SBMS

I did wonder about the air quality @SteamyTea, but also wondered how good the MVHR might be at filtering the air - and wonder what real-term reduction in air quality there is with a 2022 EcoDesign Ready burner that is designed to reburn particulates etc etc. Also, with as close a room sealed system as possible, bar opening the door to stick another log on, is there much leakage into the house from the burner? It would be for a secondary, intermittent heating source (on those really cold nights) - or when they've got a 3 hour rolling black out 🙄

Is this a direct air system (pipe through the wall connected to the burner, providing fresh air)? Did you consider or calculate any losses with thermal bridging, or with any movement of cold air from the outside to the inside (of the burner)? I don't know if I am over thinking, but have been fastidious about making sure there's hardly any external penetrations and adding an 80mm one with fresh air from outside seems counter-intuitive? "When stove is off, just select air supply off, so no un-necessary air movements." - is this a feature of your WBS or something on the exterior wall where your air vent meets the world?

Thanks Gus but can you clarify what you mean by a stuffy room? We are planning on having MVHR which should be filtering and exchanging air throughout the house; and a direct air system for the wood burner would allow the burner to effectively be a sealed unit? But appreciate what you might be saying about how good the seals are. A wider question: would anyone advocate NOT getting a wood burner in a new build (I would like it as a ‘backup’ heat source; Mrs would like it for aesthetics 🤷)

Hi all Currently debating whether to fit a log burner in our self build. We’ve got an external chimney so seems a shame not to use it and would be useful if we get blackouts! We are going for high levels of air tightness, good insulation, ASHP and are having MVHR. So we would need an external air ventilation source which, as I understand it, is a 4 or 6 inch pipe that goes out the back of the stove through the wall and cavity to the outside, to give the airflow required to feed the burner. My question is, does anyone know to what extent this compromises the thermal efficiency of the building? Is it a cold bridge? And could it be a draught source and compromise air tightness?

Peter - have you got a link to the statute that the title plan must match? For example our CIL was issued against planning for 3 properties under the same title and when our plot was purchased (on a new title) the CIL liability was proportionally distributed against a notional ‘plot name’. Therefore technically our CIL liability was not against any title. Indeed our title at land registry simply refers to an area of land and no address (as the property will not be registered with the council and provided an address until completion). Guidance from our council was that the new address and council tax should indicate the address for occupation purposes but that the title provided for Part 2 is used purely for ownership purposes (not occupation purposes). Be good to get clarity on this!

Around 5%. I think most are discounted off the lenders SVR. Ours is their SVR minus 0.65%.

Assume you requested and had your self build exemption approved prior to commencement? And that you did a form 6 notice of commencement before breaking ground? If so then part 2 is about proving that you own the property for which you are claiming self build exemption. I don’t believe there is anything in the requirements that states the title deed must be solely for the property - just that the deeds encompass the property being claimed and that you are on the title for said deeds. You will struggle to get the deeds split, completed and confirmation registered with land registry within 6 months ( required for part 2). We are waiting for land registry to confirm receipt of our plot title completed 9 months ago. Currently the backlog for title registrations is 2 years our solicitor informs me 🙄. Although you can expedite if needed.

Yes I think you’re right. With ours we have combined structural warranty and building control so once building control completion certificate is issued our warranty is too. Don’t know it works for those where they are not combined.

I get you. Do you think its current state and not finishing it impacted the valuation much? We are thinking of a similar approach in order to get mortgage sorted asap?

Thanks. What stage does your build need to be at to have the building control completion cert?

Thanks Conor. So your valuer didn’t want to see any completion certificates? How complete was your build when they valued?

Hi all With rising interest rates I am trying to decide at what point to pull the trigger on booking a mortgage rate for our remortgage off our self build mortgage. We can secure the rate for 6 months, but would probably need it valued at the 4 month point to give time for solicitors etc to complete. We’re just about up to wall plate on the build. Obviously a key thing the mortgage provider would need is the completion certificate for completion. I have two questions, if anyone can help: 1. what is required to get a completion certificate? 2. When the mortgage company send their valuer, does the completion certificate need to be in hand? Obviously we wouldn’t want it valued too early anyway as we need to get the right figure for the mortgage but I wondered if the valuer needs it ostensibly completed for valuation purposes too? Cheers

Yeah we did want to do attic trusses for our roof but because we have two different roof heights we weren’t able to get the height needed with manufactured attic trusses. Very frustrating as added a lot of labour cost!

How come your roof isn’t trussed? Is it going to be a habitable space? We wanted attic trusses but couldn’t get the height so had to go traditional which was a lot more expensive. 😩

We are having a similar roof (our SE referred to it as ‘loose’ which I guess means the opposite of trussed). In any event our BCO asked for SE drawings for the roof steels, timber sizes etc. I guess they want their engineers to check your SE hasn’t designed something woefully inadequate (like 2x1s or something!).

Fair enough. It was a difficult one to predict as the tree was in a neighbours garden, 20 meters away, felled 9months ago (before we bought our plot) and was only discovered because BCO asked to use their toilet and spotted it in their garden.

How would you have known?

Nothing is predictable! As nod said - groudworks especially so. Our BC asked us to go another 1/2 meter deeper because he was worried about a tree that had been felled. Wasn't to the NHBC guidance, but he's a belt and braces guy. Cost us 5k extra. Our chamber floor was supposed to be here weeks ago - but they've got transportation issues because of the fuel costs (theyre trying to keep to quotes by optimising their deliveries) - certainly wasn't predictable when they quoted in January before Ukraine etc etc

I posted on a similar thread back in March here with our square meterage and costs breakdown:

I was going to say the only bit I can’t comment on is the superstructure as we are doing brick and block. I think as others have mentioned, your clearance costs are a bit low for muck away. Foundation costs are so variable, but just a 500mm extra depth dig for our foundations was an extra £5k. I think your glazing costs are optimistic we were over £20k for glazing and doors and that was double glazed. Surface and grey water drainage costs seem a bit low - we were 12k and that was for a scheme that was shared amongst 3 self builds so there were economies of scale costs. 1750 for UFH is pretty low. Our ground floor is larger but our price is coming in at nearly an order of magnitude higher. 7k for electrics including an EV charger seems tight; unless you’re just going for pendant lights throughout etc. We worked on a rough basis of £50 per ‘thing’ (socket/ light etc) fitted. Crude but fairly accurate. 4k for MVHR installed? Ours is nearer 7k(installed). I’m just picking out a few things here. To be honest I followed the same logic as you when setting out - your spreadsheet seems logical but when you start getting quotes and getting into the detail of costings I think you’ll need an extra 25% unless you’re doing a lot of the work yourself. My original estimates were not dissimilar to yours and when we got quotes back I was out by around 25%. But the variability in quotes was pretty high so it does depend on getting a good builder you trust.

Too low. We are right in the midst of our self build so have a fairly good handle on current costs and I think nearly every single estimate is on the low end - perhaps except your services costs.

Out of interest - with a modern unit that modulates output, is it a big issue over specifying? Is it the additional capital cost of a bigger unit you were trying to avoid?

Out of interest have you had a like for like quote from an MCS registered installer (giving the £5k discount through BUS) and one without? My experience when getting quotes has not been that prices have been ramped by 5k. But as I’ve said before on this forum in response to this: there are good installers and those out for profiteering. But that’s not a problem unique to heat pump installers or the BUS. We had a same experience when we got quotes for our primary contractor - some are simply more expensive than others and try and chance their quote.

Originally the scheme was called the Clean Heat Grant but I guess 99% of applicants will come from existing boiler upgrades (the only type of new build eligible is a custom / self build, so no house builders or developers) so I guess that’s why they renamed it Boiler Upgrade Scheme to cover the majority of type of applicants. I think it’s fairly forward thinking of them to include self builders actually as we face the same budgetary pressures as those with existing boilers in choosing whether to choose a greener form of heating or opt for a (cheaper to install at least) gas boiler.

The boiler upgrade scheme eligibility includes self builders.