Haylingbilly

A great thread, really inspiring. Am pleased to say, I won't go over two skips worth of rubbish for my entire build including demolishing two garages and building a 240sqm house. I separated all wood into sub 40cm sections and filled builders bulk bags which with larger bits and pallets all went relatively quickly on Freecycle and Facebook. All cardboard, drinks bottles, cans - put out with the neighbours fortnightly recycling collections - the rubbish collectors happily took up to 3 clear bin liners of recycling. Sold any excess materials - even managed to sell the attached for 99p, but the buyer demolished and collected it. One mans trash is another mans treasure! Another thing to note is not to have a skip on site if you can avoid it - as they fill up so quickly and so difficult to control, I only have bulk bags on site for rubbish, which really helps with recycling.

I used them and absolutely love them. At half the price of the cheapest wooden windows and virtually indistinguishable I think they are a bargain! If you want to have a look I am in Farnham, Surrey

I think there are a few big influences in build costs which are ground conditions, is it a level plot, house design (simple = cheap complex or cutting edge = expensive), level of your involvement, and standard of finish. Materials I believe are roughly half the cost of the build so no matter how cheaply you buy them you can only influence half the cost of build and any delays/quality issues are going to influence the labour cost. I am on second fix and one of the challenges of going direct to manufacturers that I see is the lack of major purchases - most are relatively small. The only purchases I have made over £1000 so far are Timber frame, windows, kitchen, bricks, staircase -all direct from manufacturer Reinforcing mesh, concrete, roof lantern, insulation, boiler, skirtings, internal doors, tiles - all from various suppliers (generally online) - only totalling £20k I did order a chandelier from China at a cost of £400 vs retail of £1800! Buildcost so far is £320k on a overall budget of £400k

I would phone the council and ask them how long a pre app takes - in Waverley it takes longer than an application, in East Hants it is 3-4 weeks.

Since doing the plan, it all looks different once excavation is complete. There is on one ramp out the front now, and that is the one running parallel to the front steps. Everywhere immediately surrounding the house is level.

I have an issue that to get planning permission, I had to lower my ground level of my house by 1m, however due to protected trees am limited to how much I can excavate my plot. I have patio doors leading out to my rear garden which I am planning on a patio area stepping up to a lawn. I can have the seating area of the patio beside my house, so the patio out of the doors is really there to enable doors to open and to stop you looking at the retaining wall immediately outside the doors. But the rear garden is only 8m deep so am torn where to site the retaining wall. The further away from the house it is, the nicer the outlook from the doors but I lose lawn. The closer it is the house, the worse the outlook but the bigger lawn area I get! I have attached a plan from a garden designer who has helped with ideas but really looking for any other ideas or thoughts as she was not sure what was best and suggested 2m level then a raised bed, then lawnAndy Brown Landscape Plan v003.PDF Any thoughts or ideas on how I resolve this conundrum?

I am looking to install an MEV unit with boost function together with PIV. I have seen the discussions on not having separate kitchen extractor with MVHR but for MEV, there is surely no need for a kitchen extractor in addition to the MEV unit as the grease/smells go straight out? Am I over simplifying it?

congrats, a wonderful feeling no doubt - do post some photos though!

Brilliant, thanks so much for all your help on this - I just couldn't find it!

Hi all, I am currently rendering onto a timber frame and looking at battens, render board and a thin coat render. The architect has specified a trim at the base of the render board - for insect control I guess, but also to feed the end of the breather membrane into. I can't find anywhere who supplies these - can anyone help please?

So far so good, but don't want to tempt fate too much. Has been on for three years. It is a two story basement, and we have waterproof concrete in both stories, and internal tanking on lower level and external on higher level!

I had a Nudura wall done with Triton external tanking and as per your experience it was not very tacky at all.

I have just been wondering this very same question. I have just had a quote from my electrician for labour only for extra spotlights, light switches and sockets - he is charging £50 each labour only and I am supplying materials. I am contracting directly with him. I was wondering whether this was fair, but based on the above, I guess it is. Am in Farnham Surrey, if that helps.

Have you tried emailing the head of planning? In my case that at least got them talking to me. I remember one time when I phoned and asked the receptionist to try various different people, after about the 6th person not being available she said, half jokingly, "do you want me to try the whole department?" which was an implied criticism of me asking her to try so many people. I replied, having to try so many people yet still without success, was a reflection on the planning department not on me!

Thanks for the replies guys, in the end I just went for batten and counter batten. The architect said I could use strips of 9mm ply as the batten if I wanted to, but in the end I relented. With the thickness of the batten, counter batten and tiles, the soffits were starting to look a bit small, but I think on reflection they are ok.

I am covering my timber frame with tile hanging on the first floor and render on the ground floor. I want to get the tiles as close to the face of the timber frame as permitted by building control. I believe the standard detail is to batten and counter batten with 25x38mm battens. This will mean the inner face of the tiles are 50mm off the timber frame - is there any way to reduce this without falling foul of building control?

Remarkably, I have someone in Farnham who doesn't cost the earth. She charges £36 an hour and I have only ever used her on an hourly rate so not sure if she would do a fixed price. PM me and I will pass on her details. Andy

I used Brian Peacock of Gurney consultants who have done plenty of work with Nudura if that helps...

I would issue a deemed discharge notice....

Done:-)

I would be tempted to get another EPC - Some of the assessors are paid less than £25 for do the survey (after the middlemen get their fees), which considering they have to travel there and back, so the assessment, submit it into the accreditation schemes software, issue an invoice and pay accreditation scheme fees means some inevitably take short cuts to make a living wake. And second time around, you may have a bit more evidence to show them to correct some of their assumptions or at least know where you need to convince them. And yes, I do have experience of the industry!:-)

I think there were certain things missing out of that build cost such as landscaping, and anything else they could think of until they came down to a figure they thought was close enough to their original budget. Must have been a £1m build cost including landscaping. Don't forget the £10k on trees, car park/tennis court, £70k on pond etc etc! Reckon it was £658k for the shell.

I don't know what DIY kitchens normal lead time is, but I placed my order last week and got a mid November delivery date, any later will cause me real issues. Just got an offer from them - if I delay my delivery to 2022 they will give me a 10% discount. sadly I can't take this offer. Don't think I have ever had a discount for taking delivery into the following year - normally it is buy now get a discount for a this month/year deal!

There are different sizes depending on application and some come with a percentage of topsoil mixed in. I used it but ordered the wrong size, and they supplied it with topsoil mixed in by mistake. Great stuff, but double check size and mix - luckily it was their mistake so they had to pick up 10 cubic metres incorrectly delivered. We used Bourne Amenity as our supplier

Doesn't it just? Now it makes sense... Gabions would work but I would not underestimate how hard it will be to move 50 tonnes by hand I would look at Criblock Retaining Walls - @mangersyou have the perfect space for them.