ProDave

That's an example of where technology should be kept out of things where it has no real useful purpose. Like the over complicated Dimplex Duo Heat storage heater I was trying to fix yesterday. It's controlled by an electronic module and I can't find any service information. A replacement controller is £100. There was nothing wrong with a storage heater that had a heating element and a thermostat.......

It was the ease of self install that swung it for me with the Conder If you are paying someone to install it then it makes little difference, but with the Biopure, it has to be held upright while you pour concrete and wait for it to set. Just a tip, of you chose that one, the best price I could get for it was from Travis Perkins. Mine was the ASP06 but as far as I can tell they are the same size physically but the 8 has a bigger blower pump (there may be other internal differences)

You will probably be fine especially if you lower the level of that "back" garden a bit. Perhaps a row of gabions to shore up the step up the the gardens behind? I had about 250 tons (pretty wild guess actually) of excavated soil. By the time I finished spreading it and leveling it, I have about 1 ton left over that will easily get used up, so I think I got it about right there then,

Pet hate of mine, stairs going up from a living room. In older less well insulated houses, that resulted in a cold draught of air coming down the stairs into the living room in winter. I bought my first house in 1986 when property prices were going silly and you just bought anything you could afford to get you established (I literally bought the cheapest house on the market in the county at that time, not because I liked it, but it was all I could afford) At the same time a colleague bought a studio flat. As he was sat at the tea table at work describing it, one of the older guys (who clearly owned a large house) came into the conversation part way through and said "what are you describing, it sounds like a landing" and when he found out the floor area, he pointed out his garage was bigger than that.

Did they fill it on the same day as the final pour? Is the back fill wackered down, or just left to settle at it's own rate? I see there is still a big step from the retaining wall height to the natural ground level at the back. Will that ground level be lowered to give the final garden level up there? All looking good, now you can build the house proper.

That just reinforces my view that I am far from being your average home buyer. I don't mind being labeled strange or even eccentric if that is the case. I prefer to see it as individual, and I want a home that reflects what I want to do with it, not what a developer thinks the majority of people would do with it. Perhaps people that strive to self build are of a similar persuasion and prefer the flexibility to have something individually built to suit their needs, in which case that explains why I feel at home here. But previously I have looked at the plans for new developments and thought "if only they moved that over there and put this in there" then it would have been a home I could have lived with, usually with little impact on the development density and hence builders profit. It might be interesting to have a straw poll and see from the self builders here, is it the flexibility to have a better house that made you choose self build? or is it the chance to have a house in a better location with the outside space better suited to your needs?

That's an interesting argument. We used to own a 2 bed mid terrace ex council house as a buy to let. We often thought the front bedroom that was the full width of the house would divide into two. Particularly as the 3 bedroom version of that house was only very marginally larger overall. the killer was the need to cut a big hole in an outside wall to install a second window. When it was priced out, the cost of converting it would have barely covered the extra price it might sell for, so we decided to leave it as a 2 bed. Interestingly shortly afterwards I did the wiring alterations for someone doing that 2 to 3 bed conversion. By the time you had taken out the extra bit of landing you needed to give access to the now two front bedrooms, what you were left with were two tiny bedrooms, barely adequate as single childrens rooms, so I am glad we didn't do it. that was definitely a case of one generous room was better than two inadequate rooms. however had they been built with two windows, I am sure more would have been converted.

Very true. We often light the WBS, not because the thermometer in the room says it is cold, but because it is grey wet and dismal outside and it feels cold. On such occasions we will bask in the rom at 25 degrees and love it, but would never normally allow the heating to warm a room that much. Likewise I worked in an air conditioned office kept at a constant 20 degrees. Sometimes you would be in rolled up shirt sleeves feeling hot. Other times you would have your pullover on and shivering.

Indeed this is an interesting debate. As I have alluded to before, in many ways I place more importance on the location, outside space, proximity and overlooking of neighbours, views, noise (or preferably lack of), sunlight etc than I do on the actual design and layout of the house. That can be changed, improved, altered, rebuilt, the location can't. That is why I sometimes shout at the likes of Phil and Kirsty etc on the tv when they say "you can't possibly decide not to buy that house because it hasn't got off street parking" YES I bloody well can and will. And it is as much the layout of housing estates that I hate and why I would never choose to live on one in a new box with a plot layout that may suit "Mr average" but not me. If people are happy living shoe horned in, with a single garage you can barely squeeze a car into and with the only other parking being the drive in front of the garage, then good luck to them. They obviously don't have many interests. Where would I park my caravan, my trailer, my classic car, and even my boat? Developers never think about that do they? Perhaps they should try one or two plots on an estate with a decent double garage and extra parking alongside the garage, I bet they would be the most popular plots and would sell first. They could even charge a little more for them? That is why self build is so important to me. I am happy to be building my relatively modest house on my 1/3 acre plot to the layout I have chosen and the house is designed to make the most of the plot and the views. My house design would not work if you tried to pack it into an estate at a density of 30 dph and I would not want to live in it at that density with so little personal outside space. And since this is going to be our retirement home, I want it to be efficient. That's why I am well insulating it, striving for good air tightness, have fitted good triple glazed windows (aluminium clad for low maintenance and long life) and will be fitting mvhr. All so we can live comfortably without spending a fortune on energy to heat it.

Acme Mk1 patented pallet dismantling gadget: Left hand end of 8 by 2 is against a solid wall. Place pallet plank against 8 by 2. Hit pallet cross member with FBH And it comes apart with no drama.

I think that would be the final straw if my shed built of pallets suddenly got topped out with an old up and over garage door. [joke] "I am going to build a shed out of pallets" "Over my dead body" "Is that where you would like me to put it?" [/joke]

And I wonder how many home owners have registered the fact they burn pallets in a domestic wood burning stove?

Our present house has 100mm PIR in the sloping part of the ceiling, and 300mm rockwool above the flat ceiling. I know we are on a quiet road, but when a car does go past, we hear it via the window, not through the walls or roof.

I recall Jeremy was looking into the option of sourcing a 12V air blower pump to replacer the mains driven one as standard. That would make it a lot more viable to power by it's own solar panel and battery (with a mains charger to turn on if there was not enough solar generation) I don't know the outcome of his research. Don't forget to look at the Conder as well (that's the one we have) The Conder, Vortex and Biopure all appear to be the best 3 treatment plants in terms of effluent quality that I could find when I was looking and all work on the aeration by an air blower principle.

To separate the pallets, forget trying to pull individual nails. I lay a bit of 8 by 2 timber on it's side with one end against the house wall. Stand the pallet upright so the plank you are trying to remove is along the ground and resting against this bit of 8 by 2 and one of the pallets cross members is right next to the 8 by 2 (I can see I am going to have to take a photo as I doubt that description makes it clear) Then hit the cross member of the pallet very hard with the FBH Sometimes the nails come out of the cross member, sometimes they pull through the plank. t helps to keep your pallets dry. The ones that have been inside all the time come apart really easy. The ones that have been left outside, the nails have rusted and they take a lot more hitting to get them apart. For firewood, I put lumps of pallet on the fire WITH the nails in. They riddle through into the ash pan afterwards no problem. Most people recommend against this.

One of the things you accumulate during a self build is pallets. Everything comes on a pallet. Some good, some bad, some ugly, some not even worthy of firewood. One of the things our plot needs is a shed. Somewhere to put the lawnmower, strimmer, garden tools etc should we ever find a buyer and move into the static caravan. I don't have any spare money to buy a ready made shed, not that I think much of the way most sheds are made anyway. So a while back I said to SWMBO "I am going to make a shed out of those pallets" The reply was not exactly "oh that's a good idea dear" Some (most?) pallets are not fit for making stuff. But I have rather a lot of these that all my wood fibre board came on. When dismantled they each yield four 6ft long 5" wide planks and they dismantle relatively easily. So these planks will clad 3 of the walls of the shed. So lets start. First you need a base for it to sit on. Well I have the three large pallets that my windows arrived on. Quite substantial and put together will make a base 9ft by 7ft, so big enough just for a garden tool shed. Lay them on the ground with the corners and ends of the members of the pallets supported on concrete blocks. To support the mid span, drive some stakes in as far as I can then fic these to the middle of the pallets. Not only does that give extra support, but it anchors it all down for when the wind blows. Of course I forgot to take a picture of just the base, so here is the base and the back wall. The observant will notice the base is slatted with big gaps. The gaps are not even enough to fill in to make it a solid floor. So the floor will be over sheeted with OSB using the pallets as the "frame" and the OSB as the finished floor surface. Today I built and added the first end wall. So one other end wall will be made from the final pallets (still to be dismantled) The front will then be clad with some different wood, a load of 6" X 1" planks that have been used as temporary bracing during the build. the front will incorporate two windows and a door. The roof (probably the only bit I will have to buy) will be corrugated bituminous roofing that I used previously for my wood shed. This is a fill in job, low priority, but fun (more fiun than sanding and re varnishing the windows of the old house)

My roof is (starting from the outside) Tiles, battens, counter battens, breathable membrane, 100mm wood fibre board (used as sarking) 195mm rafters filled with two layers of Frametherm 35, 9mm OSB, 25mm battened service void, plasterboard. Originally I was going to use blown in insulation to fill the void, until I found the price. Frametherm 35 gives the same U value as the blown in insulation would have, at a much lower cost, plus it's a bit more of the job I can DIY. The frametherm is nice(er) stuff to work with and is stiff enough to stay put when you press it in between the rafers before boarding (I have a test piece that has been in place for 6 months now, not boarded, and it hasn't fallen out or slumped) In my case the wood fibre on the outside is mitigating any cold bridging and adding to the insulation, rather than having extra on the inside. I think the overall U value is about 1.3

I got the best price for all my insulation (Knauf Earthwool Frametherm 35) from SIG

I saved the scaffold hastle by buying my own. Like having your own digger, it is so nice not to have any pressure on time to get a job done and scaffold off hire. and being a scaffold tower system (kwikstage) it is dead easy to alter it around as jobs need.

I am confused. I thought this problem was the result of building work done and a supporting wall being replaced by a beam. But your drawings seem to show it has always only been supported by a floor joist? My previous 1930's house was like this. The downstairs wall was about 1/3 the span from front to back. But upstairs a brick wall that separated two bedrooms meant a lot of weigh supported mid span by the floor joists. When I bought the house there had clearly been a lot of movement, the bend in the floor was clear to see and a door frame was very out of square. The surveyor noted it was at the limit of acceptable deflection and if further movement was noted a steel beam should be inserted under the wall to support it. In the 13 years I was there it did not move any further. As part of the work I did on the house, I re fitted the door frame and made it square. The plaster did not crack again and when i sold it, there was no mention of it at all on the buyers survey.

AND all my tools are 240V

Another one to say that is some very nice looking brick laying there, you should be well pleased with that.

i share the concern that 50mm is not enough insulation. You need to get some more insulation UNDER the existing joists as well as in between them.

I I don't think so. The "issue" with an ASHP up here is they are perceived by the planners as noisy, so they want to know where they are in relation to neighbours and they wanted the specifications in particular it's noise rating. That's why if you have a massive garden and it's a loooooong way from the neighbours you can ionstall one under permitted development. An oil tank is not noisy so won't be a planning issue, but my be a BR issue? I know with this house building control had to approve the location of the oil tank, and in our case allowed it to go right next to the end wall of the house, which is apparently unusual as most pople have to keep them a few metres away frm the house.

Not sure about a building warrant, but you do know in Scotland, planning permission is needed for an air source heat pump, unless it is something like 100 feet from all your boundaries (I can't imagine any council houses meeting that) A ground source heat pump does not need PP. Thankfully I realised this just in time to include it on my plans. I am guessing the cheap A2A unit mentioned is a single outlet unit, think air conditioner in reverse, so would only heat one room.