Kelvin

I agree to an extent on the expensive shed builds as you may as well stick build it. However getting to watertight quickly seems to be a good thing to achieve to this inexperienced self-builder which is part of the reason we went expensive shed. Plus it seems a bit easier to get it airtight etc

I’ve been googling and can’t find anything providing the full protection that’s being suggested. Section 75 only applies to credit cards up to £30k and sometimes more than this. Your bank might voluntarily provide debit card protection via chargeback. I can’t find anything about being protected when using an overdraft (or bank loan for that matter) under section 75.

Just don’t tell them you gave it away. 😂

Can you link to where this protection is documented as it would helpful for others to be aware of it

Yes I was going to use them but our wall is 300mm wide so was getting too dear.

It doesn’t sound as if you had many options. The one thing I considered was an insurance policy but it was too dear (20% of contract value)

Bank transfer I expect. It’s how we’ve paid for our timber kit. As I said above I tried for months to get them to commit to some form of financial protection including not paying the stage payments until they came up with a solution. I was technically in breach of contract. In the I had no choice but to pay it or we wouldn’t have hit my deadline of April.

What a pia. I know that stress as went through it last month. Is there another product you can use like Marmox Thermoblock?

Have you called Foamglass direct? I know they’ll say you need to go to a disti but if you explain your predicament they might be able to help you. I had the same problem with my insulated trench blocks so called Mannok directly and between them and my local build supply company we were able to sort it.

Good effort. For every one person like you who persists with asking why there will be ten who don’t. I like a good complaint letter myself.

Irrelevant now of course but I googled Isotex and buildhub and there is some discussion about them on from a few years ago and there are some red flags even then. When we decided to go with Heb Homes I couldn’t find anything negative about them. Not that this means everything but it’s a tick in the yes column. Subsequently they’ve turned out to be quite poor in our experience and I’ve also more recently found out I’m not alone. It is why I’ve been happy to share my experience on here and name them as buildhub is publicly searchable. A lot of these companies are relatively small so getting feedback on them is quite hard.

Ours is in 6 payments. But it’s still upfront and by the time you get to the stage we’re at you’re 97.5% into it.

Quite. Most seem to operate like this. What I don’t understand is if you were doing this with a mortgage then I’d have thought the bank would want something in place. Ultimately they’d go after the self-builder. We’ve already paid for our kitchen but the deposit was on a CC. They are storing it for us and have sent us pictures of the kitchen with our name and order number on it. This issue alone is the thing that will stop me from ever self-building again with a timber kit.

I dealt direct with SSE and it was painless. Presumably you pay a fee to these organisations. I’d find out how much that typically is. My guess is that once you approve the work direct with the DNO it’ll be relatively straightforward so I’d do it all myself.

I’m angry just reading this. They clearly knew they were in trouble but kept stringing you along. Awful. I’d need to stop myself hunting them down which I know is not the right response and just gets you into more trouble but still.

Nightmare. I’m so sorry to hear this. This has been my biggest fear with the timber kit company I’m going with. I flagged my concerns to them right at the start 10 months ago and despite promises and different options to protect client funds (section 75, Escrow, insurance) nothing ever materialised. They have £123k of our money for the kit, the insulation, and all the 3G windows. We’re two weeks away from delivery and we’ve been to the factory to see the panels being made but it’s been quite a point of stress for me so I really feel for you.

Not entirely clear what you’re asking. I can assure you most of us on here were (or still are) out of our comfort zone so you’re in good company. First time self-building is not for the faint-hearted especially if you have zero experience of building. However, it is exciting and rewarding so if you have the right mindset, are relatively organised, and can solve problems then it’s doable. It can be a bit of a roller coaster though. The first question you need to ask yourself is can you afford it. You know what your budget is and being a Potton home they should be able to give you an estimated cost. Keep in mind that there are lots of hidden costs along the way so you need a healthy contingency. Doing it on a tight budget is more likely to need a lot more if your input. What I did was cost it as if it was going to be turnkey (the most expensive way to do it) and worked backwards from there. Be prepared for sleepless nights like I’m having right now as I have three current problems with my self-build I’m trying to sort out so can’t sleep!

You mean it’s sloped so it’s been terraced? Is it sloping up or down from the house? Sloping sites are going to be dearer because you need to manage the gradient. There are several ways to do it but it’s hard to comment without seeing it. Even then you’d need a survey done to understand what the ground is like etc Post a link to it. My site is on a slope. We’ve had to do some ‘minor’ cutting and filling to level the site where the house is. This has created a bank behind the house where we cut which we’ve had to retain with a wall and a bank in front of the house where we’ve filled. Consequently there was about a week’s worth of excavation work just to get it level. Then a lot more concrete needed at the filled side as you need to dig back down through the fill to firm ground to dig the trench and then fill it back up with concrete. We’ll also have the expense of extra landscaping to deal with all of this that you wouldn’t have on a flat site. So yes sloped sites will be dearer how much dearer depends on quite a few factors. However, they can offer a more characterful look if you can swallow the cost and the effort needed.

He’s really doing you a favour even if it does have some value. I’d just accept it’s cleared at no cost to you and enjoy the space

What else do you expect them to suggest? After we achieved planning the kit company provided a full thermal model analysis of the proposed house, it ran to 100 pages. This was followed with a report on options for heating and PV etc. I also filled in the spreadsheet available on here which more or less matched the analysis.

Same thing happened to a friend of ours. Fortunately for them a builder friend asked them how they got around the fire regs to whit they were both quizzical. He pointed out the requirement and they fitted a misting system in the kitchen before they’d finished boarding out.

Our SE did a detail for our deck which consisted of a large concrete foundation which surprised me. We (she) have decided not go with decking though.

You need to have a conversation specifically about the hedge, don’t leave it for another year. For example. There’s a hedge that bounds part of our land. It belongs to the neighbour it then leads to a fence and some trees that also belong to my neighbour. One of the first conversations I had with him was to discuss the upkeep of the hedge, the fence, and the trees and we’ve come to an agreement on how to manage it and the height of hedge and trees. Fortunately we both have the same opinion on how best to manage it.

Have you spoken with your neighbour about it? That’s your starting point. Once you understand their position on the hedge you can decide on your next step.

Octopus have a tiny share of the ASHP market. While this will increase it will remain a tiny share. Most ASHP installs are by smaller independent companies and that isn’t going to change. They don’t insist on connecting the ASHP directly to the meter cupboard. It just sounds like a conspiracy theory to me. I really can’t see Octopus switching off power to your ASHP willy nilly when it suits them. Octopus seem to be one of the better companies.