DeeJunFan

I think it's really down to charge what you can and do get paid. There is a mentality that people wont shop around and if a product is sold at a price and sales are at a decent level then prices will remain high. If you have poor sales prices will fall. The market finds its own level. People in other countries are simply not prepared to pay as high a price and the savy UK shopper will look around and get the deal, others will either not look or just stick to what they know. Even some of the prices within the UK are odd. Foe example the cost of concrete in NI compared to England. My blocks cost .36p and I've seen people here paying upwards of £1. Also being part of Ireland and dealing with 2 currency zones on a daily basis i can see how the same products are sold at some very strange price variations. Even simple things like nappies. Currency fluctuations have brought things closer together but still some weird differences.

I can only dream of the day I start on my 100-150m2 self build. We took some advice upfront about our plans and rolled with it and it only when you see the beast of a thing in 1:1 scale in 3d that you think "why are we building such a big house?" Stone guy came round last week and said "That's not a house, thats a hotel" I didn't think 330m2 was that big until I saw it. On the OP I think it's a really clear representation of the insulation benefit/ratio. I also used Jeremy's spreadsheet quite extensively (Also PHPP but found JSH easier to work with and pretty much as accurate) The general level of knowledge around about such things is pretty grim. I was only directed towards lower energy when my sister got a "consultant" to do up a plan for a self build that was supposed to provide a well insulated/airtight house. (since joining the forums a few years ago I found out this guy is/was a copy/paste merchant who was giving some pretty poor advice but at least he was actively encouraging the thought process. I was very gung ho when I started out the design, but over time I have had different levels of advice (some good, some awful) but I have used the knowledge gained here and the tools to make more informed decisions and overall I'm happy with where things are. Insulation is one thing I'm coming back to over time as I was more drawn to making bang for buck decisions as mentioned by AliG above. Going from 2g to 3g was far more impactful that going from 0.17 on the walls to 0.14 but it's because of topics like this that I was in a position to make those choices and understand the impact. So a big shout out and thanks to everyone who cares enough to share knowledge/experience/mistakes etc with the rest of us!

Privatisation has to be a factor, in NI there is only 1 BC option and that's the local council. It's still not great (underfunded and over stretched) but at least the big guys can't hold them to ransom for the next contract. There are pros and cons to "Big Government" but you have to think that statutory regulations should be inspected and enforced by the people who come up with them. My Building Control cost me £1600 and I can't see how that amount of time is being spent on me and a single house. I can't understand how a development of say 500 houses can equate to only say 5 being inspected and so many corners cut? Surely the cost of BC should reflect the effort. So if you pay BC to inspect 500 houses, that's what should happen. Things are/were even worse in the south of Ireland were there are very good building regulations but no inspections of any kind, state or private. They now have a scheme of design/build certifiers who charge ungodly sums of money to have your build covered by their professional indemnity insurance. They have now allowed one off self builds an exemption to this certification as they are generally better standard. But the practice was a simply way to force dodgy buildings and the responsibility for them away from the government. Google Priory Hall if you want and example of the things they wanted rid of!

No they stopped adding reasons for refusal. I had a meeting with head planner for NI, MLA and had a letter from an MP. We had crazy draft planning policy over here for a few years and no-one wanted to make a decision based on the draft policy.

It could be a workable solution but i'm wondering would it be good value. For me anything that costs thousands really has to be offering big savings. If for example you are putting something like this on a mortgage, you need to double the cost and see if it still pays back over 15-20 years.

There are ASHPs that come with a group plate heater, which is an awful lot cheaper than a few thousand. I would be dubious about the payback of such a system. I was looking at a pre-heat system for MHRV from PV in-roof panels and it only adds about £70-80 the the price of the in-roof system but the issue balancing the input and output air was raised so i'm unsure if its a workable solution as yet.

I was looking at that one but the trouble and strife doesn't like the look of it. Too boxy? Is that a thing? Wants something more traditional looking

Take the shot!

I'm building in a field to the rear of my parents house. My house is to the rear and lower down. Application was supported by a number of letters including from my parents. Not just once but twice on the first refusal. "This development would reduce the enjoyment of my parents dwelling" Its in a field next to a house of the exact same design. 2 storey rectangle. "This development is not in keeping with the local area" Best one. As above house is to the rear of my parents house. The only house on the road that is to the rear of another. "This development would break rules to reduce ribbon development" - The only house not built on the ribbon! Only took 4 years to sort through all the refusals!

I used to be a baker of sorts. Mostly Muffins and Pies but they were very nice. On the debate topic i for one would rather be given an honest appraisal of a product that i was considering. If i was to then go ahead an use that product at least i would have been made aware of any potential issues and know what questions to ask to satisfy myself that it was the right choice for me at the time. Perhaps people take offense to the use of the term snake oil. Here is an extract from wikipedia. " Snake oil is an expression that originally referred to fraudulent health products or unproven medicine but has come to refer to any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit " I think the last 5 words would apply to a product that makes a certain claim that is then proven to be false, retracted and then need substantial changes to the product to make it something different but marketed as the same thing. Also i dont think you a fool because of your choice, its only natural to have a group of people sharing information and ultimately making different choices, thats life and it would be extremely boring otherwise. There are products that i'm planning on putting into my house that i know full well are going to make it perform worse but thats my choice and i will live with it. There are also products that family members have used that i have tried to steer them away from but on ahead they went and we are still happily brothers. I for one enjoy your posts, your blog and i think your project looks great. For me anyway i find it difficult to get worked up about forum posts My inner voice sounds like this guy

Dangerous territory lads!

you could try this. http://www.ecomerchant.co.uk/liquid-blowerproof-brush-paint-on-airtight-sealing-membrane-5kg.html

seems though now Murdocks want me to get the place re-measured and confirm that their measurements are correct! I'm wondering is this some sort of way to avoid responsibility if they have made another mistake. Surely it shouldn't be up to me to get the measurements right?

Aye, its like for like. I gave them the full list of what murdocks quoted for and they just gave me a quote for the same gear.

Sorry Jamie, Just saw this, was offline all weekend. I borrowed the scaffolding, it was a challenge to be fair. given the option I would have bought it as some of the quotes for erection and rental were crazy. Could have bought the whole lot for the same price. And then you aren't pressured to get certain jobs done. I'm not sure how easy it would be to sell on but there are always people in a similar spot. Transport would be the main concern if buying.

My brother just got the all clear on his. took over 12 weeks in all. He wasn't too happy about it but not much you can do when its in there. I'm not sure how much longer it would have taken in the depths of winter.

Just got a quote back from ATS. They are coming in 400 quid more than murdocks. still waiting to hear back from Quinns as they are a man down and can't get a quote out.

I was considering this route. What I did was to try and put together the most comprehensive price list I could think of (anything I couldn't get a price for I estimated and added about 20% just in case) I then put a tender out for quote from local contractors and had a figure that I felt I could achieve going direct labour and waited for quotes to compare. The very few I got back were all well in excess of 25-35k more expensive than i was hoping for a lower standard of finish. Thus the decision was made. If you have a local guy who is quoting keen prices and passing on good discount then you could be on to a winner. For some reason i couldn't get most of the local contractors to even price the job.

You could likely get it to shutoff, but could be harder to get it to turn on again. Unless you maybe put a timer on it but may be still in defrost area. Could also be controller dependent.

The tricks of the trade! I'll have to remember all these

Probably a good idea. Like sealing the bath when it's full of water.

the quotes i got for scaffolding ranged from 2K plus 100 per week to 3600 plus 160 per week. I ended up scrounging enough of it to get it put up by a plasterer guy my father knows, he charged £70 per day and it took him 5 days in all (that included help transporting to site) about 3 days to erect.

It was in a professional capacity unfortunately. So I was always making them for other people. And no-one ever said thanks!

Never heard of this with showers before but it's happened to me many times with latte glasses. No wiser as to the reason though