Tony L

I’m hoping you can help me steer my architectural technician in the right direction with these drawings he’s done for me. It seems the arch tec wants to build the 1990s way, with concessions to the latest building regs. I want to build the Build Hub way. I don’t have an architect (although I have recently looked into bringing one on board). I drew the house myself to achieve PP & now I’m relying on an arch tec to get my design through full plans BR approval & then do the construction drawings & notes, so I can continue building (we’ve already built up to the B&B floor). This Sketchup shows a very early draft design for my house (the chimney has since been deleted & other improvements have been made, including reducing glazing). I’m seeking advice on the detail for the big dormer that hangs over the edges of the first floor.

Thanks, @Iceverge & @Roger440. I've spent some more time on this this evening, including looking at some of your older posts, Iceverge, & I am convinced. Is Warmcel my only option or are there other suppliers I should consider?

I agree with your point re cavity walls, & having learnt so much from your other posts (thank you again @Iceverge ), I was able to tell my arch tech why he needed to change his drawings/notes to show blown EPS beads in my block cavity walls. I was thinking I'd be putting PIR boards between my rafters, with Gapotape around the sides. I'm planning to do this myself, to ensure good attention to detail & also save paying somebody else to do something that looks like it would be easy to do & also probably save money over blown cellulose (I haven't priced these two alternative methods yet). The rafters will be a mix of 150 x 50 & 200 x 50 C24 & there are no valleys, so there won't be any awkward compound cuts. Will PIR + Gapotape be a good solution for me, or should I specify blown cellulose? Video here, for anyone who hasn't seen Gapotape:

Our gutters will send the rain water into the same 110mm pipes that will take foul water away. Our builder built the drains without gulley traps. The BCO told him to fit gulley traps for the downpipes to feed into. My understanding is, this is to prevent smells coming up the drain pipes, rather than to trap debris that's washed off the roof. I could be wrong on the purpose of the traps, but they were a BC requirement.

Welcome to the forum, @mads. I'm doing the same as you - the bungalow has gone & the new build is just out of the ground. Have you got planning permission, yet? If not, you really don't want to be racking up architect fees on the design of every last detail of your new home, until you know the planners are going to let you have a house that's the size, shape & ridge height you're hoping for. Looking forward to hearing more from you, in future.

Congratulations. & I'm looking forward to hearing more in the coming months.

If you're in London, you could get this guy round to do a survey & quote. I've learned quite a lot from his Youtube channel. He puts a lot of thought into his work. londonflatroofing.co.uk

I'm no expert, but floor joists on ledger boards & hangers seems like an easier way of achieving airtightness. Perhaps the Tony trays are a good idea if you're going to be doing the work yourself, but I wouldn't want to leave Tony tray drawings with a team of builders to let them get on with it while I was off site. Some learned person, please enlighten me: why are Tony trays often the preferred solution over ledger boards? Is TF too flimsy for ledger boards? That can't be the whole answer, because I know TTs are used in blocks.

Hey @saveasteading. You misquoted me there. I am happy to blame the not terribly good forum software, rather than you, but I will still set the record straight: I was quoting @sb1202 & saying I disagree with his/her ludicrous ideas about debt collection companies.

I disagree.

That's right. They wouldn't be allowed to charge 8% a day, even if their T&Cs tell you that's what they will do. I received a letter from my builder's solicitor within the past couple of days that says, "This may include interest at 8% per annum above the base rate, a fixed sum for compensation for late payment and the costs of recovery.", so I'm guessing 8%pa above base is the max. they're allowed to charge.

That looks fantastic. I love the different colours. Great pictures too, with straight lines everywhere - I hate those bendy iPhone pictures that everyone (me included) posts. Well done & thanks for posting.

And spoil my lovely brickwork 😂😂 No problem for me - I've spec'd rendered blockwork, so I'll be taking this advice. Thanks, @Iceverge.

Here's one that fits this description. There are probably others. When I have time, I'll investigate further. I think the same company sells the matching edge panels too, & gutters, fascias, soffits, ridge pieces, flashings for roof lights & dormers. So you can get your whole roof done, with integrated PV, by one installer.

That's given me something to consider. I was thinking, if I have the budget to add 3G, but not everywhere, I'd start with the south facing bathroom window - to limit solar gain, then two Velux in south facing sloping roof (or perhaps external blinds would be a better choice to limit solar gain, although they provide no heating insulation) then the big fixed window in the north facing sloping roof (no external blinds here, & the sun will come in during the height of summer), then perhaps the rest of the first floor (in the hope that I won't need any first floor heating in winter, or at least Autumn/Spring). Is this not a sound strategy? I was left with the idea from another BH thread that for heat insulation, depending on the window size & shape, I may see the same benefit for less outlay, if I upgrade to thermally broken lintels instead of upgrading from 2G to 3G. Sorry, @Makeitstop. I have no experience to draw on & tell you about. I'm only just out of the ground with my build.

Don't go with British Gas, whatever you do. They're a dreadful organisation, full of nasty people.

Just to give an update on this, for anyone who’s interested: I got my estimate wrong in my first post & the builder, & his irate wife, have chased for payment several times on three outstanding invoices which total about £10,800. I haven’t paid any of this £10,800. I arranged for another builder to spend a couple of hours with me on site, looking at all the problems. He provided a report/quote detailing remedial works, etc. I paid this builder for his time, so I’m not going to feel bad if I decide to use another builder when we get going on site again. I’ve deducted his bill, the cost of the remedial works & around £2,500 for consequential loss (my time away from my business spent dealing with these problems) from the £10,800. I have yet to get a cost to get the drains sorted out; once I have this, I’ll end up with a figure I’m prepared to pay the cowboy builder if he sends me a credit note (probably around £9,000 – that’s the credit note – not the amount I’ll be paying). The mortar was assessed as being good & strong, so we’ll be OK to fix up then build off the wonky walls. Thanks @Roger440 for prompting me to get this assessed. I wrote the builder a very long email with pictures attached, explaining each of the main defects in detail, a breakdown of costs for remedial works & my intention to pay him once I’m in receipt of a satisfactory credit note + information he was supposed to give me which I have not yet received. Also, I included a detailed explanation of the saga of the c £7,000 he overcharged me earlier in the build, before reluctantly issuing a credit note, so in the unlikely event he makes a court claim, I have everything I need, all in one email. I sent the email just before Christmas & I haven’t received any more demands for payment, nor any other communication since.

Thanks for the advice, but I strongly disagree with this. I run my own small business, so I am constantly defending myself against people in other businesses, small & large, who are intent on ripping me off. I have the upper hand here.

I’m not sure whether this question was for me, but I’m answering anyway. I see my partner & myself (mostly her) spending a lot of time cooking & doing other kitchen-based activities, especially once we’re retired (date TBC, dep on house overspend). The kitchen was not my top priority when I designed the house; if it had been, I’d have designed the perfect kitchen, & the rest of the house would have then been designed as add-ons to the kitchen. As things are, I’ve made a couple of compromises with the kitchen, but I’m happy with it. Perhaps I’ll post some drawings in future when I have time to deal with any comments I might receive (like, “4.2m from fridge to hob/oven is too far.”), but for now I should aim to spend less time on Build Hub over the next few weeks so I can get on top of my work & then work on next stage of my house build. Re the benches & all the negative comments on these, from people who think they are a bad idea, but don’t mention any actual experience of being seated on one: I have spent a lot of time in Austria where this “bench going around one corner of the dining room table arrangement” is very common. It works well. It’s a good space saver. You just need to incorporate some thin cushioning with the right amount of give, on both the base & the back, & get the angle of the back rest just right. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed very many multi-course meals whilst sat on this type of bench seat, & I highly recommend this excellent Austrian dining innovation.

It’s been good for me to read through this & think about it over the past few days. It got me thinking about a walk in pantry/larder again. Having given up on the idea a while back, because I didn’t want to cut a big chunk out of my kitchen, I’ve now found a way to include a larder by using space that had been designed for a large kitchen cupboard + I’ll take some space from the room that the cupboard backed onto. Ideally, my larder would benefit from some mechanical cooling, perhaps just in the summer months, to keep my wine safe, but let’s not get into that now – I don’t want to derail @Great_scot_selfbuild’s thread. When the time comes, I think I’ll make a rough & ready island to live with for a few weeks before deciding on a permanent island/no island. I’ll likely try a couple of different sizes. Thanks, @TerryE for your thoughts on this.

Ah right. Thanks for answering the question I had in my mind since reading the first post, above. That's given me something to think about. I was planning for my inlet to come through my west facing wall, which will always be in the shade & will be close to the main MVHR unit, & I was going to route my outlet through 5-6 metres of ceiling then down the south facing wall & out, level with the back of the ASHP. Now I'm wondering how much sub-optimal performance I might notice. Both south & west walls are well sheltered by trees and a tall boundary fence, so unless somebody manages to persuade me I've got this badly wrong, I think I'm going to stick with this plan & I'll monitor the system on windy days.

Just my opinion, & if you've seen some of the questions I ask, you'll know I'm no expert: I'd say min 3, ideally min 4, courses of blue or black bricks between GL & the start of your render. So if you're on a bit of a slope that means you may have 3 courses in some places & perhaps twice as many elsewhere, unless you're going to have a step somewhere. I've seen plenty of instances of white render down to the ground, or starting only one or two courses off GL, & it looks rubbish as it inevitably gets dirty when rain splashes up. I suppose the render can be cleaned, if it's not going all the way down to the ground, but I know that's not a job I'd find time to keep on top of. Also, I very much like the look of a white house set up on a substantial black band, rather than a thin band. On a related subject, I'm intending to forgo a bell cast drip detail at the bottom the render, because dirt settles on these, & I don't think that looks good either. I'll just have the render proud of the black bricks & I'll see if I can find a render support/bead/whatever they're called with a drip channel or protrusion. Cue dirty bell end joke from a certain prominent member.

If you can get what you want from PD, I'd say that's a better route than PP. The council can refuse PP just because they don't like your design, or because they want you to continue living in a small house. They might refuse PP, even if they would have had to grant a cert of lawful development, had you used the same drawings to apply for a PD cert. I got an agreement on a grotesque PD design before eventually compromising with the council on a design that was accepted under PP. There was a lot of back & forth. It took a long time. I let my architect go after attending a pre-application meeting with him & two people from the planning dept. I could see I was in for a long argument with the council & I couldn't afford to keep him on. I did the rest of the drawings myself. My first completely new design was rejected. I ended up with a heavily modified version of my second design. I can't remember exactly how much I ended up paying the LA: it was definitely £500 for the meeting with the architect & LA, about £400 for the PP application (possibly two of these), perhaps £100 for the PD cert. The planning case officer wasn't charging me for his advice, each time I presented new drawings & said, "Well how about if I submit this?". The LA are happy with a quite low standard of drawing for PP. You don't need good drawings until you get to the building reg.s stage. If I'd been using an architect to draw up every new idea I submitted in my battle to achieve PP, the process would have been prohibitively expensive. The developers on the plot right next door to me were using an architect & they had to settle for building a much smaller house than they'd expected to build because they didn't want to keep paying their architect to deal with the planners. I think the council could see that I wasn't going to give up & it wasn't costing me anything other than my time to continue the argument, & this counted in my favour. I used the attached document to help learn about PD rules. This was a good few years ago & I don't think the PD rules have changed since the document was published, but you should check. Part-1-of-the-GPDO-The-10-Worst-Permitted-Development-Loopholes.pdf