Gone West

The builder is a regular contributor to the GBF. Whilst his build may have used materials and techniques that are unusual I don't see why there is so much criticism. Nobody builds their first self build and gets everything right. There are a myriad ways of building a good house, not just one, so I congratulate him on having a go and producing an interesting looking house. I would be very surprised if any of the houses featured have been signed off by building control so are in an unfinished state.

Siting them on the roof is not the best place for maintenance such as cleaning insect screens.

What about CHP for the winter and PV for the summer.

IIRC you said there was a 10" drop from one side to the other so taking out 5" from one side and adding to the other doesn't need a digger. I've used a spade rather than a digger for most of my garden work, much less mess as a result. Go for it.

I always work out levels first and then work out how I'm going to do the job.

The lane outside my place slopes R to L but where I've fitted the gates, approximately 3m back from the lane I have made level.

Yes, I think that's what they call it. I put up a Jacksons fence in 1993 and when I moved sixteen years later it was as good as new. The gate posts here sit in water when the water table is high so it's a good test for their treatment.

I'm impressed with the softwood treatment by Jacksons. I've used their fencing several times. When I got the gate posts this time I had to drill through them for the hinges and the treatment had penetrated to the centre of the post. Of course this means the treated wood is very heavy until it dries out.

I've no idea I'm afraid, @NSS is the expert.

As it's not retrofit I would design in hidden external blinds or shutters but if the cost is okay I would rather consider something like SageGlass like I believe @NSS used.

Hi Matt, welcome to the forum. You will probably be lucky to get a PP result within the eight week requirement if your area is anything like around here. Good luck with your plans.

No I never put them in my planning application. I had to put the details of the driveway and fencing/hedging in but never mentioned gates. There are rules about the hedge/fence being no more than 0.9m above road level for a certain distance back from the road edge, might be 2.4m, can't remember for sure. I'm sure the planners aren't really interested down here unless someone complains.

I take all these per m2 figures with a pinch of salt. There are so many different ways of calculating the results I doubt whether anyone is comparing apples with apples. If it's a PH compared to a conventional house I would have thought using external floor area more sensible as a lot of the cost is in the floor and walls. Some people use all their costs, some cherry pick and leave out site works or paperwork or whatever. I can come up wildly varying per m2 costs depending on how I work it out. A house costs what it costs and if you've ended up with what you want, that's great. For most people it's the first, and for me the last, self build they will do so there is a steep learning curve and nobody gets it perfect the first time.

We have built a timber frame with timber clad house and used brick slips for the plinth. It will be interesting when we come to sell it whether they think the brick slips are real bricks.

IIRC they are 0.9m and 2.1m. We bought the posts, hinges etc from Jackson as well. https://www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/fencing/entrance-gates/traditional

We have a Fakro roof window with triple glazing and a g-value of 32. Whilst you can hear the rain on the glass I don't find it a problem. There are external shutters to further reduce the noise if required. https://www.fakro.co.uk/products/all-products/accessories-for-roof-windows/external-accessories/arz/

They would probably welcome solar gain from November to January and coatings that reflect the heat in the summer would also do so in the winter. Coatings work well if you never want solar gain, as I have on my bathroom roof window.

These are our gates when we put them in a few years ago. They are from Jacksons Fencing.

I didn't need planning permission for mine but did need building regulations approval.

Yes the idea is that certain types of water plants have a lot of root growth which are covered with bacteria that further break down any remaining effluent. It doesn't have to be reeds, in fact because the recommended reeds grow so tall I asked the suppliers if I could use different plants and for the last seven years I have used irises. Since I installed the system nine years ago the manufacturers of my system seem to have changed their installation details and tertiary treatment is no longer a requirement. When the new bungalow was built next door, a few years ago, the BCO allowed the new sewage treatment plant to discharge into the old cesspit which he said should be filled with pieces of a type of foam medium on which the bacteria grow on the surface.

Around here they knock holes in the base so they don't need emptying so often.

I would be very careful and have someone else around in case the worst happens. This is what we fitted, it's upside down by the way .

What stage are you at with your new build?

As you say I just wanted to be able to isolate each pipe run separately. I was lucky when I bought mine as the manufacturers were changing the design and I bought the old design for £4 each for a four way manifold from Screwfix.

This may be of some help.