Haylingbilly

Thanks for the feedback - to answer some of the questions The access issues are that there is a pinch point which is very narrow that we have to take everything past - to one side is a 2m high retaining wall that is not sound (we are above it) and hence we couldn't get a tipper through. To remediate that wall we are looking at £5-10k and even then there is a victorian water storage tank that we have to go over which may or may not take the weight. For me these is just too much risk of using any heavy machinery. I wish I could raise the rest of the site a foot - ironically I have 1/2 an acre, but most of it has a blanket TPO so tree officer won't let me dump any soil there. I'll be trying to lose as much as I can but. 330cum is realistic in what we need to remove Moonshine and Declan52 - I don't think we are a million miles off our estimates (admittedly I am doing the classic client thing of underestimating!). The earth is very very free draining, is golden sand - you can't really grow anything on it so I think it will be lighter that you estimate - at say 20% lighter - that would put your estimate at touching 50 days. I think the cost neutral point of getting a conveyor in if all goes as plans is the same as 65 days of heavy lifting, but with inevitable delays (breakdowns blockages, and such like) it could easily work out at 80 plus days. If the consensus was at the level of 80 days then I would look at conveyor more seriously, but am thinking the thing to do, is get a team in for half a day and see what we can manage and then reassess.

So, due to issues with access, I am going to have to do my foundations spoil removal by hand and have 330 cubic meters of top soil and sand to remove. Firstly I think it will bulk up and be roughly 30 grab lorries - does that seem right? I would love to use a dumper or tracked barrows to move it - I might get away with tracked barrows but won't with a dumper. My experience of tracked barrows is on the level they aren't any quicker and for me there is limited space to turn around at the tipping point so I think would be very slow turning around so no faster than by hand. So I I had 5 men with a high capacity wheel barrow each and one man in an excavator loading their barrows for them - each man has to wheel their barrow a level 40m and then tip it before returning. Is it realistic that each man can do the equivalent of a grab a day? And in which case this is a 6x5 man day for barrowing and 6 days of an excavator driver job? I have looked into the cost of a conveyor belt and even a railway but both are double the price of doing it by hand unless I have my estimates of the time out by a lot!. Really appreciate the build hubbers wisdom on this....

Hi Dan, you might also check whether the site insurance covers your structure. I have just taken out site insurance with protek and it covers me for the structure. So if for example my house is 95% built and it burns down, floods or a tree falls on it etc etc, then it covers the reinstatement cost. Unless the builder was negligent of course and in which case would be on them. So I guess the insurance is part third party risks but also is an equivalent to home buildings insurance which of course you can't get on a part built empty property through normal channels.

A mile away from my site and into East Hants charging area, it is only £221! Thats half price ??? 10 miles down the road into Whitehill and Bordon and it is £79

Glenn and other buildhubbers, I would suggest proceeding very carefully with regard to CIL and starting without discharging conditions. I have got myself in quite a situation by starting before discharging all my conditions. I also have a Section 73 variation of conditions (different drawings going on) which will impact the CIL. It is not looking good for me to be able to claim self build exemption. I demolished a building when there was no active planning permission (there was a lapsed permission and my current one was going to appeal) and I was renovating a garage under permitted development. Both of these could potentially make me liable for CIL. Am having to pay through the nose for legal advice to find a way forward. Am sure most people can get away with it, but I am in Waverley in Surrey and our CIL is a mouth watering £455.44 a square meter!

Sorry to hear about your issue:-( I think if it went to committee with a recommendation for approval and was rejected then you would stand a good chance at appeal. I guess your only redress is a request for costs to be awarded as part of the appeal. The planning system is an absolute farce in this country IMHO.

I am going through this at the moment and it is fun isn't it?! I have to get three neighbours to agree. In my case the water company is happy to do the work without wayleaves but will stop if anyone objects, the gas company have asked me to get the neighbours to sign the wayleaves and won't discuss connection until the wayleaves are signed and the electric company has booked the work in and has approached the neighbours directly. None have refused to sign yet, but none have signed and am treading a careful line to get them to sign. Like you, I have a right but enforcing that right is a different matter. If you have the right and they deny it (by not signing), I guess it is sadly a case to get a lawyer involved. It must be a relatively common occurrence so there must be a standard approach to get it resolved. Will be interesting to see if anyone on the forum has had experience of how to enforce this right.

I have just completed on an Ecology mortgage and we have a local conveyancing firm who acted for me - they charged £500 plus vat and £40 plus vat for the bank transfer fee. I would recommend them. I can message you the details or if it is acceptable can post them on here (I am not sure if we are allowed to post recommendations like this?)

I have a proposal for my MVHR system from BPC and there are two options for radial ducting - their standard and premium kits. The premium kit contacts an upgrade to "German" ducting, Airflex plenums, airflow pro air valve, attentuation kit, MVHR coupling kit. Do you think it is worth paying the extra £490 for this upgraded spec of ducting or are these things "nice to haves"? Thanks Andy

Some great information on this thread. I am currently chasing a timber frame supplier - is so hard to chose! Has anyone come across Paramount Timber Frame? Andy

On our build we poured over 5m (when I say we I mean the professionals did) - this was for the second floor and the apex up to the roof ridge - 6m I seem to recall. At the time (three years ago) the woodcrete people I was talking to were recommending 1.2m poor maximum height.

Ok, for what it is worth, I built with Nudura but went a long way down the line with one of the woodcrete solutions. My issue was I couldn't find a local builder who would use the woodcrete solution, but could find 3 people who would use Nudurra. A couple of points worth mentioning - with Nudurra you can pour a much higher level than with the woodcrete blocks and with £500 odd for a concrete pump depending on which one you need there could be a significant saving there. The engineer had completed the structural calcs with the woodcrete and had to redo 30% of the initial work to respecify for Nudura. The Nudura blocks are fragile and we lost a few through damage on site - I suspect the woodcrete ones are much more robust. The woodcrete system we looked at had an option for a floor system which in hindsight would have been a much much better solution for us that the hollowcore floor solution we used for Nudura. The woodcrete floor solution needs lots of props sure, but a small cost compared to the cost of a hollowcore floor! Be very careful with your "quotes" from the suppliers - they are estimates - ours was out by quite a bit - 15%, which once you have purchased, the old "it was only an estimate" line was used and whilst the supplier helped, we were still out of pocket £2k mainly due to minor damage on site meaning the incorrectly specified panels not being able to be returned. Make sure you check them line by line and know exactly what you are buying and it is what you need - it is not easy as I had 20 odd line items on my quotes of supplier specific terminology.

Hi Bitpipe A very interesting post - please can you tell me what uValue you had for your walls and did you go double or triple glazed. Can you remember your airtightness result too? Thanks! Andy

Hi DavidO, this is really interesting. Please can you tell me what uValues you had on your wall and did you have double or triple glazing? Thanks! Andy

Thanks for all of the feedback, is really helpful and as recommended will go for a gas boiler! Thanks once again Andy

So, I have been quoted £600 by SGN to get gas connected to my new build (240SQM). If I understand correctly the RHI ends at the end of Feb this year, and I am only just starting construction so will be way too late to qualify if I have understood this correctly. In which case, it would seem to me to be much, much more cost effective from an upfront perspective to go for a gas boiler, or am I missing something? I only intend to live in the house for three years until I have cleared my CIL liability. What are your thoughts? Andy

Hi There Please can you help - we are building a traditional style house and need clay roof tiles and trying to decide between hand made and machine made - and "machine made, hand finished". Any suggestions on suppliers to chose and what we should expect to pay? Thanks Andy

Interestingly enough a couple of those reviews on google are from people who seem to live in Spain, so not sure how reliable they are!

They are cheap for the u value they are quoting, I am not looking for a particularly low u value, so happy with that aspect. They are just quite a bit cheaper than the other (two) quotes I have, but there does not seem to be any feedback on the hub for them.

Hi there, I am currently getting quotes for Timber Frames and have a price from Solo Timber Frame, which is very competitive. Has anyone any experience of using them? Thanks