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First Self build - Cornwall


Werrington1

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Hello,

 

We have been reading posts on here for a little while, and finally thought we'd sign up! 

 

My partner and me started on our self build about a month ago after being onsite in a Caravan since last April with 2 kids, my 8 year old daughter and now 1 year old son. Luckily my sister lives next door and my parents are just down the road and the winter has been pretty mild so its hasn't been that bad at all. Long story short the land was bought by my parents as it joined onto one of their fields and it came with planning for a very small 4 bed dormer. We completely changed the plans and luckily didn't have to much trouble with the planners. My parents gave us the land to build on and once completed and we have mortgaged it,  we will pay them back for the site.

 

We don't plan on moving so have gone bigger than we can afford to completely finish but we are confident we can get water tight and the main rooms complete before we have to slow down to much. I'm and electrician by trade so will do the majority of the electrics myself, my parents run a transport and plant hire firm which i am also involved with so our costs for excavating the footings etc have been minimal as well as having an engineering friend that works from our yard that has done all our steel work which has helped massively with costs.

 

We haven't exactly made life easy for ourselves, the total size is circa 440sqm with quite a bit of steel work and quite a bit of glass.

 

Foundations have been poured already but as the ground was built up slightly before and there is clay below, we had to pour concrete at nearly 2m deep all round which meant 21 x 8 cube loads of concrete before we poured the slab. We have a builder on site that has made a start on some of the block work. We have known him for years, he has done extensions for my parents and built most of my sisters house so we know we are in safe hands, carpenters, plumbers etc are already lined up having worked with them over the years and knowing their standards of work are very high. I am slightly OCD so am fussy about who we are using and have waited slightly longer to start to make sure we have the builders we wanted rather than the ones that could start the quickest.

 

I'm sure we will have plenty of question over the next few months, but just reading other peoples post have given us ideas and help already

 

Josh

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Hi @Werrington1 welcome to the forum.

 

Have you considered creating a blog?

 

I'm just coming up to first fix on my self build on the Isle of Skye.

 

Also nice building plans have you consider overheating/solar gains from the south facing glazing. There are lots of discussions on the forum regarding this. My build has more south facing glazing than most on here but temperatures are generally lower in the highlands than further in the south of the UK? 

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Hi and welcome. Looks like you have a big one on your hands there, looks good on paper. Also looks like you have the pre-requisite to get a good outcome ;)

3 hours ago, Werrington1 said:

I am slightly OCD

 

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Hi Josh

 

As others have suggested, the glazing will probably lead to overheating.  There are solutions such as SageGlass, brise soleil and external shutters but they are expensive and best considered early on.  The plans look like traditional blockwork walls, so you might want to look at fully filled rigid insulation or if you increase the cavity, polystyrene beads.  Traditional render and set internally is best for airtightness.

 

I don't think the cars will fit the garage.  Maybe 2 doors or one much wider?

 

A lovely big house. 

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5 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Welcome.

 

Good idea to leave space for your retirement house at the side :-].

 

What is your design EPC? 

Looks as though there could be interesting heating bills?

 

F

;)

 

Once we have finished ours, the plan is to build a small 4 bed dormer next door as a holiday let ( if we haven’t been out of building for life by that point! )

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3 hours ago, Thedreamer said:

Hi @Werrington1 welcome to the forum.

 

Have you considered creating a blog?

 

I'm just coming up to first fix on my self build on the Isle of Skye.

 

Also nice building plans have you consider overheating/solar gains from the south facing glazing. There are lots of discussions on the forum regarding this. My build has more south facing glazing than most on here but temperatures are generally lower in the highlands than further in the south of the UK? 

Hi @Thedreamer

 

We are looking at our glazing option at the moment and taking this into consideration. My sisters house next door also has a lot of glass and they have been in for 3 years now with no major issues thus far, but still something we are looking into!

 

Prehaps over the weekend I will start a blog, will be interesting to look back over it once completed.

 

Josh

Edited by Werrington1
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2 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

Hi Josh

 

As others have suggested, the glazing will probably lead to overheating.  There are solutions such as SageGlass, brise soleil and external shutters but they are expensive and best considered early on.  The plans look like traditional blockwork walls, so you might want to look at fully filled rigid insulation or if you increase the cavity, polystyrene beads.  Traditional render and set internally is best for airtightness.

 

I don't think the cars will fit the garage.  Maybe 2 doors or one much wider?

 

A lovely big house. 

 

The garage door has been alter and we have a much larger door, these wall are already on the way up. Our walls are standard block outer, 100mm cavity and 100mm Celcon inner. The insulation was originally specced as Kingspan Kooltherm K106 full fill but we’re knocked back on this due to living in an exposed area. Long story short we know have 50mm Kingspan Kooltherm K108 Phenolic insulation going in. Externall walls will be rendered but although the plans show some slate hanging and some wood cladding, it won’t be exactly to the plan as I’m not keen on the exact layout. Some amendments have been made to the above already and passed by planning. 

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2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Overheating

 

I had the impression from the text in the plans that it is essentially a Building Regs build, which would mean less risk of overheating.

 

@Werrington1, could you comment on your wall buildup, please?

 

Cheers

 

F

Hi @Ferdinand

 

100mm dense, 100mm cavity, 100mm Celcon.

 

50mm Kingspan Kooltherm K108 Phenolic insulation is what we have gone with after being knocked back with originally wanting full fill Kingspan K106.

 

My sisters next door is the 100mm dense, 100mm cavity, 100mm dense and there place is keep warm and considering the size, doesn’t cost the earth to heat.

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Welcome! Looks like you're just down the road from my In Laws.

 

 

7 minutes ago, Werrington1 said:

[...] doesn’t cost the earth to heat.

pun intended? ;) :D (sorry couldn't resist as I just listed to this yesterday)

 

 

 

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Current state of affairs. The Quinn insulation on the end wall and back wall of the garage are the only 2 wall that it is being used on as the Kingspan delivery only arrived today! The garage wasn’t speced with any insulation but wanted to add it anyway.

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54 minutes ago, Werrington1 said:

 

Oh rite! We are between Launceston and Bude

 

That sounds near my sister - she is at Davidstow.  Welcome to the forum.

 

6 minutes ago, pocster said:

Do you need some walk on glazing ? ?

 

@pocster - trying to get past the £4 mark ?

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just at a similar stage on our new build in Looe. also an electrician by trade but quals long since expired.  Oh and site is in a 1 acre steeply sloping wood so have to build on piles.  And access road is very (cornish) steep and just over 6ft wide.  Bought land with planning for cash and have enough for prof fees then onto mortgage.  gonna be a breeze lol.  just getting SAP calcs finalised and looking like 85B. Bizarly using ASHP, etc drops it by a mile....

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The SAP rating is based on energy cost so choice of fuel has a big impact. Electricity is more expensive than gas in SAP (though impact is offset by efficiency of ASHP) so SAP/EPC score will drop.

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16 hours ago, Werrington1 said:

?

 

Oh rite! We are between Launceston and Bude

 

Ha, we are very near you, just outside Bridgerule. Our wall build up is brick outer, 200mm full fill cavity with rockwall batts, dense block inner skim wet plastered. Your welcome to visit, chat, drink tea and talk all things “building”, we are 90% finished (but feels like it’s still 90% left ?). 

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  • 1 year later...

Afternoon everyone! Originally thought I’d keep up the updates etc on here but as you can see, completely forgot! Progress has been made since my last post and hopefully, won’t be mush longer before we are able to start thinking about moving in. The caravan in wearing a little thin now, especially with a 3rd little‘un due next month.

Its gone relatively smoothly so far, roof is now finished, all windows are in just waiting for our front door and glass panels above the door to arrive.

rendering is nearly complete, electrical and plumbing first fixed, upstairs ceilings and wall are boarded, main bathroom being fitted on the 29th, and the staircase will start to be made next week hopefully.

A few alteration have been made from the original plans as I never liked the flat roof on the cinema and above the front door so we added a dressing room and ensuite above the cinema and sloped the roof above the front door with the roofers bending/curving the skates back up the roof and adding a 2mx1m skylight.

Will try my best to update more regularly over the next few months.


PS - the front door being delayed actually made it a lot easier to insulate the ceiling etc with the spider lift fitting through the gap!

Hopefully I haven’t bored you all to much ?

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  • 1 month later...

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