Thorfun

I assume he didn't get the job then!

thanks guys. interesting difference in costs! ours is around twice what @Russell griffiths paid but he's offered us a fixed fee that seems pretty reasonable compared to the amounts you both paid. I just need to confirm what is included in the fixed fee as if it's everything including any potential appeal then it's a bargain. I guess the fixed fee is just a simple insurance policy to cover us in case things overrun. also, a fixed fee would incentivise the consultant to get the job to resolution quicker I guess? although, that could go the other way and once the fixed fee becomes less that he'd earn hourly would he then put the work in? it's all a lottery and a gamble! I'll just have to roll the dice and see what numbers come up.

afternoon all, just a quick question to see if anyone knows the going rate for a planning consultant? I've had an hourly rate from one and would like to know how it compares. Based in South East England as I'm sure that will make a difference. tia.

our planning application has a pool in it but we have no real intention of building it. it's there just in case we ever decide we want to or if future owners (once we're dead and buried and the kids have sold up if that's what they choose to do) want to. thought it better to have the approval in place rather than apply at a later date. we understand about the trees and we're gutted but the only other option was to retain the southern entrance to the property and have a driveway dissecting the garden which didn't seem right. as mentioned we are surrounded by ancient woodland so we do have our fair share of old trees. and our neighbours that own the woodland are happy for us to walk through it so we have the trees without the upkeep. win-win.

@Russell griffithsI realise that my response might be taken as being a bit rude and curt! I apologise if it came across that way. I've just been made to feel right at home on the forum and spoke as if we were just chatting down the pub but I'm not sure I'm there yet as a newbie and probably have to earn that right. anyway, I felt bad so I just went outside and snapped a few photos for you. ? here's a panoramic view looking north. the swimming pool is where the main new building will be. we have ancient woodland to the north and east (just visible to the right of this photo). and here's a photo to the East of those Ancient woodland that can be seen beyond the pool and pool house. (I think the picture tells a story that the pool and pool house aren't in a usable state!) the north end of the existing garden is currently an orchard. it's a shame that the majority of the trees will be removed for the new driveway, garage and house but some will remain and new trees will be planted to the south of where the existing building already is. here's a photo to the south west at part of the existing bungalow. and finally a snap of my boy and the bluebells growing in the garden. we love it here. ?

patience Mr. G. ?

Thanks to you all I’ve now started investigating external blinds and will look into getting an overheating model done. which of you can I send the invoice to? ?

it's not the basement per se and I will get in to this in a later blog post as we're still in discussions with the architect and have also asked him to speak to a planning consultant so we don't really know how it's all going to work out as yet. but, in a nutshell, it's the GIA (Gross Internal Area) and if something has to go to reduce that then the basement will be the first thing. once I have all the details on this planning issue I'll post a blog to get the thoughts of the awesome folk on here.

Hi @Bitpipe. thanks for the response. I would love the basement but we're having some planning issues (I was saving it for another blog post) so the basement might have to go. hopefully you can wait for that blog update and comment on that one to assist. not yet had an overheating model done but that is on our list of things to do. honestly, we just want to get approval before spending money on getting that sort of thing for this design as if the planning department are completely against it and we need to redesign something then that's just wasted money. I would rather get the approval and then put in for a minor change if we have to do something to fix overheating. we have the brise soleil upstairs in the entrance hall on the south which should help and there are trees just to the east of the house that will also help and we have the overhangs to the annex and the garden room which should help in the summer as well. I have thought about the other windows and how we might stop overheating but I haven't got that far yet. I know this is probably a backwards way of doing it and not recommended but we've been bitten before by spending money that ends up being just thrown away (see 'The journey so far... blog post for details) that we're trying to not fall in to that trap again. I do appreciate your comments and advice though! ?

thanks Jeremy. didn't know the 10m from the watercourse rule, but we do have the space so we could, in theory, move it further from the ditch if required although that might put it within 9m of the ancient woodland and we might have issues with roots.

Once we'd exchanged on the bungalow we knew that completion would happen and so we didn't waste any time in interviewing and hiring an architect. We got 3 different architects to come round to see us (it was supposed to be 4 but the 4th didn't seem to be interested as after I phoned and left a message with details as to what we wanted I got a voicemail back saying he'd received a message about an extension or something rather than the complete demolition and self-build we're doing! it goes without saying that I didn't call him back). All 3 came to site to have a look around and for us to get a feeling if we'd be able to work with them. we then got quotes and all were pretty similar but we chose the chap we thought we'd most like to work with. After an initial consultation he came up with a few sketches which we were completely not what we wanted and we also questioned as to whether he even listened to us at the initial meeting. We were thinking of phoning around and trying other architects but we went for a meeting and explained how we felt and he said, no worries I'm never going to get it right first time and we took aspects from each of the sketches and discussed it all and now we have final plans that we absolutely love! My mum is getting on in years and she lives alone about a 50 minute drive from us and so I broached the subject of her coming to live with us which she loved the idea of. I thought it'd be great for her to be able to see her Grandchildren every day and also meant I could be near if/when she needed help with something as otherwise it would be about 3hrs out of my already busy life to pop and see her to fix her computer or put up a shelf or do whatever! so this would be a win-win for both of us. So the architect has designed in an annexe to the main house for my mum to live in which keeps her separate so she has a semblance of independent living but as her health declines I am nearby if required. Anyway, on to the plans...here is the site plan and the elevations we love what the architect has come up with. loads of glass and a fabulous entrance and full height hallway and windows that go from the floor (although the quotes from the window companies are pretty high and, in some cases, are about the same as the timber frame!). We also decided to go with Shou Sugi Ban larch cladding (https://shousugiban.co.uk/range/charred-larch-cladding/ - the Takage style of charring) for the main building with standard larch on the single story parts and entrance to contrast the black. it would seem that we have expensive tastes, but as this is the forever home we're willing to spend more to make it right so we don't have to do this all over again. All we can do now is hope that the planning officer loves it and signs off on it! Forgot to mention that we built a scale model of the house (not including the basement), plot and surrounding trees and hedges. it was fun to do!

thanks for the advice. the architect said it will comply with the regulations so I have to trust him on that. I'm confident all will be well. maybe a little naive but only time will tell. I have so much other stuff to research that I have to leave some of it up to the professionals, although I'm sure I will get to treatment plants at some point soon.

there is a ditch next to the road where the existing Klargester discharges to so we're working on the assumption that we can also do the same with the new treatment plant in accordance with the new rules that have come in to effect. We can't use the existing one (or rather don't want to) as we're currently using it for the existing bungalow so running new pipes to it before demolishing the existing property would be a nightmare, it's a long way from the new proposed building, it's also currently sited in what will be our back garden so would rather not have it there. hope that makes sense!

A long time ago (about 15 years) in a county not so far away I met and married my wife. Soon after we had a couple of kids and started thinking about our future. When I was a teenager my parents moved us abroad and built their own house and I think that sowed the seed for me as it seems that I've always wanted to build my own house and would sit down and watch Grand Designs back in the day and be drawn to the idea of it all. So about 10 years ago we decided that we wanted to build our own house but weren't in a position financially to do so but I was always keeping my eye out for something with potential and signed up to self-build websites and plot searches just in case something popped up. As life went on we sadly lost my Grandmother to the sands of time. The upshot of that was my inheritance (every cloud does have a silver lining I guess) that gave us a bit more capital to allow us to widen our search a little. Then about 4 years ago we found a house within 1.5 acres that was ripe for knocking down and starting again. it would've stretched our finances but we could've lived in it for a bit to get those sorted out while we planned for the build. We put an offer in and it was accepted. We were so excited about it all that we got an architect involved and paid for surveys to be done and drawings to be made only for the sellers to let us know while we were out of the country on a family holiday that they'd decided to accept another offer on the house and would no longer be selling to us. talk about a kick in teeth! we were shellshocked. But, life goes on I guess and a year later we found a steel framed agricultural barn with 4 acres of land/woodland that had planning permission to convert to a residential property. offer made and accepted although with the old adage of once bitten twice shy we decided not to get ahead of ourselves and didn't shell out for architects etc at this point, although we did spend a lot on solicitors fees and also a contamination survey so it was not cheap as we moved towards an exchange of contracts. The barn had agricultural access over a 3rd parties land but no residential access and as the seller's solicitor tried to get that access it seemed to be apparent that the owners of the land (the Catholic Church) were against the development as they slapped a £200,000 price tag on the access (about 1/4 mile of farm track/bridle path). as we weren't paying that we thought the negotiations were ongoing with the sellers and the Church until one day out of the blue I got an email from my solicitor saying that he'd heard from the seller's solicitor and that they were no longer proceeding with the sale. this was 2 YEARS after the offer was made. it seemed that we were destined to never find somewhere to build.... ...but never say never as about 2 weeks later we found an old 70's built bungalow that had outline planning permission and full planning permission for a replacement dwelling in 0.8 acres of land surrounded by woodland. it was perfect and we had our offer accepted and started the purchase process. little did we know that we couldn't get finance on the property even though it was a habitable property no one would offer a residential mortgage as the construction of the house was 70's prefab and the banks wouldn't lend on it. I even had a bridging loan company refuse to lend on it despite the inherent value in the residential plot and land. it was crazy and the house was put back on the market while we tried to sort something out. fortunately, our family were able to sell an overseas property to allow us to get the funds to not need a mortgage and we exchanged and completed in October 2019. We're now living in the bungalow as we await planning approval for the new designs our architect has drawn up, but that will be the subject of another post. thanks for reading and I hope you find our journey interesting. I'm sure it'll have many more ups and downs as we progress but we're hopeful that at the end of it we'll have a house that we can live in for the rest of our lives.

it's an interesting point of view and I will definitely bear it in mind when making a final decision on manufacturer. thank you.

they use glass wool within the stud work covered in PIR (which seems pretty standard) and so would be easier to fit without gaps. it seems that 140x38 are the stud of choice as all the quotes I've had are using that size timber stud. one company did offer a 184mm wide stud though as an option.

thanks all. it's very interesting and good to know that a 400mm centre walls/building feels more solid. from the online U-value calculator the 400mm studs adds 0.003 to the U-value which is so little it isn't really worth mentioning! for me this is another tick in the good box for this company. ?

yep! I guess it could be as simple as that. ?

this is interesting and seems to be what the guy was saying on the webinar. but that would mean that the timber frame company would have to come back to site at some variable time in the future after the roofer has been. which I doubt they would do. I'm confused (which is easily done!)

thanks for the response. but the quote is for 140x38 CLS (C16) kiln dried stud work and none of the other companies feel I need 400mm centres and are using the same sized studs. I'm just confused why this company would. I have asked them, btw, I'm waiting for a response.

I'll try and find something...even if it means attending the replay of the webinar and asking it on there.

Hello, can someone please explain to me the benefits or drawbacks of using 400mm centres for external walls in a timber frame? I've had a quote from a company that is using 400mm centres and it's the only one from the various quotes I've had. all other manufacturers are using 600mm centres. apart from the obvious worse U-value due to more timber in the walls. what are the other good/bad reasons for using the narrower centres? cheers. ps. after attending the NHBC webinar on timber frames I am now aware that if you're not using a double header plate on the wall panel then the ceiling joists need to be in line with the wall studs. so I guess this could be a reason as the suspended floors on the quote are specified to be 400mm centres as well. but I would've thought that from a manufacturing perspective it would be cheaper to use a double header plate than to use more studs in the wall. but, maybe I've just answered my own question and it's because the joists need to line up with the studs! ?‍♂️

I signed up to a couple of these. one of them was the Timber Frame construction webinar. one this that they said that I wanted to ask the community is that the internal first floor walls should not be installed until after the full load was put on the roof. i.e. the roof fully tiled. now I presume this is to do with load and shrinkage of the timber frame with the roof covering on and seems to make sense but from all the reading I've done every timber frame manufacturer will come to site and erect the timber frame including the internal walls and then leave with the roofer coming to site afterwards to fit the tiles. if NHBC say that fitting internal walls is a big no-no until after the roof has full load how/why do the timber frame companies get away with this?

Thanks @A_L I adjusted the calculator to 85% mineral wool and 15% timber stud and it worked. I also adjusted the internal services cavity to include 15% timber batons. I didn't even know you could do that so thank you very much. it makes my rough calculations just a little bit more accurate. what's interesting now is that the corrected U-value is now failing the test and is above the Max U-value of 0.16W/m2K. Also, what's interesting is this wall make up is the same as MBCs 0.14W/m2K wall apart from them using the VC Foil Ultra VCL/Airtight Membrane (see below) can you, or anyone, explain the differences in the U-values received? although I guess it's that they use a different type of insulation as if I change the lambda value of the mineral wool and PIR to 0.032 and 0.020 respectively then I get an uncorrected U-value of 0.144W/m2K so that must be it. so, I'm still a bit confused but I think I'm getting there!

Not tried this but will give it a go tomorrow. Thanks for the tip. Ok, cheers. Will take a read again as I must’ve misunderstood it fully.