joe90

But surely that all goes into the Tamar and heads fir Plymouth? 🤣

Yes welcome to THE self building forum, loads of collective knowledge here all fir the asking (and reading).

Well I did my bit, I replaced a badly built timber and asbestos bungalow with a well insulated efficient house but not many can afford that so building regs and on site monitoring must get better.

I have been saying that for years, rather than a £5Kw grant fir a heat pump a £5k grant fir insulation even DIY.

I think location and local weather patterns affect houses more than we realise and very difficult to measure (unless you built a weather station on site fir a year prior to building!). My build is not fully passive and the heating is on fir about 2 or 3 months a year, and then not for long, we have a large south facing conservatory and unless very cold and cloudy it heats the house a lot. I was warned about overheating but with large windows and doors it’s easy to mitigate by opening them.

Just found this….I had heard of the 1 metre bit before. What is classed as adjacent to highway? The GPDO states that the one metre rule applies where a wall or fence is "adjacent" to a highway. Cases have shown that a fence or wall at the back of a highway verge will be treated as being "adjacent".

As different authorities seem to have different “takes” on rules I think you need clarification on the word adjacent from your planning dept (and in writing).

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 who the feck did that. I bet it was not a self builder (unless it was @pocster 🤷‍♂️).

I take a different view, bodging is not doing the job properly first time, making good after someone else getting it wrong, although frustrating, is a necessary evil. I take my hat off to you doing all this work with less than efficient hands mate, get over it, no one died (yet). I am sure we all have had those problems somewhere during the build.

Having won at Appeal myself against a particular neighbour (and the council), just wearing a smug grin whenever I met them was enough for me.

Me, me, me, pretty please 😎 Bliss.

Welcome and what a lovely plot/view. I engaged a main contractor to put the shell up as I would take forever to do it on my own (and I am too old for that ) you will have enough to do with all the “other things”, looking forward to questions and pics of the progress 👍

Welcome to THE forum for self builders, +1 to the above, VAT reclaimable, services exist etc etc

I started this journey wanting to build using straw bales, helped out on a couple.

But agricultural vehicles can use red! and they often go on the road between fields etc .? Glad i am shot of my JCB just in time.

Well a lot of people here do this, i on the other hand have done no modelling or even maths on my build (I just copied others who had!!,). Someone who did, our Jeremy Harris found that in reality after he finished the build he needed more cooling than heating but the modelling did not show this and it appears it was more down to location (he was in a sheltered hollow facing South).

Perhaps you will change the perception many of us here have of architects, can you also stick to a budget? 😱 (sorry). Yes, especially with fuel costs going through the roof the mantra is insulation, insulation, insulation (and airtightness). looks a good project, looking forward to the questions (and answers). p.S. I built with a hipped roof as we are in a windy location and gables can cause noise, also it uses less bricks/blocks and no more tiles/slates.

I thought that, when the DHW was hot and nothing else needed the PV generation and the forecast is to get cool and overcast then heat the slab ready 🤷‍♂️.

My take on it is that I have loads of insulation so dependency on “fuel” is less, having PV will reduce need at times, orientation of the house and large conservatory has dramatically reduced heating costs and my electricity supplier buys mostly green energy. Connection to the grid till batteries get better/cheaper is a necessary. How the rest of the country can manage in such bad housing is beyond me but I live in hope.

Or drain to a ditch that’s wet some of the year (depending on type, mine is a vortex and is allowed to do this). And it’s a lot less work that a leach field.

I don’t see why not, just make sure you’re plant says to discharge to a ditch like my Vortex does.

Yes, I was gobsmacked when I saw the bill, i would have bought plain pipe and drilled loads of holes, I was told not to use ribbed flexible as it tended to hang on to “stuff” (then again it should be clean by then 🤷‍♂️ Yes, just ran out to the ditch.

My run from plant to ditch was 12m, 2 m ordinary pipe then 10m perforated pipe in a 400mm wide trench, 200mm stone below and 100mm above, plastic on top then top soil, all the way to the ditch. Make sure you put a grid on the ditch end, I got a rat in my plant which blocked the pump (it started to smell) but all well now I fished it out.

If loft insulation was zero so many more people would install it IMO.

I do know a lecky that does solar as well, will give him a call if I decide to go ahead, might be worth a “bung” 🤷‍♂️