Self build house - advice please

WRT solar photo voltaic panels at present the feed in tariff to the grid is not high enough to get payback in the life of the panel. Feed in tariffs are currently being reviewd/changed by the Department of Blah Blah Codswollop and may make photo voltaics a commercially viable prospect. Certainly in Germany tariffs make a 10 year payback viable.

If you aren't past the screed stage already and have the room for manifolds, underfloor heating can be exceptionally efficient and provides a pleasant environment.
 
Tons of good suggestions here, thanks. You guys seem quite interested in the project so I've also added my first floor plan to my original post above too, along with my underfloor heating plan.

The plot is actually based up in Moray in Scotland, not England. I've been told that a vaccum tube solar panel can be beneficial for heating water and there are grants available so could be worth looking into.

The stair lift - All new houses (in Scotland at least) need to be fitted for future occupants too. So next to the toilets there needs to be the ability to add hand rails... there needs to be a wheel chair access entrance and the stair lift option. It's just so once were dead and gone and new people come into the house the council dont have to fork out to have the house fitted for the old/disabled. It does make sense I guess.

The rules in up here are actually quite daft regarding planning... When I watch shows like grand designs I often wondered how they get the plans approved as up here you have to have the same roof tiles, stone chips on walls, same amount of floors etc to the houses around you... if you want to be different from the other houses you are denied planning. So for a plot I have bought and a house I am building myself the council can tell me what colour it has to be and how many windows I'm allowed... not great to be honest. I wasnt even allowed to put windows in the gable ends as it infriges my neighbours rights as I could see their house from my own.

The underfloor heating is definately going in, as mentioned above. I'm also getting an air heat pump installed too to heat the pipes...

Stolly said:
In the living room have a Sony W5500 40" tv and Onkyo 607 AV amp, attach media PC to same....have nice speakers with cables under floor.
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I already have a 50" Panasonic plasma TV for the lounge, a projector would be nice for film nights or something though... so any advice regarding the installation of wiring of that would be good. Where would I actually buy speaker cable and what would I need to get?

Stolly said:
Oh flood it with cat5e or cat6, buy a Power over ethernet switch, install POE cameras covering door, approaches and car parking.
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Love the camera idea will def be looking into that.

I like the idea of the vacuum system seen that done well before but maybe an expensive luxury over a normal hoover.

Rain water collector is a great idea too, def be doing that one.
 
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Have you considered something like a Sonas system?

Centralised music storage and audio distribution from TV etc to different rooms with remote controls and independant voumes etc etc.

Very nice pieces of kit.
 
Just a thought - I'm not too savvy with residential building regulations/regs in Scotland but you might want to check if there is a requirement for Low Smoke cabling when you come to do your cat5e/6 stuff.
 
Fit a few cat5e or Cat6 cables in between each room. You will want 5.1 speaker cable for any room you would like to have a cinema set-up. Have all the network cable link to a single place for a switch/ server.

I would expect to have at least 2 network cables per room. Phone points in suitable locations.

As above really.
 
Colourjam said:
Hi folks,

  • Will I need to reinforce the wall where the plasma TV will be mounted?
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From the plans it appears timber framed ??

Plasmas can weigh up to 40kg+ so you will have to double up studs (bolting together); which means you need to agree an exact position now (and find the stud once plastered).

Alternativly; descent plywood (25mm marine) under the plasterboard. Even at 25mm you may need a few fixings from the plasma brackets. You only need the plywood where the screen is; and the remainder ban be 25mm counterbatten'd and plasterboarded (you have a 2400x1200 'window' to fit the screen; just make sure the screw to the ply are frequent).

The build looks tidy, hope all goes well.

edited;
Have you thought about the 'balcony' style vellux's in the master bedroom (not that much more when you consider you are proposing 4No lights, but you may want to mention it to the Planners; also,
I would get a quote for filling all studs (not just sanitary) within 50mm iso1200 (it will help acoustics / more solid feeling); also,
Is the vestuble inner door really necessary (may be left open with a door stop all the time)
 
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Thats awesome, me and the missus have talked about building our own house what with the prices being so high?

How much cheaper (in %) do you expect the final cost to be as opposed to buying a similar sized house in your area?
 
As mentioned above, the plenum CAT 5 i think only applies if you are running it through air con ducts or something, so normal CAT 5 should be fine.

As well as the usual wads of CAT 5 (4 to each room I'd say, as it can be used for phone, data, video (with adaptors)) I's highly suggest running just a pipe to allow for easy pulling of new cables. Benefit of this is that you don't need to uy a bunch cables now, you just have to put the method of adding them in later. So a pipe and pull strings ready for when you do realise "actually, I did need 6 CAT5 in to that room)

I'd run high quality co-ax maybe at least 2 runs to each room, for satelllite/cable/freeview/your own modulated signals).

All this would feed back to a central location with patch panels and switches. Phone line inputs, tv inputs etc, everything. This will allow easy patching of services around the place.
 
Unfortunatly I can't offer any advice, just want to say good luck with the build and keep us updated!
 
I think its not about the saving, its more about spending the same amount and getting something that 100% suits your needs no building/moving walls, you can put all the tech in..

Personally i'd Run cat 5 all over the house. I mean everywhere, and have a centeral comms cupboard for all of the ports going back too. use cat5 for the phones too. Cat 5 to places like TVs ect for PS3's xboxs

Decide where the TV is to go in the living room, and build everything in, all cable runs being 1/2"-1" ducting, so i can add cables ect. Also i'dd get it full wireless, 2/3 wireless access points ect, makesure its done like i'd have work and be full working.
 
whitecrook said:
As well as the usual wads of CAT 5 (4 to each room I'd say, as it can be used for phone, data, video (with adaptors)) I's highly suggest running just a pipe to allow for easy pulling of new cables. Benefit of this is that you don't need to uy a bunch cables now, you just have to put the method of adding them in later. So a pipe and pull strings ready for when you do realise "actually, I did need 6 CAT5 in to that room)
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definitely this.

Also I'd sort out a place for a server/NAS or something, as it'd be nice to have whatever data wherever in the house.
 
alastair said:
From the plans it appears timber framed ??

Plasmas can weigh up to 40kg+ so you will have to double up studs (bolting together); which means you need to agree an exact position now (and find the stud once plastered).

Alternativly; descent plywood (25mm marine) under the plasterboard. Even at 25mm you may need a few fixings from the plasma brackets. You only need the plywood where the screen is; and the remainder ban be 25mm counterbatten'd and plasterboarded (you have a 2400x1200 'window' to fit the screen; just make sure the screw to the ply are frequent).
Click to expand...

Top advice - thanks!

alastair said:
The build looks tidy, hope all goes well.

edited;
Have you thought about the 'balcony' style vellux's in the master bedroom (not that much more when you consider you are proposing 4No lights, but you may want to mention it to the Planners; also,
I would get a quote for filling all studs (not just sanitary) within 50mm iso1200 (it will help acoustics / more solid feeling); also,
Is the vestuble inner door really necessary (may be left open with a door stop all the time)
Click to expand...

Balcony - that would be great, I looked into the Velux Cabrio system but its £2000 for the setup rather than £200 per window, could be a nice future enhancement though.

Vestibule Door- I've found it can be handy to have one to keep the heat in the main part of the house.

TheMagicPirate said:
Thats awesome, me and the missus have talked about building our own house what with the prices being so high?

How much cheaper (in %) do you expect the final cost to be as opposed to buying a similar sized house in your area?
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To be honest the whole reason we decided to build was it was the only way we could get on the market. My wife is a staff nurse and I run my own web design business and between us we take in a decent wage... but house prices were still way out of our range. The only way it works out cheaper though is if you can buy a plot cheaply... most plots up here can cost between £50,000-£120,000 depending on size and location... we were lucky to have a neighbour sell us her back garden for a song. She knew how much it was worth with planning but decided to help us out... extremely generous. At the moment with everything budgeted for its looking like we will get the entire house built for £75,000 or around that, which is dam good I think. I've been doing a lot of wheeling and dealing though, finding the best price on everything etc. It's amazing how much you can save if you just shop around, some things were comign back £1500 cheaper, £3000 cheaper etc just for getting a bit of advice on alternative products, other businesses, playing them off against each other etc

One great part of a self build is once its complete you can claim back VAT on all materials, and labour too I think if its been charged to you. So if it was a simple cut and dry 15% back on £75,000 (it wont be) we'd be able to claim back £11250!

whitecrook said:
As mentioned above, the plenum CAT 5 i think only applies if you are running it through air con ducts or something, so normal CAT 5 should be fine.
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Everyone is advising CAT5 is CAT6 not better, I bought a whole reel of it for £30.

GreatAuk said:
definitely this.

Also I'd sort out a place for a server/NAS or something, as it'd be nice to have whatever data wherever in the house.
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Yeah what I'm planning to do is have the cupboard opposite the bathroom upstairs as a hub area... Going to have CAT6 from every room going up to this cupboard going into a switch. Then into the switch will be my Draytek router and into the router will go my 3TB NAS, should work well I think. The Draytek is wireless too so hopefully get a decent wireless signal throughout the house since it's in a central location.

Do I need a special type of phone to use the CAT6 for that? Are there any advantages of doing this?

Spent most of today tearing out a hedge next to the plot with my little brother, going to be sore tomorrow I think!

Cheers for all the positive replies/advice so far... not one troll yet :D
 
Colourjam said:
Do I need a special type of phone to use the CAT6 for that? Are there any advantages of doing this?
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No problem using CAT rated cable for phones. It's got better cable characteristics than cheap phone cable.

You can either cable it up to a telephone face plate or a normal RJ45 faceplate and use a plug in adapter to give you the phone socket. If you go with the latter, it makes it really easy to move phone points about or re-use them for networking (or something else), just by swapping what's plugged to it at the patch panel end.
 
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