ProDave

Another thread got me thinkng about this and I have to do something very soon. I am a LONG way from deciding which mvhr unit to use let alone from buying it. But I do know where it will be going. It will be in the "plant room" above the garage. I plan to have the intake and outlet vents through the end wall of the room. Now, I will be cladding and rendering this wall very soon. So even though I know nothing else about the system, I really need to fit the inlet and outlet vents through the wall so they can be rendered in. So the question: Are they pretty universal? So can I just buy any make (suggest one and where to buy please) and then it won't matter if I later choose a different make of ducting etc? OR do I have to chose the make of ducting for the entire system now and use that make of wall vent? Second question: The mvhr unit will sit on the floor of the room. So what's a typical inlet and outlet height above the floor of the room? do they go side by side? one above the other? what sort of separation between them? I assume the wall vents connect to the mvhr unit with flexible or semi flexible ducting so there should be a bit of tolereance if my initial "guess" at the vent location is wrong?

How deep was that excavation? I did a similar thing with my 3t machine, ranging from 0.5M to 1M deep, but I kept all the soil on site (abot 200t I estimate) for landscaping. That was just removing the top soil, then I dug the strip foundations. It just takes longer with a smaller machine.

With regards to covenants putting people off, I suspect the answer is no. Whenever I have been looking for houses before I always want to know what, if any covenants apply. Things like "no caravans" would put me off buying it for instance. But what I found without exception, was it was almost impossible to find out anything about existing covenants befre you make an offer. The agents just said "your solicitor will sort all that out". My point is I wanted to know before I wasted everybodies time and them pulled out when I found a covenant that is too restrictive for me. And most owners you speak to have not got a clue what, if any covenants apply. So I suspect it will not even enter the mind of pospective buyers, though I must say I would not be happy if my neighbour tried to tell me I can't have my WBS.

^^ The caveat is WHEN you are connected to the internet. I typed a long post once, went to submit it, and found my router had crashed, which alse meant it had not auto saved anything. Now, before hitting the button, I highlight the whole text and control C to copy it to the clipbaord as a further backup in case of internet connection problems.

See the tread on dowsing. Get or make a couple of rods and go and practice.

They must be a bit more hot on that up here, or I look like a dodgy plumber. In my present house they demanded an air test of each stack so I had to get the roof ladder up to plug the vent pipe out the roof, then grovel down in a chamber to get the test bung on then pump it all up. "Why is is only pumping up to 3" not 4", there must be a leak."? "Because the shower trap is only a 3" seal and any further pumping just blows bubbles through the trap (moron)"

It can fail the pressure test while building control are watching....

Hi Matt and welcome to the forum. I am glad you found us here. A lot of us were gutted when the old place closed down, which is precisely why we set up the new one. If you know of any others still out in the dark, point them in the right direction.

When you find the solution, let me know, I have EXACTLY the same issue trying to take a 68mm rainwater pipe around a corner.

For you, yes. I'll bet the plasterter cursed you doing that, and I wonder if the plaster finish around them was compromised either in flatness or quality of finish having to work round an obstruction?

Interesting Jeremy that you internal fit out costs were more per square metre than the shell cost. If mine ends up the same, I will definitely have a house that has cost more to build than it would ever sell for.

Interesting observation. I had just the base layer of tarmac laid for my site entrance, expecting it to be trashed and have to be dug up and re laid. It has had all sorts of delivery lorries parked on it. Wheeled and tracked diggers, and probably the heaviest of the lot concrete lorries over it. It is still fine. It won't need digging up, just a scrub up and the top layer can go on. It's laid on 300mm of type 1 that I laid and compacted myself. To my mind, paviers are just the "top layer" and how well they stand up to traffic depends on what base they are laid on. There are a couple of roundabouts up here that have been laid with a ring of paviers around the roundabout. The idea being the light vehioles go round, but busses and larger lorries end up driving on the paviers and they don't budge an inch. My biggest concern would be if the lorries have to make a tight turn from the paved road onto your site, with the inevetable tyre scuffing, that is where any damage will be done.

Okay here are some rough calculations, bearing in mind it's not finished yet. Build cost so far £93,500 Included: Foundations Timber frame construction and erection Roof tiling wood fibre board cladding and render All house windows (Rationel ali clad 3G) most of the insulation (walls and part of the roof) Drain and services connections Waste treatment plant NOT included: Site costs Cost of getting services to site Planning, building warrant, design and "professional" fees Garage doors and windows not yet purchased Sun room doors, windows and roofing not yet purchased. No internal work at all Will need to buy more insulation. Landscaping The house is 154 square metres so that's working out at about £607 per square metre for a nearly finished shell. I don't know if that is good or bad.

Okay, I have to mention it. My static caravan. It's primary purpose will be somewhere for us to live when we eventually sell the old house, while we finish the new one. But I thought ahead, and bought one that has a more useful layout to later become a studio and workshop / storage space. Then I put it on my planning application that it was to be retained after the build was finished as a "garden outbuilding" . The planners were initially against it, until I ponted out on the day of completion (when permitted development rights come into force) I could remove it from site, and immediately replace it with an identical one in the identical position and it would qualify under permitted devemopment rights as a garden outbuilding. They then saw sense and the only planning condition relating to the static 'van is that residential use of it will cease within 1 month of completing the house. Of course to do that I had to ensure it's position was indeed within the permitted development rules, i.e in my case alongside but not in front of the house, and 1 metre away from the boundary (otherwise a very low eaves height would have applied) Although we are not living in iit yet it has been a very handy tool and material store, particularly in the early stages before the house was build when I was doing ground work.

I think you are supposed to supply a toilet. I got around that because I live just 2 doors down the road and the toilet in our existing house was available for them, but few took up that option. There are a lot of trees on the site and most "made their own arrangements"

I doubt very much if you will be able to swap the levers from one make of tap to another if that is what you are suggesting? We have a B&Q bathrom suite at the moment using the taps that came with it. One of the ceramic cartridge units failed and i tried to get a replacement, but nobody that I tried could match it as the number of splines where the levers fitted on was totally different to anything the plumbers merchants had in stock.

You can pressure test by fitting the shower bar before the plasterboard is on and testting. @Nickfromwales posted a much better fixing bracket arrangement for bar mixers before.I am sure he will be along soon.

I haven't worked out the square metre cost yet. That's something i will do when the shell is finished which it's not yet. Yes fitting the wood fibre board is most definitely a DIY job, I have done it all myself. You just need a saw, and a cordless drill to drive in a lot of very long screws. I did get someone to do the render as in the past I have proved that is not a skill that I have. It's a lime based render system not cement based. I started a thread about my construction method. As far as I know I am the only on on here at the moment building this way.

I am building my house to keep me warm and cosy. I am not expecting a car to hit it, so that is not high on my design parameters. I chose the wood fibre external cladding and render, as that gives me extra insulation and helps with the air tightness. I dislike a blockwork and render wall as it adds virtually nothing to the insulation of the building and does nothing to improver the air tightness. A by product of the wood fibre and render system is there is no cavity, so no need to pepper the outside wall in weep vents. Instead I get a crisp clean un interupted render all over.

Hi and welcome to the fourm. I hope you have better luck selling tham me, 18 months, 4 viewings, no offers. I am building with a timber frame, cladd in 100mm thick wood fibre board for extra insulation and then render onto that. An architect will recommend the "normal" way of doing things, few seem to have the vision to do things better. There are a couple on here building with ICF so if that is your chosen route they can give you plenty of advice.

Just finished the cladding and render of the back of the house. More on my blog at http://www.willowburn.net look for the entry "and yet more cladding and render" That's the whole of the house insulated, clad and rendered. Next is the garage, which has the complication of not having a door and a window yet, something I am trying to source without breaking my tiny budget.

I had a spell a few years back wiring pre fabricated units for a local low energy house builder who builds houses in modules in the factory. It got to much work for me and I didn't want a full time employee job, so they took on their own full time electrician in the end. It was while working with them that I learend a lot about low enery houses. Perhaps you should start a separate thread to discuss the structural issues (as this thread is about passive slabs) that keeps the forum a bit more ordered and easy to follow.

I'm interested to hear more about your build. Have you looked at my blog and my thread ? I have a 195mm frame, 100mm pavatex wood fibre on the outside then render. I didn't know about Gutex until you mentioned it, the only other make I knew was Steico. Yopur slightly thinner frame but thicker wood fibre boards should achieve much the same. I also used the same make up for the roof. I was originally going to have a similar blown in insulation to fill the frame, until I found that Earthwool frametherm 35 gave the same insulation for about half the price, and was a DIY job to install. And I'm an electrician as well but self employed.

I ruled out a passive slab for my build becasue of the slope. Mine is more of a slope than yours with my back door floor level a metre above the grouund level. but I think your slope is doable, but I woudl be wary of having a finished floor level lower than the ground. I see you are using wood fibre, is that the same system as me, wood fibre on the outside and then rendered?

Only if it's road legal, which a tracked digger won't be. A JCB might be road legal. Mine came with nothing.