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200mm cavity brings some serious increase in tie costs - my 275mm are £47 a box vs £26 for standard, and 325mm ones are nearly £80 a box ..! Try one of the ones blowing a graphite EPS bead as they are not too bad - think mine was £11sqm but would need to check for 150mm

This sounds obvious but, assuming you are up for it, have you been back to them for a bigger mortgage, the new contingency, if your loan to value is OK it perhaps won't breach their risk appetite and you won't need the money unless you need to go into the new contingency. Should be fine if you don't need it as you won't draw it down although that would depend on any early repaymet terms in the mortgage.

My nephew GRP'd his large, porch flat roof. First attempt and I don't think he'd mind me saying.....made a complete ****of it!

I worked in the composite plastics industry for over 25 years, so feel qualified to say a few things. It is not difficult, I can teach you in about 2 hours what to do. After that, it is just practice. There are a few rules to stick to (pun intended). Everything needs to be dry, totally dry. Even damp can adversely affect the chemical structure of polyester resin. Even your chopped strand mat needs to be kept dry, so no keeping it in a damp garage/shed. It will cause you problems. UV light causes the polyester resin to cure faster, as does excessive temperature. So you have to pick a warm, but not hot, a dry, but not a sunny week to do it. Then it is a matter of starting with a small area and working from there, don't be tempted to do more than 10 minutes work at a time. The OSB will absorb a lot of resin, so make sure it is well 'wetted out' before you put any dry matt on it. Then wet out the mat with a brush or roller. Don't be tempted to use a large brush or roller. The mat takes a couple of minutes or so to absorb the resin, don't be tempted to try rollering (consolidating) it too soon, it will just not work. You can tell when it is working right at it goes almost transparent, rather than white, the noise changes as well, it sounds 'soggy'. Don't push too hard with the consolidating roller, that will just pucker it up. Once the area is covered in GRP, you will have to sand it down and put a top coat/flow coat on it. Sanding is a horrible job as it is itchy and makes your arms ache, but it has to be done right. Probably best to leave it a day to fully cure before sanding. Then, when you paint on the top coat/flow coat, you have to make sure that it is adhering properly. You can tell when it isn't right as you will see tiny little pin holes. If that happens you have to let it fully cure, sand again, then reapply. All a pain in the behind, but it is what really makes a good weather tight finish. Choice of materials is a hard one. I had my favourite mat 450gm CSM from Saint-Gobain, polyester lay up resin from Cray Valley and gelcoat (to make a top coat/flow coat) from either Norpol or Llewellyn Ryland. Pigments I usually got from Llewellyn Ryland too. Hardener I was easy about, it is the same stuff generally. Who you buy it off is up to you, but probably easier to find a local GRP place and see if they can get it for you, may work out cheaper. Did I mention that everything must be dry, really dry. If you are in an area that has a boat building industry, you may be able to 'find a couple of lads' that are willing to do the job. I would charge more that £100/m2 so the price don't seem too bad to me.

I think it is something you can tackle yourself once you have learnt the skills. Perhaps do a roof for a garden shed or a gazebo or similar first as a trial. @SteamyTea has much more personal experience than me; we had a family business in fibreglass specials that I watched. Ferdinand

My experience of the mortgage company inspections, we had 3 of them: Groundworks and basement complete stage payment. Inspector stood on the road and took some photos, did not want to get muddy shoes. Total time on road 5 mins. Timber frame and windows complete stage payment, inspector stood outside the building and took some photos. Total time on site 5 mins. We still had not installed some doors at this point. Build complete (actually we had not, but this inspection was tied to BC who were happy to sign-off once we had some basics completed - working bathroom, kitchen, electrics, smoke alarms, drains were the main aspects, though we did need to supply a bunch of documentary evidence). Inspector wandered around house for 5 mins, took some photos... (you get the picture!) Our BS contracted the inspection to a third party. As this was the only independant basis, I would say the process was not at all rigorous. On the question of steaming in, my BS was getting very picky in the early days leading to delays and I complained - amongst the points I made was that their delay was adding increasing to them as I would have been forced to abandon the build mid-way without timely funding. This helped unblock it very quickly.

The wooden frame on most acrylic baths are there to receive the top lip of the bath panels. Steel baths don't typically have any timber as it can't be bonded on easily like during the manufacturing processes associated with acrylic. I have always had to make complete frames from scratch for steel baths. Does the timber frame run under the taps as well as along the length of your bath? If so it'll be impossible to jack the dog ear corner up as the whole thing will try and lift as one .

Often the Chinese stuff, as in the pic in the example here: doesn't even pretend to use the correct CE mark, in that pic they've just used the letters CE in a normal typeface, so the item has never been properly designed, tested or approved.

Anyone would think the similarity was deliberate.

I think you can see from the above that choosing windows is not easy. I am going to add a little more by following up what @Bitpipe says above because for us the decision in the end came down to how the windows 'read' from the inside and outside. {By read we mean how it looks - chunky, thin, invisible, & colour because as you move from inward opening to outward opening or fixed panels the inner frame read and outer frame read often change thickness.} If you have inward opening above outward opening you get the frames stepping in and out as you go down the building. With outward opening windows you can thin out the in the internal frame by plastering (or otherwise finishing) right up to the opening frame but on the outside the frame will be chunkier. In some systems the frame is designed to look the same from the inside and out while on others you can have as much as 50mm (in our experience) difference. With inward opening you can do the same on the outside and take the cladding into the reveal and hide the frame either completely or partially. The chunkiness read is also linked to the material such that if you want very thin contemporary windows then you probably have to go for straight aluminum insulated frames while more chunky styles can be achieved in softwood, hard wood & UPVC with or without aluminum cladding. Hope this helps.

Rendering and all cladding completed. Couple coats of paint on the render and we'll probably give it another towards the end of the summer when we hopefully finish the build. Also Cecil the Lion is in place, this stone lion head is on every house that my family (my Grandad, Dad and now me) has self built, 4 in this town currently, 3 of which are still owned by the family. The story of how this tradition began is a little lacking in detail, but I did enjoy placing it 50+ years after my Grandad did the very same thing just a mile or so up the road.

Looking great and fantastic record for self-build by your family and continual ownership over a long period of time. Would make an interesting case study to show the benefits of self-build for keeping family units together over the generations.

@billt I also had a house that was build around the same time and refurbished the windows, the timber was in excellent condition despite being a softwood. This was because it was very slow grown, not like the softwood rubbish you get nowadays. I think it was called Deal.

I vowed never too paint another window as we have hardwood windows in our current house with glazing bars. So we went for aluclad upvc from Internorm, plenty of colours to choose from, so we have white inside and cream on the outside. We're very happy with them.

What spec are you looking at? basic double glazed or good triple glazed? When I was looking for good windows I was pleasantly surprised to find Rationel were the cheapest, and almost the best, so it was an easy decision. A lot of folk up here seem to find the same thing. But the question above needs answering. Do you have free choice of any window supplier, or just the few your TF company uses? As to longevity, I chose aluminium clad timber, as painting windows every few years is not on my list of retirement hobbies.

@billt that's very good going and shows that the original units must have been good quality. Our softwood windows are 40yrs old and on at least one the sills are rotting away. Admittedly I've not kept up the maintenance because I am replacing them later this year (they are only single glazed!) When I was researching replacement windows, I was surprised how big a difference in cost it made to reduce the number of individual panes- if you can get away with it from a planning perspective, go for fewer/larger individual panes every time. It cuts the cost, increases the light, and also improves energy efficiency considerably.

Softwood 100 years or more. When we moved here in 1990 the (1920) windows looked to be in a terrible state, putty missing, glass loose, joints coming apart. But closer inspection showed that the wood was in good condition, so I took the opening lights apart, remade the joints, stripped down to clean wood, re-glazed and painted them properly. 27 years on I've started the process of replacing the single glazing with double, which involves removing the opening lights and deepening the rebates. The wood is still completely sound, despite having been repainted only once in 27 years.

@PeterW has forgotten more about windows than most of us will ever know. I think he may be on holiday at the moment. Wait until he gets back, Lucy. Ian

Hi Lucy, It is not clear, but it sounds like the deal you have is that the timber frame company supply the windows as well as the frame? If so are they giving you a spec for the windows and what is the cost difference. The comments above are correct, so a lot will depend on your budget and your willingness to maintain the windows in the future.

IIRC Accoya softwood has a 50 guarantee. I think there is probably the largest lifetime range with softwood than any other material.

Hi @Lucy Murray Someone on the forum wrote favourably of the look of dark coloured upvc. In that case grey. My estimate of lifetimes is: UPVC - 20-30 years Softwood - 20-30 years. Aluminium on Wood - 40-60 years. Hardwood - 40-60 years. With appropriate maintenance, which is more extensive for wood. Depends on how it is treated, and weather conditions etc, and there are exceptions on both ends of the range. Do others agree with those numbers? For budget reasons, I would say make sure to get quotes from independents as well as nationals, and see if you can trim costs by small specifcation changes. There are a couple of threads around trying to compare costs, and it can be +/- 30-50% for not incomparable windows. Wood style finish to the UPVC is 25% to 50% more on the frame element of the price.

From a performance point of view, if the u values are the same then there's nothing in it really from an efficiency perspective, although some frames may be chunkier than others to get the same performance. Note that as the window gets bigger, the glass becomes the dominant effect in the energy efficiency. I'd say the differences are mainly aesthetics and cost - what look are you going for and what style of windows are you looking at? Any sliders, patio doors to take into consideration also? Timber with aluminium will never need painting, will have a broader choice of colours (pretty much any RAL) and generally look pretty sharp. Looks prettier from the inside too and you have a choice of finishes - we went for a fairly cheap wood (spruce) but had it painted with a 50% opacity paint so the grain is still visible. In the basement we have UPVC with aluminium that matches the timber windows and you'd never be able to tell from outside. As the windows are high up, the white plastic frames are less noticeable (and these are occasional / functional rooms). You can get uPVC that has a coloured foil (if you don't like the traditional white) - not sure if the modern uPVC still suffers from the 'yellowing' problem that it used to have. Plain timber will look good inside and out but will need paining on the exterior and continued maintenance. However, unlike uPVC and aluminium, you can change the external colour if you ever wanted to.

At a quick check I see there is a Howdens on Skye in Portree. My current Howdens catalogue, in addition to Lamona their own brand, includes ranges from AEG, Bosch and Neff. Prices should be good if you or a friend can be trade, but the guarantee is only 2 years. Another option. Service details are here, and not as good as I wished for above: https://www.howdens.com/appliance-collection/howdens-appliance-service/ But they cover appliances in Boats ! Ferdinand

My thoughts @Crofter- I would emphasize maintainability and local service in addition to price, and deemphasie brand if it is at least 'acceptable'. IMO your guests want / need for appliances: a - Simple things that can be used with zero instruction, or no more than a flash card. I do not see them cooking more complexly than say a roast chicken. b - Stuff that works. c - A viable instant alternative if it stops working. d - A repair that will be in place to benefit the remainder of their holiday. On supplier etc, I would go for someone who can mend / replace the same day if necessary. Your guests will be paying £300-£700 a week (?) and it only needs a 10% requested refund once or twice to cover a rapid repair or better service warranty. On (a) and (b), that says "basic plus one". For an oven, for me that implies single, quality, oven, easily controlled and with nothing more complicated than a timer. A fan oven with a decent grill may be good. For a hob that means ceramic for maintenance, perhaps knobs not touch-buttons so easy to see "on or off", effective "still hot" lights and perhaps easy child-lockouts. Does it want a "zone" ring (not sure what they are called)? Given the choice of induction hob or pyrolitic oven, I would take the latter to save cleaning time for me in case they do something horrible to the oven. (c) I think you want a microwave from day 1 for resilience and convenience reasons, perhaps with a grill. (d) Rather than ebay and gumtree I would look at local suppliers on the Island or just off, where maintenance is close. Either a local independent if such exists and can do a rapid response, or a multiple if such exist. I am appalled that no one has mentioned coffee (*). I would suggest a large double walled stainless steel cafetiere (I have ProCook), and an Aeropress, which makes amazing real coffee in a single mug. Both are about £25. Ferdinand (*) PS Apart from @divorcingjack.

It's only a posh looking HepV0 trap which you can get for £20 or less if you look on eBay.

I hate to say it, but I suspect that the majority of CE marks on Chinese stuff are fake, particularly electrical goods. I've given examples here and on Ebuild of particularly bad stuff, like the LED floodlights, purchased from, and branded as coming from, a UK retailer, that had alloy cases with the protective earth lead just dangling loose inside. I've lost count of the number of 2 core cable items, marked as being double insulated (one square inside another mark) that had exposed metal that was part of the internal case, so again they were fraudulently marked and should have had a 3 core cable, with the exposed metal earthed. Even the big names get fooled. I bought some 230V GU10 LED downlights from a well-known DIY shed, only to find that they had exposed contacts on the front that, depending on the random way you fitted them, were either connected to the supply line or neutral - there was a 50% chance that the exposed metal on the front would be at 230V when turned on. To give the store credit, when I took the lamps back, and showed them the problem, they immediately took them all off the shelves. These lamps, and their packaging, all carried the CE mark, indicating that they had been approved as being safe under the LV Directive, and it was clearly fake. I make a point now of thoroughly checking any item of Chinese electrical equipment to make sure that, as far as I can tell, it complies with the LV Directive. It's harder to check if it also complies with the EMC Directive (another requirement for CE marking) but there are enough tales here and on Ebuild of radio interference from things like LED power supplies to convince me that many are non-compliant. If they are CE marked and non-compliant with the EMC Directive, then there is a good chance they are non-compliant with the LV Directive too, I think.

So you've tried going off piste, got a few samples and on a number of fronts they fall down. You have reservations as does your sparks. A wise man once said: "You'll be wishing you fitted good old MK when it comes to replacing the odd one a few years down the line! "

Ask for the manufacturers declaration of performance (DoP) - this should state the product meets all necessary requirments/standards, identify the products even down to serial number and give the manufacturer details, name and address. I suppose even these can be faked but if you have a problems getting the DoP then alarm bells should ring. I believe Trading Standards are the policemen for CE Marking - best of luck taking action against any naughty importers/manufacturers via this route.

I am about to order some lights from Aliexpress so this got me thinking. There is no central repository of CE marks, so no way to check if it is genuine. Some high voltage products may come with a certificate that you can then verify with the issuer. Even if a CE mark is genuine it only states that the product complies with EU safety directives. It is no guarantee that each individual product was made in compliance with the original design and there is no requirement to test products. I think quite a few people on here have bought light fittings that were incorrectly grounded. Best thing may be to test individual fittings if worried, or at least some of them.