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Hi All. Got our planning permission today after 9 months of work and about £8K in fees and dispersements, first time through, did a pre planning session with the council, only 6 conditions, 2 Normal, 3 easy, and one interesting - means we have to obscure a couple of landing windows so we cannot see the neighbours or perhaps they cannot see us! Anyway as soon as other half gets home from the opening of the new Tate extension we will crack a bottle of bubbly!

I can't see exchange rates as the cause for higher UK prices. The item still has to get from its factory in whatever country, to the UK and is therefore subject to exchange rate transactions. If anything, going via a third country could add another exchange rate transaction and commission, so logically that ought to be a more expensive option, not a cheaper one. The transport one also bugs me a LOT. A lot of couriers charge a big premium to ship something north of Glasgow / Edinburgh. It has been the cause of many lost deals, when a particular supplier will not even entertain the idea of using a different courier that does not charge silly money to deliver here. They are so stubborn, that's the courier we use take it or leave it, so I usually leave it. One can only conclude they have plenty of business without us in the far north.

Ages ago I wrote a spreadsheet for doing what-if comparisons to see whether it was better to invest in more insulation in the walls, roof, floor, fit better windows and doors, or fit a better MVHR system. Others have found it useful and I've been reminded that I've not re-posted it over here, so here's the latest version. It should be self-explanatory, you fill in the cells with your wall, roof/ceiling and floor areas, add the areas of each door and window, put in the U values for each and, if you can, get hold of the met data from the met office for your area (the data in there is for West Wiltshire, right on the border with Dorset). This isn't a thorough modelling tool, it just looks at heat loss fairly accurately but doesn't take into account heat gains, although there is a crude way of doing that by drawing a line across the seasonal plot at the point where you don't use heating and you can very roughly assume that anything above that line will be heating. Please feel free to ask any questions, but bear in mind I wrote it back when I was designing our house and haven't used it for a couple of years. so I may be a bit rusty. Heat loss calculator - Master.xls [edited to add latest version of the spreadsheet]

The darkened appearanceyou describe, is something I saw on virtually all timber clad buildings when I lived in Perthshire, something I put down to the cladding getting wet but not drying properly. The only reason I've felt confident enough to go with a partially timber clad house this time is the fact that there is always a light to moderate breeze up here, which combined with the salt air ( and judging by the timber clad houses we have looked at ) seems to do a great job of drying the cladding and weathering / silvering it down. What's your local micro climate like? Richard, I'l try and remember and ask my builder where he is sourcing our cladding from.

Hi, I'm Mike and I've just started a self-build in Aberdeenshire. I work full time in the city and go home at the weekends and the plan is that once the house is built we’ll sell up back home and move through here. It's been over a year in the design and planning (nothing fantastic just a 3 bed timber frame bungalow with attic trusses) but finally things are moving with foundations almost complete (if the weather will let us). I was following and searching the ebuild forum and it's a shame to see it close down. Mind you a quick scan of the members on here leads me to think that the experience has migrated to this forum and I’m sure I’ll be seeking advice in a number of areas as this is a whole new experience for me. Looking forward to asking questions hopefully rewarded with advice, and sharing experiences, once I have some.

I paid less than half that per roll from SIG so look again. (I bought 65 rolls) Delivered on their own waggon, one with a forklift truck hanging on the back to unload it.

Damian, my price was labour and material just in case it wasnt clear. Just a pity I couldn't remember the area we got quoted for. But I will take a pic and put it up later to give you an idea.

Bear in mind that there will always be a significant "breeze" blowing in and out of the MVHR terminals, roughly half the volume of your whole house every hour, through a 150 to 160mm diameter hole. That tends to over-ride the near-ground level static air, in my experience.

Use an independent I would recommend Kilynview stonemasonry (google them) quality work but can't comment on price.

Check it thoroughly for any holes in the roof / sides prior to any lining work. Super bright light ( at night ), inside the container, with a plus one outside looking for any failure points. Nothing worse than lining over a leak and then having to peel back the layers looking for it.

Some companies will also offer discounts for other reasons, usually to avoid fees associated with a card payment or late payments. Examples I agreed recently: 5% discount by paying by bank transfer in advance for a kitchen. Vendor agreed to take a £100 credit card deposit so I get additional protection. 10% prompt payment discount - i.e. cleared funds by invoice due date I will generally ask for a reduction if the deal is a reasonable size. The way I look at it, they can only say no.

As you know, we are building with ICF as well. We've decided to go with what the builder specs on all his houses, a spray on self cleaning silicone based render. I'll try and find out the manufacturer / product name. Best described as a fairly smooth finish with a bit of grit and texture (1 - 2 mm sized) in it. The other ICF contractor up here finishes houses with dry dash, and by chance I saw the render going on. As Dave describes, base coat goes on an a fibre glass mesh pressed into it, followed by primer then a top coat which is dry dashed. The chap doing the render said that although expensive (compared to sand / cement render) it was far more flexible and therefore robust in the long term. I think you can achieve any finish you want, but I think ultimately it will be a render system you need rather than sand / cement based.

We are using the Baumit.com render system, marketed in the UK under the "lime green" name (which I think is a very confusing name as peiople expect that to describe the colour) I know from talking to the plasterer today that it can be applied to EPS so should be okay for an ICF build. Here's some pictures of it on my blog http://ardross.altervista.org/Wilowburn/let-the-rendering-commence/

I think it is a distinctive hairdo, and you are most welcome to the camp fire.