Roundtuit

If you want a short-term fix with a view to doing a proper job later, I'd Flashband it to death. A bit of heat from a hot air paint stripping gun and it sticks to most things!

In principle the numbers sound reasonable. My concern is that there is no incentive for your builder to buy better; the opposite in fact. I'm convinced a lot of trades, over time perhaps, end up being price-takers and just accept whatever their preferred builders merchant charges. I'd want to retain more control and do some work myself as you suggested. Sounds like they want to have their cake and eat it...

We started using an architectural practice as part of our frame package as they were the manufacturers 'preferred' architect. We parted company after number of issues; loss of trust over a topographical survey (long story), and they didn't bother with a site visit. I met and briefed who I thought was doing the design; turns out they passed it on to someone else to work on, and then a third person presented the plans back to me. The proposals were so wide of the mark, I decided to call it a day and find another one. Architect #2 was great! Fixed fee and worth every penny. It's important to find an architect that 'gets' what you want achieve, and uses their flair to enhance and not dominate.

Welcome aboard! Your renovation experience will set you in good stead and is almost certainly something others can benefit from. Unlimited choice is a mixed blessing, but it is indeed a blessing! We're all working through various stages of the process, so feel free to bounce ideas around.

Probably not worth the hassle of couriering, but I've got an unused white one you can have if you happen to be passing this way...

Barnsley. Hailing from God's own county myself, I feel qualified to point out that a Yorkshireman is pretty much a Scot, but with the generosity wrung out of him. Got to price it keenly if you sell up North! (no offence intended, all stereotyping acknowledged, ee bah gum, I'll get me top coat) ?

From my limited experience, I've found that a walk around a house with a good builder was infinitely more helpful than an ar$e-covering survey report. Perhaps there's a reputable builder local to you, familiar with the build type, that could have a look for the cost of their time?

I think we allowed something like 11mm each side, but a bit more top to bottom as the frames needed a 20mm batten on the bottom to attach the cill. I think the allowance is a bit arbitrary to be honest, depending on how you're going to fix them; you'll need more of a gap if you use a compriband-type product rather running a bead of sealant around it. Our fixing straps were cranked to compensate for the gap, but I ended up hammering them flat as the crank was too severe, and then fine-tuning the fit by how deep you drive the screw in to the timber frame. If you're planning window frames that can't be altered (shaved a little if necessary) like alu-clad, then you might want to not make it too hard for yourself!

We got a 'Property Owners Policy' on our plot (about 3/4 of an acre) for a year or two before we started building, mainly as we had a lot of trees to clear in and around the plot, and many of them were not in the best shape. The policy was from Versatile Insurance, and from memory was about £140 for £2 million public liability/property owners liability insurance.

Hmm. Seems to be back on this morning, manually anyway, not sure about the timer. UFH heating is controlled by room stats, DHW runs off the timer on the heat pump (Hitach Yutaki S 16kw). The display indicated the compressor was on. When I turned DHW on manually last night, it briefly indicated a temperature of 30C (I asssume the tank temperature) before changing to display the set temperature (50C). At that point, the compressor would usually kick in, but last night nothing happened. There's a motorised valve that diverts output between DHW and UFH, could that be sticking perhaps?

Hi. My heat pump appears to have stopped heating DHW today. The tank was cool this evening when it should have been hot (on timer), so I turned DHW on manually but the compressor fails to kick in. UFH seems ok, no fault codes showing, and nothing else different that I know of. It's a Hitachi Yutaki split system. Any suggestions for things to try please?

I'd be pi$$ed off too, but you need to decide if it's worth falling out over. If you're happy with the job, I think I'd pay up promptly for the agreed bit and smile and ask nicely if you can come to some agreement about the extra as it wasn't in the budget. Anything you can claw back is a bonus, and as @newhome said, at least he hasn't cut corners and done a poor job...

Other than confirming that your application is definitely in the system, I suspect that there's not much you can do. Many on here have been frustrated with and by the planning system, but there's no choice but to go with the flow really. On the plus side, it's a realisic introduction to the joys of self-building!?

No problem! We fitted the battens when we put the windows in. I've just dug out the installation drawings that show the general principle; hopefully you can get some timber in there to fix to one way or another.

If it helps, ours look like this:

Hi. I've still got this job to do, and I don't think they're supposed to fit in the grooves. All of our windows have a ~20mm batten fixed to the bottom of the frame, set back about 20mm from the Ali face of the frame to screw the cill pressings to.

My brickies spread the best part of a tonne of my (first) 10t heap around the base of the heap/mixing area so that they had a 'clean' area to work on... Not a biggie in the scheme of things, but better to order a bit more than you think you'll need I think! I also used a local quarry and white cement, so couldn't deviate once things were rolling.

I know plans are a bit 'fluid', but you did tell us it was to have no heating...

I think TPO status can be given to trees that have 'amenity value', i.e. they're good specimens, and they can be seen and enjoyed by the general public. If they don't meet that criteria then you're probably pretty safe. As it stands, with no TPO, they're in your garden and you can do what you want with them. We had a lot of poor trees on and around our plot and in the spirit of doing things right I engaged with the local tree conservation officer quite early on (well, after a couple of key ones had ...fallen down). He was really good; came out for a site meeting, shrugged his shoulders and said 'nothing here worth saving' and let me get on with it. As part of our landscaping scheme I'll be planting a load more trees to compensate, but that suits me fine.

OK, after reading the article, it looks like there are two issues. Firstly, the requirement to have permission for a 'dropped kerb' is necessary to stop people creating addditional and potentially dangerous vehicular access points onto the highway, but if you've got permission, then that's already in the bag. The second issue is making sure that the access over the pavement is of the right spec to stand vehicular traffic without sinking (I assume pavements are generally built to a significantly lower spec than roads). It would make the quotes look a little more reasonable if that section of the pavement needs digging out to a greater depth and backfilling with stone.

Ours is similar. I can't really see any benefit it dropping it 30mm or so. Is it just about 'regularising' the access?

No problem for me either. With the VAT reclaim I submitted a list of addresses used for deliveries or invoicing during the build and an explanation of what they were, and nothing was queried (eg, original home address, rented address, work address, plot/planning address, official postal address).

Just checking; when you say 'totally full of condensation', do you mean that there is: a) simply just a lot of it on the outside of the outer pane (as we're all assuming), or b) there is condensation between the two panes?

We did exactly that. When we re-mortgaged to release the cash for the plot, we didn't tell new lender what our plans were (to be fair, they didn't ask), so it was a straight-forward residential re-mortgage deal for them. I suspect many high-street lenders won't be keen to lend if they know you're intending to sell imminently. As it turned out, due to re-visiting the planning process and a slow housing market, it was a couple of years before we sold so didn't get hit for redemption penalties either. We then rented somewhere to live whilst we built.

If you want a reclaimed look, have a look at Hoskins Old Farmhouse blend (now produced by Vandersanden I believe). Not Yorkshire based, but easily available nationally, and look great (in my heavily biased -that's what I used- opinion)!