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I am Alan from County Durham. Three self-builds behind me and still learning.

Hi all I'm a serial DIYer who's done a fair bit prior to this covid business but have been given free rein now that I work from home all the time. We bought the house 10 years ago and I did all the inside of it up, just a bit of plastering and painting, new kitchen and what not. Now I'm tackling the garden, an old boundry wall had collapsed when we moved in and it's stayed that way until now, I've dug down footings for it and got most of it back up to where it keeps the neighbours garden from sliding in to ours and from toppling over. My wife saw that it was going well enough so I was told to build a seating area at the back as well, the back bit is on a slope so more digging for footings and a few block walls are needed there too. Now I'm told to build a little covered area that attaches to out house where we can sit and have lunch/dinner on nice enough days. This is where I need some input, as I'm unsure of the load and span width calculations and would prefer to be able to eat my dinner without having to worry about the roof falling down on me. Thanks for having me

Evening all, Finally! A decent forum I can enjoy... Before the time of social media I was an avid forum goer, big on my underground electronic music. Rave scene jungliest movement forums were the only way I could network outside of the nightclubs. Photos from events would be posted up, pirate radios would hunt for talent and promoters would post up their flyers to try and gain momentum to get as many tickets sold before the night.... All seems a generational back in my day thing now but those were the best days, back then... Instagram, facebook and twitter changed the game and when we look back it was really only in the last decade that such trends have happened and what a change there has been! For the better.. imho no not really, negative feedback rather than positive criticism floats around freely... forums always felt more of a community to me, people sharing knowledge, wisdom and experiences to help learn and influence for the greater good, and from reading through the threads on the weekend it gave me a sense of those good old days before I had a career, before I had bills, kids & not enough time in the day! Gas engineer by trade (15 years), and now working as a supervisor for a housing association. I bought my first house when I was 20 and spent 8 years knocking it about thinking I would be a millionaire by the time It was done. It was pretty much done but we got bored of spending all our money at builder merchants so when the kids came along a few years back we bought a VW transporter, kitted it out and off we went, now we have Finley (1 and 3/4) & Penny (3 going on 30), an old dog named max, Lenny the tortoise. We just got married 2 weeks ago after being together for 14 years and now my new wife is telling me we need a bigger house.... She's right by the way! Great thing Is I've always wanted to build my own house I spent my childhood watching Grand Designs, bad thing is we may have to live in a caravan for awhile, lets hope the kids are buckled up because its going to be a bumpy ride but hey, what's life without a few challenges. And everybody who knows me knows I'm not the type to sit around watching Tv, always on the go like many of you are I sure. My brains constantly ticking over about the next 'big project' I'm working on, or at least working towards. To have our own self build we can all call home would be amazing and if we can make some memories building it well that's even better. Our plan is to snag the house we are living in and sell up by the end of the year, whilst this is happening we will be designing and obtaining planning for our plot, a bungalow that we bought last January for 170k at auction which is currently being rented out. It sits on some nice land about 1000 m2, a triangle shaped plot that is slightly sloping, its north facing with some potential views and is in prime close to centre of town position. It sits next to some green land giving a nice secluded feel about it and hop over the fence and you in some dense woodland. We hope to gain planning for a replacement dwelling by xmas and then move up their January ready to put a spade in the ground in April. Our hopes are to borrow £280k, that's £200k for the build, £40k to pay of the mortgage on the plot and £35k contingency. Ideally we want to build as big as possible but will be limited by budget. We need a 4 bed property with open plan living space, evening living room, multifunction room, bathroom, ensuite, d/s w.c, garage, workshop and a room to fit a small hair salon in. Using my skills I will be project managing, and carrying out as much as possible. I am seriously considering building in ICF with Nudura being the front runner, The fact I will be able to build the structure myself is a huge plus to me and potentially a great cost saver, the energy efficiency it will bring along with the soundproofing and sturdiness all sit well with us as a family. I am loving the way that the 1st fix and dry lineing can be installed and think it will make ease of a laborious job so I am looking forward to enrolling on a few courses in the next month of so, I also have a mate who started a concrete company last year and has the only pump and boom in the local area so I'm expecting some mates rates on the pour! Our wish list also includes a smart home using Loxone or Niko, high quality aluminium windows & some solar panels with an electrical battery pack system and a zinc looking roof or similar style, again it depends on cost but it would be great if it will all squeeze into 200k. One things for sure, I know we have our work cut out for 2 years but I know it will be worth every late evening, every cut and ache. Hopefully with some expert guidance from this forum we can make this dream come true and my kids can learn from their mum and dad how you build a future for your family. Thanks in advance Edd & Phillipa.

Hello, we are looking to buy a house that 6700sq ft of solid brick construction, old sash and Georgian style. We want to be able to calc costs on refurb+extension vs new build. Where would be best to start? Thank you in advance

Hey there everyone, my name is Elliot Wilson and I am the current Technical Blog writer for Sunamp. I am with Sunamp for 12 weeks as part of an internship. During my research into the company I have found posts from the CEO (Andrew Bissell) on the predecessor to this forum, ebuild.com. I am hoping to start up discussions with people who were engaged with Andrew previously. Notable users include: jsharris, recoveringacademic, DamonHD, ProDavie, SteamyTea, notnickclegg and Nickfromwales, among others. I am also hoping to post articles that will be published on the Sunamp webpage. I have been talking to one of the moderators, have been informed of forum policy and have familiarised myself with the T and C's. If I still transgress any rules please let me know. Articles have already written and so it is just a matter of when I want to post them. Article details include: phase change material (SunampPV, latent heat) vs alternative thermal storage (water tanks, sensible heat), a case study of an employees house who has data analysis software which monitors things such as exported, stored and generated electricity amongst other things and (slightly unrelated to Sunamp) a comparison of the Tesla Powerwall 2 vs the Sonnen Eco 8. There will be more. Any questions people want to ask they can contact me through this. Cheers Elliot

Is there anyone out there who is in the early stages of their build 'journey', ideally a Passivhaus? The podcast/website www.houseplanninghelp.com, which I have been listening to since it started and think is very useful, is looking for its second self build case study for its Hub. It has already been following the build of Long Barrow, being built by Alex Baines, near Cirencester. This is an ICF, earth sheltered Passivhaus and now they are looking for a second case study to follow through from planning to final build. If at all interested, contact Ben Adam Smith at the website. Similar to myself, he has been researching as much as he can while looking for land for his own build but, like myself, not finding anything affordable. However, as well as learning himself, he has been sharing everything he has found with others via his podcasts and now the Hub. It would be great if someone could help him out with another case study. He wants it to be useful for everyone, including you, your builders and build team and will hopefully include all the good points as well as all the bad parts. After all, thats often when we learn the most. Hope someone can help. I'd love to do it but no luck with the land yet. www.houseplanninghelp.com