Gus Potter

Now you need the will to live these days. I don't do this regularly (primarily as an SE) but for one reason or another I end up representing Clients that are making a claim on their warranty. I've done this for the last 15 years or so. I spent some 20 years as a building Contractor before that, cutting my teeth and learning how devious folk can be at times. In some ways I'm a poacher come game keeper. It's not part of my core business, I do it as it's good for my soul and I don't like to see domestic Clients getting taken advantage of. That said, over the last 15 years I've recovered on behalf of Clients a few million quid. The amount of money is less important, for me it's about justice and holding folk to account. What I've noticed in the last few years is that some of the warranty providers are more and more sub contracting out to Claims handling services. 25 years ago lots of the warranty providers withdrew from the market. At one point there was the NHBC and Zurich pretty much. Now we have lots of new entrants.. and it seems to me that there is a bit of a race to the bottom. The terms and conditions are a bit of a minefield for the unwary. There is a common case where they initially come over all friendly but then tell the Client they need to employ an SE like me at their own expense to provide a report. This happens even if the Client has provided photographs that clearly show there is a problem. It has come to my attention that they (Claims handling services) are ramping up the; deny, defend and delay tactics.. always been the case but recently I've noticed that they are cherry picking part of my SE reports and trying to fob the Client off. Even to the extent that they will quote part of a paragraph of my report.. which totally changes the context. Often young folk just can't afford this so they throw in the towel. It's a disgrace. Now this may be a genuine lack of understanding .. or a deliberate intent to defraud the Client. I'm happy for them to dig themselves a hole as often when doing a warranty Claim I'll turn it into an HSE (safety) issue. This makes folk personally liable and risks the HSE getting involved.. a big black mark if you are a warranty provider. My question is. Are folk finding Claims handling services helpful or not when you think you have a case for making a Claim.

Now is the time to really look after the materials you are using to build. In this weather if you press ahead you may be making a rod for your own back later.

All good points. Burying any gas pipe in an inaccessible position is fraught with danger. You need to consult a Gas Engineer. Now with much more air tight houses and the potential for negative air pressure we need to be extra careful.

As you say it kind of looks like the house has been previously altered. Would need more info to comment further as an SE / try and put a ball park cost on this.

To add a bit to this. it's not just your confidence it's mine also. I need to be confident we have a good, buildable and well thought out design. If not things will go wrong on site, or later latent defects will materialise in the design and that reflects badly on my business.

There are so many different options with this stuff. Much depends on how you want to set up the design from the ground up. For self building I would advocate; identifying your skills and the time you have to learn, cost curve/ cash flow and programme. Also the time you have to do things yourself and if you don't mind "just giving some stuff a go". For me as a designer I love seeing the ideas folk have on BH and many bring specialist knowledge (or just whacky ideas) that they have gained elsewhere to the table. This makes my job great fun as a designer.. working out how you realise folks ideas, turn them into something buildable that won't fall down. But at least you have identified what you may prefer not to do! Nothing lost then as good design is just as much about ruling options out than in. Here we can split hairs.. for a bit of fun, it's really a subjective argument. You can't have a thin slab and less rebar, the two just don't go together. At the extreme you have either one or the other structurally. Putting the UFH in the structural slab can avoid the need for a screed. Later installing the screed requires more wagon journeys and so on. At the end of the day you may want a 65mm average depth screed, which is non structural. But if I make the structural slab 30 - 50mm thicker it goes a long way towards the carbon neutral equation. That said, I often say good design is holistic. If you are proposing large format ceramic tiles on the structural slab then I think the screed option is better as it gives you a better chance of sorting door thresholds for example and avoids the use of self levelling compounds and the frustration that comes with that. In my latest own house I have the UFH in the structural slab. But I have engineered timber floors which are much more forgiving if the levels are a bit off. There is a rough rule of thumb that the "basic structure" comprises 10 - 15% of the over all cost of the project. But what is essential is that the basic structure is set up in such a way so as to avoid later and costly build problems. For example fit up, material tolerances and so on. This is why it so important to design holistically. To do this is not as hard as later trying to sort out problems later in the build. The real up side is that you get to do stuff on paper before spending any real money. Your confidence builds before you start work on site.

Give it a go, even if to rule out. Occam's Razor principle and so on. Incidentally I was chatting to one of the go to folk up my neck of the woods and I was looking at some of their new Aluminium products in their show room and having a technical chat. The are accredited installers, Origin, Sunflex and so on, they do some really high end products and installs. Anyway we got chatting about Build Hub and I mentioned your doors were dropping and the masking tape idea given that your doors were dropping 10mm or so. I got the nod that it's worth a try as your are not paying for the time and it's just the cost of a roll of masking tape.

Houses are not an exact science. If we design them for every eventuality then the build cost would be to high. With my SE hat on we design to tolerate occasional short term elevated moisture content as you are experiencing. Any condensation will quickly dry out. If you are worried about dew points.. open some windows and doors, strip down to your underpants, fill the paddling pool and enjoy the warm weather.. it won't last that long.

Hi Rick. You make good points here. A common thing on BH is that folk split design into packages to try and get a handle on the build cost. But this is not the most efficient way to design or execute a design. Design needs to be holistic.. and that is the dilemma that Build Hubbers often face. You'll often see folk on BH discussing insulated raft concrete structural slabs (passive or otherwise) thickness and worrying about the slab say being 50mm thicker. It understandable as no one takes the time to explain the cost benefit of using a thicker concrete slab. As an SE and designer when considering a self build and the constraints about say getting a builder that can follow a drawing I often start by selecting say a 200 - 250mm slab. What I'm often doing here is to avoid local thickening of the slab, different levels of sub base, doing funny stuff with the DPC / possibly gas membranes etc where we may have line loads from internal load bearing walls. I always start with the simplest and stupid design option, even though this may seem counter intuitive. To get best thermal performance we want to see if we can have an even thickness of slab as it gives us the best chance on site of actually delivering what we have designed. Good thermal performance requires good workmanship and attention to detail also.. so let's not make the workmanship element too hard? Now if we opt for a slightly thicker concrete slab it lets the SE add rebar easily in the bottom of the slab to take the line and point loads from say internal load bearing walls. But if we then put the UFH pipes in the same bottom slab zone is impacts on the rebar bond strength and makes it hard to install the UFH pipes. It all gets really congested and that leads to you paying for something that is not likely to get delivered on site. That leads to disputes.. which we want to avoid.. self building should be fun! One reason I start out with the simple stupid option is that it lets the Client see and opt for it, yes there is some compromise.. but then we look at more complex stuff and compare costs as we have the simple option as a benchmark. But to finish your observation is correct.. ish. But I know from experience that having designed and installed UFH heating in my own houses for decades is that if you put the UFH pipes in the top of the slab the response time is less than if the UFH pipes are in the bottom. In some ways it's a moot point when you look at all the other practical plus points that go with buildability. The easier it is to build the less the cost. But being easy to build, if well thought out does not mean we need to compromise on thermal performance or quality for example.

Your second photo shows the top hinge set high. This would encourage me to inspect to see if the vertical part of the door frame (the jamb) is twisting. I can't see how wide a cavity you have but the chances are that the vertical part of the door frame is not properly fixed to the inner leaf of the wall above the hinge. Commonly folk think that the head of the frame stops the jambs from twisting.. the load from the hinge is eccentric to the jamb section. If you see how these are fixed together (the head to the jamb) by few screws this is not the case that the head of the frame prevents twisting via the joint. When you open the door look to see if the door jamb is twisting relative to the head. It's going to be hard to see. First thing to do is to keep the door shut. Get up on a ladder and put your finger over the joint. Get someone else to open the door and see if you can feel / see any movement in the joint between the jamb and the head. Use the previous principle to verify what you feel as you crack open the door.

Vaseline and lots of it to seal the bungs and threads! Anne Summers volumes don't cut the mustard, go for the 500ml tubs. For adequate water testing..the pipes need to be filled to give a 1.5m head from memory.

I like your idea.. in principle.. is it a material consideration for you on how your idea may impact on the value of the house. If it's not then go ahead and have fun! It's your money after all.

These type of videos are always good to watch, informative. As a designer I see stuff that makes my hair curl a bit, I've not got that much left mind. Their rebar is a bit of a disaster for example. Anyway I'm not going to point out where they have made life hard for themselves and by the looks of things paid for something that has not actually been delivered on site. It looks like they are happy folk so leave it at that. This is key to good design in the self build market is.. keep it simple so you don't end up paying for something that does not serve it's intended purpose as a result of it not getting delivered on site. The positioning of their UFH pipes at the underside of the structural slab is "innovative". I would tend to put the UFH pipe towards the top of the slab as it reduces the response time not least. The Isoquick is one effective solution. But if you are doing a full hands on self build then I would look at other options where you use standard insulation, be that PIR or EPS. As a kind of hands on SE I like the flexibility it gives you on site, especially around openings or where you may have high point or line loads. Here, if hands on self build we would look at cash flow, maybe it's best to pay as little as you can for the materials that are easily sourced from a local merchant as your labour is "freeish"? "Raft" type foundations are fascinating things to design..there are many permutations, some are generically described on BH as rafts.. but they are actually not. From time to time I'll sit down with a Client and design from the ground up and explain in terms they can understand what I'm doing as a designer and it gives them a feel for the ground and how the structure works from there up. This allows them to make informed choices. The decisions you make on the ground, foundations translate all the way up though the structure. I really enjoy this process as it triggers the enjoyment I get from teaching. You see a light bulb coming on in the Clients heads where they see the jigsaw coming together, I see their confidence building. It doesn't matter if the Client has never done a self build before or if they have technical knowledge. I always start with a "refresher course" as it helps the Client and I explore our technical ability, our strong and weak points. The door swings both ways here. I don't know everything! As I've said before. If you set up your build well and find the right designer for you it is hugely rewarding for both. Of course there will always be issues on site.. hiccups all the way to what seems like a disaster! .. but if you plan well you can often avoid the worst. Even if something "bad" does happen then if you have spent time with a helpful designer then you can phone a friend and also use the skills they have taught you to find a work around. @Square Feet Keep researching!

Sorry to hear about your issues. In terms of flexing, the door dropping common issues are: 1/ It's the glass that holds the door leaves stiff and prevents distortion, dropping. If the glass is not packed properly in the frame this will happen. 2/ The door frame is not properly secured to the surrounding structure. 3/ The hinge screws have been over driven ( the screw threads are stripped) and the hinges are moving. 4/ The structure is moving as it gets loaded sideways. You can experiment yourself to see what is causing this. The following notation is.. A relates to item 1 and so on. A. Is the glass packed properly? Get some 50mm masking tape. The wider the tape the better. When the day is not too hot or cold and the sun is not on the doors gently put strips of masking tape between the glass and the frame. Let it bridge over the gasket, i.e not touching the gasket. Don't stretch the tape, let it settle but not touch the gasket. . Do this each side of the corners of the glass, in the middle vertically and mid point of the head and base of the glass. Open the door a little and see if the tape wrinkles. If it does it means the glass is moving relative to the frame. Repeat but this time smooth the tape around the gasket so it is in contact all the way round. Carefully take a Stanley blade and cut between the glass and the gasket and the gasket and frame. The objective here is to see if the glass is moving relative to the gasket, the gasket moving relative to the frame or both. This is a bit of a moot point but later we may want to check is the correct size of gasket has been fitted. If the door is dropping by 10mm and it's a glass packing problem then you should be able to see this with the naked eye or a magnifying glass. What we are doing here is the same in principle where we may want to accurately monitor a building for settlement. B. You can carry out a similar exercise to the above but where the frame meets the walls. C. The hinges often have a vertical adjustment. You may have 3 or 4 hinges. If they have not been balanced (to share the vertical load) then all the vertical load and then a share of the sideways load ends up on one hinge which can over stress it. If the screws are stripped the heavily overloaded hinge may be moving. It's tempting to fiddle with these yourself.. but as soon as you do the last man on the job gets the blame.. which will be you! But have a look at them and see if they look like they are carrying equal loading. Look for unusual gaps between the shims and see where there is no gap in others comparatively. D. You say that the door drops as soon as you open the door? The loads at this stage from the door leaf will be mainly in the plane of the wall. If the movement gets greater as you further open the door then the structure may be flexing. This is the last thing we would look at, try and rule out common issues first. @paro I see you are using a spirit level and a laser level. Often the accuracy of these is disputed. To avoid any doubt at your end go to B & Q and get a bit of clear plastic pipe. Get some water and put a dye in it, mostly fill the tube and tape it to the door leaf at eye level when shut. Now we have a water level and the physics of this cannot be disputed. Mark the BOTTOM of the meniscus. Open the door, remark, measure the difference. This is going to be within 1-2mm accuracy at worst. In terms of the gasket and brush bar fits.. it does look a bit rough. Bare metal cuts are common, often these are hidden. Here we may want to get some touch up paint. If you fancy having a go at this it should help inform you or at worse rule out what is not causing the problem.

Great looking job, very well done!

Great post, well done. The article is well worth a read. Our political system needs an overhaul. Also our attitude to immigration needs to change rapidly and recognise that we are in serious danger of losing our British culture. One big threat is the intolerance of Islam. We live on a small island, we have nowhere else to go.

Nice idea, I've looked at your link, but it's a pile of mince. The facts are. Building Control and Planning are two council departments that can actually make a profit. But any profit they make gets hived off to pay for other services, it does not get reinvested. If it was it would solve a lot of the structural problems we have. Planning and BC have a major recruitment problem. Because of this graduates can see that there is no real route to promotion, for talented folk its not a career option. Your idea is just tying to polish a turd. We need to first make the job attractive, no amount of digital stuff is going to solve the fundamental problem. I can tell you this as I deal with Planners and BC in my day job. If you want to make you idea a success then you need to address the fundamental issue I've just pointed out.

Forget Smith for now, you have missives to complete, a house to design, build and if you set it up and plan well, lots of enjoyment ahead. The legal technicalities and caveats are likely your next challenge. It's dry stuff but if done well it will set you up for the build. In the round you persevered and encouraged the seller to the table, a great achievement. They probably feel good also, what's not to like?

Hi Mike. Hard to tell without some wider context. Some panoramic photos required, also external ones so we can see the ground levels. It may be something as simple as the plasterer has really soaked the wall first and that has "reactivated" the latent salts in the wall?

This is what lots of people say.. until they do need to make a claim. As someone who inspects on behalf of Clients (and reports to warranty providers) who find they need to make a claim against the warranty providers. I can tell you this is a mine field and there are few friends in the desert. The rebuild cost can often be above the build cost as for example you may have to demolish, clear the site first.. which can be costly. I've not seen this advice before as it suggests a limit to the cover, maybe I've read this wrong and there is more to it? The basic shell may only comprise 20% of the build cost at times. I would ask your broker to seek two alternate quotes and provide you with the terms and conditions on when you and cannot make a claim. Read these carefully before making your decision. It's going to take a bit of time.. but I can assure you, based on my day job, it's at the very least going to inform you, it may save your skin later if your circumstances change.

@Square Feet "This is the jump I have taken since my previous blog posts (which have in themselves also been an act of ‘starting the conversation’). " This is progress! I enjoyed our telephone conversation. I have lots of different types of Clients. Some are just starting out and have little experience and you need to adjust to give the best advice that puts them on a sound footing at the start of their journey. Some Clients such as yourself have a wealth of experience and technical knowledge. Here we can skip some steps and more quickly go into technical detail, for example what detailed risk the site may pose all the way up to how you are actually going to build it on site. The conversation can quickly move to a position where can test our ideas against each others knowledge and experience in a free, open and enjoyable manner. That is why conversations take time and are invaluable in all cases. At the end of the day building a house should be fun and rewarding. It should be fun for the Client and for me also as the designer. This is achievable if you plan well, get good advice from folk where you may have weak spots in your experience. If that advice is well presented and informs you then it allows you to make evidenced / risk based decisions. The best news is that the seller has made contact and you have met in person. I’d be gutted if I saw the plot reduced to what I would have paid at some point in the future when I had already committed to a compromise plot I don’t like as much. He was generous enough to not reject it right away but instead to say that he would think about it and talk it over with his partner before getting back to me sometime next week. I can ask no more than that. At this stage there is everything to play for. The key here as you know is to keep the negotiation channel open. You want to buy, the seller sell. I think there is reference to this concept in Adam Smith, 1776: The wealth of nations. Rooting for you!

Good post. First thing is the location, It's windy up our way and often, thus local knowledge prevails. It's so windy that cold roofs if not too big work fine. But if you want to now heavily insulate and make air tight then you have a big problem. What you are missing is that you are trying to apply modern regs to an old structure. It's very hard to achieve, and expensive. Have you considered targeting easier areas to improve the thermal performance?

How does this happen?

I do like your idea of foam glass. I've designed using this and in the right application it's fantastic stuff. How ever.. I'm very sceptical about how folk get different work packages and don't coordinate the design. You have to get your head around this. KORE etc are not here to do complex details for you or take on extra design liability, they are there to sell their product. Here is a thing I would want to understand more about. You show the soil under the existing stone wall at an angle of about 45 degrees. If that is clay then it is going to dry out and shrink like fury. If it's gravel then you will disturb it, it may fail suddenly during the build. Also you are reducing the "confining, call that a confining pressure" load above the level of the foundation by introducing lighter weight material. In other words, the soil around the found is to some extent stopped from squeezing upwards by the soil at the moment. But now you are reducing that load. The best advice I can give you is to take on board the concept but think about how the ground is going to behave, builders being rough and so on. There are far too many idealist thermal details on BH and few that understand the soil and how you build off that. You should discuss this with your SE, even if you have to pay them a bit more.

Indeed. There is a huge learning curve to go though, but if you persevere it's worth it at the end of the day. This is also true! Basements carry higher risk.