Happy Valley

We just sold a leasehold flat near Manchester City Centre because it was a D rating. Owned it from new in 2004/5. Just didn't want the hassle of going to the freeholder to obtain consent to get the changes. Also what happens if the whole block is not done and mine does not get up to the requirement? The owner occupiers in there do not want to pay tens of thousands of pounds to get from D to a C. Stupid ill conceived idea. Luckily we got it through before the CGT changes came in. We would have preferred to keep the flat from an income viewpoint. We have two other properties which luckily already conform. A friend has traditional terraces in a Cheshire town and he says there is no cavity in some to insulate. The one's that have need that cavity for the building to breathe. He's sat on the fence about what to do. We have a renting crises and these stupid potential regulations are one reason why landlords are leaving the market by the masses. Tenants then complain that rents are up 20% and that every property up for rent has 20 to 40 people after it. Government needs to make it attractive to keep or buy rental properties rather than making landlords out to be problem otherwise the supply will dry up. A serious lack of new build homes over the last 20 to 30 years has got us to this situation.

We used Polysteel and braced from the inside by drilling into the slab. Had three concrete pours, ground floor, first floor then above once steels were in up to roof level. We attched pieces of ply to bits that we thought might be more vulnerable to a blow out. We didn't have any. Self tapping the stone/block ties into the steel frame made life easy for the builder. With all that caging and rebar we used a piece of ply and hammer drills to ensure the concrete dropped to the bottom as you can't get an aerator in there.

I like the shape. Consider shading for the large south facing windows to stop overheating - we have a 5m SE facing slider and the amount of heat it generates with low sun even in the last two months is enough to heat the house for the day. We have a 1.2m overhang to hopefully keep the strong summer sun out! We shall see. Do you need a chimney? That is a very expensive addition build cost wise. Do you need a separate plant and utility room? Ours is combined to provide more space elsewhere. You could increase your plant room slightly by moving the wall towards the study. This would make your study bigger and dual aspect. Our plant/utility room has no window but in reality you spend very little time in there and when you are you doing something rather than sitting down.

Get them done ASAP as in our experience they were, in summer 2022, way behind their quoted timescales for connections particularly the electricity connection which caused us all sorts of problems at the time mainly due to their incompetence. We had no gas but water was about £650 and electricity about £1000 of which we got £300 back following a complaint. Surface water drain cost us more. We used our own contractors to dig and the holes which cost about another £1000 in total for all three.

Nice design. That's a lot of glass - which way does it face?

There is no enclosure or top box. The manifolds are Quiet Vent in the loft whilst the unit is in the utility/plant roof on the ground floor. We used the semi flexible Quiet Vent silencer off the unit itself before connecting to the pipes to the manifolds.

Yes as above BPC do the calcs. We had it commissioned by someone recommended by them to their calcs and they provided a certificate for Building Control.

We are 160 sq m with 100 sq m on the top floor as is built into a hill. It more than copes with this area.

Our builders installed it. Fairly simple process once the design and runs had been worked out. You barely notice it when running - only if we leave the door open to the utility/plant room do we here the machine itself and runs are completely quiet. We turned our airflow down as we found it too much - it was at 60% and now its running at 40%. We've just used the supply filters and just put pollen ones in after 6 months. These are aftermarket ones so unlikely to be ePM2.5

Our Cemfloor was 60-70cm over 200mm insulation with UFH pipes run approx every 150mm

It's not really about cost per m2 more the design of your house. If you have 3 floors it is much more complex to get the pipe runs from the manifold(s) to the rooms if you only have one unit. MVHR is a no brainer on a fairly air tight ICF build with no trickle vents and no holes in the building. Our system from BPC was £3000+ VAT uninstalled on a 160 m2 2 storey build. It works superbly btw.

We have just done the same but in Cheshire. A steeping sloping site so our new home is 2 storey with the top storey 40% bigger than the ground floor. We started back in 2017 with a an architect and topography survey, got planning in late 2019 and started in Spring 2021 finishing about 18 months later when the old house sold. A great wealth of knowledge on here. Good luck with your project.

Our 8.5kw Ecodan with 210 litre cylinder together with all the associated header tanks and pipework cost just less than £10k from a reputable installer in Sept 2022. We then got a £5k rebate from the govt so just less than £5k in total. The pipework and electrical connections to the UFH manifolds were done by the plumber separately

Could have saved money by making the design simpler but hey a box is rarely interesting!!

Luckily our build was towards the head of a small steep cul-de-sac of 8 properties. Even though you could see the build from other parts of the of the village only one person came to view the build whom we did not know. They were a lecturer in building techniques visiting family and wanted to discuss the ICF. No problem good chat and wave goodbye. No local councillors visited and we attended the local parish council meeting which discussed our application. No other member of the public was there. That went through without a hitch. As for neighbours - well one has been an absolute arse of the highest order and I will never forgive him for it. I know it's part of the process but in a time of high pressure during a build you don't need threats and intimidation especially if they are never backed up.

We have a 8.5kW Ecodan but run our hot water cylinder to 50 degrees. Our 210 litre tank is in the utility room and probably losses 5 degrees over a 12 hour period although haven't really checked this. Even at 45 degrees the water is warm enough. Initially our installers said to leave the hot water on constant so it just tops up but we have decided to run it just once a day during the day as we don't use that much.

We used Magna Renewables based in Runcorn for our supply and install. Very happy with their work almost six months on. Not sure if they will deal purely with commissioning but worth a contact.

Keep going - there are usually ups and downs during the process. Living in the property that you dreamed about/designed/project managed is just fabulous. You'll get there.

We moved in back in October and have slowly been going through the list in order to obtain the certificate. In November they came out and there was a list of about 8 things to do including ensuring the ground floor toilet has the correct disability access. Foolishly we forgot to put the door opening outwards. Anyway back in December and I had told them that we could get the door changed due to our joiner not being available. The door however is 2'9" so 3" wider than a std door and they luckily allowed this however... ....they then stated that the sink was too close to the shower for a wheelchair to get to the toilet so I buy a cheap small sink for £40 take the large vanity sink/unit out fit the small one. They are happy and now we are signed off. Mrs wants the old one putting back in now!! We only have the landscaping to do now that the driveway is in but that can wait until the Spring!

It's been on less than 10 times since early October. Glad didn't buy a more expensive one.

Budget dictated a cheap one from Home&Beyond. It was less than £300 ex VAT. You can change all the colours to suit.

You can always ask. This work however is not part of the fabric of the new build (materials used in the build) and therefore may not be valid for tax deduction.

Great article. I hope you don't get the "Field of Dreams" effect and find everyone turning up on your doorstep 😉

In the end we connected to a surface water drain on our neighbours driveway. To connect about 10 meters into the adopted road was going to cost £8300 to £10000. We had 3 quotes. Avoid adopted road connections if at all possible!! I offered the neighbour a bung which they accepted and the total connection cost including this was under £3000.

We went down the Greencoat route which was a lot cheaper than zinc. Costs more than a traditional roof but has a 50 year guarantee which should at last me!