Indy

Similar size and similar price for us from HSL. I can’t remember the exact amount but it was around £7.5k for the design, materials and commissioning. We did get the larger 90mm ducts as part of the package.

No idea. I’d only ever heard of Harvey before this, never actually had one. Plumber and main contractor both have had experience with the Monarch - good enough for me!

No actual hands one experience but we're due to get the Monarch Master HE installed in ours. Recommendation from the plumber and the usual checks online and with ChatGPT seem to indicate that it's a good product that will stand up the daily demands of a high water usage household.

Yes and I would have, had they not balked at the audacity of our main contractor of asking them to provide one, and sent a WhatsApp message on the morning of the job - effectively backing out.

I've heard this concept from a lot of people on here and discussed at length with our builder and architect/designer. In the end, went with UFH on both floors as I hate rads and would not have them. In the bathrooms, gone for electric towel rads with a shelly relay wired in. The thing that swung it for me was a question from the builder - would you buy a property that did not have a heating source on the 1st floor where you and your family sleep? You may trust the solution where heat from downstairs keeps the whole house warm but a subsequent buyer will not be able to wrap his head around the concept and simply look at it as something that needs to be fixed/money that needs to be spent to clean up the mess.

My personal experience on the matter of RAMS.. The build is being managed by a main contractor, who runs a very professional site and has taken on all the responsibilities. Keeps all documentation up to date and everything that HSE might need to so - no complaints. Any subbies that come onsite through him are known to him and he makes sure they are properly inducted, checks their insurance, gets a copy of the RAMS etc. All good - but the one thing I've noticed is that his subbies for different things are a little on the dearer side. Not surprising but we get a very smoothly managed end to end process with no headaches. The one or two occasions where I've tried to get alternative quotes or bring my own team to come and do things cheaply - all went well until the point where they were supposed to start on site. Asked for their insurance and to fill out the relevant RAMS forms and they quickly decided that there wasn't enough meat on the bone to warrant the headache, so walked away from the job. To be fair, I had negotiated hard (about 10-15% lower than the quote from the main contractor's subbies) - but in the end, went with the known quantity to avoid the hassle.

I can see the merit in what you're trying to propose but I can't see the Amazon concept scaling to things like housebuilding. I imagine what you're offering is a marketplace where vendors will advertise their designs, and then buyers will come along and choose one that seems to get good reviews, they can see pics, talk to people etc before taking the plunge. And your platform takes a cut for connecting buyers and sellers together. The things to keep in mind are that self builds and the trades associated with them tend to be generally hyperlocal, the whole process is also intensely personalised. The people undertaking self builds are doing so because they don't like the identikit designs offered by volume developers, or they don't like the quality - so they're prepared to put up with the cost, hassle, time, effort, blood, sweat, tears and everything else that comes with the process. There is merit in making that process easier but a large part of that pain comes from the regulatory environment which you'd have no control over. The free market generally sorts out everything outside of that.

https://www.electrical2go.co.uk/13a-2g-dp-switched-socket-with-dual-usb-c-65w-dual-fastcharge-antique-brass.html I’ve gone for these in select locations as they put out enough power to charge a laptop and phone at the same time.

There’s a material difference between something like a landscape visual assessment and structural engineering calcs. The former is a nonsensical piece of paper that needs to be produced to check a box on the planning application. Money down the drain. The latter is integral to the safety of the house and its inhabitants, and something I would gladly pay for an expert to do.

It's great to hear the good luck you had. But luck is not a mass market solution and your unique set of circumstances clearly cannot be scaled - which is kinda the point.

Painfully true. When I started this process 5 years ago - there was still a sliver of a chance that we would come a little bit ahead - i.e. about 10% profit if we decided to sell at the end. It was never intended to be a flip for profit, but doing the math at least keeps you sane when sinking your life savings, blood, sweat and tears into something. A whole host of things since then have happened which means there is no chance I would make the money back if I was to sell it now. The market turned, materials went up, labour went up, we up-specced the material choices (🤨), mansion tax coming and general taxation levels going through the roof. I could easily have bought something of a similar size in decent nick for cheaper than it's been to do the work myself. But, it would have still needed a lot of work to get it up to the right standard and not been exactly what I wanted - so here we are. Will definitely need to live here for at least 10-15 years to stand a chance of the markets recovering and us being able to recover our funds. Luckily, that's the plan anyway 😄

Town and Country planning act of 1947. Fix that and all the other dominos will fall.

Try here - Osmo Polyx Oil

BTW - we did use Heat Space and Light as well, for the whole package and quite pleased overall (apart from the cost!)

BPC Ventilation will do a design for you and also supply - they're generally one of the cheaper suppliers if you're planning a self install and commissioning.

I know some will baulk at these costs but £10k is exactly what I paid so that number is not unrealistic for a fully designed, supplied, installed and commissioned system. Mine is the Q450 with 90mm ducting 1. Design - £600 2. Supply - £6400 3. Commissioning - £500 4. Install - £2500

Care to expand why? I was also quoted a similar amount for a REGA unit - £5k for supply only, £7k for supply and install. Chose to go with Zehnder based on recommendations (which has turned out to be much more expensive sadly!) but I'd like to understand why REGA are considered so bad.

Our builder used X-Board Paper to cover all the treads and risers while the plastering happened. Seems to be holding up so far but the key is to make sure the edges are all taped up and keeping them taped up as they do get knocked and come loose.

100mm either side is what I've heard - which seems to tie up generally with the 2 comments above. One area we were told to be very careful on is to not breach the 1m from the boundary rule in our area (for detached houses) as the LPA are generally quite hot on not creating a cramped/overcrowded look. My instruction to the builder was very simple - no deviation from approved plans. After the nightmare we had with getting planning in the first place, I have no appetite for any further planning related battles.

It depends on if its a retrofit or something that needs to be passed by BC. If its the former, there are obv ways to self install, balance and no need for certification. Cost will be the parts and your labour (unpaid) if you're skilled that way. Ours was the latter as giving up trickle vents and exhaust fans in the bathrooms meant that we had to get it professionally certified. That means generally finding people who will want to do the whole shebang - design, supply, install and certify. You *may* have luck in finding someone to certify a self install but those people are few and far between.

Take the advice - don't invite them unless absolutely needed. There's a small bit of leeway as houses can't be built mm perfect as on paper but there is obviously a limit as to how much it can be stretched.

Agreed. I will admit that on balance - it still remains one of the best places on the planet despite the doom and gloom that we get blasted from every media outlet. However, I have noticed a real degradation on a number of fronts since 2008. Public services, wage growth, levels of taxation, investment in infrastructure - these are all worse in a material way.

I'm not really qualified to comment on this - but isn't there a statistic that the birth rate is dropping and therefore there's a glut of school places (which is why schools are closing down)?

Not exactly what this thread is discussing but another point that came up when I had a long conversation my architect while going through an extended 4 year planning process - people tend to hate the homogenous and identikit houses and there's a lot of looking down upon so called housing estates. These estates, the uniformity and symmetry is exactly what is prized when you look at architecture from the past. Whether its the Georgian rows in Bath, Islington, the rows of Victorian housing or the 1930s semi-detached houses. So it's a little confusing when new developments are looked down upon for doing the same - the developers do it because it sells. Plot sizes is a separate topic though!

Hard disagree. NIMBYism over the years has killed off the growth and any opportunity to provide private solutions to a problem that governments don't want to tackle. This is why there are only a few large developers who control the bulk of new builds - they're the only ones with the funding, patience and armies of consultants that can battle through the NIMBYist culture to get anything done. Most rational people trying to make a better home for themselves and their families can't endure years of delays and regulations and move on with their lives. Calling new buildings modernist monstrosities and concrete landscapes goes back to the point I made earlier in the thread - this desire to keep us in the 1950s. It's high time we get over it and move with the times.