Thorfun

I never understand planning departments decisions/requirements to "fit in with the local vernacular". what's the point of modern architecture if no one is allowed to use it? why not allow a modern architectural house to stand out in the environment and to start a new trend. why do all houses have to be stuck in the past just to fit in? it's all b******s if you ask me.

we have a glazed conservatory and we'll be dismantling that and will use the glass panels as a roof for a chicken house. ?

will this just save the cost of the demolition company doing it? if so, how much would them doing it really add? surely the digger can separate the bits quicker than taking it out by hand before hand? I'm asking as we will eventually need to demolish our existing house so this is quite pertinent!

I think this is true if the TF company offer a foundation package, e.g. MBC. I would say that if the TF company is just supplying the timber frame and you've a separate Groundworker doing the foundations then the SE will design the foundations using the point loads supplied by the TF company. this is how it was for ours, although ours is a little more complicated due to the basement. I think you need to decide what foundations you want to have as if you're set on a passive style insulated raft then get a structural engineer to design that for you (we used Tanners based in Ireland for ours which many others on here have too) and then you're not stuck with using what the TF company offers. but if you know for sure that you want a company like MBC to do your TF then maybe just get them to do the whole thing including the SE calcs. as I said previously there's a lot of decisions that effect other choices and it's very chicken and egg most of the time as you need to know the answer to one question to know the answer to another question but can't answer the first question until you know the answer to the second question etc!

I think that is an old table as Mitsubishi offer an R32 AHSP with A+++ energy rating.

If that was asking about Vimeo then it’s not really a trial. You get limited uploads per week/month but it’s more than enough for the odd upload. they seem to call it Vimeo Basic

I use Vimeo to host my blog videos.

is a ground surveyor qualified to design a foundation system? I thought that was the remit of a structural engineer? I'd be questioning this foundation system and ensuring a structural engineer takes a look! Building control will need to see the structural calculations for the foundations as well, at least mine did.

welcome. there's loads of information on that subject on here. happy reading! ? I also found that Mark Brinkley's Housebuilder's Bible book was a very good place to start https://www.amazon.co.uk/Housebuilders-Bible-14-14th/dp/1916016812

sadly, SE England prices are very much similar to Central London.

doesn't a liquid screed surround the UFH pipes better as it 'flows' around and under them to fill all available gaps? I didn't think a sand and cement screed did this so it would/could leave pockets of air resulting in slightly poorer heat-up times for UFH? I could be talking b******s though. we're having a liquid screed in the basement for the ease of it all. 6m3 of Cemfloor is costing me £2200 all-in (based in the SE before @nod quotes his up'north prices ? ). seems very reasonable to me and I'm happy to pay for the quickness of install and drying. For the ground floor I'm still undecided as to which way to go and I guess I'm using the basement as a tester to see how the liquid screed works.

are you starting to get a feel for what's required for self-building and project managing? you pretty much need to have decided windows, blinds, cladding, insulation levels (determines wall thickness), ventilation system (in case MVHR ducting needs to pass through steels or glulams) and I'm sure there are more BEFORE your architect draws up the plans!! each blind manufacturer may have a slightly different requirement for their cassettes which will need to be factored in to the architects drawings and if you're going for an all-in-one solution with blinds and windows then you need to have decided on the window manufacturer as well. (one area that takes a lot of research and time to get quotes as there are a lot out there and, according to posts on here, prices vary for the same manufacturer depending on the job). everything is affected by everything else and it's only later down the line do you realise how much a decision has a knock-on effect on other parts. eg. we wanted external blinds and chose the Warema ones. They required at least 80mm from the external side of the timber frame to sit in to and so we had to have 2 x 47mm x 47mm timber battens for our vertical timber cladding. this added a lot of cost to the battening as we went for a standard 140mm TF. if we'd gone for the 300mm twin-wall TF I presume we wouldn't have needed such big battens, or even a 190mm TF walls then it would be the same. so the one decision to have external blinds added more that we thought at the time. not that we regret the decision it's just one of those things I've learnt as we progress through our self-build journey! each decision has many unforeseen effects. don't let me put you off though, it is a lot of fun and we're enjoying the experience a lot.

I'll let you know when they're installed. ? but they're on vertical rails so I don't expect there to be any issues https://www.warema.com/en/venetian-blinds/basic-external-venetian-blinds.html

something like this I believe https://www.toolstation.com/tooth-plate-connector/p44246?store=SE&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dc&pcrid=558033462390&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI08z1wKjF9QIVc4BQBh2JzAMnEAQYAiABEgK1n_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

this is similar to what we're doing but I was planning to run 3Ph from the kiosk to the plant room in the basement and then run the house off a single phase but run 3ph to the garage internally so we can install 3ph car chargers (one EV at the moment and will change the other car to EV at some point once the build has finished and we have some money again!). our garage is built on an insulated slab so we can't run cables underground to it any more. although I've not discussed this in detail with the electrician so it might not work that way!

but those joist hangers need nails. ?

I have those on my roof trusses and, afaik, they hold the joined timbers together. they have lots of spikes on the back and when two pieces of wood are put next to each other they bang one of those in and it holds them together. or summink like that. so, no nails required in those

seems a little pricey. have you tried another company who offer a different brand of ASHP? I always get 3 quotes for comparison but you don't mention if you have or not. also, you've not mentioned the size of heat pump you require/already have.

this is how ours have been designed to fit. the timber frame company created the window openings wider and taller to accommodate the additional timber above and to the sides and I fitted that after the TF was erected and before the windows were installed.

it's not finished yet! a balustrade will eventually be installed but I'm not even at first fix yet so things like that can wait. ? yes, the really old bungalow just at the end of the flat roof is the current house that will be demolished and become our garden. so view out over the neighbours house and woodlands beyond after that. plus ancient woodlands to the left of the roof. South facing as well so just setup perfectly for a bevvie or two on a summer's evening.

we have one too from our bedroom overlooking the flat wildflower roof. I love it already and can't wait to be sitting on it, drinking a beer and watching our existing house be demolished! may not get much use after that but who cares. looks great.

ours haven't been installed yet but we have made a pocket above the windows/sliders and they will fit recessed in there and the cladding will come down in front of them. should look very similar to @IanR's. We're getting Warema blinds

yes, except we're putting glass wool between the studs (Frametherm 32) and 80mm PIR inside the studs so we're not cutting PIR to fit between the studs. that's not something I'd ever want to do! also, with mineral wool you get better decrement delay and more sound attenuation so I like the hybrid approach. this surprises me as we have some large glazing and Norrsken could handle it without issues. so if your feature glazing is beyond their limit then you're in a whole other ball game to us! internal blinds will do little to keep out the solar gain as the heat has already entered the house. there are a few examples on here of folk who built to passive standards and regret not adding external blinds as part of the build and had to resort to films on the windows. if you plan the external blinds now you can hind them in the fabric of the building. Also, from reading other's experiences, overhangs only really help during the summer months when the sun is high. in the spring and autumn when the sun is lower they do little. there are those that also installed Sage glass and love it too. so if your budget extends to it then that might be the way to go. if you search the forum you'll find examples. this forum is a wealth of information and a veritable gold mine for learning from other peoples mistakes! read it all and you'll be more informed to make decisions....or your head will explode with all the different options.

agreed. with that sort of budget/build cost then spending another £1k to get a second architect/designer to go through some preliminary ideas would be worth it in my opinion. at the very least I'd be confident that I'd done due diligence.

massive amount of guts I'm sure! and the OP has said they've been at this for 7 months with the architect so it's hard to fathom the amount of guts it would take to start over. but, sometimes those hard decisions have to be made and it's, generally, for the best at the end of it all.