first time self build

[recoveringbuilder]

I have great admiration for you self building at your age, we were 32 when we built our first one and the reason for doing it was to provide a good home for our children who were 6 and 10 at the time and we had moved around quite a bit in rental property. We could never have afforded to buy anything like what we built and we kept it for 14 years until the family had grown up, I don’t know where the idea came from originally but I am so glad we did it and have done it twice more, my own family now in their 30s would never attempt what we did!

[selfbuildaberdeen]

1 minute ago, Christine Walker said:

I have great admiration for you self building at your age, we were 32 when we built our first one and the reason for doing it was to provide a good home for our children who were 6 and 10 at the time and we had moved around quite a bit in rental property. We could never have afforded to buy anything like what we built and we kept it for 14 years until the family had grown up, I don’t know where the idea came from originally but I am so glad we did it and have done it twice more, my own family now in their 30s would never attempt what we did!

Thank you for your lovely message @Christine Walker

We have put off having family for so long in order to try and set ourselves up right. Everyone builds for different reasons with different priories but this is certainly ours.

Bonus is my husband also works away so all the fun is left to me!

[Thedreamer]

11 minutes ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

YES!

I totally get where you are coming from. We are 29 and 36 so quite young in the self build community also but as we have no children thought it was the best time in our lives to do it. Thats not to say we wont do another one later in life but right now its about building a home suitable to grow a family in while we can finance it.

We both work full time, have no debt and have sold our house to be able to pay for the plot, services, all professional fees and part of the build costs.

For our ages I think we are doing pretty well tbh!

As we have never done a self build before we have so far chosen to keep on both our architect and QS.... this is majorly expensive but it is either that or pay for our inexperience via mistakes down the line.

 

Thank you for letting me know about SBS.... I will be sure to let them know about our extravagant nights out and imaginary holidays each year

 

 

 

 

You are doing great to get the plot and planning obtained. Get the remaining paper out of way and the real fun begins.

 

It is a long old journey self building I keep a blog here and often I look back at the stages to remind me how far we have come. Just about to do the spring entry!

 

 

 

[selfbuildaberdeen]

3 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

 

You are doing great to get the plot and planning obtained. Get the remaining paper out of way and the real fun begins.

 

It is a long old journey self building I keep a blog here and often I look back at the stages to remind me how far we have come. Just about to do the spring entry!

 

 

 

Your house looks like he same general style and shape as ours very good taste indeed!

[Thedreamer]

10 minutes ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

Thank you for your lovely message @Christine Walker

We have put off having family for so long in order to try and set ourselves up right. Everyone builds for different reasons with different priories but this is certainly ours.

Bonus is my husband also works away so all the fun is left to me!

 

If you haven't already checked out the blog section, there is a real range of projects here.

 

@Christine Walker kept a great blog for her last build.

 

Often they help me to visualise the build process.

 

@Redoctober completed a lovely build in Scotland last year, as an example we had the same choice of slates so it was useful to see his entry before mine went on.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Thedreamer

[Redoctober]

Hi @selfbuildaberdeen and welcome to the forum. As you have already experienced, there is a lot of well intended advice available and sometimes the ride can be a bit bumpy. Just hold on tight and you will be fine. 

 

Now, MVHR - I pause to adjust my tin hat - last year we built a well insulated house without an MVHR - The reason we chose not to install one was due to cost, ongoing maintenance, our desire for a wood burning stove [ WBS] [possible balancing issues] and because we like to have the windows open whenever possible. In helping us come to that decision we visited a show home, built by Border Oak in the Shropshire / Herefordshire area. They chose not to install one and we found ourselves agreeing with the reasons they cited.

 

The members suggesting an MVHR have no doubt good reason to bang that drum but for balance, we are now 6 months in and do not feel that we have missed out on any of the benefits they can offer. We received a EPC rating of B  and our annual fuel bills - electric only - are expected to be sub £1000.

 

Yes there are many variables to consider, location being one of them, but I just wanted to let you know there is life without an MVHR!

 

As suggested very kindly by @Thedreamer, have a look at my blog for further details.

 

oh, and good luck!

[jack]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

 

4 minutes ago, Redoctober said:

The members suggesting an MVHR have no doubt good reason to bang that drum but for balance... 

 

To provide yet another opinion, I've lived in over 20 houses in my life, from the south of England, to Sydney, to New York. Climates ranging from very hot to freezing cold, wet and dry, in houses large and small, well-insulated and not. My current home is the first one with MVHR. Having lived with it for a while, if I were to ever build another house, it would be a non-negotiable item right near the very top of the list after decent insulation and airtightness. It's just that life-changing.

 

9 minutes ago, Redoctober said:

Yes there are many variables to consider, location being one of them, but I just wanted to let you know there is life without an MVHR!

 

Absolutely true - but if you haven't lived with it over the course of the seasons, you don't know what you're missing out on. There's something weirdly "right" about the air quality, especially in winter. First-time visitors are always surprised that the air feels warm but really fresh.

[selfbuildaberdeen]

6 minutes ago, Redoctober said:

Hi @selfbuildaberdeen and welcome to the forum. As you have already experienced, there is a lot of well intended advice available and sometimes the ride can be a bit bumpy. Just hold on tight and you will be fine. 

 

Now, MVHR - I pause to adjust my tin hat - last year we built a well insulated house without an MVHR - The reason we chose not to install one was due to cost, ongoing maintenance, our desire for a wood burning stove [ WBS] [possible balancing issues] and because we like to have the windows open whenever possible. In helping us come to that decision we visited a show home, built by Border Oak in the Shropshire / Herefordshire area. They chose not to install one and we found ourselves agreeing with the reasons they cited.

 

The members suggesting an MVHR have no doubt good reason to bang that drum but for balance, we are now 6 months in and do not feel that we have missed out on any of the benefits they can offer. We received a EPC rating of B  and our annual fuel bills - electric only - are expected to be sub £1000.

 

Yes there are many variables to consider, location being one of them, but I just wanted to let you know there is life without an MVHR!

 

As suggested very kindly by @Thedreamer, have a look at my blog for further details.

 

oh, and good luck!

Hello @Redoctober

 

Thank you very much for your kind post. Everyone has the best intentions and I would be naive to think I knew better with my level of experience but it is nice to hear others have done the same as us and stand by their decision 6 months down the line.

 

We too will have a stove and what is the point in having 9m worth of sliding glass doors if they are never open?!

 

Your electricity bills sound fantastic. Did you have an ASHP?

 

I look forward to having a look at your blog too

 

[jack]

1 minute ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

We too will have a stove and what is the point in having 9m worth of sliding glass doors if they are never open?!

 

I don't know where the idea of an MVHR preventing the opening doors and windows comes from, but it's repeated all the time and it's a complete fallacy. We open ours all the time when the weather is right. 

 

Interestingly, other than winter, we get a lot of use out of the MVHR in summer. Without it, the house would get a lot hotter during a string of hot days. Remember that the effect of MVHR is not to keep the inside warm - it's to maintain any temperature difference that exists between inside and outside. So in hot periods in summer, we have all the windows open at night and early in the morning to purge as much heat as possible. As soon as the temperature outside reaches the temperature inside, we shut everything and let the MVHR work to keep the heat outside where it belongs. 

[Bitpipe]

1 minute ago, jack said:

 

I don't know where the idea of an MVHR preventing the opening doors and windows comes from, but it's repeated all the time and it's a complete fallacy. We open ours all the time when the weather is right. 

 

Interestingly, other than winter, we get a lot of use out of the MVHR in summer. Without it, the house would get a lot hotter during a string of hot days. Remember that the effect of MVHR is not to keep the inside warm - it's to maintain any temperature difference that exists between inside and outside. So in hot periods in summer, we have all the windows open at night and early in the morning to purge as much heat as possible. As soon as the temperature outside reaches the temperature inside, we shut everything and let the MVHR work to keep the heat outside where it belongs. 

 

+1 for using MVHR in summer and for what it's worth, I open window / sliding door when I feel like it but also purge like Jack.

 

With MVHR, In the winter, you have a warm well ventilated house that does not allow air you've paid to heat fly out the window (or extractor in kitchen, bathroom etc..).

[selfbuildaberdeen]

14 minutes ago, jack said:

 

I don't know where the idea of an MVHR preventing the opening doors and windows comes from, but it's repeated all the time and it's a complete fallacy. We open ours all the time when the weather is right. 

 

Interestingly, other than winter, we get a lot of use out of the MVHR in summer. Without it, the house would get a lot hotter during a string of hot days. Remember that the effect of MVHR is not to keep the inside warm - it's to maintain any temperature difference that exists between inside and outside. So in hot periods in summer, we have all the windows open at night and early in the morning to purge as much heat as possible. As soon as the temperature outside reaches the temperature inside, we shut everything and let the MVHR work to keep the heat outside where it belongs. 

Hi Jack, thank you for your message,

 

So in the hottest part of the day ideally the doors would be closed to allow the MVHR to work... does this not cause you a problem with children, pets, visitors running in and out to the garden etc??

Edited May 25, 2019 by selfbuildaberdeen

[jack]

9 minutes ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

So in the hottest part of the day ideally the doors would be closed to allow the MVHR to work... does this not cause you a problem with children, pets, visitors running in and out to the garden etc??

 

During hot periods, I think the approach of keeping the house closed up when it's hotter outside than in is useful irrespective of whether you have MVHR or not. It's just that when you have MVHR, it's more effective.

 

I'm not that worried about closing things up until the weather reaches about 22-23 deg C, as that's the maximum temp downstairs when we have a series of warm days (we have underfloor cooling downstairs). If it's really hot, then the sliding door stays closed (bonus: it's south facing, so somewhat less solar gain when closed) and people use the side door to get to the garden. Not as nice as having everything open, but then I'd rather keep the inside of the house as comfortable as possible during hot weather. 

[selfbuildaberdeen]

4 minutes ago, jack said:

 

During hot periods, I think the approach of keeping the house closed up when it's hotter outside than in is useful irrespective of whether you have MVHR or not. It's just that when you have MVHR, it's more effective.

 

I'm not that worried about closing things up until the weather reaches about 22-23 deg C, as that's the maximum temp downstairs when we have a series of warm days (we have underfloor cooling downstairs). If it's really hot, then the sliding door stays closed (bonus: it's south facing, so somewhat less solar gain when closed) and people use the side door to get to the garden. Not as nice as having everything open, but then I'd rather keep the inside of the house as comfortable as possible during hot weather. 

For the 1 day a year when Aberdeenshire reaches above 20degrees I would want all the doors open Im afraid. If its nice outside I want to let it in before it starts snowing again haha!

 

The air quality aspect I completely understand however and for that alone the MVHR is fantastic. Every time we have visited a home with a MVHR you notice immediately the difference in air quality as soon as you walk in. It feels fresher, cleaner, minimal dust. But if my husband and I are always at work to pay for the project, whats the point....

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

45 minutes ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

Your electricity bills sound fantastic. Did you have an ASHP?

 

 

Just to add a data point about electricity bills.  Our house is 130m², is heated/cooled using an ASHP and is all-electric (we use no other form of heating/cooling).  We do have solar panels on the roof.

 

Our electricity bill is around £500/year, but we get back about £150/year for the electricity we sell back to the grid (not the FiT subsidy, that's an additional £850/year).  That electricity bill includes charging my electric car.  The net "cost" for all fuel over the course of a year is about minus £500/year...

 

The house is well-insulated, pretty airtight, and has MVHR (the latter saves us around £150 to £200/year).  The air quality is just fantastic, like @jack I could never go back to living in a house without MVHR.

[jack]

3 minutes ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

But if my husband and I are always at work to pay for the project, whats the point....

 

Only you can put a value on it, for sure. Personally, I'd find the money by sacrificing other things, because it makes that much of a difference to my life.

 

As one example, I've had chronic sinusitis problems in winter for decades. In the freezing cold hovel I rented for a year while we built, I had three or four nasty attacks without any triggering illness like a cold. Since moving into the new house 3.5 years ago, I've had two minor attacks (one triggered by the flu and therefore pretty much unavoidable).

 

Anyway, I'm not going to argue any further. I just wanted to provide the perspective of someone who's lived in a lot of places without MVHR who would never choose to do so again.

[selfbuildaberdeen]

3 minutes ago, jack said:

 

Only you can put a value on it, for sure. Personally, I'd find the money by sacrificing other things, because it makes that much of a difference to my life.

 

As one example, I've had chronic sinusitis problems in winter for decades. In the freezing cold hovel I rented for a year while we built, I had three or four nasty attacks without any triggering illness like a cold. Since moving into the new house 3.5 years ago, I've had two minor attacks (one triggered by the flu and therefore pretty much unavoidable).

 

Anyway, I'm not going to argue any further. I just wanted to provide the perspective of someone who's lived in a lot of places without MVHR who would never choose to do so again.

Thats exactly it, everyone's priorities/needs/wishes are different

Is that not the reason we all self build after all

 

[Thedreamer]

@selfbuildaberdeen you're going to be dreaming of MVHR tonight!?

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Thedreamer

[NSS]

@selfbuildaberdeen, as is well documented elsewhere on this site, MVHR and the air quality it provides was the sole reason for our self-build, but we're all different and we all have differing priorities. My advice is to listen to the various opinions you'll get and then make decisions on what best suits your needs, not what has suited others'.

[selfbuildaberdeen]

Just now, Thedreamer said:

@selfbuildaberdeen you're going to be dreaming of MVHR tonight!

 

Haha, I wish i never said anything!

I never realized we were building something so controversial!

[ProDave]

Just to mention another myth. Fitting an MVHR does not stop you having a wood burning stove (though there are other arguments for or against those)  Just buy one that is "room sealed" so it has it's combustion air ducted in directly from outside.  You want to do that anyway, otherwise that would be yet another hole (vent) you are forced to have in the building to let cold air in all the time.

 

When we do get hot weather (not right now) we do open windows, mainly so we can hear the burn and the birdsong in the morning.  It does not upset the mvhr in any way.  but if you have several windows open you could turn the mvhr off if you wanted to.

[selfbuildaberdeen]

1 minute ago, NSS said:

@selfbuildaberdeen, as is well documented elsewhere on this site, MVHR and the air quality it provides was the sole reason for our self-build, but we're all different and we all have differing priorities. My advice is to listen to the various opinions you'll get and then make decisions on what best suits your needs, not what has suited others'.

Totally agree with this!

Self building attracts the type of people that dont like what everyone else has. We would all live in very boring houses if this was the case

[ProDave]

1 minute ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

Haha, I wish i never said anything!

I never realized we were building something so controversial!

You think mvhr is controversial, you wait until you start discussing a wood burning stove.

[selfbuildaberdeen]

1 minute ago, ProDave said:

You think mvhr is controversial, you wait until you start discussing a wood burning stove.

The stove is chosen already so I am going to leave it well alone...I dare not bring up another topic

[Bitpipe]

1 hour ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

So in the hottest part of the day ideally the doors would be closed to allow the MVHR to work... does this not cause you a problem with children, pets, visitors running in and out to the garden etc??

 

If you have a decently airtight house, then having one door open (however large) does not cause a draught as there is nowhere for the air to come from/to. Opening a second door in our house normally causes something of a shock as one suddenly slams shut. Granted, the MVHR won't be super effective but you can just switch it off in that case or keep it running as we do to ventilate bathrooms and the basement.

 

When our house was being finished off in May 2016 - it  was quite warm & there were a lot of trades here (plumbing, electrics & decorators). One day they complained about the heat and had every door and window open. Obviously this was just letting the warm air from outside in. We ventilated the house that night to fill the house with cool air and then kept every door and window closed and ran the MVHR on summer bypass - they were amazed at the difference - house stayed pleasantly cool all day, even with regular comings and goings.

 

Back to ventilation, you'll need to meet part F BR regs ventilation requirements regardless of system and if your house is otherwise airtight then you'll have to have trickle vents in windows and powered extraction in  bathrooms and kitchen. In the winter this will pull heated air out of your house that you'll need to heat again. You also won't be able to control the internal humidity. 

 

If you're not planning to have MVHR then why bother with overall airtightness much beyond the building regs ?

Edited May 25, 2019 by Bitpipe

[Ferdinand]

4 hours ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

I respect everyone's opinion we just have to do what is best for us is all. 

 

Fine. Your life, your call.

 

But have half an ear to changing *some* things - the ones that are not fixed yet - midstream.

 

On the MVHR, there are middle ways. One could be to provision just in case - fit the plastic ducts and take photos before you PB, so you know where to put them in later should you need. Another could be to fit single room Heat Recovery fans with background trickle settings.

 

Whatever you decide, it will not entirely survive contact with the build itself.

Ferdinand