own machine but I think the hire option is the better one. If this one goes wrong then farmer about a quarter mile away has one we can hire too.

Digger looks to be in very good condition. Dry stored. Comes with 5ft 2ft and 1ft bucket on rubber tracks.

We have seen a 3.8 ton tracked mini digger for sale. They want £9000 plus Vat. Is this good value do others think? We are right at the beginning of our project and are doing ground source heating. We have several offers, locally, to hire diggers. Next door farmer friend wants £50 per day. Pros of buying own one is not worrying about other people's property and cost. Cons are resale value - we are not very good at selling and can be a soft touch for a hard bargainer! Pat

You could rent the land out to another local farmer while you wait. It happens all the time around here. Farmers rent land to grow potatoes (water source needed nearby) asparagus growing or pig production, anything really. The advantage is that you need to do nothing except collect the rent. Not sure about the farmer selling your land but around here they like farmland to stay as farmland and if offers are similar (or even if they are not) they will sell to the buyer who is going to farm it.

I assume they are ex VAT. That's how most merchants quote. I will check and then take a look elsewhere if we decide to go with them. Just need to know if they are any good or not?