soapstar

Thanks. Just to clarify we have a another bedroom below the en-suite bathroom with an escape tilt/turn directly below. Sorry can I ask what you are referring to as the DR, BR and US? ? Perhaps if we remove the door into the en-suite wardrobe we may get away with it...I would try anything to stop having a lump of a door on the top gable window!

Hello Folks, So its slowly getting to the stage where we need to decide on our windows! One area which we have been banging heads over was what arrangement we wish to have with our large gable end window which incorporates the ground floor living room and upstairs master bedroom. As per building regulations we are aware that every 'habitable' room is required to have a means of escape. In our case for our master bedroom the only means of escape appears to be the gable window which is comprised of 5 panes, therefore one or more will have to be tilt/turn windows. This is something we are trying to avoid as it will add a certain 'bulkiness' to the gable window to incorporate the mechanism which tilt/turns have. However after further investigation into our building controls policy they state 'Escape windows are not necessary from rooms where there are alternative routes from the room to circulation areas or other rooms' - therefore given our master bedroom leads to an en-suite wardrobe then onto a bathroom which has a tilt/turn window suitable size for an escape window could this possible be an alternative option opposed to using the gable window as fire egress? I have put together a very basic diagram (attached) to show our layout, apologies for the basic drawing however hopefully it shows everything! Would really appreciate any input or advice. Thanks

Hello. Our build is planned to have tilt/turn windows all round (1.5 storey house with dormer windows and large gable feature window). Now it has just occurred to me that instead of having tilt/turns all round, why don't we have standard casement windows which have one opening method opposed to two for tilt/turn. The only advantage I can see for tilt/turn windows is they open inwards to clean etc however I could see this being a pain if you have anything in front of the window on the inside! On the safety side of things does a normal casement window comply? I don't see why it wouldn't given it complies with the 450mm minimum width/height restriction as per building regulations? They are probably a lot cheaper than tilt turn also I would imagine!? I have noticed a lot of you on here discuss top hung windows quite regularly. Thanks!

Thanks @nod Cost wise what would your opinion be between double skinned or studded walls?

Thanks @nod I guess my biggest question is what are the determining factors in deciding on what type to build? correct me if I’m wrong anyone however from what I believe if it’s a double skin it would be harder to convert this garage into another liveable room in the future? For further information we have planned a timber frame pitched roof as with the rest of the house.

Hey Folks, Needing some advise on the construction of our planned integrated double garage which has one wall attached to the utility room. It was originally planned to have what I believe is called a 'double skin' construction, from what I can gather this is basically external brick with a cavity gap and another brick wall internally. However I have been informed there is another option to have either a single skin construction (one layer of brick?) or a single skin with a studded internal wall. The latter seems to provide better insulation etc and also the added benefit of a cavity for cables etc - is it more common practise to have a studded internal wall for an integrated garage or is a double skin construction still used? Any examples from your own builds would be greatly appreciated! Cost comparison would be great also! Thanks.?

Such a beautiful location, good to see someone can be making progress at these uncertain times!

I am glad I am a member of this forum as it feels very lonely right now to be building your own house...We were meant to start last week, now I am sick with worry wondering whats the worse that can happen. Our permission runs out in 2 months time although we did have a very brief confirmation from the council in the form of an email that our permission is'locked in' now given we started the driveway - i truly hope this holds up, if not we are screwed. Then if we start in June say after this hopefully blows over I would like to think the builder will manage the foundations easy enough as mentioned by others, and also erect the frame as they build the kits themselves..although it worries me that the windows/door factory which is now shut will be way behind schedule, meaning paying loads of interest on the mortgage until we can continue. I assume Howdens have stopped manufacturing also. Or do we delay..AGAIN..for late in the year (august/sept) for everything to sync up again hopefully, its such a tough call! I really do feel for those of you who are mid way through your build, so much unknowns but we just have to stick in and do the best we can. I keep trying to remind myself that at the end of the day there a people with far worse problems, building a house is very much low on the scale of issues in the world right now.

@joe90 why didn’t I think of just going ‘around’ the house instead of through the house! Makes sense and at least they will be accessible if there are any issues. As you say @Ferdinand I too would be a little apprehensive having the gas run through the concrete slab.

@Temp Thanks very much for your informative reply. Seems like you have a similar situation to what we will have (hopefully!). We will also have UFH in screed in the kitchen. I was worried that a great distance would be detrimental to the pressure from the cylinder to the cooker however if you are all good from 40m then we certainly will have no problem! From what you have said I think i better take note to tell the builder this before they start the foundations! As from what I can gather there wouldn't be any alternative way to direct the gas pipe from one side of the house to the other without being through the foundations. Yes I have quite a bit hands on experience with the 47kg bottles, very annoying to get into those cabinets! Your tip of a longer hose from the regulator is a good idea, i will take note!

Hi Folks, Nearing the stage of starting and another question has popped into my head! So we will have a duel fuel rangemaster cooker in our kitchen (electric, gas hob), to which the gas will come from gas cylinders (47kg Propane). Now our cooker is located at the front of the house and the last thing we want is the cylinders outside at the front! What would be involved to get the gas pipe to the back of the house, this would be approximately 12m in distance. Would we have to incorporate a duct into the foundation slab to carry this pipe from the kitchen? If so i would hate to forget and be left with horrible cylinders at the front of the house! ?

We are based in the Stonehaven area. Yes we have had our electric connection in place for a couple years now, no meter just terminated to a box which will be moved to the house when built...Typically SSE made a mistake with our connection from the transformer! From the main cable which comes from the transformer this converts to a smaller cable terminating at the house, this smaller cable can only be 30 metres max, our house is 40 metres away as they were 10m short! Something to bear in mind perhaps if you are planning a temporary connection at this stage before the house is built.

@Mike_scotland we applied for our connection a couple years back and didnt get asked any of these questions (we also plan for an ASHP), from your location we are only up the road from you too.

Hello @MikeGrahamT21 I know this is an all post to say the least however we have been trying to decide which type of windows to go with recently and came across Eurocell's Modus range and noticed this was an option for you, did you so happen to go with these? Our biggest issue is given we have a large gable end window we would like to maximise the glass and less of the frame, we do not want to have chunky frames. I believe this is called 'frame factor' as described in @Ferdinand post - thanks for this I have been trying to find the correct word for describing this issue! From what I can gather the modus range which has 3 sash options (standard, slim and fully flush) may give us the look we are happy with opposed to the standard Eurocell range which our builder uses. We are scared these will be too 'chunky'. Probably a silly question however what does the profile measurement refer to, from what I can gather this relates to the depth of the frame, nothing to do with the width of the frames? So for example a 75mm profile is not linked to the overall 'frame factor'? Any pictures of the modus range in action would be great! I am very much struggling to get in touch with someone at Eurocell that can guide me anywhere I can physically see these windows!

Interesting thanks. I never thought of the fact that solar power is at its greatest in the summer months when you do not need space heating. Given the price to store this via a battery would be 8k plus would be taking us out of our budget. So I can only conclude my assumption that we could use solar panels to power the ASHP (or a large part of the energy requirements) seems impractical without a great number of panels? From what I have been reading a standard home requires around 20m2 of panels to produce around 3000kw, therefore with our 16kw heat pump this wouldnt be enough?

Hey Folks, Getting quite close to finally pulling the trigger on this build and of course there the many questions popping up in my head every day, especially after browsing this forum each day! The latest niggle in my head is should we have planned to have solar panels along with our ASHP?! Our 290m2 house will have UFH on the ground floor with rads upstairs. Plumber has quoted a 16kw ASHP with a 300 tank (50 litre buffer tank). Bit of a basic question however what would the PV’s (if we had them) be best utilised for exactly? To simply power the heat pump? Given the plumber has quoted a 16kw pump is it asking a lot for PV’s to power such a pump and therefore would it be cost effective? I have also heard people using solar panels for the hot water only? Whatever the outcome we 100% do not want masses of PV’s on the roof, a couple would be acceptable on the integral garage I think. I will admit I am a little clueless with solar panels and their associated cost to install - any figures would be greatly appreciated. thanks again for your help guys

@epsilonGreedy is spot on with their advice....All I can say is be careful if you decide to fit a wood burning stove, you may struggle to sell it as many holiday parks do not allow wood burning stoves to be fitted on their premises.

Hi @Thedreamer Thanks for the link. Our original quote was for 6 months so that seems a good price you got! I will check them out. Yes it doesn't seem quite right does it! Perhaps I have interpreted this wrong and the £300 charge for each stage is because we are not using the lender and instead our own architect - I need to clarify this further as its really doing my head in!! ? In regards to selling the house this is most definitely not going to happen within ten years - its taken us 7 years to get to this stage so I am staying in it for at least a good while if not 'forever' ?

I have now got clarification on this matter in case it helps someone down the line. Given we are not paying for 'Structural Warranty' or using our builders NHBC cover and using our own architect to sign off the build at each stage, we are therefore required to pay a 'technical audit' charge (£300) per inspection the architect will carry out, this involves the lenders own surveyor coming our at the same time as our architect at each stage. The cost implications seem to work out around the same as purchasing a structural warranty package which covers all of this. On top of this you will have BC coming out to inspect at each stage, surely there is no cost involved in this and is covered by the BW application fee but I wouldn't be surprised ? As for the site insurance as expected our own builders policy will not cover our specific build, meaning we will have to purchase our own policy. Excellent! On that note can anyone recommend where to get our Site Insurance? We have been quoted from BuildCare for approximately £600 - does this seem reasonable? Thanks!

Thanks @Thedreamer Yes it would seem very over the top having all three. I keep getting the feeling the broker/lender is trying to sell more products to us than we need but maybe i am wrong! @nod From what you say it seems as if we will need our own Site Insurance, whats another £600! In regards to signing off this is also confusing. From what I can gather from the correspondence with the broker/lender each stage we will have the lenders own surveyor coming out to inspect to make sure the funds can be released, we will also have my own architect signing off each stage (for what reason I am beginning to wonder now?) and also building control (again why do they need to sign off each stage if the architect is doing this or vice versa?). Does this seem right? To me this seems very inefficient but maybe i am missing something here... In my head all we should need is an inspection from one body be it the lender, BC or my architect to sign off each stage? Or at the very most the lenders own sign off and either my architect OR Building Control signing off, not both...

Hey Folks, Getting ever closer to actually starting the build! Currently trying to navigate through the Mortgage application etc and have some questions which I hope some of you can shed some light on because I am getting very confused! To start off our lender is requiring us to show proof of site insurance, we are using a main contractor for the build to which they have their own site insurance policy. We have sent this off to the broker and been told this will probably not comply with the lender as it is not specific to our build. Has anyone had this issue? Seems like a sneaky way to get us to buy their Site Insurance! Structural Warranty. We are using our own Architect to sign off the build who is covered by Indemnity Insurance (10 Million), is this enough to satisfy most lenders instead of buying a separate Structural Warranty for £1500? This would cover for 10 years however from what I gather our architect would also be covered for 10 years with his indemnity insurance? I have done some searching on the web and the opinion on an Architects Certificate being enough seems to vary. Does anyone know or perhaps used their architects certificate to satisfy structural warranty criteria of their lender? Also our builder who is NHBC register has told us they would recommend using an Architect to sign off? Seems odd given they are registered with NHBC. I am very confused! ? Thanks for the help!

Thanks @JSHarris @Mr Punter for the advice. Out of interest how far in to the mortgage application did your lender carry out the valuation?

Thanks @Mr Punter We actually already have our water and electric connection in and ready to go, I assume this would increase the valuation quite a bit then?

Hello Folks, So we are about to start the mortgage application process in the next couple of weeks. Bit worried about this part given it is the most important aspect of the whole project but we have been told we 'should' be able to lend what we need...fingers crossed everything goes to plan! In regards to the application the lender will carry out a valuation on the land (we already own). I wanted to ask if there was any advice in regards to the condition of the land to get a fair valuation. For example should we be clearing the land in question before the valuation? We have some building materials lying in corners (pallets, slabs, bricks etc) - would this effect the valuation? We also have some neighbouring trees running down one side of the plot (owned by the neighbour), should we be cutting back the overhang? I am probably being too picky but I really want to avoid anything which would compromise the valuation! Thanks!

We are in a similar situation in regards to when to start the actual application. Having received a 'decision in principle' (more a chat over the phone) with Buildstore they seem to agree that we can successfully obtain all the funds required for our build - but this is depending on the formal application. The predicament I am in at the moment is when to actually start the mortgage application, they say it takes approximately 8-10 weeks, with the mortgage decision being valid for 3 months, and dont forget your land valuation (which they carry out) being valid for 6 months, if you fall out with this time frame you have to pay again for re-application if over the 3 months (only £100 or so) or a re-valuation if over 6 months (expensive!). We are hoping to start the build around April next year - so my thinking was to start the application towards the end of October to allow time to be wrapped up for Christmas (no pun intended :P), this would then leave us around 4 months until starting to fall within the limits. Perhaps this is too far in advance going by what some people say however the bit that confuses me is if we start 8-10 weeks before starting it could easily all fall through and by this point we would have a builder all ready an waiting to start!?