Building a dwelling house on the farm ...

We are almost finished ours been a long time in the planning and a fair while in the build, started last august. Its probably the most stressfull we have done and i wont be doing another anytime soon! we only cleared the site, laid hardcore, sewer works, drainage, painting and wood staining. We are only doing it once and we wanted the rest done properly. I dont have the skills or thw time to tackle the build. Our trades men are top notch but we ve had trouble with everyone of them one way or another.

Dave6170 said:

If you or builder isnt nhbc registered your architect can oversee the build and produce certificates.

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Not any more , architects cents are almost obsolete if there is any lending on the property

Turra farmer said:

Not any more , architects cents are almost obsolete if there is any lending on the property

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We are doing this right now.

Dave6170 said:

We are doing this right now.

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We have recently done 2 one off houses on one site and a single one on another refused by lenders , unless there is an nhbc or build secure certificate , I don't know what the borrowing percentage etc was , but it took me ages to be paid by the clients and we had to take cores of foundations ,take down walls so inspector could see inside , so I always recommend nhbc certificate for new houses. But they don't like one off architect designed houses with u usual details ,

Turra farmer said:

We have recently done 2 one off houses on one site and a single one on another refused by lenders , unless there is an nhbc or build secure certificate , I don't know what the borrowing percentage etc was , but it took me ages to be paid by the clients and we had to take cores of foundations ,take down walls so inspector could see inside , so I always recommend nhbc certificate for new houses. But they don't like one off architect designed houses with u usual details ,

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Our mortgage company get certificates from our architect at each stage payment. We ve had our money now so thats all that matters. Im no expert of the ins and outs but our builder isnt nhbc registered so our architect does whatever is needed.

Dave6170 said:

Our mortgage company get certificates from our architect at each stage payment. We ve had our money now so thats all that matters. Im no expert of the ins and outs but our builder isnt nhbc registered so our architect does whatever is needed.

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Ye I've done plenty like that over last 20 years , but this last 2 years they have all been nhbc ,

Grassman said:

I have just nearly finished building a new bungalow after demolishing an old farmhouse.
Lots of mistakes along the way.
I did demolition and foundations. I provided materials and did all telehandler shifting and lifting throughout.
I used a local builder to do the structure. I had more tools than him!
I sorted all the other trades.
Looking back if I could afford it I would of set someone on to project manage the whole job.
While ever you are dealing with building you aren't doing other work so it's a saving and a loss at the same time.
If someone is in charge then it's their problem dealing with issues rather than yours.

And whatever you do make sure you do the air test before moving in. That was a nightmare trying to seal the bottoms of plasterboard and other gaps after fitted bathroom cabinets, kitchen cabinets, carpets were fitted!

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What is involved in the air test?

If you are in one of the building trades and really know what you are doing, have plenty of spare time from your "day job", and do not mind taking years and years and years to almost finish the house, then DIY. Otherwise use a proper house building firm. Could be a one man band. The late James McLean from Culbokie built ours and many more in his day. Excellent work.

Deereone said:

You won't be able to claim your VAT back without a completion cert.

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ollandroverman said:

new builds are zero rated

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Turra farmer said:

If you use a reputable builder you won't be charged vat on a new build ,so will be nothing to claim back , use an nhbc registered builder to do the complete project ,

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You will not be able to sell it without a completion certificate.

The second quote needs a little explanation. If you build it yourself you will pay VAT on the materials, but be able to reclaim those costs. 15 years out of date on VAT procedure, and I have no reason to doubt Deereone.

Agree with Turra farmer.

FARMER22 said:

What is involved in the air test?

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About £275!
Engineer turns up with a big fan than fits in the house door. It then sucks out air from the house and a computer works out how hard the fan is working which shows how much air is leaking into the house. They can turn it up to highlight any issues and give you chance to rectify problem areas. Usually round the bottom of skirting boards, windows and doors, pipes coming through wall's, etc
Edit. Mine failed first time so cost nearer £600!

Very interesting thank you

Grassman said:

About £275!
Engineer turns up with a big fan than fits in the house door. It then sucks out air from the house and a computer works out how hard the fan is working which shows how much air is leaking into the house. They can turn it up to highlight any issues and give you chance to rectify problem areas. Usually round the bottom of skirting boards, windows and doors, pipes coming through wall's, etc
Edit. Mine failed first time so cost nearer £600!

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There is various good practice procedures when erecting kit , to make air tight , expanding glue in all kit joints , tape all insulation. Compriband at all soft joints , takes a bit of time , wouldn't want to have to be relying on a bit of silicone around skirting , etc to try and rectify, we haven't had one fail , but know of many failures and tubes and tubes of expanding foam pumped into areas to solve , which will cause problems in the future, normally done at a weekend when no chance of building inspector turning up

Got planning in '94 and moved in Easter '96 but still to get it signed off [emoji15].
The council will probably want to re-band it for rates when / if we do.

Courier said:

Got planning in '94 and moved in Easter '96 but still to get it signed off [emoji15].
The council will probably want to re-band it for rates when / if we do.

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Ye it's a wonder they haven't already , right onto that up here ,

They won't sign off now , but if selling solicitor may not ask for cert as so long ago if he does you will need letter of comfort from local authority

For any project, you are aiming to have it on time, to specification and to budget.
To achieve all three aims is almost impossible.
Two out of three is good.
One out of three is nothing to be ashamed of....

Just watch a few editions of Grand Designs

FARMER22 said:

What is involved in the air test?

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As others have said it involves a fan in a doorway where they extract the air to see how much is leaking in to your house.http://call4site.in/ukairtesting/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/HANDOUT-LEAFLET-REVISED-EDITION2.pdf

I have gone down the heat recovery route which works best with a super air tight house, which requires planning at all stages of the build but a lot can be done just before plaster the above PDF covers some,
I haven't purchased anything for this store but the item list should help if your go for a good result. http://www.phstore.co.uk/roflex-airtightness-grommet-for-pipes.html
I got a 1.0 from my air test it was the best the tester had ever had, mine was a 300m2 3 floor house (3rd floor in roof) the next best he had done was a 1 room flat which got a 1.6 result. It just takes time and planning the result is very cheap house to heat, it cost me around max of £600 a year all in then reduce that by the £3000 I earn from my green deal for ground source heat pump and solar hotwater so my house earns me around £2400 a year, I have 4 years left of my 7 year deal.

So airtight and heat recovery are big money savers
https://www.midselec.co.uk/ca350-comfoair-heat-recovery-system.html
Mine is the same make top stuff no trouble from it.
I also connected a ground pipe https://www.rehau.com/gb-en/buildin...ers/awadukt-ground-air-domestic-installations.
Which warms incoming air in winter and cools it in summer......I put my air intake into my gate post which just required a grill which saves a lot on the stainless steel one they use.

I will add there is lots of info on good practice for air tight in the building regs, one to watch is floor joists and the block work between as this doesn't get plastered and is impossible to fix after plaster, for best results put air tight membrain under the floor joists before installing them (the membrain hangs over the cavity)then get the builder to block up the gaps between the joists as normal also on top of the membrain then flick the menbrain over the ends of the joists before they start the first row of blocks over the joists, (so the membrain covering the ends of the joists sits in the cavity) tape any joints in the membrain at corners job done.
Another mistake a lot of builders do is in the roof the internal block walls for habitable roof spaces, where possible they should end below the roof line to allow insulation to be placed over the blocks or this becomes a massive permanent thermal bridge you put cavity wall insulation in but if the internal wall top is not insulated (which it cannot be if it's level with the external brick work) you just wasted your time cold will travel down it...... I put 200mm of kingspan over mine. You should do this on all internal walls that get to the roof line, it actually saves money on block work.....they still should cut it at a taper as normal.... I ran mine over from the internal edge of the bricks to the first timber joist of the roof in kingspan and between 2 joists for internal walls.
I also used a membrain in my roof because I stopped my internal walls short of the roof line it let me put my membrain right across over the internal walls then I taped all the joints and taped it to the walls before plastering. What I did was run the membrain along the wall line so I could tape the rest on after, I also put it under the timber wall plates used by the roof joists again giving me something to tape the internal membrain to.......at a later date.
Like I said planning......

https://www.stovesonline.co.uk/direct-air-supply-stoves.html
For people who still want a fire in a new house and want airtight.
I would actual recommend them even if your not as fires draw air in if not from its own vent it's from under the gap in your external door or any other gap bringing in cold air.....

Is the air tightness test compulsory now? I don't think we had it done five years ago.
It would be a bit of a joke here anyway. We got powder coated alu windows for low maintenance, but they had to have carppy vents 'for regs'. We're on top of a hill and the vents whistle like mad in anything above a light breeze.
So annoying; it's a case of we didn't want them but we HAD to have them so now they annoy us perpetually.
I've resorted to chiselling them off and putting insulating tape over the slot.
Other than that the house is fairly draught free and easy to heat; 125mm of kingspan in walls and a double thickness in the roof; glad we didn't have more glass or it would be way too hot when the sun shines.

Dave645 said:

https://www.stovesonline.co.uk/direct-air-supply-stoves.html
For people who still want a fire in a new house and want airtight.
I would actual recommend them even if your not as fires draw air in if not from its own vent it's from under the gap in your external door or any other gap bringing in cold air.....

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That's good advice; even when someone else is supervising your build you have a thousand things to think about and make decisions on. The fire vent was one of those little things we missed; when it came to choosing a stove it was too late.

What sewerage system did you use ?
Biodisc or bubbler or old sepic tank / open ?

Air tight ?