Happy Valley

Interested to hear what size attenuation tank you have. This is purely for rainwater/surface water in England. We have a roof size of about 200 sq m and have been advised that we will require a 16 cu m tank which seems rather excessive.

We didn't use pokers but hammer drills with a block of wood and vibrated the side of the polystyrene ICF - you could see the concrete drop when looking over the top when someone was vibrating the walls below. Worked a treat for us as there was a lot of (unnecessary) rebar inside the core making a poker very difficult.

You could make it a condition of the sale that the landlord (or agent if any) serves the Section 21 notice now on the tenant for the tenancy to terminate at the end of the current fixed term in August. This gives the tenant more than the minimum two months required and the tenant may wish to move earlier in which case if you have completed you could agree a mutual termination of the tenancy or complete with vacant possession if they move out beforehand. Who manages the property the vendor or a professional agency? A professional agency may be better as could provide proof that the tenancy has been carried out in accordance with the terms of the agreement by the tenant(s) and the rent paid on time each month. BTW the deposit (if any) must in one of the 3 govt backed deposit schemes in order for any notice to quit to have any validity.

I think he's referring to Sarah Beanie, who built a new house in Somerset.

It's a small building of 3 apartments on a development by a "premium" builder. Clad in stone, there are 18 houses and three more small apartment blocks. It is just one of the buildings which is known to have a problem. I think if there were more builders using timber frame here where we live we may have considered it. Our chosen builder had little or no experience of it so we ruled it out.

No blow outs with our ICF - I can however point you in the direction of a 20 year old timber framed building that is rotting from the inside out. Every form of construction has it's pros and cons. As long as you are happy with yours that's all that matters.

We are doing a very similar thing to yourself in that we are lucky enough to be building in our existing plot having gained planning consent. We live on-site in the older house. We have never built before whilst I have worked in property it was not in construction so could say that we are very green too. We went ICF (Polysteel Warmerwall) and I am project managing with the help of an excellent builder. Even so our build costs have escalated mainly due to the increased cost of materials over the last 10 months. We will probably spend about 30% more than anticipated initially - we had factored in a 15% contingency. If this is going to be your home for the next 15 to 30 years I do not think that it matters too much about going over the budget that you mention. Good luck. Edit: The cost of professional fees alone is likely to be around or in excess of £20000 - architect, ecology survey, soil survey, structural engineer, water survey etc etc

I think we paid £490 inc VAT last year for local authority building control site inspection fees. Been out three times so far. No issues at all. They asked some relevant questions and I had to send the amended joist layout to them. 200 sq m build.

We got the S model. Like to keep things fairly simple.

My understanding of the Advanced S is that is quieter than other similar Vent Axia models. We have one but not yet fitted - just putting in the plenums and ducting atm Got a good deal from Conor at BPC with all the manifolds ducting exhausts etc

Surely the value of the plot is greater now that you have planning and not beforehand when you thought they would win their appeal through the planning consultant. I'm with others - there is nothing to lose in having the conversation and they may have extremely deep pockets.

Awaiting a response from the manufacturers - ours have 47mm of wood depth before the void the another 47mm.

We have just been fitting our between posi joists insulation this week which has the cut outs for the 16mm UFH pipework. We have decided to router out 16mm across the top of each joist to get the pipe to the next area so we don't have lots of ups and downs. We will then be laying floorboards and an engineered wood floor. Ground floor is same as yours - concrete slab and 200mm insulation. We used Wunda as well - a great firm who have sent out more materials to us today without a further charge.

We do not need a fire in the snug for heat but swmbo wants a feature fireplace in the wall and likes those new fangled long electric fireplaces that are inset and about the same width as a 55" TV. They can give out heat but look like a real fire and the "ambience" can be changed with different colours and effects. We have seen some very nice ones but they are silly money north of £2000. There are loads on ebay from around £500 to £1000. Does anyone have any experience or recommendations please.

We are building in ICF - polystyrene blocks. We have a builder. This is our first new build and the builder whilst excellent and experienced with 30 years has never built with ICF before so a big learning curve. Builder is very conscientious and quality of work is superb. The speed of construction is a big advantage. There is very little we would change - but one thing that would have made the whole build easier is designing the openings of the house (windows doors sliders) around the size of the blocks. There is a window which is right on a corner which is not ideal when cutting ICF corners. We would also get a structural engineer who understood ICF as ours has lots of rebar which the manufacturer deems unnecessary. The blocks sit on a waterproof concrete raft with a water bar. The ICF is faced in natural stone and blockwork (to be rendered). We have not moved in yet so can't comment on how it works in reality.

It's 50mm EPS

I am endeavouring to source some 150mm radius insulated corners for our 16mm underfloor heating pipework between the joists. Wunda provided the insulated straight sections but the corners were no longer available through them. Does anyone know a supplier please?

There's an old adage - "never let to friends and relatives" ....almost guaranteed they will not be friends or will be estranged relatives afterwards

Excellent news as shall be buying lots of these this Spring. Thanks for sharing.

Yikes!! ? Looks like a West Country estuary.

Surely the landlord that you mention should be sorting this out and ASAP as has a statutory obligation to provide space heating and hot water. A good landlord will provide a few plug in oil radiators temporarily.

We have a 200mm waterproof concrete raft with a waterbar where the ICF is. The first pour into the ICF was also waterproof concrete. As with many ICF's it was almost impossible to poker the concrete inside the ICF so we used hammer drills on a thick ply board 6 inch square and vibrated the sides of the ICF. Worked superbly as you could see the concrete dropping when looking from above.

I remember the rather ambitious project and iirc the concrete bridge to the bigger house cost them dearly. He was in the music industry and it was fairly clear from the start that he had bitten off way more than he could chew. Not surprised that it broke up his marriage.

We have 3 steel uprights that require an insulated cavity closer. I can find the different widths but are there ones that better insulated than others? They appear to be foam backed but none mention anything about insulation performance.

I am unsure if this is still the case but you used to be able to nominate your PPR or Principle Private Residence to HMRC. This was of particular use for the rich who owned more than one home in the UK and usually stopped any ambiguity between the properties for tax purposes. As above actual proof that you have lived there from bills may also be required.