Mandana

Wow, that’s a lot of sealing!! We’d not thought about siliconing first. I like siliconing, but not at those great heights!! We’ll definitely need a tower. Thanks for your recommendation. I’ll look it up.

Yes! That’s what I meant! Thanks for the other tape names. The Gawler one is what our architect recommended for our SIPs

Sand and spray top coat? What’s that?!

Hi Dave No, it’s taping the joins where the SIPs walls meet the roof, all the corners and all the joins from SIP to beams. Once that’s done all exterior walls and ceilings will need membrane, then battening and plasterboard/plastering.

Has anyone done this themselves? How hard is it to do? We have double height areas in lots of the house so we will need a tower, but we’re trying to keep costs down by doing what we can ourselves. Also, how did you work out how much you needed? Our architect says we need Gawler tape, 60mm x 25m.

Has anyone done this themselves? How hard is it to do? We have double height areas in lots of the house so we will need a tower, but we’re trying to keep costs down by doing what we can ourselves. Also, how did you work out how much you needed? Our architect says we need Gawler tape, 60mm x 25m.

Thanks for your post. We are considering Amtico for our build. It was laid in our last house in 1990 and still looks amazing to this day.

Hello everyone Coming back to update those of you who were kind enough to give us advice and opinions. The main contractor has dropped the ridiculously high hidden elevations amount in the variances they’ve presented to us. Yay! They said they agreed with our sentiments, and therefore dropped it. There are still 3 other variances we are discussing - one of which we are flatly refusing to agree to as it’s plain wrong (and they know this as it was agreed long before we signed the contract), but the other two we may well have to cough up on. Anyhow, they’re by the by. The hidden elevations has been dropped so it’s a result. Thanks for your comments and for giving us a different pair of eyes on looking at the problem.

Glad to have highlighted something that may help you when it’s your turn. Wish we’d known ourselves!

Our thoughts exactly. We’ll see what the outcome is on Monday when the contractor comes back to us. I’ve not forwarded the email from our architect, but will if things get heated. BTW, no idea where “accountant” came from in my previous post. Should have been architect!

So this morning I emailed our accountant and told him we’ve had a hefty bill for these hidden elevations (and other ‘unforeseen’ stuff). This was his response ... Not all elevations and sections of every in-go, return or change in material would be taken as part of the drawing process, these walls are clearly shown in plan and section and we would expect these to be quantified for by reading all of the drawings in conjunction with one another. The model is issued to the client as a walk round tool to visualise the design in greater detail, this is issued to [construction company] for preparing the drawings but not to [main contractor*] or sub-contractors unless you choose to issue to the contractor as additional information. The soffit areas over the great room and front door can clearly be read from the roof plan and elevation, giving a total length and depth for the area, this is traditionally how drawings have been read and will continue to be read when taking a bill of materials as the model cannot be measured from. These areas have always been part of the design and are not a new element that is now extra. Unfortunately we have not been included in discussions with your contractor or sub-contractors during the quotation process and therefore could not provide comment on the original information provided. Project managing a self-build is very difficult if you are not from the industry, we are here for any advice you need to help you through the process. *our frame builder is the same team but under a different company for the main contractor. We didn’t know the other company even existed until just before we signed the contract. We are not project managing ourselves. We handed the whole external build over as we felt we weren’t knowledgeable enough. Thank god we did, however, by handing it over and paying more, we weren’t expecting issues like this to arise.

No tender drawings. If there’s ever a next time (highy unlikely!) we’ll know to have them, and we’ll know to make sure every inch is accounted for on the drawings. Huge learning curve! Thanks for your help. Appreciate it.

They built the structure from a full set of drawings. They’re building the envelope for us ... groundworks to watertight/roof on, render and cladding complete. So our inexperience and not knowing to even ask the question, and assuming if they were actually building the house they’d know to ask the architect what was where has cost us dearly? Ugh.

Thank you for your candor. Sadly it’s not just a few hundred quid. It’s many thousands, hence looking for advice. Appreciated. Thank you.

Side elevation - garage hides the front door area

That’s not the garage. It’s the link between the garage and the house so the garage hides this area on that particular elevation

They had full drawings from groundworks up and they constructed the house (SIPs). They assumed the returns were render but the architect designed them with cladding. We’re first time builders so didn’t know to even mention this to the builders, or to ask the architect to ensure everyone knew which finish was where in “hidden” areas. These guys have been doing this for years so we clearly wrongly assumed they knew what questions to ask. Considering they work very closely with the architects (they’re next to each other and family work in both businesses) you’d have thought they would ask. Right? Wrong!

The garage hides it from the side

The drawing is face-on and that return wall is hidden. See attached ...

Hi there Has anyone ever come across a “hidden elevation” charge? Basically our house design has areas that cannot be seen looking straight on as the plans are drawn. I’m attaching a view from the model we can see on our computers (BIMx) which our architect did for us to get visuals of the house. If you’re looking at that elevation head on with drawings the return wall (arrowed) cannot be seen. Our contractor is charging us for these areas which have stone cladding. We are saying we had a fixed contract and it’s not our fault he didn’t know they were there, or that there wasn’t a discussion between them and the architect. Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Hi there We don’t have mains drains so we need a water treatment plant, and also a 10,000 litre rainwater tank for the fire brigade should, Heaven forbid we need it, and a 4,500-5,000 for car washing and garden use. We’ve had one quote but wondered where you guys got your rainwater harvesting tanks from, and would you recommend them? Many thanks

Hi all. Has anyone used Griffiths Aircon for their ASHP? How were they for installation and aftercare? Thanks in advance.

Thank you Mike!

Thank you!

Hello there We're new to the forums and about to embark on our first self-build. We were wondering if anyone has an example of an expense spreadsheet they could share that will help us keep our finances in order, and for it to be a good tool at the end for VAT? I've tried to find some online but none seem specific to our needs. Thank you very much in advance. I'm sure this is the first of many, many questions for us inexperienced self-builders!