Kelvin

That’s not the same thing though as it’s a bit hard to negotiate when you’ve already started as you have no leverage. You have some leverage before you decide who to go with as you can choose to go elsewhere. In the example above the guy even said to me you never start with your best price. An odd thing for a sales person to say. Another example from today. I got two warranty quotes back. One 30% higher than the other. They phoned me when I said I’d be going elsewhere and they offered to price match. Clearly their real price is the lower price but likely only because there will be a proportion of people who just pay whatever number they come up with.

We elected to go timber kit with a supply and erect to weather tight contract for exactly these reasons. We’re also not using a main contractor for the rest of it and will be using local recommended trades and doing stuff ourselves. It can feel a bit overwhelming at times. I’ve had a few moments where I’ve thought what the hell have I done we could have bought a little cottage somewhere and I wouldn’t have any of this worry. However as long as you keep doing ‘stuff’ then things keep moving forward and you get closer to completion. I’ve had a productive day today for example with lots of decisions made and good progress.

I always assume there is wiggle room with every price because in my personal experience with just about everything I’ve ever bought there has been with no difference in quality or at least to the quality I was happy with. If, on the odd occasion, they reply that’s my best price then so be it.

Every price is negotiable and they never start with their best price. Handing everything over to one company is adding many thousands to the cost for two reasons one of which is they aren’t as motivated as you to get the best price. Case in point. I’ve been finalising my borehole plant and sewerage treatment plant today. In the space of a 15 minute conversation I got £3000 off the total cost. Now I don’t reckon that’s down to my brilliant negotiating skills it’s more that everyone seems to take the piss until you ask but ask you must.

Well it has a bell on it. 😂 The first gen intercom is an awful looking thing more suited to a block of flats.

Checks list. I’ve done 19 of those and have barely put a spade in the ground.

Shame the new Loxone intercom is £527 ex VAT!!

I have this quandary too. I already have the Protect VC Foil Ultra as it comes as part of the timber kit albeit they don’t fit it. Reading the Intello Pro Clima documentation it says that for best performance it should be fitted over the insulation and not directly onto board and in every picture that’s what they show. Our kit is a closed panel system and the wall build up has the air tight barrier on top of the OSB this is then battened to create a service void then insulated plaster board. This is going to be a similar build up on a SIP construction unless there’s another layer of insulation on the inside. Therefore is there much benefit of using it in my build up if it’s not optimal and have any of you used it in this way?

That seems quite dear for what is supposed to be an inexpensive option. You don’t fit MVHR for the heat recovery as the primary reason.

Is the QS charging a % of the cost as their fee or is it a fixed cost?

Looks good. I ruled UFH. A2A heat pump instead.

It was why I thought about it for my insulated garage/workshop. Seemed like a reasonable way to heat/cool the space that wasn’t very expensive to buy or to run but could heat it up quickly enough.

That’s mentally expensive. Our groundsworks, for example, including a 25m retaining wall, large garage foundation, similar sized house, and all drainage is £47k. This is on a slope so needs a bit more levelling and a longish driveway formed. £17k for internal doors? How many doors are there and what are they made out of? Etc. You could half this cost I reckon if shopped about a bit without trying too hard.

Don’t do it

Best I could do by fiddling with the brightness and gamma

I’ll have a look as I rendered that picture

My planning permission includes one for the insulated metal garage largely because I might eventually build an office inside the garage so wanted the option.

Quick example of render quality

I used Virtual Architect 11 but find it quite hard to use but that’s mostly down to me. However the output is pretty good. I also used RoomSketcher for the internals. That’s really easy to use so I’ve spent more time with that.

I'm at the stage where I need to think about this and have been speaking to the electrician. We've decided on fitting plasterboard backboxes. However I spoke with the Glidevale (we're using the same product) and asked about screwing directly into the airtight barrier securing to the OSB of the CPS panel. They said it's perfectly fine to do this as it self-seals around the the screw. The issue is when they've put something in the wrong place and remove the screw so you need to cover the hole with tape. They also said that once you've decided where the services are going you can fit butyl tape for them to screw through which doubles up the sealing for a belt and braces approach. Obviously poking cable through a hole in the air barrier is wrong and to be avoided albeit if you need to do it you can seal around the hole and cable.

Just finishing this off. Decision made. 80mm for walls and roof. Added £1500 to the overall cost. Plus an insulated sectional door. At some point I'll create a separate office that I can further insulate. In terms of the floor insulation. There are two ways they have done it. They've only ever done option 1 once before for a classic car showroom. All the others are option 2 with the obvious thermal bridge.

@Mrs Gray Is that £300k just to wind and weathertight? So you still have final roof and cladding to fit and then all the interior etc

Welcome. No stupid questions here. Just a wealth of knowledge and helpful people.

That wall doesn’t look like it’s going to fall down anytime soon. So if that’s your game plan then it’s the wrong one. Of course it might but if it doesn’t and you do nothing then build your house and then it falls down you’ll have a bigger more difficult problem to deal with.

Don’t sit on the wall. It might fall down