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What sand did you use? I think you are supposed to use a bit of sharp sand in the mix but a lot of roofers ignore this. You can buy a dry readymix just add water product, think it comes with some kind of certificate.

It is a not unreasonable situation and one that would bankrupt someone if income were taxed instead of profits.

What make of kitchen? We've just found that howdens have provided one section as just lots of panels and fittings, and we have to manufacture it. So they are used to providing panels. Maybe your supplier can provide more blanks for that end that should be longer.

You're missing the point. It illustrates why taxing income at a flat rate and not allowing any expenses won't work. There is a reason we tax profits after expenses and not income.

I would take the skirting round the corner with a nice corner joint. You may need to trim the top of the skirt to fit under the unit and would only work if your skirt was no thicker than the end panel of the unit.

For warranty, perhaps. Get the wifi dongle and Panasonic can dial into it remotely and commission it, with some basic info from you. Iirc you’d need the plumber to register for a trade account (just an online registration) on the app to facilitate this.

Indeed. Client had ordered the windows way too soon, so in those pics you can’t quite tell that I had to take a 12” disc cutter to all the outside walls, to enlarge the openings by 25mm to accept those boards. Was a total clusterfeck when I arrived, hence such drastic measures were necessary.

I may need to look for a new job 🤣

You don’t go 10mm to 26mm you go 2mm to 18 mm

200-170= 30k gross margin, from which some tax would be taken as income or dividend. Still not a good year but that's business sometimes.

Best way is airbag/pump bag to lift the door and ensure no unnecessary stress put on the hinges. if the door is glazed, ensure the glass is properly heel and toed and the door will be fine.

Both have their place - I also do this a lot too!

I'm no offering anything 😂 The guy who started the original post might be though.......

I understood that there's no grants any more in Scotland. I think they were removed either early this year or late last year, but I got that from a YouTuber so it might not be reliable info!

@Great_scot_selfbuild Many thanks for this. That looks very useful. I've been writing everything down old school in a notebook, but your was looks a lot cleaner and easier to search back through. Cheers

Thanks, I understand now. Depending on the size of the uprights it'll be load-bearing or semi-load-bearing then. From what little I know of 'certified' straw-bale I gather that private BC was probably the right call. I am sure there may be SB builds built under LABC supervision, but I do not know of any. PD and PC need not be a problem, but I hear of 'officialdom' having issues sometimes - not sure why, necessarily. The 'rules' refer to having the relevant 'skills and competences', not to 'being an architect' or 'being a builder', and if you're already building it's likely you'll soon have them even if you may not have done at the start! Keep having fun!

Nice. Looks like different scenarios will likely call for different solutions. They all vary slightly. Very few will I be luck enough to get tucked behind the frame. Most will be abutting. I’ll give feedback in due course

Don't go into business without a very good accountant 😀

Thanks, really useful to see. Our FFL is abnormally high (we are near a flood zone) but I will try not to worry about the rest bend join somewhere below😄

Job finished! We set to last week and I'm quite pleased with the result. We used a slurry (water, SBR and cement) on the cleaned area, then applied a 4:1 mix of sand and cement with a glug of SBR. It went in well and luckily, the scaffolding was very stable so I had no trouble working at height. Then 3 coats of fence paint on the woodwork. Hopefully it will last another 50 years before needing to be done again. There are a few cracks in the garage roofline so I will plan to go over that too. As we were quoted £10k for the work (including a little extra), we think we've saved ourselves at least £5k.

There are uprights between the base + wall plates. The bales are not load-bearing but will be ratchetted down during construction to compress them.

Our neighbour advised us to use a private Building Control firm, so we're using Vantage currently. Yes we are Principal Designer and Contractor - I had no idea about this legislation before we started, I've been doing a bit of reading on it, but will have a look at the threads thanks as I'm still a bit unclear on exactly how much is expected on a small domestic self-build like ours.

Err... this looks to me like a timber footing/base with load-bearing bales built on it - i.e. no frame. Is that right, or do I just need to see more bits of the dwgs? Have you got any which show the frame? (an un-clad elevation, for example).

Plans are drawn, permission granted and we've laid the foundations, bit late to reconsider now! Yes the plot is narrow, but it's quite long so we have plenty of outside space. For us, our aims are not to have the biggest house we can afford; it's more about using natural, local materials with minimal impact and learning the skills together. We did consider cob, but straw bales made more sense with all the arable land around.

From the plans I would say the foamed glass ball -type insulation is designed to prevent thermal bridging around the timber ring beam structure. Thanks, enjoying it so far🙂