Thorfun

oh no! what have you done. 🤣

i used this one https://www.changeplan.co.uk/u_value_calculator.php but there are many others as well. there are many knowledgeable people on here for U-values. a large number of them helped me get my head around things in this thread take a good long read in the relevant sub-forum and you'll soon be a lot more knowledgeable!

and then sue him for poor living conditions? at the very least withhold the rent.

i think it all depends on the airflow required and needs to be calculated. we had 90mm ducts specified as our unit was pushing the limits of the area of the house and so by upping the duct size it made it all work.

Could you potentially use those insulated blocks others have mentioned on here in other threads instead of normal concrete blocks? Probably expensive but might be a solution worth investigating?

The tangled webs we weave

welcome. sounds like you've joined the forum in the nick of time! TLDR all your documents (sorry!) but i've a few comments. 1. did you tell your architect you want passive house levels of insulation? if so, and i don't think you're quite there tbh but i haven't run the materials through a U-value calculator, then i would be going back once you've done those calculations and asking why those levels haven't been attained? 2. speak to many different TF companies. you specified a single company above but i would hope that you get at least 3 quotes. we got many more than that and whittled it down to a final three to choose from. 3. did you give the architect a budget to work with? if so then if they've designed a house that is way over budget then they've made a mistake and you'd be within your rights to get them to value engineer it. i'm sure others will chime in. i'm no expert but if you read through our blog on here you can see where we're at with our journey. I might advise that you put the brakes on for a couple of weeks and absorb as much information as possible from on here by going through each forum. Also read up on some self-building books. i found Mark Brinkley's book very useful as a starter to self-building. i wish you the best of luck and look forward to following your progress should you choose to share. 🙂

Take a read of the self build vat forum https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/forum/103-self-build-vat-community-infrastructure-levy-cil-s106-tax/

Your builder is irrelevant! His materials and labour will be zero rated. Even if you got someone else in to do work outside of you main contractor they would zero rate any materials and labour. Separate to that is anything you’ve bought that is valid can have the VAT claimed back.

If it’s for the build you can claim the VAT back if it’s eligible

We’ve had no water ingress through the walls or slab. No internal measures at all. The waterproofing we have comes with a 25yr warranty so I’m confident in it doing the job. interestingly the original waterproofing company we spoke to through the architects specified the internal solution that @pocsterhas and obviously works. Our architect was also ok with that solution. But the company that built our basement always used external membrane and so we changed to that. I do find it strange that new regulations don’t allow internal solutions though. As has been said in some situations external just may not be possible.

I don't know about soaring prices as we had ours built from reinforced waterproof concrete with external waterproof membrane so water stopped externally. so exactly the same as it would be done under the new regulations. seems like these new regulations are to stop cowboys like @pocster doing it DIY style? 😉

TLDR but images g & h seem to summarise it I guess

I used to do this but in the end Jewson always came out with the best price and if they didn't my account 'manager', i.e. the sales guy I deal with, would price match. now I just find what I want online and phone him up and see if he can match it and don't bother with other BMs I have accounts with. sometimes he even beats the online price. but I have spent a lot with them over the past 2 years and have built up a good rapport with him so I think that's important. As @pocster says, a bit of banter and cheekiness also helps.

this is a very slow way of doing it although it does reduce the risk. windows tend to be on at least a 12 week lead time and so you're TF won't be watertight for at least 3 months after erection (depending on when the roof goes on of course). our windows were ordered off-plan and the TF company then built to the correct dimensions. meant we could get the windows in as soon as the roof covering was on without having to wait for the windows to be manufactured. i thought most building with TF did it this way? one of the benefits of building in timber is the accuracy that can be achieved over block and brick.

i should probably clarify that Norrsken arranged the fitters as well so it was all, kind of, in-house. maybe different if the fitters are 3rd party as then it could all become a blame game.

Our window supplier also asked for the roof to be fully loaded before they installed the windows.

For us we provided the window company (Norrsken) with the opening size the TF company would provide and they built the windows to fit with their standard tolerance subtracted from the opening size. Then the installers turned up and fitted. No one ever asked me to provide a fixing schedule or the like. The fitters just did what they do and made sure the windows were secure with the number of fixings they thought suitable. sounds like a serious case of ‘arse covering’ by your window supplier.

+1. at least that's how we're doing it. they do sell Tescon grommits and stuff to do this but we just foam and put loads of Tescon Vana around it all.

I’m sorry to say but it sounds like your architect and builder are riding the gravy train here! I simply can’t believe the costs involved. If your letter does the trick and you get it built for £500k and it’s valued at £1.3m then you’ll get an offer around £1.25m. Then with estate agent fees and conveyancing and rent paid during the build, interest on any loans etc I can’t see you still walking away with any kind of profit. Even if you did make £50k is it worth it for the time and stress!? I wish you the best of luck with it all and hope you end up finding a team that aren’t taking you for a ride. 😢

clips galore

i'm certainly with you. i used pipe clips at 500mm centres for my hep2o pipes. my chippie friend who came to visit thought it was a little excessive. 😂

it's not really that load bearing so that's probably overkill!

in my mind the piece of wood would hold the screw in place, no? i could clamp the wood to the steel and then screw through the wood and then the screw won't move as it drills through the steel. would that not do the job?

is this not a perfect example of a main contractor route though? the main contractor will pay the chippie £200 per door and add £100 on top for himself and then add another £50 for risk and you end up around the £530 per door he's quoting? that's why a main contractor is going to be a LOT more than project managing the build/renovation yourself and hiring in subbies. you're not paying the 20% overhead on materials and whatever overhead the main contractor feels like adding on for labour and risk. our chippie charges us £250/day in West Sussex. i'm not sure how many doors can be fitted in a day but it's gotta be more than 1 1/4, right?