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Here We Go Again ....


Cambs

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Hi -

 

Been on here for a while and planning to start self build number 5 in 2018, so seems like a good time to introduce myself.  We got planning permission towards the end of this year so time to share some plans.

 

We're on the Cambs/Lincs borders, in a conservation area, in the grounds of a listed building and with a Planning Department which was split as to whether this should be approved or not, so it has not been an easy process....  We got there in the end, though.

 

It's our "downsize" self build - the last one was about 320 sq. m and this one will be around 170m so quite a lot to try and squeeze in.

 

Aim is to build to PH standard, but certification may prove difficult due to form factor.  Got a PH designer on board (he did the drawings attached), so will get him to do a quick and dirty PHPP calc to see how close we can get.  I think the form factor (dictated by planning, with little room to change) will preclude it, but we'll see.

 

It'll be a timber frame - we're in discussions with some of the firms who regularly pop up here.  We were aiming to hand over to a single builder but that is proving difficult, so may have to get more hands on than ever before.  My son's in the building industry, so he'll prove a useful source of hopefully good tradesmen.

 

Thank you to everyone on this forum - it has been a great source of information, inspiration and entertainment.... and I'm sure that it'll continue to be so during our build.

 

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Edited by Cambs
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Hi @Nickfromwales, the self builds have been over a 20 year period with the last one being finished 10 years ago, so fairly standard building regs minimum stuff.  This'll be the first real high performing one.

 

All the builds have been contracted out to a single builder - it's more cost effective for me to keep working, so no great skills to bring to the build.  My role thus far has been to find the land, get the designs done, get planning permission, spec the builds and find a builder.  I do like to do one or two things to say that I have made a contribution to the build - last time was to install the piping for a central vac and also terminate all the Cat5 pulled by the electrician.

 

I'm getting pretty good at making my mind up early, though..... I found early on that changing my mind during the build was an expensive mistake.  It does help me to get nearer to cost certainty to get as much specified as I can, as early as possible in the process.

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Hi and welcome. As @Nickfromwales says, we've done a few builds as well, albeit one ahead of you with 6 in total. Like you this has been over the last twenty years. Our first 4 were to the prevailing building regs, albeit we did install MVHR on our 3rd build 14 or so years ago. Our last and current house are a step change in terms of more focus on fabric first and performance.

 

Like you, I've always gone down the main contractor route, for the reasons you describe, and to ensure I was able to maintain a helicopter overview and strict quality control as the builds progressed. That's not to say that I haven't undertaken work on our builds (I have) rather it tends to be those tasks to which I could undertake easily and to a standard I was happy with.

 

Agree completely about making decisions early on, and sticking to them, to avoid the additional costs of undoing work already done.

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15 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

How did you get on with the vac? The last one I saw had a hose about a half mile long and the outlets were less than reliable. A pita to store and get in / out, compared to just buying a good quality cordless vac for each floor for eg. 

 

We're in rented now, so using a regular upright again.  I've been told (in no uncertain terms) that we'll be having a built in in the new house, so I guess that counts as a seal of approval for them.  It's much lighter to push around than the upright, sucks the dust out of the house (depending on placement), and only needs to be emptied every few months.  We've got dogs, so need something powerful and built ins seem to work for us.  Not sure if the new EU power restrictions will impact built ins - I suspect they will.

 

Next time, we'll buy a hose for each floor to save lugging them up and down stairs

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I like the house plans - simple and certainly has everything we would need.  And the rooms are a good size so I doubt it will feel cramped.  I am looking forward to hearing about, and hopefully seeing photo 's, of the build. will you have time to do a blog??

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4 hours ago, TheMitchells said:

I like the house plans - simple and certainly has everything we would need.  And the rooms are a good size so I doubt it will feel cramped.  I am looking forward to hearing about, and hopefully seeing photo 's, of the build. will you have time to do a blog??

 

Thanks for the kind comments re the design....   I'll certainly upload photos as I go, not sure about the blog.  We'll see nearer the time

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51 minutes ago, Cambs said:

 

Thanks for the kind comments re the design....   I'll certainly upload photos as I go, not sure about the blog.  We'll see nearer the time

 

A blog on here is just a quick upload process with a bit of text - it’s the same editor as the main forum. Benefit is that it keeps all your build in one place so it’s easily tracked. 

 

Its 2 mins for an admin to enable for you... 

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10 hours ago, Cambs said:

 

We're in rented now, so using a regular upright again.  I've been told (in no uncertain terms) that we'll be having a built in in the new house, so I guess that counts as a seal of approval for them.  It's much lighter to push around than the upright, sucks the dust out of the house (depending on placement), and only needs to be emptied every few months.  We've got dogs, so need something powerful and built ins seem to work for us.  Not sure if the new EU power restrictions will impact built ins - I suspect they will.

 

Next time, we'll buy a hose for each floor to save lugging them up and down stairs

 

Saved by BREXIT ... perhaps :ph34r:

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@Cambs, Your build shares many similarities with ours which is now complete apart from odd jobs like paving the front drive and putting on the porch.  I'll do a blog update soon, but you might find it worth coming and having a walkaround our place if you don't mind an hr's drive to NN7.  It will give you a lot of ideas and some refinements that you or your architect might miss.  It's always easier to look at a close match and say to yourself: I really like that, or alternatively I don't like that; this will help you to get your design right.

 

I'll post an update blog entry soon.

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15 hours ago, ProDave said:

I did a house with a built in vacuum system. I got the impression from the owners that unwinding and fighting g with a very long hose was far more troublesome than using g an upright vacuum cleaner.

Hi @ProDave, there’s definitely a knack to winding these things.  I first saw these in my brother’s house in Canada - they’re common there.  You wind and unwind the hose by laying it flat on the floor and then wrap a big Velcro strap around it to keep it together.  Dead easy once you get the hang of it..... honest!!

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15 hours ago, dpmiller said:

I must admit I'm drawn to a hide-a hose setup for our upstairs and rather like the idea of sweep inlets for the kitchen and maybe beside the fireplace.

We had a sweep inlet in our kitchen, but never used it, to be honest. 

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We looked at fitting a built in vacuum, but then stayed in a holiday let with one and decided against it.  We found the long hose a real PITA, not so much stowing it, as it was on a retractable reel set into a wall, but just dragging around the place.  TBH, we had our heart (well, OK, SWMBO had her heart set) on fitting one, and especially liked some of the add-on's, like the sweep inlet for the kitchen.  In fact I've made one of these up for the home-made dust extractor in my new workshop, in the hope that it will encourage me to keep the floor a bit cleaner.

 

When we came back from holiday we had a rethink and decided against a central vacuum and instead bought two cordless ones plus a small, but very powerful, mini-Vax.  We have one cordless one upstairs and one down stairs, and they are plenty powerful enough for most jobs, and extremely light and easy to use.  The main advantages are having no trailing cable or hose, which makes a tremendous difference to their ease of use.  Having one upstairs and one downstairs makes life easier, too.

 

The best bit was that two decent cordless vacuum cleaners plus a more powerful, but small, Mini-Vax, was about half the cost of a built in vacuum system.

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