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Hi All- Anglesey here


Dyfed

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Hi all, just thought I'd introduce myself.

 

we are a family of 5, our girl is 15, eldest boy 4 and youngest 6months, so a bit of a gap!

we live on Anglesey and are hoping to complete a self build next year as we cannot find a 4 bedroom house that we like!

I have a plot in mind locally to where we currently live, current owner (family friend) is in the process of applying for outline planning, and at this stage I am currently trying to get budget costs of everything together prior. We will need a mortgage for the land as well as the build and will have a deposit hopefully from the sale of our current house.

 

One thing that helps us to keep costs down is that I am in the trade, my background is a Plumbing and Heating engineer, currently a Lecturer in the local College but have also done project management. My father is a retired Electritian too!

 

we have been looking at various designs and we quite like the look of the Hebredian Homes long house, 502pd, anyone else built one of these?

i am also looking at MBC timber frame as their Passive house system looks good, anybody else built one of these?

 

mortgage wise, I have been looking at the buildstore acelorator mortgage, going direct to someone like the Ecology or using a broker, not sure which is the best option yet, but we are not in a great deal of hurry so want to get it right.

 

any advice much appreciated or anybody need plumbing, heating or renewables advice from me they are more than welcome to contact me!

 

thanks

 

Dyfed

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Welcome to the Forum. Sounds exciting. . Loads of people on here have used MBC so you will get bags of support and info. We are building an architect designed passive house and we looked at MBC but could not quite get what we wanted from their construction method. Soooo many others will be along shortly. Looking forward to hearing more.

Edited by MikeSharp01
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Welcome.

 

Are you buying coatings etc?

 

Might it nit be a good idea to wait for at least Outline to be approved? Just in case...

 

Or did you mean costings and got mugged by automisspell?

 

Edit. Just like I did.

Edited by Ferdinand
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We have an  MBC frame. Went up this summer. It was a close call between MBC and Beattie Passive who we liked hugely but what swung it to MBC was the frame and slab package.

 

Good luck with the planning. Enjoy this time before the frenzy of the build starts.

 

Liz

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Sorry yes did mean costings lol!  I did consider waiting but I have an idea of what type of build the local council prefer here, generally nothing with a ridge height of over 6.8m so that's why I'm looking at either a 1 1/2 or a 1 3/4 designed house.

 

where any of you able to negotiate the price with MBC after initial quote?

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9 minutes ago, Dyfed said:

Thanks Nick! I am off the tools at the moment, currently teaching the future engineers as a lecturer in the local college and loving it! Especially the holidays lol!

Ah, so we can ask you the tricky questions and you HAVE to know the answers. Bingo ! 

Stick around ?

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2 hours ago, Dyfed said:

Lol! Happy to help in any way, in return for help on self build? Are you doing an MBC frame Nick?

I'm not building at all mate, just on here to burn off the excess brainwaves and help where possible. I'm also gaining a ? load of useful information which is priceless. 

You really need to set some time aside and read the blogs and individual subject threads as the content is really quite amazing and comprehensive. 

Were free and impartial here, so it's warts and all, the best way imo ?

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Yes @Dyfed we are a self help community realy. Some of us have finished self builds, others are well down the track, some nearly finished and many, like you, just starting. Many are professionals in the trade or have engineering, academic and scientific backgrounds that means that there is info and, as are the nature of the challenges, on every stage of the project and even how to stay sain,  and importantly safe, while doing it. I think we would all agree that self building is not for the faint hearted but it can be massively rewarding although not always financially. The big thing is you can have exactly what you, and your significant others, want within the normal constraints of site, planning rules where you want to build and of course your budget. Have a read of @JSHarris's blog - you can find a link on any of his posts. He did an MBC build 24 months or so back and there are others here a few weeks and a few months ahead of you. If you feel the need to contribute the BIG issue in all the passive house builds here is thermal control of the building and it's associated heating, ventilating, DHW and UFH all with their associated plant EG ASHP / GSHP / solar PV and thermal. One thing I think we all agree on is that there is no such thing as thermal mass but you can play with concepts of thermal inertia, decriment delay, solar gain etc to your hearts content. 

 

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Yup. The theme seems to be a small requirement for space heating, dealt with very easily by a small heat pump for eg, and then to have an UVC for DHW, heated up to around 45-50oC by the HP and boosted by either grid or solar electricity. Size the UVC according to your needs, simples. 

A few here have chosen to preheat the DHW cold incomer via a buffer tank with a coil in it, making full use of the fact that the HP can provide 40oC temp water all day long at very good CoP which is all you need for daily bathing with only the bath or the kitchen sink really needing much higher temps, say ~50oc max, for which you use the HP running in DHW mode so the UVC stays at a min of 50oC, and the buffer sits around 40oC, with the UVC getting boosted at least once a week for legionella purge, but if you get solar Pv this will likely happen almost daily plus you'll get the DHW sitting much hotter. Again size the UVC according to Pv so you harvest and retain as much of the here taped energy as possible as hot water. As overspill you can also put an immersion into the buffer. 

For more info please pick up on one of the existing threads or start your own so the chat doesn't get lost here in the 'introduce yourself' section. ;)

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I recently did a self build not too far from you in North Wales.

 

Ours is in the Clwydian Range AONB and the site was outside the village boundary so wasn't zoned for housing - getting PP was a long winded and complicated business.

 

I can highly recommend a brilliant local Planning Consultant that we used if you get to the stage where you feel you need help getting what you're after. They even have an office in Anglesey.

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Thanks Ian for your recommendation I'm sure I am Friends with Berwyn on LinkedIn so will contact him if required.

 

is it ok if I ask what was your main argument that allowed you to obtain planning outside of the village boundary?

 

thanks

 

Dyfed

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1 hour ago, Dyfed said:

Thanks Ian for your recommendation I'm sure I am Friends with Berwyn on LinkedIn so will contact him if required.

 

is it ok if I ask what was your main argument that allowed you to obtain planning outside of the village boundary?

 

thanks

 

Dyfed

It was a complicated 3 year process including an appeal. I'll DM you.

 

Suffice to say that although I have 30 years experience as an architect I wouldn't have managed to get PP without Berwyn's expertise.

 

His fees were very reasonable too.

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