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I received the estimators online quote back today, and I was quite surprised by the labour cost for the slab. Just going through the numbers to see where I could potentially save some money. 12k in labour sounds rather expensive. Ground floor UoM Labour Quantity Labour Total £ UoM Material Quantity Material Total £ Lay & compact MOT type 1 hardcore, delivered loose. Tn 43.148 2,021.23 Tn 44.000 1,409.86 Tool hire, plate compactor for the above task. > > > Dy 1.000 36.63 Sand blinding, delivered loose. Tn 14.383 524.03 Tn 15.000 481.13 Foil faced rigid PIR insulation board 2400x1200x100mm. M² 159.807 1,176.33 Ea 59.000 3,122.47 Polythene membrane, blue standard duty 300mu 100m2 rolls. M² 159.807 665.42 Rl 2.000 128.74 Polythene vapour control layer, blue standard duty. M² 159.807 998.13 Rl 2.000 128.74 Floor slab, cold bridge 200mm upstand M¹ 143.100 554.40 Ea 11.000 222.18 Concrete floor slab 100mm thick. M² 159.807 2,994.40 M³ 16.000 2,377.58 Tool hire, petrol power float for the above task. > > > Dy 1.000 45.79 Floor Screed, premixed delivered 1:3 mix. M² 154.038 3,347.12 Tn 24.000 3,228.49 12,281.06 11,181.61 This is the first time I've used estimators online, and I think I could have maybe been more specific. The floor plan had a kitchen with island shown, but they haven't put a kitchen in the quote or the utility room.

Be interested to hear what they are now.

Looking at the plans that have been approved, which includes a clay tile roof; 16800, to be precise. Planning on asking Architect if we can switch to a seam sealed roof (hopefully a minor amendment) and also switch to a warm roof so as to not lose head height in the loft. Just wondering whether a ridge height change (no properties within 50 metres, and they all differ) to accommodate the switch to a warm roof, would require a full planning app?

I was initially considering aluminium windows, but maybe I need to reconsider and see whether I can get alu clad timber to work within our budget. The biggest issue I am facing is deducing the list of brands and their associated prices. For example, I doubt I will bother contacting Kloeber as I know that they are lovely windows, but way out of our budget. So any recommendations would be welcomed.

From what you are saying isn't it about ensuring that the windows you buy have a thermal break. As to how you deduce whether said thermal break is performant is something I have no idea about.

I have read that cold bridging can be an issue with aluminium, but didn't realise it was that bad.

Planning on having both polished concrete and wooden floors in our build. Initial plan was to have a conventional slab with the ufh in the slab, but this would mean having different floors levels in the slab to accommodate the wooden floor. So how do you achieve for example, a polished floor in the kitchen and entrance hall, which then seamlessly switches to an engineered wooden floor which is at the exact same height?

I am going to budget 25k, which based on the above figures should be about correct. I just can't bring myself to install uPVC.

Looks very nice

So we are currently renting a property that has double glazed velux roof lights in the main bedroom. The only thing that really puts me off, is that when it rains hard it really does keep me awake. Are triple glazed any better, or is this a problem that you will always face due to the angle of the glass to the direction of the rain? Just looking at options as our proposed design has the master bedroom upstairs with roof lights, but considering moving the layout so as to get the master bedroom downstaris.

Does anyone have any recommendations. I get the impression that prices vary considerably, and even on a small 3 bedroom property you could easily spend upwards of 25k on windows and patio doors. As I have no idea of which brands are top quality with a price to match and those that are still very good, but more reasonable. Any recommendations would be appreciated

£46/m2 is a lot less than I thought and considerably cheaper than clay tiles + labour. Is it installed as a warm roof?

Do you have a link. I briefly dabbled in casting concrete clocks / furniture using GFRC, so could always manufacture large 20mm thick wall panels, but would prefer the look of a cast wall.

I really like the industrial look of concrete casting, and am thinking of having a single wall in the entrance hall with a floating staircase. Is it a case of adding some vertical rebar from the slab and building a strong plywood form. Just concerned that there is no leakage of bleed water, otherwise, it can look terrible. Any other options?

Can anyone shed any light as to what legal fees you can expect to pay for purchasing a building plot. We have been quoted 2k +vat, and am struggling to understand how they can justify that amount. A lot of the due diligence is outside of the legalities of a title transfer and associated Land Registry registration.

Agreed. I will get this arranged ASAP. Thanks

Plot is in the process of being purchased, and am just doing due diligence before any exchange occurs. So now I know it does require a drainage field, then I need to go back to the vendor and ask the questions. So would you advice a percolation test be performed, even though the British Geological Survey have the soil type as loamy / free draining, and the water table at a depth of 30m (property next door has a well)? The plot is large enough, but as I have no idea what size the drainage field will be for a 6 person sewage treatment plant, it's difficult to actually answer that question.

Does anyone have any idea of how I can ascertain that the site meets the required points of the regs? We will treat HM Governments Building regulations 2010, Drainage and waste disposal section H2 as the primary reference as it was issued after BS 6297: 2007. Just to be clear this is a summary and the full documents should be read and understood if you intend to carry out this work yourself. A drainage field must be at least 10m from any watercourse or permeable drain. It must be at least 50m from the point of abstraction of any groundwater supply and not in any Zone 1 groundwater protection zone. At least 15m from any building. Sufficiently far from any other discharge to ground to ensure the overall capacity of the ground is not exceeded. The field must be down water/slope of any groundwater source. No underground services or water pipes are allowed to be located within the dispersal area. No access roads, driveways or paved areas should be located within the disposal area. A percolation test must be carried out, please see our guide. There is also a great deal of requirements listed on the Environment Agency web site (General binding rules: small sewage discharge to the ground - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) Will the solicitor dealing with the purchase be covering these points or is this something that I need to be doing myself?

Thanks for the link. I am rather surprised that the PP had no mention of the required drainage field. The tank cannot feed into a water course as there isn't one in the vicinity, so it will require a soakaway of some sort. I suppose a percolation test is required to ascertain the associated sizing. Tank is a 1-5 person system.

Just looking at the planning application that was approved for the plot we are in the process of purchasing. The PP used Nitrate mitigation calculations based on a Graf One2Clean system, but when I look on the drawings, I do not see any provision for a drainage field. Is that because a sewage treatment plant can feed it's water into the same soakaway as that used for rainwater? Maybe drainage fields only apply for the traditional septic tank based systems?

Thanks for this. Makes much more sense doing the slab this way. Did the contractors who did the slab also power float it?

Wrong levels, sides collapsing, wrong location, uneven base. Aside from the second point, the rest are avoidable.

That's a good point.

This is a confidence builder. The depth display is a very cool feature. I suppose using triangulation with satellites for GPS is actually very accurate.

It's not so much about saving money, but mainly due to wanting the job correctly. I have used multiples trades in the past when we renovated our house, and 50% of them were ****. Maybe I get a good digger driver in to pull the footings and I can then do the drainage myself. As @ProDave stated. Drainage is planned on paper and all relative to the height of the excavated oversite. If you hammer a stake into the ground and get it set to finished floor level, and use this as you reference point for all laser level measurements, how can you possibly get things wrong?