RandAbuild

We built the house before starting on the garage. This gave us enough time to go back to planning for an oak building, which was approved under delegated powers without any problems. The firm we used for the oak frame and oak cladding is based in Kent - Miller Supply and Build. I gave them a simple drawing and they worked it up from there. They were excellent and I would happily use them again. They supplied, delivered and erected the garage and we then got the same roofer who did our main build back for the roof, and a separate company for the 2 Hormann sectional doors.

Our original planning consent was for a brick built traditional garage, but we changed it to an oak framed one. So glad we did - it has much more character and feeling it's been there a long time. This was good in design terms as it came between our more contemporary brick house and a stone built listed building opposite. It was quite big at 7.5m x 5.7m, with an internal staircase and huge upstairs storage room. It included some green oak timbers that were 300 x 200 - so many I saw seem to have 150 x 150 which look puny. Cost all in (including slates, velux and 2 electric doors, excluding foundations) was about 24k (no VAT - 2018)

Very impressive drawings! A few quick suggestions: I'm not keen on turned staircases - try to make quarter landings if you can Make the showers bigger - you'll appreciate it later Provide built in wardrobes and get the VAT back Work up the ground floor/wall interface and door thresholds in more detail - you need to avoid cold bridging Move the first floor landing staircase to create space for a central plant cupboard, for your router/wifi etc Are you having MVHR? Definately worth it but need to create space preferably in the middle of the house

Not up to that - I managed to whack my forefinger with a lump hammer putting in insulation early on in our build, but I shudder now thinking how stupid I was guiding in 400kg floor beams without wearing my steel toecaps. One slip of the telehandler would have flattened my toes and my ambitions with it...

There was little difference between the G3 and G4 ones we bought - the G4 were slightly thicker and felt more substantial. Doen't seem to have impacted on the flow rate

We just bought a new supply of filters for our Vent Axia. They were G4 rather than G3 ones. I found this during my searches:

Yes, that's before the final screed. We did not have an MBC insulated slab though. Ours was a 'Jetfloor ' - insulated blocks between concrete beams, overlaid with EPS. The drainage was laid below the Jetfloor (as in a traditional block and beam), but the services were in the screed (including supply for our induction hob). If you have a sink in your island, I presume your drainage would be the same as foul drains below the MBC slab? [You can see we also added a gas supply in case we didn't like the induction hob (we do!)]

Here's ours

Don't forget about drainage & water if you're thinking about having a sink on the island too

We've had to power up two 5m lengths of 12v LED strips, where the driver is 4m away from the start of each LED strip. I used 2 core 1.5mm stranded wire https://www.screwfix.com/p/nexans-round-flexible-cable-3182y-2-core-1-5mm-x-25m-white/186fk which is a bit OTT but I was concened it might be carrying quite a high current. It's quite thick to thread through the loftspace but works fine.

Ian - it looks like you've got one of these connectors on the mains supply pipe, see page 27: http://www.mains2meters.ie/docs/Talbot_Product_Guide_May08.pdf What it doesn't say is what happens if you pull off the red tab - is there a valve inside? A quick call to the Talbot people might tell you

We have 2 solar Velux windows. As far as I know, they were no more difficult to fit than non-solar ones. There were some problems making the final mechanical connections, but these were overcome after speaking to Velux. We've had them up for 2 years (so can't comment on the longevity of the batteries) and they've worked very well. the rain sensor is a great feature.

Agree about the need for a solid base. We had a 90mm wide concrete/granite sett edge to ours and the grass was glued to that. Been excellent so far. Cutting the grass from the back is a lot easier than going through the tufts on the top!

Our stair people set up a VR demo in our living room, to show us what the stairs would look and feel like. The results were very impressive. After the stairs were in, they also took thousands of photos to build up a 3D view - results are here: http://woodenstairs.co.uk/testimonials/richard-northampton/

We had a Build Zone 10 year structural warranty, who used BBS Building Control as approved inspector. I think it saved us a bit on costs (can't find the comparison figures), but our building inspector was excellent. This made the whole process pretty painless.

What's the matter with soakaway crates? Cheap and more effective

The stairwell was plasterboarded out but not skimmed when they measured up. All done with a laser, which provided the data for the CNC machine - in Poland. Fitted extremely well and beautifully made. It was 16k though (including fitting)

Very timely warning Jack. I've just noticed that the uninsulated plastic adapter on the incoming supply pipe from the ductwork to the MVHR unit (a Vent Axia Kinetic Plus) is producing a lot of condensation on its surface, which is running down the side of the unit. I will have to devise a means of insulating this adapter. I measured the temerature of this incoming pipe and it was 13deg (it must pick up some pre-heating through the house). The outgoing pipe was at 16deg, whilst the supply to the house was 21deg and the exhaust from the house was 23.5 deg. So it's pretty efficient. Anyone else had this problem?

We used Wooden Stairs - details are here http://woodenstairs.co.uk/testimonials/richard-northampton/ We wanted a contemporary look without newels. Quite pricey but we are very pleased with the results.

All the memories of 2 years ago come flooding back! The pumped concete makes it all straightfoward - ours was channelled in via 250mm pipework and barrows. But we had 4 guys on site and me tamping. Looks like a very sandy site

I bet that thing made some noise, Peter!

Actually mine were the 23w ones too. Great light

I bought a couple of these https://www.screwfix.com/p/diall-led-rechargeable-led-work-light-10w-12-240v/2587k before we started our build and they have been fantastic. Last about an hour and give a huge amount of light where it's needed

I bought 6 of these 36W LED Panel Light 600mm x 600mm panel lights when we started our build. One went into each room and they gave out a fantastic, even bright light, with little shadow. Most of our subbies were amazed by the light they gave out. They've now moved into the garage, where two panels are quite sufficient to light up a double garage. You can't see individual LEDs as they light the edge. Recommended!

I've turned off our MVHR during this hot spell, as I think (not scientifically) it was contributing to the overheating