Happy Valley

I believe we have saved £2.00 on the first two sessions. Not sure about yesterday and there is another one today. We cook before or after the "hour". Alternatively I could go down the one of the Happy Valley's many excellent pubs for a lovely pint of Bass at £3.50 but I'm not sure about the economics of this 😉

Wood infill 6 x 2 from memory and braced on the 150mm core. Pics attached - last one was taken 10 days ago as now living in the property

We built with Polysteels Warmerwall ICF on the recommendation of our architect who has designed a number over the years. No issues or bursts during pours. The SE though clearly didn't understand it as specified rebar both vertically and horizontally throughout whereas I believe you can build up to 4 floors without it. The steel web also has a strip of steel which line up when the blocks are put together. These are great for self tapping the upright supports and then the brick ties (if used) or you could just directly tap cladding onto it. One thing I would try and work to is to build your design around the size of the blocks so reduces the amount of cutting required. Here are some pics.

Our plant room is combined with the utility room - utility one side (washing machine, sink under 1000mm unit and spare fridge/freezer) and plant the other (hot water cylinder, heating manifolds/pipework and MVHR unit, circuit breakers. There is room for a cupboard and hanging coats etc. It's on the ground floor with one of the doors connecting to the garage Two walls were ICF and two blockwork. We had them plastered and the screed floor is covered in LVT. Room is 3.9m max x 3m max

You could always get an independent estimated assessment from firms such as Proquant: https://www.proquantestimating.co.uk/home

You live in the SE where costs can be massively higher than other parts of the country. Getting good trades in from other parts of the country could save you a lot of money if you can find a contractor who is savvy enough. We have just finished our build (in Cheshire) at over £2000/sq m and labour was over a third of that. It could easily have been half or more pushing the build cost past £2500/sq m. If ultimately this is a home that you are likely to live in for 10 or 20 years then whilst the cost is a consideration getting the right people in to build the home that you want should be the driving factor.

Dealing with Utility companies nearly did me in. This was at the same time as dealing with a w anchor neighbour and a slow house sale that was funding the build. Please to say all resolved now and we are in but there was 2 months this last summer where I really was not enjoying the process. I think that retrospectively I was absolutely knackered having put everything into the previous 16 months. Only now am I slowing down now that we are in albeit still with jobs to do.

And in reality it never ends!!

We recently moved in and notified the council despite no BC sign off yet. We moved from a larger house next door. They responded that they will now ask the valuation office for a banding but it could take 2-3 months. This is despite them knowing from August that we could be moving in within 8 weeks. From that I would assume that they are able to backdate. They also said that they would charge as soon as the property was habitable.

Building Control are asking how we are going to deal with this as the tarmac will be approx 150mm from the inside finished floor level. Does the "Level Approach" allow for a 150mm step? Don't fancy having to tarmac over the DPC level to build a ramp. What are my options please (house is in England)

I just did a basket for 4.5m x 100m and the delivery was free for that.

My builders merchant is trying to flog me Multitrack 700 as an alternative to the Terram 1000 - it's £58 cheaper for a 100m roll. Not sure if it's a like for like product.

We are just looking into this now. Experienced tarmac local recommends Terram 1000 for under our tarmac driveway. Easymerchant is the cheapest I have found so far at £260 ex VAT for a 100m x 4.5m roll. https://www.easymerchant.co.uk/gravel-grids/terram-white-non-woven-100gsm-custom-size/

We used Diomet for our balcony: https://diometonline.co.uk/balconies

Pics might help - we removed a fair of rock (being in an old quarry)

Is this indoor or outdoor?? We have an outdoor balcony with frameless glass and indoors stairs with a wooden balustrade with unclamped glass inserts.

It's the air source heat pump. There is a greater distance to the landing wall than the picture suggests and distance to it was OK'd by the installer.

The landscaping can wait whilst I relaxed earlier with a Ghost Ship 🍻

Thanks for the positive comments. I wanted the house designed that way to take advantage of the height and view from a large kitchen/day room. Living on the plot for 21 years gave me plenty of time to mull over exactly how the new house should take advantage of the views. The build into a hill was not as bad as may seem - the site is within an old quarry that was first developed in the 1970's. Luckily we had enough land to the side of our original house to build a new one (with the assistance of demolishing a large unused annex - ex swimming pool). Two levels of raft foundations 200mm think in concrete. The build itself was relatively stress free baring the utility companies, a neighbour and the prolonged sale of our old house due to the buyers panel conveyancer being a nonce!! I'm relieved though that it's coming to an end having project managed. We will be 20% over budget; some of it down to material increase costs, some not compromising on the look of the building and some down to more time than anticipated. We started the demolition in mid April 2021. Would I change anything significant? No. Would I do it again? The current thought is no but as I can start relaxing a bit more if the opportunity presented itself maybe but as a turnkey where I do not have to do the project managing. Appreciate all the assistance on here - it's a brilliant forum with a wealth of knowledge and good banter. Cheers from the Happy Valley!! PS: the cushion is the dogs bed!

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