Kelvin

I’ve got a decision to make on this coming up. We’re 200mm insulation. The build up is 20mm allowance for final floor material over 75mm screed (traditional sand cement) However reading the Cemfloor website it says that using it allows for thinner screed thickness with maximum depth of 60mm. Optimal depth between 40mm-50mm. If I go Cemfloor I’ll need to add more insulation and go to 225mm (150mm + 75mm), not a bad thing of course with 50mm Cemfloor Therm screed. Just interested why people have suggested going more than Cemfloor recommend?

You don’t want to be beholden to a neighbour about anything

Hide the cable for the reasons you state. Let’s assume you go down the pole outside your house route and over time other folk connect to this. How much will it bother you? If not at all then do that. If even a little bit then spend the dosh.

Exactly how we’ve down ours. The architect drawing was really poor by comparison

Yep. It’s what I’ve done.

I would. Who cares about this more than you?

@Ralph out of interest what is the facing material on the external perimeter insulation. I have this problem to address soon.

Our staircase is supported by two thickening points in the concrete slab. Still not 100% confirmed how we’ll build this up but probably with blocks.

We never had a problem with rats around the chickens for several years until we put the house on the market. They had obvious seen the for sale sign. Despite my best efforts they’d moved into (under) coup. It was quite fascinating what they had built. Living quarters well insulated with feathers and some actual insulation, a larder, and an en-suite loo. My only criticism was too much wasted space to hallways.

Rats have strong teeth that curve slightly inward. Consequently they can chew through quite a lot of stuff if they can get their teeth into it. Google rodent proof mesh. It’s stainless steel woven mesh with varying hole sizes. They are also burrowing critters so you want the mesh to be buried about 10” and formed in an L shape facing away from whatever you’re protecting. The only reason I know this is because when you start off rodent proofing stuff it becomes a battle of wills and escalation as the various things you try don’t work. 😂

The one I used. Search the local planning portal to see some examples. However, if you follow that document it’s straightforward.

Same here. Ours was a 1.4 acre field that had only ever been used as grazing land.

It’s hard to avoid unfortunately. Our kit is due on the 17 April and we’ve had to pay 40% over three payments with the first 10% payment last July.

It’s ‘surprising’ how often another offer appears.

There are some but it’s really expensive. I looked into for our timber kit but it was going to cost something like 15% of the value of the thing you’re insuring. I’m using section 75 for everything else but I’ve not come up against it costing me more.

Fortunately, for me, they are included in the cost. What was annoying about it is that there was a fundamental error with them. They’d completely forgotten that we are taking the MVHR ducting up a void beside the stairs. They had already signed this off when I sent them my ducting layout design last year. Prior to this the void was actually a cupboard in the bedroom. I removed this and said we wanted an inset bookcase on the stair side and the ducting in the void on the other. We are a year into this with them with the kit arriving in 5 weeks and I was unaware of this set of drawings. We had the same issue with the underbuild. They knew we were about to start the groundworks last month. The groundswork company asked me for the underbuild drawings in a CAD file. All I had was a PDF and even then it didn’t include everything. I thought it was a simple oversight but they had to draw them for me as their standard drawings are from the sole plate up because ‘the SE normally does that’.

Yes it is a frustrating process when you’ve never done it before. We (well I) rushed into ours a bit and so we were researching what to do as we were going through the planning process. I have been focused on cost increases so it drove me to get on with it. In different circumstances we might have bought the land then taken a year to really research and plan out exactly what we wanted. I agree with Jilly, conversions are harder to do. We lived in a barn conversion and while it was nice I can now see the compromises they made with it.

The problem is as a first timer you don’t know what you don’t know until you need it. Yesterday, for example, I found out there’s a whole other set of drawings for the timber kit company to construct the panels. First time it was ever mentioned and it was lucky they mentioned it as there was an error that I spotted.

That’s a pity. Our drawings are very detailed plus I got everything in DWG format from the underbuild up to give to the setting out guy and the groundswork company to make sure everything is accurate. I did have to request this though as I didn’t get it as part of the construction pack but they didn’t charge me for it.

Will do I shall place a tray of ice by an open window on a hot day.

You make un assumption it’d much different in the summer

Duly noted. I shall stand naked on my foundation in the freezing cold admiring my very neat over complicated ducting

5k is a lot. Ours was £1300. Our architect fees (about the same as yours) included all the M&E stuff and the SAP report. Our drawings included the planning application drawings, warrant drawings, and construction pack. The construction pack shows all the build up and junction details.

No one wishes to ban you. I’m just giving you some friendly advice on the best way to approach a new forum.

He’s one of the most helpful and knowledgeable people on here. I suggest you spend more time reading the forum to get a feel for the members and how and what they post.