Thorfun

I had a timber frame company that refused to use posi-joists as they'd had a bad experience with deflection on them. it goes without saying that I didn't use them as I don't want to be drilling holes in I-beams to run cables, pipes and MVHR ducting! I'm sure that if that TF company had just designed for a less deflection on the posi-joists it would've been fine.

you're quite a way ahead of me! we probably won't break ground until Jan 2021 so I think I'll be following your install with great interest. ?

Yep. Plan is for a loxone system.

we are going for external blinds which we believe are a good solution. although not as cheap as building in an overhang they'll also reduce solar gain in the non-summer months when the sun is lower. plus, for us, it reduces the need to have internal curtains/blinds in those rooms!

yep. it was initially 12mm but after reading some threads on here I decided I didn't want to take the risk of a bouncy floor and asked them to reduce it to 8mm deflection. another win for this amazing forum!

I asked the TF company to design our first floor joists to an 8mm deflection which they did at no extra cost. our floors should be solid as a rock as the joists are 300mm centres.

just checked my 13th edition and he still has the model house for price references but the Case Study is his own self-build. I'd suggest the 13th edition (or latest) is always best to get for the few pounds saved by buying a second hand version

if you're going to go back to planning can you start just start over again with a house design and layout that you want from the off rather than trying to adapt someone else's plans? that's what we did. when we bought this place it had approved planning for a bungalow and outline planning for a 1 1/2 storey house. we didn't want either of those (although the bungalow would've been a fallback approval in case ours got rejected) and got an architect to design a 2 storey with basement and full pitched roof house which we, eventually, got through planning. now we get to build the house that we want. it's taken a lot longer than had we just put a minor amendment to the existing planning but it'll (hopefully) be worth it!

I think the latest version also uses his own passive house build as an example house doesn't it? for the £20 it costs it's a great starting point for any self-builder and well worth the money. plus I met him at a SB&R show a few years back and he seemed a really nice guy. happy to help out and answer questions.

Pick up a copy of the house builders bible. Should give you a good understanding of what’s required. (other books are available)

this surprises me. as I work through the lighting design we're using a few table lamps/floor lamps to add ambient lighting. I'm thinking about using 5A outlets wired back to our home automation system (looking like Loxone at the moment) so that they can be controlled automatically as we enter the room. I'm surprised you didn't go this route especially when you already have the Loxone system in place.

yeah, sorry. didn't mean extra checks, that was the wrong wording. I mean the same checks done twice! the AI recommended by our architects has ties with a warranty provider where he'll do the warranty and BCS checks for the same fee. it seems that other warranty providers seem to offer the same thing.

yeah, I get that. but if the warranty checks are no different or more comprehensive than standard BC checks then it's just a waste of money to pay for extra checks. I guess that's the benefit of using the same person for BCS and Warranty.

then it gives more credence to the following statement from @joe90 I completely agree with Joe here as well. struggling to justify the need for the warranty but it seems like I'll have to get one just in case we need to mortgage or sell. very frustrating and wasteful of funds that could be used elsewhere.

are the visits by the warranty building inspector more comprehensive then?

thanks for the tip! just checked my roof truss plans and the loft hatches have been accommodated, but I hadn't previously checked so is a great tip.

Great! Let’s us know how it goes. we got 9 quotes in total I think it was. And then whittled them down.

good luck. might be worth getting a solicitor involved sooner rather than later if it's definitely something you want to pursue. one upside to our frustration with the barn is that we found a better plot within 1 month of the barn falling through! and now we're almost finished the structural engineers plans and are hoping to break ground in a couple of months. ?

if you want a turnkey solution then Scandia and Oakwrights would probably suit, but if you want to project manage then they'd be incredibly expensive to get you to a watertight stage when compared to other companies as those other companies will do that much cheaper. ultimately, you want someone to build you a timber frame and put windows in and a roof on. by doing some of the project management yourself or just getting to watertight stage then you'll be losing the benefits of a turnkey company. that's just my 2 cents btw and you need to do what you're comfortable with.

@A_L what software is that? I've been using https://www.changeplan.co.uk/u_value_calculator.php which seems to work but the software you're using looks very interesting

welcome. I can't help with the builders quotes question sorry as we've decided to project manage our build ourselves and so will be getting subbies in to do the work. but, I just wanted to pass on our experience on a barn/plot we found that had confusion about access. to cut a long story short it cost us nearly 2 years of our lives and ended up with us having to walk away as the owners of the land that access was required over weren't playing ball and wanted stupid amounts of money for that access. (you can read the story in our blog on this site if you wish). so, my advice is make sure that all the access is in place before hand! and definitely before you even get close to spending lots and lots of money on other things. I wish you all the best with your journey.

but that doesn't mean the other manufacturers are any better of course! it's definitely food for thought as I was planning to use some PIR in our wall make up.

just briefly read up on this and it doesn't seem that PIR was at fault and I presume your statement comes from the fact that Celotex and Kingspan knew about the issues with the PE and so should be avoided as they obviously have no morales at all.? in that case, other PIR manufacturers are available, right?

I got a quote from them and they were very expensive. the most expensive of the 4 quotes I received by far. I'm sure they'd do a great job but at that price I couldn't justify it.

exactly, it keeps things flexible if we have those quotes upfront and we can decide how far to go with it. tempted to leave it at first fix stage though but we will see. maybe I'll win the lottery.