Sydney02

We have been tempted to just sell the plots, there seems on paper to be a greater gain in building ourselves, particularly as we had to go through a lot to gain the permission in the first place. but I think as someone with no experience I’m almost certainly underestimating the risks (financially and emotionally) and that does worry me. It’s really useful to get the perspective of people on this forum particularly as most of the people we’ve dealt with so far probably have a vested interest in us building rather than selling the land.

Thanks for that advice Moonshine, it’s really useful, the metac pitched roof is probably what I am looking to achieve. On the plans, the roof pitch cuts in at about a height of 1.6m in the bedrooms carrying on up to the ceiling at 2.4m, so I would lose a bit in the rooms from the deeper insulation but could live with that. Going with a higher spec only on the bedroom windows makes sense. Do you think that timber frames make much of an acoustic difference over upvc? I had thought about external roller shutters in bedrooms partly to reduce summer overheating, do you think they make much of an acoustic difference? The greenwood vent looks good.

Thanks for comments ProDave, I have considered ASHP, particularly as 1of the houses will have solar panels (planning condition to provide 10% renewable energy). Another alternative I thought instead maybe a domestic multisplit air con set up that might provide efficient warm air heating to the main rooms in the winter and also address any bedroom summer overheating if window cross ventilating isn’t possible as I should be generating some power at times when AC is required. Wall mounted electric rads and towel rails could fill in for rooms where warm air doesn’t reach in winter. For hot water, Electric boiler could work for 2-3 baths per week, kitchen sink boiler tap and electric showers. I think I may have higher electric bills than just an ASHP but my capital outlay could be lower. The lack of a central system is probably a flaw and in practice might lack practicality but did seem to give heating and cooling options without breaking the bank. i see you have ASHP, does it work well for you? Does it cope well with your direct hot water needs? this would probably suit our needs so might be fine for the self build but the house for sale would probably need a more conservative approach, most people would probably be happy with an oil fired boiler. I quite like your off the wall suggestion about selling everything and relocating to a peaceful desert island, would I have to tell the wife though! Although the noise does bother me it’s only really bedroom noise at night and early mornings, I can be out in the garden quite happily. Having a poke around in the loft at our current house, I can see that no attempts at acoustic insulation have been made, all the windows have trickle vents and some frames are badly sealed which makes me think that with some attention to design and materials and care around the construction i could make improvements over the current house. JFDIY its a good suggestion, the only worry seems to be that should HMRC look into it they would view me as trading rather than self building and probably hit me with a big income tax bill. I’ll be taking ProDave’s advice on talking to an accountant, I’ll share their view on the best strategy for this situation.

Thanks Moonshine, I was reading up on the very stringent hoop jumping that CIL exemption required until recently, now changed so should be easier for your build, good luck for your application. fortunately the council hasn't put any conditions on for noise but I want to try and make sure I get the materials and detailing right on the areas of weakness so the houses are comfortable. These areas seem to be sloping walls in the bedrooms (under the roof), the first floor ceiling and windows. i talked to a really helpful soundproofing company today who suggested a fix for sloping walls in the bedroom to be a soundboard fixed to the joists with a further 30mm board attached, that board seemed to have layers of differing masses with some sound absorbing qualities too, which might also work on the first floor ceiling as well. I would be interested in your thoughts as I've found it's not an area my architect is particularly interested in. i think I will probably end up with some optiphon glazing maybe in a timber window frame (no trickle vents! - acoustic wall vents instead) and looking closely at the gap sealing around each window frame. One area I haven't really been able to find out much about is whether my choice of block makes much overall difference. The architect has suggested a lightweight block but my limited knowledge on sound would suggest a denser block would add mass and be more effective, would be interested to hear your thoughts?

Hi all, my first post on what I've found to be a great forum for learning. I am lucky enough to have been granted planning permission to build 2 detached houses in our back garden and are just at the stage of finalising the design with the architect. One is to live in and the other to sell. They are 2 storey brick and block construction, nothing too fancy but I am keen that we build well to create good homes that work well. The construction will be managed by a builder and we will be hands off in a practical sense. One of my biggest concerns is the proximity of the site to a busy road. Having lived with fairly intrusive traffic noise for a number of years in our current house, I want to make sure we soundproof as well as possible. I think it will be quite interesting at the end of the build to see if any of the measures we take make a difference to comfort levels v our existing house. we are also off the gas grid and that's thrown up another puzzle of the best way to supply heat and hot water. Do we just go for safe option of oil or a newer technology, particularly as 1 house will be for sale. It gets more puzzling again with the issue of summer cooling as throwing the windows open at night time isn't an option due to road noise. anyway that's me. I'm a complete novice at this so will be happy to share my mistakes and cock ups as I go, maybe they'll be some successes to share too!