saveasteading

The middle of a glulam or Kerto seems such a waste of wood. The central layers of laminates are hardly working at all.

Important. Gaps are bad for thermal and sound insulation. Better a poorer quilt with no gaps than the densest fitting poorly.

In that case , your very hot metal box is all in the room. The bricks getting hot is secondary and better than the waste heat going straight up the flue. As above, maybe you can pull thd stove forward. As an experiment try a fan, without heater, to draw air out of the fireplace....but not right in front or it will melt... so blow from an angle?

You've got me reliving these products, and looking them up , as I used kerto big time a couple of times to replace steel. Reason? 1.Workability, joiners instead of steel fabricators, 2. Making up a solution on site with complex angles.... wood is easier than steel. Notes. Kerto is a trade name. LVL (laminated veneer lumber) may bring up other manufacturers. It is really strong and also hard. It needs a very good circular saw/ nail gun etc. Another product is made of longitudinzl shards of timbe in resin, like osb, but in beam sizes. Super strong. I can't remember it's name, or find it online.

Our best price by far came from the local, independent BM. You would have expected the national specialist* to have done better but no. Ditto online suppliers. If you want a lot, then it may be coming direct from the factory, whoever the intermediary. * Who once told me they couldn't match their Oxfordshire price to us for another job in Kent, ( a lorryload direct from S Wales) because they didn't need to. Actually they did need to because I got it elsewhere. Choose the product. Shop around. Consider changing product. Shop around. Ask if it makes any difference to have it all at once or in stages. It does not store well outdoors.

If you look up past the stove, is the chimney open to the room or is there a closure?

These stove fans are fun but don't do a lot. Once the brick is hot, it will start to heat the room. Where do you think the heat is being lost at present? What happens to the smoke? Is there a flue, and is the old chimney closed off above the stove.

Normal 90° bends are fine.

Direct on your land? All flooding is a combination of raindrops, so It all counts. Of course you could be at the trickle end of thd river or as it becomes an estuary, which woukd make a huge difference. If your water could end up in someone's street or playing field, then its a bad thing to hurry it. French drains and soakawsys are more often used to hold back water. What is the reason for the French drain? This is a common solution as a retrofit to resolve a wetness problem. But in your case, if that iis x the worry, then it's probably better to raise the building. I can't say more without knowing why this has been shown. My current feeling is that it is a misunderstanding of drainage and attenuation.

The veneers are bonded with weather- and boil-resistant phenol formaldehyde

Are these sheltering in the crevices? Dopy and don't fly away unless chased? Look up cluster flies. Spraying the area keeps most from returning.

I agree. I think all foul drains should go a short route out of the house, but also square to the building as it makes construction easier. A shorter run at a steeper grade is best. ICs aren't very expensive as long as away from vehicle loading. Where does the rainwater go? If it is to a big soakaway or pond on your land , then OK. Having a French drain all around the house is OK if there is a problem, but it should not drain your ground to mains or water courses, which would be the opposite of flood mitigation.

A tax given to a water company. How much will that help after generous dividends abroad? Cynical me supposes that this was the water company's idea and the government meekly agreed. I've a feeling that this nitrogen runoff thing, as well as being a genuine issue, was a means for planners to refuse projects more easily than fighting the developers.

Brownfield housing sites that i've observed seem to take forever to develop. I assume it's the old story of the developer controlling availability and the market. There often seem to be stated challenges , such as contamination, that I think are as above...reasons to delay, even avoid, building. Of course there are the local targets to meet, so by not building on brownfield, applications on greenfield are required to be approved. There is probably political pressure I don't know anything about. Eg if brownfield is encouraged then green isn't, and the big landowners have to wait. The Country Landowners Association could tell us, but won't.

To check... this is internal and you are looking for 60mm? How much does it wiggle at the joints? If you can contrive more joints at corners or straights, then these will add up. You need just 5°, so 4 joints at 1.25°. Or cut 60mm off the vertical. All assuming your bits allow this.

Sites that are almost certainly contaminated: Car breakers, gas works, livestock handling area (abattoirs, railway sidings). Of course landfill. And with apologies to the Black Country......Smethwick anywhere. I once did a drain survey, to tender for replacing a drain (theclay pipes and manholes of which had eroded). My tape immediately lost all its markings and yellow paint when dipped in the running liquid.... which outflew by tipping into a redundant mine shaft. I don't blame the local authorities really. Some of these sites and businesses had interesting owners.

Builders? Not really except the developers like an easy ride and country location. If contaminated then the ground is an issue, but most brownfield isn't. If an area us dirty then it can be designed around. Mostly it is about whether a child might get a mouthful of nasty earth or we eat vegerables from it. But it is an overstated problem. If either 1. it was a warehouse and car park, so is clean, or 2. If dirty you cover it with concrete or tarmac again, eg the new shopping centre or surgery.

I've just realised it's simple. Build more ring roads. Infill with housing, including compulsory purchase of inferior industrial estates*. Town takes most of the uplift profit. Neighbourhood facilities included. Reduce shop rates in the town to encourage a resurgence. Lots of buses. Existing tired towns become thriving hubs again. Better than new towns? Sorted. * and in the tradition of streets being named after the countryside they destroyed, we can have "scrapyard mews", "sidings street" etc

One extreme end of the cost ranges we see on here. The other is getting it done by professionals and main contractors....but that isn't really self build. And all variations in-between. Are we saying £1k to £4k per m2? The other thing about diy is that payments to builders are out of your already taxed income. But there is so much to learn. I've been in many aspects of construcion all my career (and before) and am still learning a lot.

Whether 10k or 20k, my point is the same. £1M is a lot more. Elsewhere though, it isn't that much, but the building still costs much the same. That would be interesting to hear from our nationwide correspondents.

Others know better than I, but I think nhbc only warrant the 'structure' viz..is it going to fall down? Even then they gong seem to be greatly helpful. They do have building standards though, including damp and insulation There has to be insulation. If not, then it is not fit for purpose. There are drawings. If they can't find them, then their designers and building inspectors could find them if they try. They are fobbing you off. Apologies. LA is local authority. They probably weren't the building inspector, but they are responsible for residents welfare. A wet house is unsafe. Try your Councillor. They may be able to get a building inspector along. Cala obv don't care much about you or their houses once sold. They may consider they have a reputation to defend.

Ok. I believe this strongly but have trouble convincing certain parties, so maybe I'm wrong. Simplistically, a developer works out the build cost, plus overheads and profits. Subtracts that from the target sales price and is left with the land cost. Get it cheaper for extra profit. Dearer, no deal. If the LA applies additional S106 requirements then that increases the build cost, and can simply come off the land value. There may be no deal of course, but in time the landowners might reduce their exoectations. SE building land is £10k an acre as farmland and £1M for housing, so it wouldnt make so much difference to profit. Thus the LA has one chance to benefit the locality but tends to be wimpish about it. Hence schools , doctors , roads, water supply don't cope. Windfall taxes have always withered away, obv under pressure from those who would pay it.

But we know better than that. I tend to agree though that there are diminishing returns that the manufacturers don't mention, especially to a large floor where the outdoors is a long way away. It's really worth paying attention to insulation at the perimeter.

You think a lot of people have bought sites for self build, got planning permission but can't , or decide not to, proceed? Makes sense, but I wonder if the numbers are high.

I don't like to confuse. What can I be clearer on? Saying S106 without explanation is bad of me... Section 106 contribution ....developer payment as part of a planning condition for works or for the community.