April 3, 20188 yr Hi I have eventually got round to registering as a member of the site, i have been an avid reader for months but in the past few weeks our self build project has moved up a gear so i though it was about time i registered! We have (in the past few weeks) completed on our new building site in Co. Down, Northern Ireland. We have had our planning permission approved and are about to go out to tender. We have given thought to a direct labour, but with the desire to get it done as quickly as possible and be living in it as quickly as possible as well as having a full time job not close to the site, we came to the conclusion that a contractor would be the best option - although i still want to have input and involvement along the way. We have designed the house with block construction, pre cast slabs upstairs, UFH throughout and decent levels of insulation, but for now are not going down the renewable route - mainly because the capital expenditure of the renewables is higher than i would like at a time where the focus has to be on actually getting the house built! I'm sure i will be asking lots of questions and learning more from all of the information on the forum in the months to come.
April 3, 20188 yr Hi and welcome - There's quite a few Co Down builders here on Buildhub with lots of different experiences. All questions welcome.
April 3, 20188 yr 22 minutes ago, Ricco said: [...] the focus has to be on actually getting the house built! Welcome. “I'm stickin' out big lad and how are you?” We're with you in the get-it-done-now-matey-boy stakes. But give a bit of thought to making it easy to fitting for renewables later : leave pipe work in place for an ASHP , plan for where an MVHR box might sit, make sure the POSIs are big enough to accept ducting, think about their runs so that you make retrofitting easier, make it easy for the fitter to pop some solar on the roof, that sort of thing. Oooo, and before I forget: do you really need a big hot water tank full of expensive hot water: use a couple of local water heaters maybe?
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