Roundtuit

Ours are stairbox: Just something to be aware of: framless glass balustrades, i.e. without handrail, might not be as straightforward as you'd hope (or the style magazines suggest!) if you need it to meet building regs. Frameless would have been my first choice, but getting someone to make it to meet regulations started getting very expensive, with talk of steel strings clad in timber to take the loadings.

In the house we rented whilst we built, the CU was in the attached garage (no connecting door). It was fine until a lightbulb blew and tripped the RCD, and then it was a pain in the arse to go out and flick it back on. Ours is located in the house; not centrally, but with all the other plant, and that would be my recommendation. All cables lead to the CU, so what you save on one side you gain on the other. On a slight tangent, and for no reason other than debate, I believe that for disabled access purposes building regs stipulate the permissible height of a CU installation, and that a level door threshold into the house must be provided. If you put a CU in the garage, do you also have to provide level access to the garage?

I never really considered that this could be a problem. We moved in in June and notified the local council so we could get wheelie bins and start the council tax ball rolling, and had BC completion inspection yesterday!

As above. No need to have external waste pipes; all ours run internally as I'd rather loose the space than see them on the outside. It just needs a bit more thought in the early stages.

Hi Tamara; you've found the single most useful source of self-build support! I'm building probably less than 10 miles from you; happy to share experience if it's of any help.

Sounds good in principle, but perhaps consider: - combined furniture store and site store wouldn't have worked for me; too much smelly, dirty, dusty stuff. If you're storing furniture, probably best to put it in dry, keep the doors shut and use something to absorb atmospheric moisture (like a dampstick). We hired one container off-site for furniture etc, and one on- site for building stuff (now it's ours, but I should have bought it 2 years ago...) - containers are great for secure storage, but don't easily lend themselves to other uses without a load of extra work as a) they're a steel box, and b) they're a fugly steel box. - containers hold their value well. If the cash flow can accommodate it, buy with a view to selling at the end, and spend the money on the garden room you really want! I'm pretty sure that generally no permissions are needed for a temporary site storage container. You could just ask the question of your planning authority to be sure, but I'd be inclined to find a sensible position for it where it's unlikely to offend anyone and just do it...

I'm no Tree-hugger and have cleared my fair share of timber, but surely anyone certified as competent with a chainsaw would say "this one?, really?, are you sure?". The instruction to fell must have been a management decision, and as such, whether there is gain involved or not, I think justice should be seen to be done. Maybe I just don't like people taking the pi$$!

This time last year I was working late, by crappy work lights, freezing my peripherals off, desperately trying to stay ahead of the plasterers. Now I'm sat in shorts and t-shirt watching Holly Willoughby! Stick with it; hope and plan for the best, and take what comes in your stride. This time next year the pain will already have started to fade!

If it helps, I registered for the FiT in March and don't have a BC completion certificate yet. As above, you do need the MCS certificate and enough done to get an epc, so just focus on what needs to be done to get those bits of paper. You can always get another epc done at a later date to truly reflect the finished house if necessary. My architect did the epc from details I supplied, which may or may not have been more of a 'to do' list at the time. Just sayin...?

+1 for @recoveringacademic. There's a big variation in 'red' bricks, and 'grey' windows, so look around and see what you like. Don't exclude the other elements of the build in the overall 'look' (rainwater goods, mortar colour, roofing materials). Below is Hoskins Old Farmhouse blend with Slate grey RAL 7015. It still needs the sills fitting, but you get the general idea.

Because a humidity sensor can't detect a no. 2, and I think building control requires that you can activate ventilation to dispel odours in such circumstances! We've put in manual boost switches, but they don't get used to be honest. The integral humidity sensor in the unit seems pretty good at its job and boosts when showers are on, at a rate proportional to the level of humidity. I had set a timer to boost for an hour in the mornings when showers where happening, but it really wasn't necessary so I turned it off.

I also had challenges with roofers; a professional local company, but an old-school guy they put on the job. I think BS 5534 requires every tile to have a mechanical fixing. Might be over the top, but that's what I made them do anyway...

We've got a sensiopod (in an oak island worktop, 90-92mm cut-out), and it is just like an extension lead that plugs into a socket at the back of a cupboard. The sockets are upside down so you can push it back down whilst stuff is still plugged in. I like it. It doesn't get loads of use, but it's great when you want to use a recipe on the iPad and you're down to the last 5% charge, or want to blend/whisk a pan of something. Just bear in mind that your location on the worktop will cost you some cupboard space underneath, so best put it to the back or side.

Still finishing painting mine: oak treads and risers, softwood strings and glass balustrade. This was the best compromise between style and cost I could find: It's a stairbox design, rock solid, and a third of the price of the steel/oak/glass design on my original wish list.

I had 3 (3g Alu-clad) windows to take out and re-fit (that were smaller than yours) as the frames had a slight bow in them. The manufacturer's view was that it was down to installation, and, to be fair, it was. We took them out, hammered-out the crank in the fixing brackets and re- installed and got them spot on. Probably best to bite the bullet, take them out and have another go.

...and maybe ventilation, sound proofing, and weather-proofing and insulation of the in-fill wall? Approved yes, but approved as a garage, not a habitable room. Just playing devils advocate here but, in 2018, I feel sure you'd need a BC application for converting an integral garage. Whether that was the case in 1990 is the crux of the matter. If I was your buyer I'd want a piece of paper to demonstrate compliance, but others may not worry about it...

How high's the decking? I think 600mm is the point that building regs kick in, so if it's under that then no need to worry about the 100mm rule.

I'm pretty sure it would have required a building regs application as it's a 'change of use', so in the interests of a smooth sale, a regularisation application might be a good investment ...

I very much admire the ingenuity of a pan extract, but is your ar$e really going to maintain a seal long enough to prevent odour escape into the wider room? Even if you put the seat down afterwards, I'd assume the source of the smell is flushed and gone? As regards neighbours experiencing your cooking smells (before and after!), mvhr is surely no different to any room extractor, or opening a window? Vent where suits you best; presumably you won't need to open your bedroom widow other than to perhaps purge on a warm day, or there is limited benefit to mvhr, and it looks like you have plenty of airspace around your house to allow for natural dispersal.

Perhaps it depends what you're looking for, but when I shopped for windows, there was no standard sizes- nothing was 'off the shelf', all made to order. My top tip? Keep it simple! I've got several 'nice features' that sounded great at the design stage, but added thousands to the cost. To be fair, they are nice features, but if I'd understood the full implications I may have made some different choices... The other surprise for me was the cost of labour locally. We're by no means in an affluent area, but I reckon supply and demand means that a) getting a quote for one-off job is a battle, and b) trades can add themselves a generous 'bonus' into the quote ss they don't really want or need the work. Try and get a feel for the local market and how that might impact on theoretical costs!

Ours are Rationel aliuminium-clad 3G (apart from the bifolds which are Solarlux), and we got a local guy to install. I'm pleased with them, and they were very competitively priced.

Another vote for 12.5mm for walls plus skim, 15mm plus skim for ceilings.

We've got mvhr so 10mm all round for air circulation. Downstairs is all hard flooring, upstairs has oak thresholds in the doorways to ensure the gap isn't compromised by carpet and it looks fine. When your laminate is down 20mm might look a bit gappy, but you could put a timber threshold in to split the difference.

What @Ferdinand said. I had mist coat sprayed on walls plus 2 coats on ceilings; saved me weeks of time. There was no noticeable paint on the floor other than a couple of inches at the floor/wall junction, but I still needed to sand the laitence of the screed so it wasn't a problem anyway. My painter did window reveals etc with a brush and roller, so the only masking was a strip of tape across the top of switches and sockets (unscrewed and pulled off the wall) to protect from falling spray.

In that case, it's not you, it's him. If you haven't had a price yet, he's probably just trying to manage your expectations before trying his luck with an inflated quote. I've just had a carpenters quote for £1750 for 3 days labour. Nice work if you can get it...