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Things I wish I had done when building?

Villain

Mods if you feel this isn't a good idea please delete.

I had an idea for a sticky thread that would allow people who have built houses or extensions in the past and then when it was finished or even many years after say "I wish I did X,Y and Z when I was building, if I was ever to build again I would ......"

The reason I think it might help is that many people on here will have gone through the process of building and in hindsight seen things that people who are now building can't see, be it things like I wish I had dry lined the external walls of the house or I wish I had put in zones in the heating system or even things as simple as I wish I had put a tap down the bottom of the garden or ran ducting for power to the front garden etc.

Just an idea?

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smashey

Do-more wrote: »

Far be it from me to add to the blighted landscape in Donegal!

No worries. Horses, doors and bolted spring to mind.

muffler

smashey wrote: »

No worries. Horses, doors and bolted spring to mind.

True.

I seen a couple of your designs and they look like stables alright

Villain

Can we get this thread stickied?

muffler

I'll have a word with Mellor & smashey about this.

Leadership

Great thread, changes being made to my build from this is:

Shed going up
Concrete stairs
Removing the entrance hall and going open plan
Insulate!!!!!!

Thank

lanod2407

muffler wrote: »

I'll have a word with Mellor & smashey about this.

Any update on the 'sticky' situation?
Really - I'm just asking to get it back up the list in lieu of it's unsticky status!;)

muffler

Just waiting on one of the other mods to get back to me but I think it might be OK

Slig

If using timber floor then bracing between joists ever 1M.
If you do a timber floor correctly there is very little difference between it and a concrete one in terms of sound and deflection.

muffler

Right. We have decided to sticky this thread but will keep an eye on its popularity. We have quite a few stickys at the moment and we don't want the front page cluttered so we will review all stickied threads from time to time.

muffler

blindsider I have moved your post to a new thread here

Quazzie

Its kinda odd the way this has been stickied nearly two months now with a single post. Could this be because the downturn in the trade, or should this thread just be merged with the live self builds one?

Villain

Well I think it was stickied more for people to be able to read than update.

lanod2407

Visited a site last week - and I've 2 more ............

Wish I'd a concrete first floor (kinda hard with timber-frame I guess!!!!).

Wish I'd asked the timber frame company to design the attic space so I could have converted it - it's got joists and supports everywhere! Only got space in the middle for a small bit of storage. Saw an attic space that's like a snooker room at the weekend and I was sickened - especially when he told me it for for a snooker table!!

........ looking out the window - more rain - # 3 - wish I'd built it in Italy!!!

Captain Slow IRL

250882 wrote: »

no pvc windows

Are you giving out that you don't have pvc windows or that you have them and aren't happy with them?

Slig

Have em, dont like em. They are sh1t.
In fact I am amazed that they are still being made!

muffler

Slig wrote: »

Have em, dont like em. They are sh1t.
In fact I am amazed that they are still being made!

Have what and hate what?

oldhead

Why Cat6??????????

[Deleted User]

oldhead wrote: »

Why Cat6??????????

I flood wired the houise with cat5 cabling but have only used one cable.

still, I may use some of the rest (it cost me nothing except time!)

Jill

Things I wish I had done

1. Made sure the all the wires put in by the electrician were clearly marked and left out when insulating and plastering. We didn't do this and had to go back afterwards to root for lights and sockets - very messy...

copper12

Things I wish I had done
I wish I had not shone the wife the plans; I started off with a nice small bungalow; finished up with a dormer bungalow; two and half thousand squire feet
Put in more insulation; at the time I put in more than the codes specified .
Advice for anyone’ buy the home bound book’ it will be your bible .
Build your garage’ onto the side of your house’ you already have one wall
The cost will be small’ compared to building one after a few years
You can leave the finished work to the trade’s anything else you can do yourself
If you are going direct labour’ get three prices’ don’t hand over any money until the job is done’ and be prepared to be disappointed’ and frustrated’ give yourself plenty of time’ plan everything twice
It took me one year to build’ direct labour’ I was lucky I was able to do allot of the labour myself.
It was worth it

Captain Slow IRL

copper12 wrote: »

don’t hand over any money until the job is done’

I'd have thought all money to be up front?!?!

copper12

Direct labour; you will have to pay for materials, but labour?

Slig

Made sure the house was air tight, at least to an extent that the only air circulation was through the vents and fans

SillyMonkey

I've heard people talk about the house being air tight (bar the vents), how exactly do you go about this.

muffler

SillyMonkey wrote: »

I've heard people talk about the house being air tight (bar the vents), how exactly do you go about this.

You would need to open a new thread for this question.

Cheers.

RKQ

SillyMonkey wrote: »

I've heard people talk about the house being air tight (bar the vents), how exactly do you go about this.

Check out a number of previous threads and suppliers listed therein - ie Pro clima (Solitex), Siga and Moy. Each manufacturers site show full installation guides and recommendations.

http://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/products/intello/technical.shtml

Do-more

Next build I will make sure to order all the external doors to open with the same key. It'll be a pain if we loose a key as all barrels will have to be replaced but it's very handy to carry just one key for all doors inc. the shed/garage.

muffler

Do-more wrote: »

Next build I will make sure to order all the external doors to open with the same key. It'll be a pain if we loose a key as all barrels will have to be replaced but it's very handy to carry just one key for all doors inc. the shed/garage.

You'd be well and truly fu**ed if you loose the one key then :eek:

lanod2407

Captain Slow IRL wrote: »

I'd have thought all money to be up front?!?!

Absolutely no way!

Never agree to pay money up front. If you're paying labour by the week, make sure that you keep back a significant enough amount until after all of the work has been completed. Don't pay the final instalment until you are totally satisfied that every last item has been completed to your satisfaction.
May sound hard, but if there's no reason to come back to finish off then you'll end up doing it yourself, or gritting your teeth years later as you pass that piece that the bugger promised to come back and finish!!!!

dunie001

It's my father's house really but here goes:

1. Have the stairs built in such a way so that they don't end up at a wall of glass (front porch/draught lobby). Had nightmares for years of falling down stairs and being mutilated by all the glass...

2. Five times more insulation...it's warmer outside than inside most days!

3. Double the width of every corrider in the house...we can't get a couch into the sitting room without removing the plaster from the wall and/or painting over all the scrape marks left behind...bloody nuisance.

4. Put in more windows in the right places. Most of the windows at the moment are on the North side...we have to have lights on inside after 1pm! The sun misses the whole inside of the house completely!

5. Triple the size of the utility room...no space at all for storage.

6. Build a basement for even more storage...

7. Yet more storage...

The only ingenious idea that my father did have (back in 1983) was to build the utility so that one wall of the utility connected directly to kitchen, allowing us to put the dishwasher high up and built into the utility/kitchen wall...so that the back of the dishwasher was in the utility and the front is in the kitchen...so we only have the front part of dishwasher to look at...absolutely revolutionary!