Andeh

We are going for internal bricks walls in our bungalow, and have some very tall ceilings. This means some of the room walls, will be approx 3.5m tall floor to ceiling and will be single 100mm block thick. At worst they are 3m wide before they hit a corner or equiv bracing structure, all dot & dabbed with Plasterboard Struc Eng has stipulated they are all tied into the ceiling every 1.2m with steel braces. He has also recommended they are not left unbraced pre-roof due to wind loads. I am no builder or structural engineer & ignore experts at my peril.....but I cant help but feel thats a tall & narrow wall. Am i over thinking this?!

Just a standard esure policy, i will ring & ask them tomorrow worse case. Just keen for any potential creative solutions. 😛

Hi All, Just seeking a bit of advice. Our home insurance is up for renewal, and we are 50% of the way through the project. When we started the demolition etc, I rang the home insurance people and explained we were demolishing & rebuilding, but the existing single garage would remain & would be used for a large amount of our storage. They agreed to continuing the insurance, with just the garage being left on the policy. However, now that it has come to renewal the policy has gone up to £500, which seems a lot to insure only a single garage (I will ring them next week). Move in date is expected (!!!!) end of July. I dont want the garage uninsured but £500 seems a lot when it isn't filled with a huge amount of value. We could take the risk an leaved it uninsured until we move in, but sods law & all that.... Just curious what others have done in similar situations?

Not sure I agree that throwing out a perfectly functioning gas boiler to install a brand new ASHP, whose manufacture & transport probably has several years of carbon emissions locked up inside, is better overall. You'd be better off simply installing more insulation (internal, external, upgraded windows, doors etc?) and tackling climate change that way I think. Replace the gas boiler only when repairing it is no longer viable.

Thanks all! Its true... The lure was laughed off quickly as I came to my sense & the lure of gin & tonic got the better of me! Being houses is still bloody hard work! Only 4(ish) months to go....

I need fortification.... Hit the 50% completed mark last week -on paper, reality feels like 30%. Time, money, stress... gin.... All fluidic. Drove past a Persimmon estate, and thought....."hmmm, now that's tempting.....!" Tell me it's worth it!!!!

I'd leave it as is IMO, unless your forever home & you are passionate for technology & sustainability. I'd re-assess in a few years.

Did it all go smoothly?

With the greatest of respect though -and please correct me if I'm wrong-but I believe you are undertaking some of the work yourself? Thus giving you a greater saving on psqm cost. Most self-builders will be in the same boat as me, not able to do any work Inc project management so will need to assume full builder fees.

Our of curiosity, who paid for the PIR & adjustments due to the bat's feet miss?

Just on the topic, does the blog not allow uploaded images by IMGUR ie [IMG] and [/IMG] etc? i wrote it all up using those, and realised when I create the blog it doesnt display the photo - just the text.

Test

I think you'd be very lucky there! We are building a mid-high ish spec bungalow, 250sqm and when we got quotes last August we received 5 detailed quotes all for around £2500 - 3000psqm. That's for ASHP, MVHR, lots of big aluminium windows, big posh slidding doors, upgraded insulation etc etc. Turn key build though not inc usual fees & paperwork. We managed to get that down to around £2100 when our favourite builder (but also one of the more expensive ones) had a commercial cancellation that overlapped perfectly with our needs, so got a good deal off him, if we fitted to his time framen (which itself caused plenty of headaches) . Edit: we also assumed around 15-20% extra for single story vs 2 story.

Thanks very much, I'll reach out to them shortly!

Interesting topic! I settled on 125mm cavities with knauf 32, should have gone up a thickness or two! Making up for it with extra floor & roof insulation (bungalow, so lots there)

Change to large sliding doors, then allow them to sit in a recess below tile flooring level? Build up floor over default level. Would create a nice flush finished floor still!

We are at around £2250psqm for a "turn key" brick & block project with a builder, large 275sqm bungalow, with all the usual ashp, mvhr, UFH, large over hangs, mono pitch, extra insulation, lots of aluminium windows & large sliding doors etc. Budget kitchen though & nothing for driveways or landscaping.

Also very keen to know!!

Hi all, I've been using this site to great effect for several months now, including using it to help drive decisions like ASHP, MVHR and extra insulation...but I'd like to start posting up our build to seek advice & pointers, as well as show a new project to everyone. How am I best to do this? Many thanks,

Looks very smart!!

Thanks very much all! Yes, have a build zone warranty from day 1...any experience with them in this scenario? LTV is very good, only borrowing about 30% of value.

Very interesting thread! I quite like OPs original design (but then I also like my big black SUV on big Alloys).... On the other hand the property design posted above looks half finished & as if someone ran out of time so just stopped. Taste is always an interesting one!

We are going through our finances and have a problem 'timing gap' between builders likely last payment & mortgage coming through. We are borrowing money through family to cover the last couple of months of build, before we take out a normal mortgage & repay them all.....all to avoid a self build, high interest, mortgage. However, there is a risk of builder needing final repayment before the mortgage clears which give sus the extra funds to pay this cost & repay everyone. At what point of our 'self build' would we be able to start the mortgage rolling. Is it feasible to get a standard mortgage pulled together during the last month or two of build...giving us time to receive the money & pay builder within 2 weeks? ie...Does a mortgage need the kitchen & a single working bathroom before we can start the ball rolling, or does the mortgage need any other triggers to allow us to start the process? Emailed our mortgage advisor, but she will take a few days to reply to me...just want to see if I can get any comfort beforehand. Thanks very much

Makes you wonder what would happen if someone managed to break in? How would the property owner rectify, resolve etc...how would he find out?

I quite like it! ?