Fallingditch

Update: Shipping examples Skybad (Aachen; site in English, Customer Services on +49 2408 704930 speak English) offered shipping for 4 WCs, 4 Basins and various taps and mixers for 139 euro (9/11/2016). Shipping costs seems to max out at 139. Shipping took three days on the last order btw (and when we discovered a faulty component they replaced it without delay). On the other hand, Magabad (Cologne) offer a collection service (for anybody wanting an excuse for a eurobreak) NB I am not advocating any one supplier over another - this post has been submitted for informational purposes only

I am building in floodzone 3a, with trees, on an insulated concrete slab (so its considered more risky). When I went for quotes, there was a wide variety in cost, and time to process. After trying a few, Premier Guarantee turned it round quickly, and just over the £2k mark, without requiring extra surveys etc.

Back in ebuild, two years ago, there was a lot of discussion about the importance of not confusing your MVHR system by having a vented tumble dryer (or a kitchen extractor fan). Has anybody running with an MVHR system actually made use of a vented dryer? or kitchen extract? (Reason I ask is because vented dryers are much more reliable (but would prefer not to get into a discission about dryer reliabilty) and extractor fans really do get rid of them smells).

(I'm sure this has been covered somewhere before but unable to find it ...) If its for a new build home, and the Invoices from UK suppliers are in my name, then I should be able to claim the VAT back from HMRC. I know that several other self builders have sourced materials from European suppliers. I am about to do the same. Two issues: - if the foreign supplier charges me VAT, and the VAT is collected by (say) the German Tax Authority, are HMRC really going to let me claim it back from HMRC? - more sensible would be for me to request the supplier to zero rate the goods? would they do that? Does anybody have experience of this please? Perhaps even naming VAT-helpful foreign supplier companies?

For what its worth, Mary and I are building a 200 sq m house with three bathrooms. Shower in each bathroom - no baths. We've been in a rental house for one year. Bath got used twice. (If a subseqent buyer wants a bath, they can install one) I entirely agree that moving the bathroom upstairs so as to give a larger diner is the way to go. And is it worth spending all that dosh to move a window, and laying out on an expensive bath just to increase the number of people who might buy the house at some stage in the future? I would say no. What I would say is if/when you install the shower, spend a bit more money on good quality fittings (try Grohe or Hansgrohe); dont skimp on space for the shower itself (walk in?) and spend some time on the decor - you can make bathrooms look really great without spending an arm and a leg!

Having been through a lot of pain ... From our experience ... 1. The Architect has the 'aesthetic vision' - it certainly does make sense to employ one, but in my experience there are a few other things that you can and should be thinking about at this stage (because that will inform the dialogue you will have with prospective architects). 2. It was the selection of the Structural Engineer that caused us the biggest problem. We went with the a local one (delays) then another local one (more delays, more expense). Ultimately, we took advice from people on this site and used a SE may others have used and the experience has been good. (Hilliard from TSD). As a novice, you think 'how hard can the Engineering be' and it turns out that every SE comes up with a different scheme, with wildly differing numbers of piles required (for example). Also the Architect you select might prefer to work with their own SE (who maybe good or they may not. So you might want to say to the Architect 'are you willing to work with the SE we select?"). Look, I do accept its a bit chicken and egg - but if we had selected our SE early on we would have saved two years! 3. The other question you need to consider before selecting the Architect is how you are going to build the bloody thing. Again, speaking from experince: We made this false assumption that there is a 'market' in building contractors, and that when you put your designs out to tender, someone will give you a good price. Wrong. We went to six main Contractors for tenders, giving them a full set of plans, a specificaon for Building Services and a specification of all materials from a Quantty Surveyor. The cheapest tender was £2,000 per sq m. Most expensive was £3,750 per sq m. Options you have are: turnkey (full prefab house from Germany/Sweden for example); part turnkey (where they construct and handowver at 1st fix or 2nd fix eg Ireland/Melgium); main contracor (see above); use your own project manager who brings in their subcontractors; or manage/build it yourself. Again, I would choose my preferred construction option before selecting an architect. (In fact we have gone with a project manager and it is coming out below £1,500 per sq m and that's to a pretty good quality). 4. We ended up with an Atchitectural Technician, who I paid by the hour. I didn't detect in lack of skills on my AT's part. I certainly wasn't prepared to pay on a percentage basis and I think if you try and go fixed price its all liable to get hairy as you start changing things from the original design (and change things you will!!). The relationship here is critical, obviously. Keep looking for one until you are 100%. Make sure the contract allows you to terminate at any time and retain IP over the plans to date. Final tip: make sure they have the capability to render the plans in 3D - when you can see and navigate through the virtual building from a tablet it tells you so much more! 5. Set aside many hours to read through this site (and refer to its forerunner ebuild.co.uk). I would not have been able to build my house to the quality desired without it ! Forum members are incredibly generous with their time and advice. 6. If you can, try and identify someone (from this site?) who has done this thing before (or is in the middle of doing it). If at all possible, try and visit them to get some feeling for the big picture. Again from experience, we thought the architect would bring all this to the table, but in point of fact, they don't. You need to hone in on some of the big decisions, and only then fire off the Architect to go through Planning again. Very best wishes - everyone should try and build their house once in their lifetime :-)

According to IanR's link to Waitrose Bloke, the one with the Inspection Shelf is Number 2: the Wash Out Closet ("condemned in Britain since the beginning of the twentieth century"). Interesting use of the word 'condemned' - how does a WC get condemned? (And it would be Number 2 for the Number Twos of course.)

Der flaskspul page ...

Browsing the Megabad site with Google translate turned on, there appear to be three options when it comes to WC selection. They are: spulrandlos 'flushing, borderless' tiefspul washdown flackspul washout My previous sanitaryware came from Egypt. Complaints were receibed that on key occasions, it simply wasn't 'man enough' for the job in hand. So we dont want that problem again. Given therefore that the primary requirement is for a flushing toilet with a concealed cistern that works, would anyboady care to have a go at explaining the distinction between spulrandlos, tiefspul and flackspul?

So tomorrow, we are going to have a little topping out ceremony. Roof's on and the finial's just about ready to be attached ! What have others done for their topping out, if anything? (PS Its a custom build not a self-build by the way so its the four workers who will be getting the congratulations ...)

Nick: I see you've posted pictures of Roca as well as Geberit. I know Grohe do a lot of concealed cisterm options also. Speaking from your perspective as someone who has fitted a lot of these cisterns, do Geberit have any particular advantages over (say) Grohe? or Roca?

The part number works with UK suppliers: 111.353.00.5 (Geberit Duofix frame for wall-hung WC, 112 cm, with Sigma concealed cistern 12 cm, for odour extraction with recirculating air) But when I try and source the same items from our friends in Germany (eg Megabad), it don't work. Seems like they have different part numbers between UK and Germany? I can find two options on megabad: 111.370.00.5 https://www.megabad.com/hersteller-geberit-spuelkaesten-montageelemente-unterputz-spuelkasten-a-150057.htm 111.364.00.5 |https://www.megabad.com/hersteller-geberit-spuelkaesten-montageelemente-unterputz-spuelkasten-a-74850.htm Help and assistance please, anybody?

Excellent question. That would have been the sensible thing (as long as you like render finishes as I do). However when I applied for Planning Permssion for a 3 storey replacement house in the countryside, I decided I had t make it look like a nearby Water Mill, so the application was for a building clad in white weatherboard. I was very glad to be granted permission with few conditions (and I didn't want to risk reapplying).So then we had to work out how to hold the cladding up - and the outcome of that was 'build a second skin in 100mm. Pain in the neck and with a big price tag. Re suppliers of prefab houses: I will have to dig out the details - but please note I cannot recommend any of them

Could you explain a bit more, Peter? (or point me to a page where I can find an explanation?)

I am a big fan of German (Austrian) electrical and meachanical components. It seems like a crucial component of any kitchen are the drawer runners, and door and cupboard hinges. The market is dominated by Blum, Grass and Hettich (who have high priced and low priced ranges as well). Kessebohmer do a lot of the fancy pullout fittings etc. Additionally, the market for higher quality panel materials are also dominated by German companies: Egger and Kronospan. (I know there will be others!) But having done a lot of research, I have found two UK companies who manufacture and assemble kitchens to customers plans using the above German components, and who deliver to sire pre-assembled ready for the customer to install, but who operate at a lower price point. They are: DIYKitchens near Pontefract, and LarkandLarks in Solihull. Many of their customers give them very good feedback. I have not bought from them yet - interested to see if others have. I do understand that if you go to a full service Kitchen Supplier and get them to do the entire job, the quality will be higher than what an amateur self builder can achieve, and there will be fewer problems. But I think the cost premium for that end-to-end service can sometimes exceed how much self-builders want to spend.

Could you maybe post a couple of images, Peter?

I'm on the edge of floodzone 3a, so my preferred construction method was block and block, with EPS in a 200 cavity (for flood resilience). To achieve airtightness, we used autoclaved concrete blocks (ytong) 100 outer and 215 inner, because they use thin bed cement and can be easily cut to shape. Lightweight concrete also meant we didnt have to pile, and could go with an insulated reinforced concrete slab (so you dont need piling contractors and all the associated mess, but you do have spoil to get rid of) The building is 10m x 8m and with room in gambrel roof. The gable wall reaches 10m high. pros: construction straightforward easily handled and worked material should be very thermally efficient cons will not be as cheap as other methods (but I dever attemted to compare prices) 1st block laid on 29 April; last on 20th September (two layers and one labourer, installing easijoist floors on the way up), blocklaying goes on and on and on! would I do it again? Next time (if there is a next time) I would try to source a prefabricated, factory built house. Trouble is, its in Europe (for now) where the factories are, and Brexit has not helped the economics of sourcing pre-fabs from Europe.

Firstly, I am not a sparky, but I have been looking (and looking) at sockets ... The question arose because I will be putting six double sockets at high level in a colured glass spashback above a kitchen worktop, to which the eye will naturally be drawn ... and I really dont want the eye to focus on white plastic switched sockets when we will be spending thousands on splashbacks, worktops and kitchen units! So it seems from the above I can lose the switches. Next is colour and style. Suppliers mentioned above do a wide range of styles (brass, gold, wood effect, stainless steel etc etc.). But I want to go for minimalist, so plan to use an anthracite colour (Gira make a very expensive one which looks like this). Everywhere else in the house I will use bog standard white ones (for example these Hager which are one sixth the price of the anthracite ones!)

Can somebody help me with this? I am just about to order 80 assorted double sockets (some different colours). Then I thought, what is the point of specifiying switches to my sockets? The only time I ever use a swtich is if I have a lamp plugged in. Otherwise its just ON the entire time. At the same time I have worked with people who go around the place setting socket switches to OFF, which is very irritating vecause you subsequently plug something in and it DON'T WORK. Is there a benefit to switches I am missing? Do switches for example reduce fire risk?

The use of Reuters, Megabad, Skybad and Heizman24 for the import of big ticket sanitaryware at much lower prices have been discussed in the plumbing section. I have just come across a German electrical store offering around 200,000 items, in English, priced in sterling. Delivery costs start at abouit £10.80 (12.50 euro). So for those of us thinking of buying Gira, Hager, Jung, Busch-Jaeger, Scneider switches, sockets etc, might want to take a look. www.eibmarkt.com (Note I have used Google translate on German sites before, but this is the first large electrical shopping site I have come across which is in English, with commodity pricing and low delivery costs.)

What is a cover shield please Peter? (image?)

Nick could you post a couple of examples of what you are referring to here please? PS in defence of pivot doors: some time ago we were in rented accomodation. It had a corner shower with a pivot door. It was unlabelled. It took me about three months searching but eventually I found out who made them - Kermi. Since then i have bought two Kermi quadrant showers with pivot doors and they are both working without any problem. Not cheap: budget price is £1k although new ones do come up on ebay. I guess when you've only got room for a quadrant then its sliding or pivot and I would go for a Kermi pivot.

I am currently just approaching wind and watertight. My feelings exactly.

seems like they are so nickable the entries got nicked from eBay!

Is this for real, Nick?