Ferdinand

THe 'Productivity is Falling' claim is interesting, I wonder how that was measured?

@LearningCurve One option which may help and has not been mentioned is to use what we call Skirt Insulation ... that is vertical insulation down the outside of the foundations. That is used for renovating and improving existing properties where the floor cannot be lifted as part of some External Wall Insulation projects. You run say one foot of EPS insulation along the outside of your house wall below ground level to the bottom of your foundations in a trench with a drain at the bottom ... a French Drain ... to keep it dry, to lengthen the perimeter heat loss path so your floor loses less heat. Over time the earth under your house warms up to higher than its normal temperature. The constraint here will be whether your ground conditions somehow inhibit that tactic. Ferdinand

Equally that means that if you do or the immediate people by agreement do something, then no one can enforce on you either. F

Your spec is ... as highlighted ... roughly Building Regs basic. That concerns me given your original aspiration to be Near PassiveHaus spec. Are you actually getting what you think you are getting? If you are not, then you need to stop now and reoriente / check your expectations, as every project stage will reduce your scope for correction, and related costs will increase by several time at each stage. Without running any numbers, I would estimate that this design will have you with energy bills of more like £1200-£1500 than £400-500 per annum. Not a problem if you are expecting it, but a surprise if not. Estimate or measure 10 times, build once. Do not feel got at ... all of us here have made various choices that could have been done differently to save 4 or 5 figure sums, and tried to learn from them. For self-Builders we usually only do it once, so need to learn and apply the lessons from others before we make any mistakes, as we do not get the chance to learn from our own mistakes or sub-optimal decisions. Wishing you a good New Year and the very best of luck. Ferdinand

And get the right music for the cabin if you get a posh one.

Thanks all. I have found doing functional training - and in particular using weights from 10kg up to 70-80kg around for the different exercises - useful generally for knowing what will work for me and what is foolish to attempt. Personally, as a non-sporty desk-jockey I have always been a little inflexible (not quite Ent, though), and Yoga stretches and torture postures. I now sympathesise with flamingoes. I have also picked up on the importance of warmups and warmdowns. Ferdinand

For the insulated one my approach was to notch the (obv. tanalised, probably 200mm x 47mm in your case?) joists, leaving them some way proud of the wall plate. That lets them sit whilst you fix them. I also used mini joist hangers that were only a couple of ££ each (Wickes?) to make it rock solid. This means you can fix your box-section directly to the joists. It is important to match your joist spacings to where you will want to walk, but also to the down bits in the corrugated - box section is more forgiving that trad. I would use the OSB for a ceiling finish or just not have any. I think full sarking is gold-plating for a possibly temporary garage, unless you want to walk absolutely everywhere on it - and as you say you lose your ventilation that way and any moisture that gets in could condense. Ventilation I left the corrugated approx 25-50mm short of the wall for ventilation, and expansion if necessary, then flashed over that with wide enough Ubiflex (now I would use the middle spec as it is more malleable), leaving the ends open with insect grilles. I arranged a slot outlet at the bottom end of the roof. Then I insulated between joists leaving a 50mm gap (I used 100mm rockwool and a staple gun), membrane beneath that attached to the bottoms of the joists, then any finish (I used hollow plastic fascia board). I used a combination of lights on the walls and joists, and external lights wired on the joists. I made my finish removable where needed - any fixings will be in lengthways tension, so you want screws anyway. This gave me a conservatory - lounge type space that is happily used for dogs and people all year. The only limitation is that it will overheat in very high summer when the sun comes in - that was for 2-3 weeks last year, so I would have provision for a lot of ventilation (2 sets of doors each end?) if required or close it up and use a portable aircon for those rare occasions. This one is North-West facing and fine all winter; it does, however, have insulation (75mm Celotex) under the floor over the slab. I used mini shed guttering from (I think) B&Q. I would also consider leaving an overhang at the lower end if you can - perhaps 0.6-0.8m - for standing or leaning things with or without tarpaulins that need to be kept out of most of the weather. That does leave you with a question about mounting guttering though. If you put a silicone nipple or part-bead under the end of each corrugated trough it helps control random drain-off or track back and keep moisture off your timber. In my case I could not find a happy way to mount the gutter on my roof, so I did not do an overhang. Ferdinand

Just musing. @Sue B said on another thread. This is a comment from one of the thirty-something girls at our gym after New Year. We have seen a few injuries reported on BH around backs, lifting, muscle pulls etc, in addition to the rips and cuts and falls and cracks. Is there mileage in specifically looking to get a bit fitter, learn about lifting etc before starting, especially as there is something of an overlap between self-builders and the type of people who perhaps have more sedentary office-based jobs? I have done more gym-ing / cycling / dancing and so on over the last several years, and I find that while I am not comfortable moving eg plasterboard around as my builders tend to be, I am much more comfortable hefting things like 20-30kg packs of flooring etc around, than used to be the case. Having done some weight-lifting and flexibility work at the gym has been a real benefit. Professional tradespeople, another self-build demographic, are probably better on the general fitness and manual handling side, but it seems to me something that professional chair-sitters, keyboard warriors or more elderly potential self-builders might find a benefit here. Thoughts? Ferdinand

Yes, most definitely talk and keep talking, and ask explicit open and closed questions as appropriate. E.g. CAn you take me through the feedback received, and What is your feeling about the proposal, and Can you think of any improvements. You need to know what is in all the objections (also ask about verbal feedback received), and what her ideas are going to be, such that you can address concerns with your solutions influencing hers not having hers imposed on you - which is the default if she does not know what your ideas are. Once a decision is baked in a notice, changing it is a long and painful process. IT is much better to pre-negotiate. You need to be polite but not bootlicking. You also hopefully have a couple of WIBNIs in there that you can negotiate away if needed to preserve the Must Haves. F * Wouldn't It Be Nice If.

WElcome to the forum, @slridg. Roughly, UFH with basic Building Regs insulation levels is quite sub-optimal, and with no insulation at all .. or imo cutting pipes into already minimal insution ... would be a USA 1970s style of mad, as you lose much of your expensive heat through the floor. 30mm is not a lot of insulation, and I think as it is a whole thermal element unless it is completely floating you will need to comply with Regs, or do it so as a separate exercise perhaps before BC arrives or after they have gone. I think that given the size of the project, a careful reconsideration of heating strategy may be appropriate to get something good enough for the overall enterprise. WIth those minimal heights available I think, if you are going ufh, you need to consider using a thin ufh system that fits into 18mm, and a laminate or similar floor, rather than screed and tiles. I think even 40mm is very tight for ufh. Are your door heights generous? For UFH I would be wanting a minimum of 100mm of Kingspan or equivalent and that would perhaps not be enough to make me happy. I think you would be best to take a step back at this stage now that you are well underway, and do some thermal analysis of your completed house .. also taking into consideration what is happening upstairs i.e. Ufh, rads or what? IT may be that digging up those floors is a beneficial option. And what is your planned heat source? My house is very similar to your project ... double fronted 800sqft bungalow taken up to 2100 sqft with a new storey, though renovated by someone else. One issue will be your control system for upstairs vs downstairs on a relatively low spec build, and how to stop it being f%:;()£&g complicated. I have oversized rads upstairs and ufh downstairs, a BFO Combi Boiler, and two entirely separate control systems. Functional, but not ideal. For here, a plan or two, elevations, cross-sections,, a couple of pics and a rough location would help the thread and the feedback. You would be more than welcome to come and visit me if you are near Notts. I would also recommend that you visit someone with a similar build but a simpler heating system. You can get a thermal modelling spreadsheet from @JSHarris' blog, linked from his signature. Ferdinand

IIRC, @JSHarris has 6.5kWp of solar. Can I interrogate this number, Jeremy? I think the last thing I saw from you on Energy Costs was this from March 2017.: Am I right to think that your +£200 here is a delta, and that the context is that your balancing financial position (PV revenue - Energy Cost) becomes £200 better, in this case by taking that off the money you are paying out. Cheers. F

Sufficiently light such that one man with climbing equipment, a block and tackle, and oodles of safe lifting experience can do it in under a day and survive intact . What we need is a planning regulation that requires one of those Georgian Warehouse Hooks and a Capstan in every self-built dwelling.

Are you better with one of the cans rather than a gun for this, as they come with a flexible drinking straw that can be bent further into the hole more easily? Is that any advantage in these circs? Or can a flexible nozzle for a gun be manufactured / repurposed?

I have lined with hollow shiplap plastic fascia board before now. It works out at about £6 per sqm, can be wiped or even hosed clean, and does not suffer from mould or deterioration if it gets damp or wet. I have known it used successfully for eg The ceilings of bathrooms in HMOs subject to much abuse. Ferdinand

Happy new new year all, particularly Russell (!) .. take up fishing for calmness. And I am sure you can water ski in the space you have; set up 2 tow-stations at either side of the pond and have a party. What a good thread. Me, I hope for a renovation or two in 2019, and to do a loft conversion I have started thinking about. 2018 was a stressful year for nearly everyone in my circle. Personally and family wise, I want far fewer medical issues, to get my sleep patterns sorted after a hospital spell in 2018, and get a holiday or 2 in, and some BH build visits - I managed to get to three or four this year and it was really enjoyable. Business wise, 2019 is the critical year in the growth of the gym I sometimes chat about. We took a huge risk by jumping to a two-levels-up venue in 2018, and this year we should break through to be a larger operation employing staff and offering a wider range of services. And I hope to start a blog under the moniker This New House, for musings and to recycle some of the 12k+ posts I have in various building type forums. There must be at least 3 which are worth preserving. Ferdinand

I have done 2 separate projects very similar to this ... essentially leantos. One was built with a box section corrugated roof ventilated beneath with a membrane and insulated subroof, and became a 4 season lounge type room but North Facing. Span 4.2m. Roof angle was under 5 degrees. The other was a covered way with a polyprop roof and no insulation ... think car port style ... with a roof angle of under 10 degrees and a span of up to 3m. My approach has been to put an 8x4 or 6x3 wall plate attached to the wall with thunderbolts, and run joists to that with (I think mini) joist hangers. I then flash properly into the wall above, and that has worked. SPec your joists to be strong enough to walk on and spacing to match the roofing. THen insulate and ventilate as necessary. To keep beasties out just use normal insect netting. I would say that for a new roof all your materials should come in at very roughly £500-600 more or less for plastisol coated box section corrugated. FErdinand

I haven't weighed in on this one yet, but an alternative suggestion. Consider a suitable Site Services or other type Portakabin, and just run it in on skates or fence posts as rollers, then jack up on hydraulic car jacks if you need and insert breezeblocks. These come pre-insulated and wired. A further alternative is the back of a Luton type van or similar, either a normal van or a refrigerated van, which makes delivery easy. I appreciate that these may not be available on your island, or the next one, but if they are it could save you a lot of work and possibly money. IF somebody has one they may be keen to get rid of it given the removal cost. Ferdinand

I love the WTF Happened feel of picture 5. I have seen that look on many students waking up in the bathroom of a different house!

Looks good. Are you sure this post isn't a diversion to avoid rellies?

Normal wooden posts in concrete are a NO NO. They will rot in a ridiculously short time, even if you use Postsaver. You will be repairing posts within about 10-12 years. Creosote? Maybe, but I do not have recent experience. I do it using post spurs and bolted on 6ft wooden posts to keep them off the ground if it has to be in concrete with wooden posts. For materials, I think (bit of a guesstimate) you may be in the £20-40 ballpark per 1m. Not a cheap thing. I would check - 1 Independent local fencing companies, both for materials and a turnkey quote (VAT reclaim?), 2 Seeing if they will make dyed brown concrete posts for you (many will for quantity), 3 Look at panels designed to look like closeboard - bolt rails to your posts and attach the panels to that with Timberscrews or attach directly, and 4 Guaranteed or plastic posts. A quote from a significant local fencing company for the whole shebang might surprise you. F

I would say just copy the posts across with some piccies, then use the forum for questions, and the blog for a record or for what you have learned which may help others. The blogs are more useful as a longer read, whilst the forum is like fishing for goldfish at a funfair. I would doubt whether *that* is enforcible as it seems contrived deliberately to preserve a law which has been abolished, though if the OPP was pre-April 2015 they may argue that CSFH applies under "legacy project". But if you have a working understanding with the Council that will save you the unnecessary bits, then it is probably better to put the effort into building it. F

Heh. They replied to your deemed discharge notice in less than 2 weeks ! Everything can effective have legal weight, depending on the circs - eg Courts would give more consideration to a party that can demonstrate that they have acted reasonably, and that can in turn help face the other party down and perhaps prevent them needing to actually go to court. It is another thing that could help the planners decide to put their effort into somebody else's case rather than yours, as yours may seem more difficult. But the other commentators are right - this is comparatively small beer. As I said: A lot of weight attaches to being no nonsense, getting on and doing approximately the right thing, and not upsetting the neighbours. F

RIght. 1. Oho. Aha. So when did you get Planning Permission? Exact date. AIUI CFSH cannot lawfully and enforceably be used in a Planning Condition in England for a planning decision reached after March 28 2015 (ish). And an unenforceable condition is unlawful anyway. See here: https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/its-official-goodbye-code-for-sustainable-homes/8680639.article If that is the case and your PP is after that date such a condition is null and void, and you can probably stop juming through some spurious hoops (after taking advice). Therefore you probably need to check the exact facts on your date and the applicability of the CFSH, then if I am right have a polite conversation with your planner, then if your planner sticks to the guns take a cluebat out of your briefcase and apply it to the occupit with a modicum of vigour. The basic issue is that CFSH is horribly out of date, and was horribly over-complicated even back in 2006 or so when it appeared. (I was in construction at the time and did not like it. The problems stuck out a mile.) Most of the basic bits of CFSH Level 4 are in the Building Regs now, I think, anyway. 2 Sounds Ok as long as it is high end insulation. That amount of eg eps would afaics not do it, if you are on the 2013, or maybe even earlier, regs. 3 Is this for internal or external lighting? I do not see how they can condition the technology, as it is acceptable in planning law to achieve the outcome by a satisfactory alternative means. They could probably condition for eg glare next door to an observatory, or nuisance for neighbours, or arguably to prevent disturbance for bats or badgers, but there would have to be adequate evidence that it was a material planning matter (ie not de minimis). Not a huge issue, imo, as LED is the best solution for nearly everything, but perhaps a small red flag concerning your planners and their excessive enthusiasm to micromanage your project. Ferdinand

If you'll forgive my candidness, it is a pity you were not here 2 years ago.. you have completed the cost-unpredictable stages, and we may have been able to help you save a lot (like 10s of k) of money by asking awkward questions and referrals to good contractors etc. However, that is a literally sunk cost, and we go on from where we are, and hopefully can help you save another lots of money from here. F

One initial question, how are you handling the Buildign Regs insulation requirements for your floor now that you have poured a naked slab? WIll you be doing another slab at Ground Level, but insulated this time? And what stage are you actually at now? Ferdinand