To watertight only, or go all the way?

[Marvin]

Hi @Mr Blobby

 

In my humble opinion, and, if I had the money to pay the bills to go to watertight level, I would build my home out of the ground to watertight level. During the time doing this I would Investigate and tie down all the M&E installations ASAP, noting that the further into the build, the more chance of having to do corrective works later to accommodate them.

 

Good luck

 

M

[Nickfromwales]

£5k. Final offer.

[Ferdinand]

3 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

PS, as a BH Buddy favour, i'll come over and do the CAT6 for £9k, that's a saving of a thousand pounds

 

Does CAT6 imply that you have successfully dealt with 45 lives?

[Pocster]

33 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

£5k. Final offer.

Ffs . 4K cash !

[TonyT]

7 minutes ago, pocster said:

Ffs . 4K cash !

£3.9K with a full Fluke Report 

3 interest free monthly payments

[Iceverge]

Time over again I think banging the superstructure and the "passive" elements over to someone like MBC would have been the trick. It was €35k more however. I reckon we would have saved 5k of engineering fees,a year of rent and extended my life by 10 years not having to fight concrete floors and blocks for services.  Also gut feeling is that blown cellulose ( like our attic) out performs EPS beads in real life for comparable thermal conductivity. Maybe because it's less susceptible to wind blowing through it. 

 

Airtightness, thermal bridging, structural engineering, UFH pipes all sorted sharpish. Nice easy service cavity and posi joists left behind to make the services a breeze. The b*lloxing involved with fitting anything with a reasonable degree of precision to a concrete house would break your heart. Windows manafactuered to a millimeter get hammered into place and foamed within an inch of their lives.

 

Outsourcing so much of the key stuff to a trusted third party leaves heaps of time to take on very DIYable stuff like MVHR and plumbing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pocster]

29 minutes ago, TonyT said:

£3.9K with a full Fluke Report 

3 interest free monthly payments

3.5k and I’ll Chuck in a ps5 !

[TonyT]

5 minutes ago, pocster said:

3.5k and I’ll Chuck in a ps5 !

All yours mate

[Ferdinand]

-3.5k and he will accept the Walk on Glazing.

[Roundtuit]

Personally, I'd part company with the architect and QS with immediate effect, and you can manage without either of them.  Self-building is hard, and it's reassuring to have a professional to hold your hand.  If they're leading you down the garden path however, they need a wake-up call.  All credit to you for pushing back!

[Nickfromwales]

17 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

Does CAT6 imply that you have successfully dealt with 45 lives?

More than one near miss for sure lol  

[Nickfromwales]

14 hours ago, Roundtuit said:

you can manage without either of them

"you can now manage without either of them"

[Nickfromwales]

17 hours ago, Iceverge said:

Time over again I think banging the superstructure and the "passive" elements over to someone like MBC would have been the trick. It was €35k more however. I reckon we would have saved 5k of engineering fees,a year of rent and extended my life by 10 years not having to fight concrete floors and blocks for services.  Also gut feeling is that blown cellulose ( like our attic) out performs EPS beads in real life for comparable thermal conductivity. Maybe because it's less susceptible to wind blowing through it. 

 

Airtightness, thermal bridging, structural engineering, UFH pipes all sorted sharpish. Nice easy service cavity and posi joists left behind to make the services a breeze. The b*lloxing involved with fitting anything with a reasonable degree of precision to a concrete house would break your heart. Windows manufactured to a millimeter get hammered into place and foamed within an inch of their lives.

 

Outsourcing so much of the key stuff to a trusted third party leaves heaps of time to take on very DIYable stuff like MVHR and plumbing. 

Amen.....

[Thorfun]

I would suggest leaving your architect on good terms so they can be there down the line if you need to ask questions or get support. This is what we did with our architects and it was something they were happy with. they got us through planning and BC drawings and then let us get on with it. but they're at the end of a phone/email to discuss ideas or ask question etc and we have a really good relationship with them. I send them updated photos of the build and invite them to site to just look around without asking them questions so that they maintain an interest in how it's going. seems to be working for us really well.

 

I would get rid of the QS though! once you have their figures on what things 'should' cost you can go out to tender on your own and will have an idea if the builders/subbies are trying it on or not. we used an online QS which gave me a ball park figure and was good enough for the bank to get a mortgage with. I then went to various groundworkers about building our basement and foundations. spoke to timber frame companies about building the timber frame. window companies for the windows. chose the best quotes/people I'd most like to work with (as that bit is very important if you're project managing!) and got on with it. that got the superstructure up and I then found subbies to do bits and pieces as we require them. I'm finding it quite stressful but also very enjoyable at the same time. yes, it's slower than using a main contractor but I'm learning loads, putting in the graft on site to save money and getting the satisfaction of actually self-building rather than calling it self-building and handing it over to someone to build a house. 🙂

 

with a job that requires a couple of days a month I would be all over self-building/project managing/getting involved. it's a great learning experience.

 

but, I also agree with @Iceverge and, after spending months insulating and airtightness-ing it might've been worth while getting a TF company to do all of that. I'm sure we've saved a LOT of money (I'm thinking at least £10k and will calculate it once I'm done) but we'd be many many months further on in the build and a lot closer to moving in. I couldn't afford the basement AND the MBC passive twin-wall house so chose to have the basement and do a standard open-panel TF and insulating ourselves in the end. I love our basement space and once it's actually finished it will be amazing! but, I have a slight regret over having it and life would've been a lot easier and quicker to build if I'd gone the MBC passive route. but then where would my cinema, music room and gym have gone! 😂

 

I also agree with @Nickfromwales in that you should just crack on. find a groundworker to do your foundations as designed by the structural engineer and while that is happening you can find a builder to build the shell and a joiner to do the roof etc. once you get the ball rolling it's not as daunting as it first seems. it's taking the first step on a new and unknown journey that's the killer. JFDI! 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Thorfun
grammatical error

[Pocster]

Bollocks to all this pampering .

Your architect designs it .

You build it . Lots of f ups on the way and lots of learning .

Only girls need “ ground works men “ , “quality surveyors “ , “ IT supervisor “ , “ bum wiper “ etc etc . Real men do it the real way ! 😁👍

[Pocster]

Also I think the title of this thread should be altered ……

[joe90]

Or just get a really good builder who will know other trades you need locally, I only used an architect to put my pencil drawings on CAD (and he still got it wrong!) No QS, No SE, i was PM to keep an eye on detail. 👍

[joe90]

2 minutes ago, pocster said:

Also I think the title of this thread should be altered ……

Only you would read it that way 🤪!

[Mr Blobby]

5 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Only you would read it that way 🤪!

 

not an accident 😉

[Mr Blobby]

3 hours ago, Thorfun said:

I would suggest leaving your architect on good terms so they can be there down the line if you need to ask questions or get support. This is what we did with our architects and it was something they were happy with. they got us through planning and BC drawings and then let us get on with it. but they're at the end of a phone/email to discuss ideas or ask question etc and we have a really good relationship with them.

 

Just got off the phone with him half hour ago.  We have kissed and made up.😘

 

3 hours ago, Thorfun said:

 

I would get rid of the QS though! once you have their figures on what things 'should' cost you can go out to tender on your own and will have an idea if the builders/subbies are trying it on or not.

 

 

Done and done.

 

 

3 hours ago, Thorfun said:

 

with a job that requires a couple of days a month I would be all over self-building/project managing/getting involved. it's a great learning experience.

 

Exactly this. 

Or I could spend more time with darling wife. 😒

 

3 hours ago, Thorfun said:

but, I also agree with @Iceverge and, after spending months insulating and airtightness-ing it might've been worth while getting a TF company to do all of that.

 

I did think about a TF construction but the site is on a busy main road hence I was concened it would be too noisy indoors at rush hour.  Maybe I'm worrying too much, but at my age I like bit of peace and quiet.

 

3 hours ago, Thorfun said:

 

I also agree with @Nickfromwales in that you should just crack on. find a groundworker to do your foundations as designed by the structural engineer and while that is happening you can find a builder to build the shell and a joiner to do the roof etc. once you get the ball rolling it's not as daunting as it first seems. it's taking the first step on a new and unknown journey that's the killer. JFDI! 

 

I'm hoping to have a builder on board soon to get me to watertight and then review from there. I had reckoned on him doing goundworks and slab too.  No?

Prefferred builder suggested that I change KORE slab to exclude attached garage so that telehandler can get round back for house build and then build garage on raft foundation afterwards.  This seems like a practical suggestion, is it?  Is the only alternative a crane, and if so I guess that is mega bucks?

 

 

[markc]

Crane doesn’t have to be mega bucks but can be.

what do you need to lift and to where? Roof trusses, ridge beams etc. are all fairly light but bulky, a mini crane or spider platform with winch will do them easily.

if it’s bricks and blocks these could be put around the back before access is prevented.

A little ingenuity and forward planning can save a lot of money, hard work and stress

[Thorfun]

16 minutes ago, Mr Blobby said:

Or I could spend more time with darling wife. 😒

🤣

 

16 minutes ago, Mr Blobby said:

I did think about a TF construction but the site is on a busy main road hence I was concened it would be too noisy indoors at rush hour.  Maybe I'm worrying too much, but at my age I like bit of peace and quiet.

take a look at the MBC passive house twin wall system with pumped in cellulose. according to those that have them they're VERY quiet internally as the 300mm cellulose really dampens down the external noise. (other companies are available to do this sort of twin wall pumped cellulose build)

Edited August 16, 2022 by Thorfun
added bit about other companies being available

[Nickfromwales]

2 hours ago, Thorfun said:

🤣

 

take a look at the MBC passive house twin wall system with pumped in cellulose. according to those that have them they're VERY quiet internally as the 300mm cellulose really dampens down the external noise. (other companies are available to do this sort of twin wall pumped cellulose build)

They're graveyard quiet when built, and the roof ( 400mm with MBC ) is even more so. PIR based frames tend to be quite acoustically transparent, brick and block so / so, cellulose wins hands down. Seriously unimpressed with PIR ( SIPS esque ) roof designs, way too noisy for my liking.

[Mr Blobby]

18 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

They're graveyard quiet when built, and the roof ( 400mm with MBC ) is even more so. PIR based frames tend to be quite acoustically transparent, brick and block so / so, cellulose wins hands down. Seriously unimpressed with PIR ( SIPS esque ) roof designs, way too noisy for my liking.

 

Not sure I could face changing to TF this late on, surely would add even more delay ?  How would I even go about such a transformation?

[Thorfun]

4 hours ago, Mr Blobby said:

 

Not sure I could face changing to TF this late on, surely would add even more delay ?  How would I even go about such a transformation?

send your plans to MBC (or other TF companies that offer the same product!) and ask for a quote! they have in-house designers who should be able to translate your existing plans to a TF house afaik. it might add a small delay but the build is so quick with TF that you'd probably make up any delay in build time.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Thorfun
forgot about the fact there are other companies available again