Kelvin

It’s not a trade off it was a design decision as we wanted thicker walls as it gives us deeper reveals. There were a few other reasons too. Ironically what was the least expensive framing method is now the dearest. It went up by £9000 from when we started talking to kit manufacturer to the final price over an 18 month period. Their SIP build is now their least expensive frame.

I’m with others why do anything other than tidy it up a bit. Retaining walls aren’t cheap no matter how you do them.

Their quote for Catnic was £9k dearer than my VMZinc quote. They don’t want any domestic job.

Our weight issue was twofold. The max weight the frame could be built to and the max weight the installation team would fit without it becoming complicated by needing to hire a crane and separating the glazing from the frame.

£11k doesn’t sound too bad to do all of that if it includes the DNO connection cost as well.

I’ve had a nightmare trying to get folk to quote for the whole roof let alone repair it which puts some doubt in your head about fitting standing seam at all as tiles are easier to replace. I can give you the list of companies I’ve asked to provide me with quotes but I suspect you’ll have tried most of them.

To add. We’re using a full fill mineral wool for our timber kit 302mm space stud walls to give you some idea of the difference. U value of better than 0.15W/m2K

Have you actually costed the difference? The general mantra is take a fabric first approach when building as you can’t improve it very easily later. Therefore stick to the original recommendation. The better the U value the better the thermal response of the area you’ve insulated. But as above that only works if it’s installed well and not just bunged in.

The other issue to consider is the weight. We had a 6m span made up of a 5m sliding door and a 1m turn and tilt door triple glazed. However Nordan had a maximum weight limit for a single unit of 350kg. In the end we had to reduce the sliding door to 3.6m which weighs 347kg and 1.4m French door. These were alu clad timber. Therefore I’d phone a few companies you’re looking at and ask them if they can do a 3G 4.3m slider. In terms of who to go with. It’s a minefield frankly. You’ll find bad news on the internet about every company so it’s hard to use that as a guide. Two popular brands on here are Internorm and Rationel. We’re going with Nordan as it’s part of the timber kit package. They’re less popular on here but they are common fit in the Highlands and Islands up here in Scotland and I’ve spoken to several people that have them and they are happy with them.

Good stuff. Don’t underestimate the amount of time this takes. It’s taken me several months to work my way through every element. Also get several quotes for each element. ‘They’ say normally three but that’s not been working for me very well for some things (roofing in particular) so have been getting as many quotes as I can which has paid dividends. Many won’t reply or go cold after initial contact. I contacted and sent the plans to 6 groundswork companies and got quotes from three and two of those took weeks to get. Once you get someone on board have a chat to them about other trades. That’s really helped me. I’ve also had to be flexible on material choice due to availability in my area so worth finding that out early as it caught me out. I don’t know what your area is like but there’s no evidence of a slow down in demand in my area. Everyone is saying they have never been as busy hence the weeks for quotes coming back. I’ve also had three companies say their order books are full for the rest of the year!

It looks nice but it’s not the cheapest build. The double roof adds complexity and therefore cost. Brise soleil can be very expensive to add to a building. It also looke pretty big. Does it need to be as large. Our house has ended up a bit bigger than we planned (202m2) but much smaller than a lot of self-builds. I was in a new barn style yesterday. Big south facing windows. No solar gain mitigation. The room was very warm. This was in Perthshire. They were saying it can get a bit unbearable in really hot summer days. The upside is their heating has hardly been on even through winter.

Why was your SAP done to such a high level? Ours was done to be within the regs I then improved it from there. For example the windows were 1.2 for planning submission but as fitted the average will be 0.78. Improving the windows added 15% to the cost.

Our whole groundworks is £50k for timber kit plus large garage. That includes all drainage, treatment plant, retaining wall, longish drive to give you some idea.

Exciting stuff. I’m in the same place. Digging starts this week. House going up from 17 April. Long list of stuff to do and I’ve been planning this for 12 months!

Well I saw the grief my other half had to deal with and she’s good people. She vowed to steer clear of it afterwards.

My other half chaired the Littlebury Parish Council for a year. It’s a hellish job. She made it clear than none of her fellow councillors were experts in planning and that opinions aren’t the same as facts or policy. A lot of the parish councillors are decent people with the right intentions. Just as many aren’t and have their own agendas. But it’s local politics so best to stay clear of it.

He meant IEC cabling. It’s the 3 pin kettle plugs that you might have for your computer equipment or hifi type equipment etc There are three models 360W, 600W, and 1200W

£23,000 ex VAT fitted for 143m2 including all rainwater goods. One dormer and 5 rooflights.

They are both Ecodan units. What do they typically modulate down to? PUZ-W112VAA-BS (R32) - 11.2kW PUZ-WM85VAA-BS (R32) - 8.5kW

It’s not up yet. Groundsworks start on Wednesday. Garage being delivered mid-March. House being delivered week commencing 17 April. All very exciting.

Yes my electric car. Technically meets the definition of a portable power station. I powered a 1600W concrete breaker from it on and off for 9 hours for several days. We also have a portable induction hob we use for camping. We had some builders at the farm in the summer and there was a power cut. I ran an extension cord for them to let them power their concrete mixer and charge their batteries. So yes your battery pack will work fine. The main thing is to keep it charged and to actually use it occasionally. Power cuts are infrequent after all.

Did you get a drilling report for the boreholes and how they were constructed?

I realised today I’m selling my plant room short because technically I have two. I have all the borehole filtration system, softener, water tank and pump plus the PV system and batteries going in the garage which is 10.5m x 6m. 😂

It’s the lender that is getting more picky. You can indemnify the house against just about everything so look into that.

Plus, I wasn’t aware of this, they have partner suppliers that will provide quotes based on the materials schedule Estimators provided