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Blogs

Garden Escape

The initial idea!

In the summer of 2020,  having no building or home improvement experience to my name I decided to do some home improvements. With a friends son I put in some new garden fencing, repointed the stone driveway and refurbished the woodwork of the garden bench and table. Emboldend by these accomplishments I felt ready for a much bigger challenge; the construction of a building at the bottom of the garden to provide me with a workshop, gymnasium and bike storage facility. This to be done with my own h
Scottish SIPS build

Part 1 - A tale of stone and mud

Well we are on the way now and no going back.    The groundworks guy started last week, he is putting in the road and hardstanding and will do the insulated foundation under my guidance and I will assist. It's a good relationship and he comes when its not raining and is well experienced in groundworks. He is actually building his own home just now too (we are similar ages).  The night before he came on site...I was hurriedly arranging site insurance (horrific cost of over £2k - but it
Building in a woodland on the Isle of Wight

New Year's Resolution?

I give my New Year resolution of updating this blog a bit more frequently until the first really cold snap in February. Simply because I need content, and I can only get this by being on site in the cold when I could of course be sat in a comfortable warm office writing Matlab simulations, sorting through endless sets of test data (I enjoy it. Each to their own...) and drinking coffee.   So the big progress for this entry is actually the paperwork. The structural warranty people have s
  • dnb
Little Stud Barn

9th Jan - New Year yet still little progress

I've read in many articles and books that you cannot project manager a build and work full time, even when you live on site. They are right, I've made barely any progress over the last month since work has ramped up to full time. Originally, the new factory move was planned for end Feb with the offices end March.  But, this has now been delayed with factory at the end of April and the offices May. That's great for work stress less, but bad for self-build stress levels.  The extra
  • LSB
Gus Potter

Gus’ Structural Engineering and DIY Part 02

Acrow props – is there an alternative that won’t fall down? Yes there is in some cases. Much depends on your programme, whether you wish to give it a go yourself and how much time you have on your hands. Please feel free to comment / question. I’ll answer if I can (if not, I hope some other BH members will be able to) and provide more detail.   Photo 07 showing holes for the needles and the first few temporary works studs going in. The base of the studs are sitting o
Building in a woodland on the Isle of Wight

Just a few more slates to go. No, really this time I mean it!

I haven't posted much of late because everything is happening around me in slow motion. Or at least that's how it appears. I am told (by another self builder) that this is fairly normal for this stage. Progress has been limited by shortages of materials (including a supplier going under - wasn't much fun for anyone concerned) and labour shortages - i.e. us both having to do our day jobs! Corona virus is still making self builds difficult. Add to that my recent discovery that at 42 years old, I'm
  • dnb
Gus Potter

Gus’ Structural Engineering and DIY Part 01

Gus’ Structural Engineering and DIY Part 01   Hello all. I’m giving the blog feature on BH a go.. lots to learn and a special thanks to the FMG / members who run / contribute to this site.   This blog is built around the structural alterations and extension that I embarked on.. off.. on.. at the back of my house. I work in the construction industry, mostly in an office these days so this project has given me a break from the computer and allows me to keep my hand in on the to
Scottish SIPS build

Part 0 - The start of the middle or the end of the beginning?

I've finally got around to starting this blog. I'm hoping that it'll be easily updated and I'll provide lots of good pictures and info...we'll see how that goes.    I'm at the point now where we have just taken our first big delivery, which is our insulated foundation system from Kore, this morning. So albeit, this process of building a house has been ongoing for some time, it has just become real that we are at the beginning of the build phase, which is very exciting.     So
Little Stud Barn

12th Dec - Self Building - not a chance

At the moment my project at work is the IT planning for our new 8,000 sqm factory, with a 2 floor office space. Under normal circumstances I work 3 days per week to allow me time to project manage our own build, but not at the moment. We get the water tight building handed to us on the 8th January, then I've got to organise the 1st, 2nd and final fix of all the IT infrastructure from cables to servers. When I tried to place the order for fibre leased lines I was told, there's no f
  • LSB
Canalside Bungalow Renovation

We may just be in for Xmas....

It's been a while since our last update but just to let everyone know we may be in for Xmas. We still need the EWI and render but inside should be liveable and we can get out of the caravan.   The kitchen is almost complete now after getting damaged units all replaced and given it was ex display I think it looks lovely. The part with the hob on could possibly have been a bit longer but I didn't want a breakfast bar and by time we have our table, chairs and small sofa I think it will lo
Little Stud Barn

2nd Dec ASHP - or not

As part of my barn conversion I was planning to use an ASHP, that was until I read an article in Build It magazine. This considered the cost of installing and running heating and the eco credentials. It included gas (mains), oil, ASHP, GSHP and biomas.   Well, somewhat surprisingly ASHP came out at high for cost, very high to run and not very eco friendly.   This has put me in a total quandary about what to do. My planning says ASHP with a backup boiler.  
  • LSB
South coast ICF build

Window dressing

After a slightly odd but pleasant summer on our narrow boat we returned to site at the beginning of the month to resume work.   We started with a simple job, putting our doors. We had done one last spring and had four more to do. It’s a simple and rewarding job, the Horman doors have a very solid feel to them.   Next on our work list was completing the window reveals, a task we had started back in May and had completed two windows. While we were still fresh we had decid
Little Stud Barn

Nov 27th - Bike Shed to Storage Shed

I usually post my blog entries on a Wednesday, but somehow it didn't happen this week.   This week I have submitted the application to discharge our planning conditions.  Although there were 5 listed, one was to say 'do what you have plans for' and the other 4 were all to do with contamination. Condition 2 was to get a phase 2 contamination report and 3,4,5 were all to do with remediation if any contamination was found. The report was 72 pages, guess that's where 5k goes, and
  • LSB
South East Cornwall Low Energy build

I'm sorry trees, you have to go

Having eventually found our plot in episode one, and worked out where the plans had the house to be built we found that a walnut tree had to make way. A second tree, a horse chestnut was also badly diseases with a split trunk and as we didn't want that falling on the newly built house in the Autumn of 2019 (or Fall for our American cousins as I am writing this on Thanksgiving Day 2020) I headed off with equipment in hand to so some tree felling. First some photos of entrance to site (now wi
A woodland house

Air test

Only a short update for now and a distinct lack of photos. I'll put something more interesting up in the next week or so. Suffice to say that combining work with trying to get to completion has been quite difficult. Throw into the mix that my other half is shortly due to have twins and you understand why I'm often getting comments like 'do you ever think you've maybe bitten off a bit more than you can chew?'.   One milestone recently was getting our air test done. I've decided to write
South East Cornwall Low Energy build

Background - the plot search

So, I have told this story to quite a few family members, friends and colleagues over the last few years, and thought I will record it here so that other new members might learn about the patience and surprises that can occur in this phase of the self build adventure ⛺    It all started when I was 14. I blame my stepfather. He made me dig ♠️  foundations by hand ?️   OK, it was only for an extension, but they didn't tell me about the concrete encased foul and storm water drains  we wou
Little Stud Barn

Nov 18th - Phase 2 Contamination Results

Yesterday, ahead of schedule, we received our phase 2 contamination survey report. No surprises, but it's good to hear that everything is good.     The report is 72 pages long, but then for the cost of it I expect to have lots of detail.   It's been a long drag to get this far with difficulty getting planning permission and needing lots of reports, surveys and plans We went into this process thinking that we would spend up to 10k trying to get planning an
  • LSB
The Fun Irish (House)

The Empire Strikes Back.....!!

Interesting developments in the last week. While trying to figure out a way forward for my build as cheaply as possible I discovered a company that does SIPs and has just finished a slight larger house for a LOT less than the tender prices that shut me down last year (€375k). So my job this month is to crunch the numbers again, get a more formal quote from them and see if this is a runner.  As always there are three factors I've to balance: Architects fees - the crowd I used before are
Little Stud Barn

Nov 11th - Let's not forget

I have huge respect and admiration for those who have gone before us, including members of my own family, for what they did in any war to protect us. At times I think they were conned as much as any of us, but they were there in good faith putting their lives at risk.   Thank you one and all.   But, back to this blog, this is also so I don't forget. I'm going to try and update weekly on what I've achieved, or failed at, in the previous week and hopefully on plans fo
  • LSB
Druim nan Darach

Financing and reflection

This will be the last entry for our self build blog.   Our plan   We originally commenced a self build as there was no affordable housing for us to get on the housing ladder.   The approach for the self build, was whether we could build a better-quality house than what we could purchase from a developer for the same cost. This was later refined to achieving a lower mortgage if possible.   For the self build we decided to split the project into three chunks
Back on the self-build waggon...

Building Control Plans Submitted for Extension

As promised, here are my completed (I hope) drawings for building control, which I've just submitted to the local council. I'll post back on here with what they come back with, any changes required, and also any restrictions imposed.   I know some were asking what was required for BC plans, so hopefully this will give a good guide for a masonry cavity wall build.   Side Extension Drawing BC.pdf

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