Thorfun

yeah. he's right. in fact the apparent room sizing changes as the build progresses and change from 'too small' to 'bloody hell that's massive' back to 'it looks a bit small' to 'I think the architect got it about right'. 😉

I'm looking at making an RHI application for our ASHP and it has a question "in the last 12 months, tell us how long the property was occupied for". our M&E have recommended putting in a date of more than 6 months. I'm worried that that could be construed by HMRC of evidence of living in the property and that they could reject our VAT reclaim when it comes to it. anyone know if HMRC looks at RHI applications and the stated time occupied on the form?

yeah. was quoted 9 months lead time as well and also the price has gone up £2k in the last 18 months. As such, I'm now looking at a Lux Power Squirrel pod (2 actually) and Pylontech batteries as mentioned above. using 2 x squirrel pods gives up to a 7kW charge/discharge rate and each one can utilise 8 batteries so you can have a theoretical 56kWh of storage using the US3000C batteries. obviously, I won't be going that high, but I do like the modularity of this solution so if the initial battery storage isn't enough you can just add another battery to expand the system.

I'm no expert in cost efficiency as my spiralling build costs would attest to! and I don't like commenting on looks as it's such a subjective subject. so I'll leave those questions to others.

the biggest thing that frustrates me about these 'off-the-shelf' products and also mass built houses is the fact that the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms are always different sizes! it's like I'd have to decide which kid I loved more and give them the biggest room. the beauty of designing your own house, whatever route you'd choose to do that, is you have the flexibility to do what *you* want. one of the first things we said to our architect was we wanted the kids bedrooms to be the same size. why should one child lose out to the other one!

great idea. but obviously after ensuring that the CIL exemption paperwork has been received! 😉

we bought our bungalow with planning and they'd already done a bat survey. when it came to us putting in our planning application the planning department wanted a refreshed bat survey. we managed to persuade the ecologists to simply reissue the previous surveys for a nominal fee as nothing had really changed. if planning request new surveys it might be worth a chat with the ecologists? completely understand this as you don't want to be digging foundations or building in the winter! we were ready to start last Jan/Feb but the groundworker said 'no' and he wanted to wait for spring. I'm glad he did tbh as the clay got really soggy and wouldn't have fancied them digging the basement in the winter months. as it worked out we had really good weather and very few rain delays for our basement dig and build. if you can plan it to be watertight before winter then you're on to a winner in my opinion!

I wasn't given the choice! the architects said BC wanted an independent exit so that's what we built, although we made it a bit bigger and have created a sunken courtyard as an outside space for the basement.

I know it's a kick in the teeth to have to go back to planning but, personally, I think it'll be worth it. but ultimately it is governed by your timelines and desires! reducing windows/bifolds from 2.6m to 2.1m will have a bigger financial impact that you think I believe. it's a tough choice and I don't envy you it as there are obviously costs and time delays involved in going back to planning when I can guarantee you're chomping at the bit to just get going! 😉

I agree with @Bitpipe and @Conor here and you should think about pushing the retaining wall to the back. Makes it a lot simpler and the SE design for the load from the house to the existing planned basement retaining wall will be complicated and expensive and probably won’t be stupidly more expensive to just do a full dig out. that was the advice I was given by friends in the trade and others on this site and we don’t regret it. And like it was said above you don’t have to fit it out to start with but the space will be there when you have funds to do so. Exactly what we’re planning. (I go through a lot of this in our blog on here)

Make sure your CIL documents and exemptions are in order as well before you start!

you can get AV slats which blackout the room and are sold as usable for AV presentations.

Don’t think it’s too difficult but I paid someone to do it for me. It wasn’t cheap but it was a price we were happy to pay. Probably ended up around £100/m2

Yep. Ordered mine before it all kicked off. Was told a little later that there wasn’t any more coming.

btw, we're also having areas of standard Siberian larch which came in at around £45/m2 for comparison. and the prices I've mentioned are not including labour

our batten costs are high as we're having vertical cladding so need counter battens and they are 50mm x 50mm battens to allow room for the external blinds. all in all our timber cladding will be a very expensive item but it should be amazing!

just a regular joiner (he did a friends Larch cladding and comes highly recommended and I've seen his work first hand so I know he'll do a good job). we had a huge amount, 230m2, and so we managed to get wholesale price which came in around £65/m2. so it's not cheap when you compare it to standard larch but it is cheaper than Western Red Cedar! at the moment though there is a shortage of Siberian Larch so you might want to hold off for a bit. 😉

lovely looking house! your black timber cladding.....what are you going for? we're having charred larch and has it delivered the last week. it looks stunning and we can't wait for it to be fitted!

we do very much! love the colour and the door itself feels very solid. I'm sure you'll love yours once it's installed.

we have a lot of windows 😂

I’m still on the fence about spray painting due to the prep time required to tape everything up and the cleanup time afterwards.

thanks guys. I've ordered some interior block filler paint for the block walls and some acrylic floor paint for the floor. should do the job and probably cheaper than plasterboard or ply at the moment! I'll update this thread once I've finished it for appraisal of my work. 😉 but more seriously, in case any one else has the same question and wants to know how my solution went.

yeah. figured this would be best. is PVA enough to seal the concrete blocks or should I be looking for something a bit more specialised? plus underlay though, right? but, even so, with 5mm underlay it would still only be an 8mm step down in to the plant room. so, just paint the plant room floor sounds like the best and most cost effective route! 🙂

greetings. our plant room is in the basement and we've had the whole thing (basement that is) screeded with Cemfloor liquid screed. There is 15mm throughout to put a finished flooring in so we're most likely going to go with LVT throughout the entire basement. But what is recommended for the plant room? should I just leave the screed and live with a 15mm step down in to it or should I put tiles down and have a small step up (maybe 5 - 10mm) in to it or should I put cheap lino...errr....I mean LVT in it just to keep it the same level as the rest of the basement? With tiles I'm concerned about fixing down in to it as I'll have to go through tiles and I wonder if spending money on LVT for a plant room is just crazy when I have a pretty smooth screed already. Also, the plant room is against the exterior wall of the basement so one wall is concrete (250mm thick) and the other 3 are dense concrete blocks. What would be the best way to cover these? I think the concrete wall should just be painted as it's pretty smooth already but how about the block walls? I was thinking of putting ply on the walls to make a smooth surface for fixing to but don't want to reduce the size too much so would have to limit myself to not too thick ply. or is that just a waste and I should simply PVA it all and paint it? ideas?

Well, it’s been quite a while since my last blog post but we’ve not been idle but I do admit to having been slack in updating the blog. At the end of the last blog we had a superstructure and the roofer was about to begin his journey up the scaffolding. This is where that tale begins….. ’Twas a sunny November morning when all was quiet that a white van man arrived at our site to felt, batten and slate our sloping roofs. And he wasted no time at all in cracking on with it after the site orientation was complete. With his dad along to help with the battening it didn’t take long for the membrane (or ‘felt’ if you’re a roofer) and battens and counter battens to be done. After discussions with our BCO it was decided that we would fully fill our rafters and use a breathable membrane (Proctor Roofshield) attached to the roof trusses and then 25mm x 50mm counter battens and then slate battens which gave us 50mm ventilation. This allows us to not need soffit vents (or indeed soffits) which fitted in to the design of the house better and also meant we don’t have to worry about creepy crawlies living in the soffits. We started with the southern elevation so that the solar PV array could be installed and the roofer (Chris) fitted the first few rows of slates and some flashing leaving it ready for the solar team to arrive before moving on to the northern elevation So while Chris was busy working on the north side of the house the solar installers arrived and fitted our GSE trays. Once done they started to fit the panels. But it was then discovered that the company who did the ordering ordered the wrong size GSE trays and the panels wouldn’t fit. So the solar installers took all the trays down and left site after wasting a day’s work. Meanwhile the flat roofers attended site to single-ply membrane our flat roofs and balcony. A great bunch of guys from a company recommended to me by Chris so I had every confidence of them doing a great job, and they didn’t disappoint. DPM, PIR, OSB then single-ply membrane. First roof which will have a wildflower green roof being overlooked by our bedroom balcony Second roof above our utility room which links the house to the garage which will have a sedum roof They will return a little later on in the blog to install the green roofs. Meanwhile the solar installers returned after the correctly sized GSE trays had been delivered and managed to fit it all in a day. We think it looks brilliant. 28 x 375W LG panels, each with Solaredge optimisers as we have lots of trees around us. And when they’d finished each panel was giving out 1V and was confirmed each was working by being shown the 14V on each string in the loft. Job done for now until we get electrics first fix done and they can come back and fit the inverter. The only real issue we had with the solar is that the panels were resting on the slates making them lift up in places. I created a thread about them (https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/24530-slate-tiles-lifted/) and after much discussion and deliberation I decided to simply use black CT1 to stick them down which worked nicely. A bit of a bodge but you can’t tell from the ground and a lot less disruption to timelines than other solutions. While all of that was going on Chris was busy slating the northern elevation and it was all coming along nicely. During that I had another discussion with the BCO about vent pipes. I asked if I could have one by the STP but she was adamant that I had to have one through the roof. When I mentioned I didn’t want a pipe sticking out the top of the roof she said that they do slate vents. A quick google search revealed what she was talking about and I purchased the item and it was installed. Looks fab and from the ground you can barely notice it which is just what I wanted. And now the solar PV install was finished he could move on to the southern elevation. But while he was doing that the flat roofers came back and installed our green roofs. The wildflower material So that’s those finished although we were still waiting on a Velux roof light for one of the roofs which was delayed but the flat roofers came back to install that for me and finish off that roof a bit later. They also installed our patio paving slabs which we think look ace. So, back to Chris and he’d now finished the main house roof slating and it finished off around the PV panels nicely. He did make a start on the garage roof but as we were still waiting on Velux windows he couldn’t finish that so he left site and would return once the Velux’s were delivered. During that period our windows and doors arrived! We used Norrsken for these and went for alu-clad triple glazed windows and sliders. The majority of our windows are fixed and we had quite a small profile for the frame which means more glass. The installers, Elite Installations Nationwide (https://www.eliteinstalls.co.uk) were brilliant and Jim and his team were a joy to have on site. They brought their spider crane with them which made lifting our windows up to the first floor a breeze for them. We decided to be bold and went for a red front door. We love it. As the window install was done the week of Christmas the installers couldn’t finish them all in time before the Christmas break so we wished them a safe trip back to York and would see them in the new year. Happy new year!! (Belated). With the new year came the return of Jim and his team to finish off all our windows and doors. Once they were installed it made the house feel so much more like a house. Closing the front door had a feel of shutting out the outside world and we were (almost) water tight at last. We also eventually received our Velux roof light and sloping and vertical windows. So the flat roof was finally completed and so was the garage roof. So we are very nicely watertight at this point. All that’s left now is the time-lapse video for this period of time. Sadly our camera only shows the south side of the building so we only get footage for stuff that happens on that side but it still makes for an interesting watch and I hope you enjoy it. Until next time.