Haylingbilly

same for me, once you get the surveyors out, they can be much more helpful than the office staff. I would definitely take this approach if I did it again.

Blimey, when I saw your picture I thought your text would be singing the praises of expensive German kitchens - it looks very nice indeed!

When you say it take 65 days to dry, how long is it until you can walk on it? Ie, how long do you need to keep people out of the screed area of your build?

If you are pumping it, I would definitely check with the pump supplier.

I think I was one week too late ordering - it was steel mesh I was after - delivery expected on Monday. So far £1100 on steel increase and £4761 on timber frame and still not out of the ground. Next major expenses are roof tiles and windows - roof tiles already ordered (two months ago) but will see if price goes up when I request delivery and keeping fingers windows will be ok.

I bought and paid for my steel on 7th June for my slab from a company with TZ in the name and paid £1700 . They cancelled the order yesterday claiming they couldn't get hold of it for at least a couple of weeks. The cheapest I have been able to find it is £2800. Am very grumpy about it!

Thanks for all of your comments and have paid my manufacturing invoice - I felt that it was fair enough and is reassuring that no-one screamed blue murder. My architect said that one of his other clients was just about to start an extension, but the builder put up the price by 20% and the clients can't afford it so have had to cancel the project.

I paid my initial deposit to cover deign fees and signed the contract for my timber frame house in March for a total cost of £49,000 which I have been in discussions with them for 6 months on (so arguably this price is from mid to late last year). We were going to make the next payment next week and instruct them to manufacture it but got a call today to say the price is going up by £4,600. Oh and I should better pay this next invoice in the next couple of days to avoid another price rise. I am not sure I have much choice and to be honest think if I tried to use anyone else the price would be higher than this anyway so am intending to pay it reluctantly:-( Ironic as the structural engineer who is doing the foundation design asked me a couple of hours before the call from the timber frame company if they had put the price up - I said no, well not yet anyway!

We will load sand and soil with excavator and then bricks and blocks by hand. Our access is only 1.1m wide so not sure if we have any other method to move materials ?

If it is relatively level then I think a rough terrain pallet truck is a good option, you can get a second hand one on eBay. I have also seen some modified to carry bulk bags. But if you have to drag them up an incline then I doubt this would work. I have a similar issue and am leaning towards using a 1 tonne dumper to move the materials around.

Just spotted this - sounds like just the thing for you! http://naturalstonesurfaces.co.uk/off-cuts/

You could have some sort of pergola type or lean too type structure if front of the patio doors (or a glass roof or even tiled roof structure - I was thinking of something below might be a really cost effective solution). You could then run the drainpipes down to a gutter which runs along the top of where it joins the wall. The downpipes at the end of the building could be at the sides. Hopefully this makes sense It wouldn't eliminate the downpipes but would certainly make them less dominant

I am in a similar situation. Agree with Big Jimbo - speak to CIL department and put it in writing to them to confirm conversation. You can commence one scheme and then serve a new commencement notice should you get another scheme approved. But you cannot commence either before discharging any pre commencement conditions I believe you can put the services in before commencement, that's what my council advised me - but unless you have it in writing from your council, I wouldn't do it! If you do serve notice and do any work which the council consider to be based on your new scheme and not applicable to your existing scheme then you will be considered to have started the new scheme without serving your commencement notice and will become liable. This CIL liability keeps me up at night!

For a concrete shuttering solution I would imagine Gravestock in Billinghurst would be your best bet - not the cheapest but a safe option.

I used Rhys Quinn at Eco Build Southern for mine - he is an ICF specialist and would recommend him. Was a really cost effective way of doing it. Also he is in your neck of the woods, he had to travel to Farnham to do mine!

You can get butt hinges, fancier handles and weather bars with the R9 (I looked It up when I saw you had used R9 as I hadn't heard of R9 and wanted to know what I had missed out on as assumed R9 were better ???)

I have Residence R7 and Vijay their R9. If you go onto Residence's website you will be surprised how many people supply them. I used Tradelink direct who will supply self builders.

I have been agonising over timber vs uPVC flush casement windows for a while now. Just took an advance delivery of one for my garage which I am building ahead of my house. It is a wood grain effect white window and I love it - can't tell the difference from a wooden window and 1/2 the price! I am not far from you in Farnham if you want to come and have a look! Sorry the photo is a bit distant

It is great news that things have improved with your builder - how did you get it back on track with him?

An approach could be to turn it all on its head and ask the builder if he wants to carry on? Acknowledge there have been issues and he may not be that happy with how things have gone so far. Give him time to think about it and then reconvene. If he does then have a chat about his and your expectations. As the build progresses there will be lots of decisions to be made and delays (whether down to contractor, architect, SE, suppliers or clients) - so really important to reset the relationship to a collaborative one or end it as soon as you can, IMHO. Just an idea, if you are having these thought, chances are he is too. If so I would want to know how committed he is and if he isn't then so be it. Maybe a controversial idea!

I have been going through the old threads trying to decided whether to put the UFH into the concrete slab or in the screed. This seems to be the preferred approach with maybe 25mm of EPS below the DPM and celotex above the DPM. We are going timber frame so assume it is very similar My builder has raised the issue that what happens if it rains? If it is before the concrete slab is poured it would be a big problem and even after and until you are watertight, surely the water could seep into the insulation? So certainly until the timber frame first floor is up you would need to cover if there was a chance of rain. Or am I missing something?

For some reason I missed all the comments on this - so thank you for all of the input. I am about to order so it is all really helpful Cheers

Anything over 12"x12" type size should be snapped up on Freecycle. The rest makes excellent lightweight backfill material otherwise fill old bulk bags and take it to a trade waste place which will be cheap to tip as will be based on weight. Hope this helps

I would ask the local CIL officer at the council - I have found mine to be incredibly helpful. I have a particularly challenging situation and employed a specialist planning lawyer to help. But have given up and am just working with the local CIL officer who is as knowledgeable and free!

I used render from EWI Pro too - found them at one of the shows. They were great and 30-40% cheaper than krend