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Well, after an awful night, the Building society rang me very first thing and said everything is fine and the issue was never in doubt at thier end ! Offer coming out this week. On hearing the issues he gave me his direct number and said "look, just deal direct with me from now". Not impressed with Buildloan!

Hello all, I’ve been reading the forum for a few weeks now and thought it was time to introduce myself, share our story and hopefully get some advice. I will contribute where I think I can add something, but we are inexperienced self-builders and there are so many experts on this hugely valuable site. This was meant to be a short introductory post, but has ended up anything but! The plot we own is 0.24 acres and sits on the north bank of the River Forth in Fife, Scotland, looking over the water to the Lothians. The plot came with full planning permission for a south facing 2.5 story contemporary house built into the sloping hill (3 stories at front, 2 stories at rear). The plot was one in the middle of 3 plots, with a 2 story build already taking place to the plot on the west (self-build with the owners project managing and sub-contracting), and the plot to the east was already sold and a local builder selected by the plot owner. We purchased the plot in the summer of 2015. I work full time and my wife cares for her mother, and with no previous self-build experience between us, the safe choice for us was to go down the main-contractor route (I'm not sure whether than qualifies us as self-builders). We decided to approach the builder who was (meant to be) soon starting the build on the house to our east, and, taking into account the shared mobilisation costs, he came up with a quote to build the planning approved house that fitted with our budget and expectations. It all sounded so easy… We first viewed the plot back in January 2015 but, other than lifting a few hundred tonnes of soil off the site, we’ve not yet broken ground. We’ve been through quite a journey, and the path forward is still not 100% clear. Our journey has involved: Buying the plot (against our solicitors recommendation) with a 3 foot high-pressured gas and oil pipeline running along its east boundary, which restricts development in a 3.5m strip of the plot due to a Wayleave agreement and the owner of which has to approve our foundation design (planning condition) Selling our home and moving into temporary accommodation for what was meant to be 6-8 months, but we are still living there 20 months later Realising our builders structural engineer solution to any issue was “more concrete and steel” resulting in the approved strip foundation design being 4 meters deep (and therefore very expensive) Appreciating the difference between an architect and a builder appointed technical drawer; the latter created the first draft warrant drawings based on the the approved plans, without recognising that having only 5 foot 3 headspace above an en-suite toilet is perhaps something you should be pointing out Finding an architect to replace the technical drawer and redesigning our house, taking into account the restrictions of the pipeline Dealing with planning and the seemingly subjective means by which they make decisions Realising that, despite giving them your budget, architects are wont to designing things that are expensive but by that time you’ve already convinced yourself that you need! Getting the dreaded call finding out that our builder had gone into voluntary liquidation, costing us our timber kit deposit which was not passed onto the timber kit company, despite us having confirmation that it was Not feeling so sorry for ourselves after finding out that our future had neighbour lost significantly more than us Having to find a new builder Spending too much time building a 3D model of our home and using that to annoy the architect by suggesting changes to his design Learning way more about house self-building than we ever intended to. I hear myself having conversations with builders now and think “I wouldn’t have understood a word of that just 12 months ago” Finding out that house building (or not house building in our case) is stressful, causes arguments at home and can test the best of relationships Realising that, despite all the problems, issues and stress, I’m still managing to extract some enjoyment from the process But, now wondering whether we should just move to another home and sit on the plot for a few years until we have a bit more time to invest in the build And I’m sure there’s more.. I’d quite like to do a series of posts covering the above. Some of that is for selfish reasons - I think documenting our experience would be quite cathartic - but it might also help others avoid some of the pitfalls we’ve made, and hopefully also be of interest as some of the challenges we have, whilst not unique, cannot be that common. What would be the best way to do that? I was going to split it up as multiple replies to this post, but that does not seem right. I see there is a blog section here, but I’m not sure if anyone can have a blog. Alternatively, I could host it over on Wordpress. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and thank you to the regulars here for providing such a educational, informative and entertaining forum.

FYI.... Building inspector approved the dormer today... Not one single issue.. One step closer

This is how ours where done in oz. timber inside reveals was a finger jointed pine, with the architrave of your choice. I actually liked it compared to the standard plastered reveal. It had another benefit if fitting blinds it provided easy fixing points.

Just in case anyone is interested in making their own shed, I thought I'd put the pics all in one place. I was given 34 sheets of 18mm OSB so it's super sturdy and otherwise I spent £500 on timber and another £100 for ironmongery and roof felt. And as ever my time was free... Used mostly old 5" posts dug in and secured with postcrete. There were a few comments that these will rot over time but I'm hoping they will stay fairly dry as they are covered by the shed. OSB down on the shed area. And the decking for the shelter. Made up the wall panels...and Got some help from a couple of local beauties to rattle it together. Roof on so now to make at water tight as possible using up what I've got left lying about the site. Building paper used up and some felt on roof number one. Stared the cladding which matches the Hut. It's getting really Heath Robinson now is I try and cobble the shelter bit together from the odd bit of leftover timber. Nearly there... Looking good, so now to turn attention to the innards Jazzy donated shelving And finally a use for those big hooks I bought two years ago...knew they would be handy for something???

quick update before bed. 1st load of insulation arrived today had the perimeter and foul drains in by the time it was dark. Yep that's them in the top right tidying up before they leave

I am amidst a bit of a problem trying to get my stove signed off because of its direct air feed. I've got the Jotul F373 and this has an air feed through the pedestal from the void under my beam and block floor. I'm pretty sure that I've seen a picture in the building reg book depicting an air intake from a subfloor void - however my installers are telling me that this doesn't apply to direct air feed stoves and that I will have to have a continuous pipe under the sub floor to the outside wall. I'm contesting this but being told that this is coming from the HETAS regs. I don't know if anyone else has run into this issue? I'm hoping to find a more understanding installer who would be happy to sign it off.

My advice is do it the Scottish way, cover the roof with a solid sarking board (osb or ply) then a non tenting breathable membrane. Far better than the English way of just stretching felt over the gap. then it's battens and tiles.

You can get really nice looking plywood window reveal that create a picture frame type effect around the window and I intend on doing something similar but with one layer of ply instead of three as shown in the example photos below. It will be more difficult than plasterboard and probably more expensive to achieve but I think it looks sharp.

The human brain has a great nack of fogetting pain. Keep plugging away. I've been juggling a full time job & on the tools on our selfbuild for 2 years now, manage your expectations & get some good people around you. Good luck

Well I was doing well today until the hail/sleet/snow storm at lunchtime. Guess I'll have to finish the cladding another day

I got a bit lost here . If your going to PB the walls and PB the reveals around the window, but you want to tape and fill / join ( what I would call dry line ) then you can buy this reinforced paper tape corner. Just cut to length and it 'snaps' to form a perfect edge which you then blend out with a quality bulk filler such as Gyproc Easi-fill. Hows that sound?

Last extension I did was TF and PB with a full skim coat throughout. Absolutely showroom finish with lots of praise from the customer. Even more praise and thanks from my decorator who had to make the existing house blend in, ( which was all 'taped & jointed' aka dry-lined filled and sanded ) where you could see EVERY board junction, EVERY door frame head, and was just dire in comparison. Difference with me is I'm mega OCD on the finish, as if the paint ain't looking a million dollars wtf was all the effort up until then for ?

My favourite kind!

Presumably to counter the fall that already exists? We're shortly going to be making the same decision as we have a large EPDM-covered terrace on top of our garage that needs covering. Currently thinking slabs and adjustable pillars - not sure! I won't be starting it until I've finished the balustrade on the main terrace, but sure, I'll take pics as I go along. Thanks Peter, they look good. I'd already found CFS but will look into East Coast as well. For those asking about balustrades, we used Elite Balustrades. There are several mounting options, and it's all DIY. You might want to get your BC officer to confirm he's happy with whatever option you plan. Our BC officer didn't ask for details beyond MBC's engineering drawings. The architect had used Elite's mounting systems before and was asked for engineering calcs, which they had done pretty cheaply by an engineer. We have Resitrix (a high-tech EPDM and modified bitumen based covering) on our roof and terrace. Although I believe it's crap installation rather than the product's fault, having been through what we've been through I still wouldn't touch an EPDM-based roof covering with a barge pole. I'd go for fibreglass if I were doing it again. From everything I've read recently, it can be made as robust as you want it to be. The two balconies we plan to fibreglass are quite small, and off bedrooms, so won't get much foot traffic. Thanks for that. Will look into multi-layer costs. From further research, it seems OSB3 is the only recommended substrate for fibreglass.

Loads of info here: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.british-gypsum.com/~/media/Files/British-Gypsum/Brochures-and-Leaflets/Product-information/Thistle-Plaster-Selector-Guide.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwid6s-fyOXSAhWBNJoKHSGOAmcQFgguMAE&usg=AFQjCNHfn6-ODbRgINp7O2aYtdLIaRpKkA

Hi everyone. I am embarking on a self build, for the first time. Although I managed to acquire a plot of land (right next to our existing property) 4 years ago I am having to bide my time due to planning permission issues which will hopefully be resolved before tooooo long! I started to really investigate 'self build' at the home build and renovation show in Somerset last November and since then have learned a lot from many different sources including this forum (as. a guest), house planning help, magazines, home build & renovation centre at Swindon etc. etc. Although I have learned a lot, there is clearly a huge amount still to learn. An advantage I have is time in that it is going to take a while to get planning permission and one thing that keeps coming through is that the more time to plan the better. However I clearly should not take this task lightly, especially having today listened to House Planning Help podcast 155 where @jsharris told us about the mental strife he went through. I think I will face a few reality checks!! So I look forward to the interaction and support on Buildhub, and hopefully I will be able to offer something to others along the way as well. David

One of the only uses Solicitors have is for their professional indemnity insurance - get everything in writing and request everything in writing .... To dispel a couple of myths, most if not all but the specialist solicitors do not do their own searches ..! They use search companies who pay grads to go and sit in Severn Trents GIS kiosk or wherever and look on screen to see if there is anything near your plot. My experience is if you don't ask, you don't get ... TPOs are another classic - most councils "should" have their TPO data available online, but most can't afford the open GIS license needed to do the map displays at the level needed to display a single tree. Our search came back with TPO on it - we have 11 trees - but I knew none of them were covered as I had a tree survey that would have shown them and it didn't. Transpires that if you ask a local authority that question, they return EVERY TPO within 15m of the plot boundary ..! If you are buying an infill plot then look for the tell tale signs on the ground for unmarked sewers and drainage - look over the neighboring fences for manholes. A good rule of thumb - but not a guarantee - is that the "long" side of a manhole indicates the pipe direction. You can ask any council for access to the RoW maps and any local service maps - they may include paths and boundaries that will help you define the correct site layout. It also gives you chance to validate any previous planning applications around the site and see what has been approved or declined before. All of this costs you time but it is cheaper than a solicitor and also may bring up things you won't get from a solicitor search. We found that there is a 63mm gas pipe just over our fence in the neighbors garden - this was from the National Grid online planning tool (free..!) but the neighbours solicitors property search 18 months previous hadn't shown it.....

Hello Nick...... No Joiner?! That's simply won't do.... I'm bereft ?