JackOrion

The proposals we have had so far include three different piling techniques - but all recommend rock sockets for the extra stability this will provide. For context, our plot is on a south facing slope within quite a steep sided valley, which might help explain the belt and braces approach.

Thanks. Yeah, the plot was about 30% market value due to a legal issue that was relatively easy to sort! The ground was at that point was of course unknown... but seems like it will be the factor that evens things out! Win some lose some. We'll see.

Many thanks for this @saveasteading – I'll get all the info together and get in touch with some more companies once back next week. I'll keep you posted on progress.

Thanks @ToughButterCup – yes, I'd read your previous posts with interest... I can't reach their website at the moment, but I see from their Facebook page that they sponsor a football team not too far from us. Will definitely be giving them a shout, though I fear access constraints will rule them out.

Thanks @saveasteading I don't have the ground report to hand at the moment (also, it's a huge file), but in short, bedrock is indicated to be 8m below ground. The 10m depth includes 2m drilled rock sockets. It's a relatively lightweight building (pile loads calculated at 75kN compression). Yes, the slope is stable. This has been established by the original ground investigation engineers plus at least two other geotech consulting engineers. That said, the rock socketed piles can withstand potential lateral force from this slope if required. The plan is for the slope to be more stable after construction. This is a good point. Initial thoughts were they wouldn't be interested in a small project and would charge the earth... but no harm in trying. Assuming you're referring to the likes of Bullivant / Van Elle etc? Any others from the top of your head?

Thanks @Russell griffiths I think that's where we're at. The quote we have so far is for a mini excavator with a drill mast (which will work to install the piles on the slope as well as on the flat part of the plot) The problem with the small diameter piles is as you say, many more are needed (£££) than if we had a more regular rig installing 300mm piles for example. Will follow your advice and reach out to more companies though. Agreed, it's definitely not looking like a cheap job.

Ah, I see what you mean there now, helpful to see it. I think the problem here comes down to how far beneath ground 'something solid' is...

Would be interested to see it!

@Russell griffiths @ProDave 3D model attached here, alongside elevation showing sloping 'stilt' detail. (completed design has quite a bit less glazing etc, but this should give the idea) The new house is in two parts and wraps around the hillside, utilising the flattest parts of the plot (and avoiding protected trees). Existing structures are greyed out – it's an old walled garden, which was pretty much a gardeners' tip when we bought it, but is in the grounds of a listed building (downhill, out of shot). So along with the geography we are fairly limited to what we can do. Interestingly, the existing brick potting sheds (greyed out on the left of 3d model) are on minimal foundations (built in 1800s), and slope downhill with the natural terrain, and haven't moved an inch. Image 1.pdf Image 2.pdf

Exactly that! 2-3m refusal on each ground investigation borehole would have been a much better result for us.

Funnily enough that's pretty much what we've got... the slope is only beneath one part of the house, which is already split into two sections to make the most of the flattest areas of the plot. At this point the building is essentially on stilts with a steel frame above the pile caps.

@Great_scot_selfbuild Thanks for this. Will check these out. Given our position, anything man-handleable sounds really appealing but again I suspect they won't do the trick for our ground conditions, as previous screw / helical piles were deemed unsuitable. I'll keep you posted on how we get on though. Likewise keen to hear how you get on...

A photo attached here.. although I suspect you were after a borehole log? The ground investigation took three boreholes... in summary they found up to a metre of 'cohesive made ground', below which is 'an extensive thickness of reworked clays with occasional gravel lenses revealed to variable depths' (4.5m to 10m), beyond which was the rockhead. strata.pdf

Unsure if we're going down the prefab route yet or not, but certainly can't get an artic anywhere near site. Spoke to a few suppliers (e.g. Eden Insulation), who suggested dropping their kit off at a delivery yard nearby, which would then be shuttled up to site on flat beds. The alternative would be to stick build. Pretty sure helical piles have been ruled out for us due to the ground conditions. Same goes for any major excavation of the slope – would likely require soil nails (more cost + large plant required!)

We’re building a 130sqm single storey timber framed house. Part sloping site with very tricky, limited access. It’s a beautiful spot but lots of hurdles to overcome… the latest of which is the piling cost. SE seems to be taking the contractors’ lead in terms of piling method. As mentioned, access is limited (size and weight of plant) and also we need to install some of the piles on a slope. So to be fair to the SE, the pile specification is reliant on someone with good working knowledge of plant / installation etc.. First quote is approx £70k for 54 micropiles. These would be 115mm diameter drilled hollow bar up to 10m depth (based on ground investigation). Around £1300 per pile, excluding mobilisation etc.. Given the huge costs, we’re concerned that contractors aren’t necessarily exploring all possibilities, but just quoting based on their own experience and the plant they have available. Wondering if some kind of independent specialist pile design consultant or similar might be an option here, to ensure we’re looking at as many methods as possible. Does anyone have any recommendations as far as that might go? Or any other thoughts? Noted the vibro stone columns mentioned elsewhere on BH which are something I’d never heard of before, although I’m guessing our access would rule this out. But this is exactly the kind of thing I’m wondering about… are other methods out there which might help us get these costs down? Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks for the suggestion. We're looking into this at the moment, and speaking to our planning consultant. It really comes down to how much wriggle room we have within that planning permission.

We won't be able to recover any of that money as the practice was liquidated. And am certain he will want more for work carried out since then. The only written indication of fees / percentages etc is on his practice invoice from 2020. This is the closest thing to anything contractual we have. Since the practice is no more I'm unsure where that leaves things legally. At first it was largely being slow and lack of attention to detail, then later suspected incompetence. The financial side has only come to the fore recently.

Only ever agreed drawings, not project management, although we never received an actual written quotation from him. As mentioned, barely anything via email since we started, all just over the phone. Total fee was to be 10% of total original projected build cost (£200k). We've paid 35% of this 10%, so basically £7k + VAT. Ran this by another architect friend of a friend who suggested this was standard practice to charge this kind of amount once planning granted. Although I forgot to mention in my original post: he said we hadn't paid him at all when we spoke last month. I provided his invoice and proof / date of payment and he backtracked, saying he'd mislaid paperwork. My understanding was that the next fee would be due once detailed drawings were delivered. We're quite a way off that, he's done very little the past two years as we've made next to no progress as far as the actual house goes, the project's largely been in the hands of a very slow structural engineer looking at foundations since then. Originally found via the Architect's Journal and seemed to have a decent reputation. Clearly we've also been a bit naive – this is our first time dealing with an architect and we trusted him.

We hired an architect when we bought our plot in late 2018. We got through planning and got our permission in spring 2020. We paid our only invoice to his practice at this time (35% of projected total fee), he’d been really helpful up to this point. Since then we’ve gone through lengthy and costly geotechnical investigations (tricky access, sloping plot) and been figuring out potential piling solutions via civil and structural engineers. The detailed drawings have not yet been done. Some rough sketches from architect and fairly frequent (but short) telephone conversations. The exact position of the house and how it sits on the ground is still unclear. We’ve had some concerns over his competency and communication the longer the project has dragged on, and he moved away from the area a couple of years ago. (One of the reasons for hiring was that he was local). The pandemic also muddied the waters as it allowed him to become unavailable. Real alarm bells: He has asked us to lend money on a couple of occasions. The first request was to lend £100k to another of his clients(!) after which we’d “get £130k back” (!!) - he later apologised for suggesting this when we said we couldn’t possibly do this. The second of these requests was last month, when he asked if we could put a sum into his wife’s bank account as his had been frozen. I said no and there’s been no contact since. We’ve just found out his architectural practice (the one we originally commissioned and paid in 2020) actually went into liquidation in early 2021. He was the director and didn’t tell us it had wound up. I discovered via Companies House after last month’s financial request. So… our trust and confidence in him has well and truly gone. He has done some work since the last invoice in 2020 (a few rough sketches, brief but fairly frequent communication with us, as well as the geotechnical and structural engineers) - however the latest 'napkin' sketches last month showed a house that doesn’t fit on the plot and doesn’t comply with our planning permission. (The one he helped us obtain). We're of the opinion now after input from civil and structural engineers that we'll probably have to put in a new planning application as his original drawings are proving both impractical and too costly to build. Needless to say we’re saying goodbye. There’s no contract and he rarely communicates via email. He's a member of the ARB but seems to me like he's breached their standards of conduct and practice. Any tips on how to sever contact cleanly? Since getting the gist of how he operates financially, we’re very concerned he’s going to try and hit us with a huge bill when we pull the plug. All help appreciated as ever.

We are renovating some old outbuildings to be used for workshop / home-office spaces. It's a primitive (120+ years old) single storey, long and slim brick building separated into 4 rooms (see plan attached), and it's just been re-roofed. We'll be insulating and replacing old doors and windows and it needs to be up to standard in terms of comfort and heating as we'll be working from these spaces over winter (and potentially using them as ancillary living accommodation in future). I wasn't sure which of the sub-forums to post this in, as I don't know what the best option is in terms of heating (this is the question...) We have: • Electricity supply to the building • No gas • No boiler in the building • Large ongoing supply of firewood from the woodland on site. They are small rooms (approx 2.5 to 3m ceiling height), and given firewood is available, we wondered if a wood burner can be channelled to heat up all rooms – maybe via a back boiler? The floors in Rooms 3 and 4 are both stone flagged (cold earth beneath) so will be insulating under there whichever route we take. Room 2 is concreted (presumably over stone flags / earth) and Room 1 is flagged on I-beams with a cellar beneath. Other thoughts included UFH for Rooms 3 and 4. But I've a feeling there will be someone on here with a better insight and more experience of heating a space like this. We have some constraints (no boiler, no gas) but being a small space, with a well insulated roof and (eventually) walls / decent spec doors and windows, hoping there are a few options available... As ever, many thanks in advance for any thoughts. And apologies if this should have been posted elsewhere (couldn't find a more general heating forum)

The driveway access to our plot is raised up by about 15ft via a retaining wall at the back of the plot. The wall and driveway are getting on for 150 years old, and the driveway itself needs resurfacing etc as it's pretty much a dirt track now. We'd also like to get an idea of the strength of the wall to see if we need to impose weight limits etc. Apparently it used to be used for coal truck deliveries so hoping it's pretty solid. Is it a structural engineer we need in order to suss this out? Any particular types / tips as far as this goes? Thanks in advance for any help.

We are re-roofing an old out building. The building is 16m long, sloping downhill, and roughly 5m wide. So the roof is approx 2m from eaves to ridge both sides, with a fairly shallow pitch (16 degrees). We are re-using the old welsh slates and will be insulating between the rafters eventually. We asked the roofer to counter batten in order to get continuous airflow and so insulation could fill up beneath the membrane, but now the bottom row of slates are in place, I can see that continuous airflow doesn't have an inlet at the eaves, where the fascia board is kicked up (and the batten the last slate rests on isn't countered, either) Cross-section attached here – not 100% accurate but hopefully illustrates our situation. Is a ventilation inlet at the eaves absolutely crucial here? (e.g. https://fascias.com/over-fascia-vent-ov10-1m-x-10mm) Some searching online suggests not, since we're using permeable felt, and air will get in-between the slates enough to ventilate. (I will ask the roofer on Monday, he's very experienced and came recommended, and can only imagine he's of this school of thought too) New to this, and slightly concerned it's too late to rectify this now much of the work's been done, so any suggestions / thoughts much appreciated. Many thanks!

Yes, I thought it would have been lime mortar, but the damage to the bricks incurred when chipping it off suggests maybe not... I'm pretty sure a jet wash isn't going to get the mortar off. These bricks I'm attempting to re-use are from an old wall elsewhere on site, so the mortar is on the top, bottom and sides of the brick, not the face. I was under the impression it all needs to come off before they're re-laid... unless anyone knows if brickies can live with a bit of old mortar here or there when re-using old bricks?

The wall of one of our outbuildings needs a course or two of bricks adding to it. The bricks are late 1800s at a guess, and are quite unique. We have lots of the same bricks elsewhere on site that are in decent shape but they have mortar on them which needs to go before the bricklayer comes back to do the work... I've tried with a brick bolster and hammer, and the mortar drops off with a couple of light taps. The problem being, more often than not, the mortar takes a chunk of the brick with it. See pictures attached. Is this down to technique? The brick bolster / hammer method? Or the bricks themselves? (is it realistic to get the mortar off these bricks without damaging them?) Any tips appreciated. Trying to steer clear of the muriatic acid method I've come across online.

Good point, we already checked this and the right of access definitely runs with the land – the question mark was just whether there was a restriction on the access depending on what we needed it for... From the opinions expressed so far, it appears not!