Dave Jones

dont get me started on them. almost as bad as estate agents but not quite.

quite agree most are rubbish and charge like a wounded bull.

that would no way pass our planners, all that overlooking glazing. 47k for a london plot. smells fishy. if BBC are promoting it bound to be BS.

be honest, 90% is copy and paste. Your not re-inventing the wheel on every legoland box that is cranked out. Value wise no more than twice (to account for overheads) a plumber, brickie other trade. The cream who design the very nice and rare designs get remunerated accordingly.

the MVHR is the air mover no the coils.

why is it needed for a box ? If the architect is any good a production box should be smashed out in a couple hours. Nothing difficult about it, cut and paste.

yep if you use this mdf https://tricoya.com/

cracking telegraph pole that!

wet plaster it is then.

8.98p low 00:00-6:00am 38p normal 53p high (4pm-8pm)

of course. above all lintels.

getting to the point of needing to parge the celcon block walls for airtightness. Was thinking rather than brushing in sand/cement slurry to spray on a covering of cheap emulsion. Would it give a similar air tightness as parge ?

im using greenbuildingstore to design and supply, we are fitting and commissioning ourself.

send it off for asbestos testing just to be on safe side, its a cheap service.

im with 100green who took over from greenenergy UK. looked cheaper than octopus and better time slots.

now to switch to time of day tariff @JohnMo i may 75% of electric at 9.43p kwh, in winter the powerwall charges at this overnight and we use it from the powerwall in the day.

we doing the same albeit full MVHR with a cooling unit on the incoming side taking a feed from the ASHP. For the first floor fitting panasonic fancoil units in place of rads to provide both heating (not really needed) and cooling in the summer. They do not need any 'central unit' just a flow and return just like a normal radiator. https://www.aircon.panasonic.eu/GB_en/product/fan-coils/

ive used both site QS and the online ones. Site for getting paid (by the bank) and the online to produce the initial QS for the build. found them pretty much ok and reasonable, also offer advice on alternative methods and materials for some tasks may not have considered. While the on site is an extra cost you see them maybe 4 times total so not massive in the scheme of things. The online QS is where its won or lost, you have to get this correct. you need every single expenditure on it not just the materials and labour.

i don't have an issue with paying a decent fee for a decent design. That would mean £1000 tops for a normal sub £750k house., Treble that fee for a more interesting design, stand out features of which you would not see in 70% of other houses. There is also the question of construction drawings containing enough detail to pass building regs and allow a builder to completely price the build (excluding second fix items). This should be no more than half a days work for a competent architect so another £250-300. All planning i would never use an architect always a planning specialist. Same as I wouldn't use a painter to fit a kitchen.

you can get already planed 2 x 1 from all the builders merchants but its nearly double the price of the bog standard stuff. a cheap belt sander will bring it up good just takes a while. other option is to use a sheet 8x4 sheet of mdf and cut slots nearly all the way through with a track saw.

architect is worth their money to just design the end appearance. Keep them far far away from the actual build as you can. Will save you a lot of £££ in the long run. and never pay a % fee to anyone. Worked well with the agent. Last house agreed £3k fee if sold under £xx £5k fee if its over. Gives them much more incentive than a percentage.

heres a couple https://www.labc.co.uk/professionals/registration-schemes/registered-construction-details https://tools.bregroup.com/certifiedthermalproducts/

did this at our old place, got a price for ceder and nearly fainted. bought a load of 4.8m treated 2x1 roofing batten. put it through our DeWalt portable planer and it came out lovely and smooth. stained with osmo and you cant really tell the difference. used a battery brad nailer for invisible fixings. whole lot cost less than £100, the osmo being the dearest part.

have a couple of these on our build, example below above the pitched roof. Wonder if we should use another course of marmox just inside the pitched element to thermal break it. Cant run them the whole length as they would be visible so there will stiill be an element of sideways leeching. Losses too small to worry about ? How would they be calculated ?

ah the world of common sense and building control. Pretty sure you will have to install a completely pointless 'attenuation tank' to satisfy them. Just make a 1m3 cube out of soakaway crates with a pipe running straight through it to the ditch. less than £100 and paperwork covered.