Gone West

I bought a copy of PHPP seven years ago and used it to help design my house which is being built to PH criteria. I did design in a large glazed area facing WNW which did cause some overheating in mid summer which was predicted. I have mitigated the effect by using a solar film. I have visited several PH, two of which were designed by PHPP experts but I was not impressed. If you have a scientific background, or not maybe, and read the manual a couple of times before starting to use the spreadsheet I can't see why it can't be used by a non 'expert'. It would at least give you an idea of what you want and input data can be tweaked easily to change results.

My other half wasn't sure what living in a PH would be like so we stayed in a PH B&B for a few days. She liked it straight away. Hope this isn't advertising. http://www.passivhausbandb.co.uk/

That's grim! Did he nibble the whole length of a tile to cut it?

I bought double pole switched sockets and the chap in the electrical shop said he hardly ever sells double pole because single pole are cheaper!

I have a Vitrex 600mm wet cut tile saw bench and I found the quality of the blade affected how clean the cut was more than anything. I use a Vitex Ultimate diamond blade. As the tiles are 705mm long I hired a Rubi 900mm snap cutter for the long cuts. I found the tile saw bench good for short cuts and notching etc.

I know the feeling well!! I thought the ebuild forum was precious as well. I'll also be pleased if Jeremy returns.

@TerryE My experience of Touchwood Homes was about seven years ago. We went to view a house that they had built and had let to a tenant. They were on the same wavelength as us wrt low energy building and we liked it and a friend who was about to build decided to use them. She had a few problems with workers not always turning up when they were supposed to. This was because they had spread themselves a bit thin taking on too much work. They were building several houses in the Channel Islands at the time and the logistics caused them problems. That put me off and I chose a local company. By the time my friend’s build was completed I think they had got back on track and as far as I’m aware there are no problems now.

I used Isoquick Insulated slab and a local timber frame company. A friend of ours laid their own version of an insulated slab and had Touchwood Homes for the frame.

We were going to have a deep bore soakaway which would have discharged into the chalk 47m down. Unfortunately the chalk was water bearing and we now have a well and borehole.

Thanks, that's a brilliant idea. I often wondered now to create a floating staircase in a timber frame.

I like the stairs as well. I don't suppose you have a picture of the other side of that wall before it's been covered. Is that wall thicker than standard?

I use this. It's called Neverbend but I managed to bend it digging a trench. I was trying to lever a block of concrete out without realising what it was! http://www.wickes.co.uk/Spear+Jackson-Neverbend-Professional-Fencing-Grafter/p/131972

I've not used CT1 or Sikaflex so can't comment but this is the one I use and haven't had any problems. Carpenter friend was impressed with it's adhesive qualities. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SOUDAL-FIX-ALL-CRYSTAL-CLEAR-SEALANT-ADHESIVE-MS-POLYMER-COMPLETELY-TRANSPARENT-/181107513495

A little light reading? Hybrid MS Sealants.pdf

Excellent. I didn't get it the first time I read it!

Just a thought, but if it's a very small hole with a flap of material remaining it may only leak significantly above a certain pressure.

I think Tooway satellite broadband are national and they do VoIP for telephone.

That will be interesting. I was told the first time by Openreach they would mole under the 4m wide lane to my property, then a few weeks ago I was told it's not their policy to mole. I've made a high level complaint which is being investigated at the moment so it will be interesting to hear the result of both of our cases.

With all due respect, your comments above show you are only qualified to judge your own mistakes. If I had seen the side of the hole partly collapse there is no way I would have gone down the hole for any reason. That was the most ridiculous dangerous mistake you could make in that situation. If you knew there was danger of collapse why would you go down the hole? My situation and yours are different on so many levels they can't be compared. In my case the hole had been dug a few days before and the tank lowered in and removed before I installed the angle irons. As you say it's a good idea to know your ground conditions before doing the job.

Dangerous, a bit over OTT. The ground conditions are obviously very different, certainly no rocks or stones here.

Yes it was interesting, the water table varies a great deal around here as well.

I found not having legs on it an advantage because with one pivot point it was easy to level and then wedge in place. It doesn't need to be backfilled with concrete, only type 1 because it is chained down to four horizontal angle irons banged into the side of the hole. I did put a layer of dry mix over the top, but then I always tend to over engineer everything.

That's amazingly similar to my WPL Diamond DMS2 except mine doesn't have an integrated pump housing. Does that mean the housing has to be removed to have the tank emptied?

Yes it's our first self build but before that I renovated a Victorian farm workers cottage completely, doing all the work myself and found that more enjoyable.

We've been building for six and a half years now and it took years before that getting planning permission. For the first couple of years of the build it was a novelty and we took Jan and Feb off and went away for a break so it wasn't too bad. Since then we realised that losing two months every year was go to make the build go on for ever but not having a break was making the build a real struggle. A couple of years ago we tried to sell it half built, and had a surprising amount of interest, but having to demolish the bungalow put people off. We're resigned to having to finish it now but there is no pleasure in building it any more and with hindsight we should have given up when getting planning was so difficult. I don't want to put you off because everyone is different, as are their circumstances, just think hard about now much it means to you, to do the build. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.