Leaderboard

Just a quick update. I got all my conditions discharged and a full refund of £97.00. Result

My only though, is if you bring to the attention of BC that there might be "voids" in the concrete fill of the blocks, then you re opening a huge can of worms, if Mr BC wants to be picky? Find a solution without him?

MVHR install is one job that most of the self builders here have DIYd - almost a rite of passage. Saves a few £k on install fees. @JSHarris and @JanetE did their own plumbing, plenty others have done substantial bits of their own builds (foundations, roofing etc..). Plus the finishing jobs of plastering, tiling, painting etc.. Your challenge really is that the most critical stage, getting to a weathertight shell, will be happening when you are free but when you probably have least to offer and risk slowing things down (time is money). First and second fix are when you're likely to be able to make more of a 'best effort' contribution at your own pace. Another role you can play is to record everything that's happening onsite through daily diaries and extensive photos (both close up detail and from a distance) as you'll refer back to that archive time and time again during the build. You should also be ready to know every dimension of the build and carry a tape and laser to check that everything is as it should be. You need to be the one thinking about ensuring allowances for services runs, joist positioning for shower wastes etc, etc. First fix is normally when you realise all the things you should have thought about during the earlier stages of the build. While everything can always be fixed, this is where unplanned costs start to rack up, especially labour if one trade now needs double the time to correct the mistake of a preceeding trade (ask @Nickfromwales how much joinery he used to do on a new build job...). Just being on site daily makes a big difference - we lived in a caravan in the garden and all the trades were more than happy to come and knock if they wanted to double check something. Also got used to me wandering around all the time - didn't feel like I was checking up on them. As the old saying goes, "It's the work that's inspected, not the work that's expected..."

We have a similar shock with our connection. Had a pole on our land but was too far from the transformer to support another property. Had to go 220 meters back across a road, through some trees and a minefield of solid bedrock. Managed to get our quote down from around £8k by going through all the possibilities with quoter, using our own contractor for the trench work and we also managed to get a grant. Came down to £5.4k. Might be worth asking somebody from the Electricity supplier to come out and meet you and see if they can see a more obvious solution?

There really is a sense that we are approaching the business end of our self build project – the thinking, reading and talking has now evolved into making firm commitments and paying deposits to secure various orders. Ahead of our permanent move to the Borders in February 2018, [Rented accommodation] we travelled to the area in late October with the express determination to finalise matters with a local builder and to confirm the stone we are going to use, the specification for the oak car port and oak front porch, [ see attached images] together with the kitchen cabinet requirements. The windows and external doors will be confirmed in February when we will have more time. We also met with the Landscaper / gardener who has been maintaining the plot for us and whilst there, we took the opportunity to measure out the footprint of the house and car port. A neighbour asked – is it a big house on a small plot or a small house on a big plot? To us, it seems a perfect fit but even so, it is still very hard to visualise both structures sitting on the empty plot. I’m sure once March comes round and the ground is broken so to speak, there will be days when we think it is both! We also met with Field Operatives from the Electricity provider and Water Company to discuss connections. Both were set up via their respective online websites and to date, the process has been a pleasant one. Neither foresee any difficulties so that is one thing less to worry about. However, I do find it strange that Scottish Water will not do any “road crossing” connections. I have to source this through the builder / independent contractor. They will only connect their work once it reaches the plot. So without this additional cost, which is yet to be confirmed, the utility connections have cost me £740 for the electricity and £957 for the water. A builder is on board. No written contract as such has been prepared and signed. He was sent a very comprehensive schedule of works to price up, we have since discussed a few minor matters and he has agreed to undertake the work. I know this perhaps goes against perceived wisdom but he is a well established local builder, with a family reputation to maintain. I will be supplying the bulk of the materials for him and his team to install etc. When we first met, he mentioned the word “trust” and that has to work both ways. Each case has to be considered individually and against its own circumstances. For us, we are happy to move forward. Deep down, I would have liked to have entered into a formal written contract but it just didn’t feel right to impose such a process. Fingers crossed! We have chosen the stone to be used and that in itself was a surreal moment. We travelled to the back of beyond to a stone merchants and found ourselves in a small hut called the office. For all its basic elements and piled up paperwork, their internet connection was probably faster than we have at home!! When the stone is up, it’s not like wallpaper. You just cant go and buy an alternative pattern! So after much thought and deliberation we have gone for a “local blend” made up of stone from Cumbria, Perthshire and Borders Buff. I just hope it looks OK ! The next update will be in March 2018, when we hopefully break ground and set about with building our dream home with earnest. [No, that’s not the builders name!] Thanks for reading. PW.

That's just brilliant - Thank you, Thank you, Thankyou - I'm quite happy to fight for something so long as I know I have 'mi ducks in a row' as regards facts and back up AND that is so difficult when I have 'thoughts' but no knowledge

Glass fibre (Fibreglass is a trade name) if done correctly. If done incorrectly it will be a disaster, but you will know that very early on. It is fairly easy to work out what it costs. Find the area costs i.e 3 layers of 450gm/m2, 2.7 kg of lay-up resin, 0.7 kg of flowcoat/top coat will costs about £11/m2. Multiply it by 4, round it up, so £50/m2. Then add on the VAT , so £60/m2, and any extra costs like scaffolding. Make sure they do it when everything is bone dry, not a drop of moisture. Should be a warm day as well, but preferably not sunny. I did some on my parents house nearly 30 years ago, it is still there.

Would consider yourself lucky insurers are paying, usually considered a wear and tear item, so not covered. We have had to replace a number of valleys at our own cost.

You seem to have forgotten the scaffold also a company approved to carry out insurance work has overheads, you may get two roofers for £300 but who pays there pension, insurance, supplies the van, etc etc. We pay lads £150 a day but a two man team in a van is £625 +vat per day.

Welcome! We won't be able to judge the price until you give us a few more details, but as @Russell griffiths says, why worry? Tupperware valleys are fine

Welcome... I take it the valleys are huge then..??!! They will be saying fibreglass as its cheap, but unless I've missed something they are paying a lot for two valleys ! Roofer is £300 for a 2 guy team round here, 2 days all done to strip and re-lead a pair of valleys. Assuming 450mm lead you are talking £120 or so of lead on a pair of 5m valleys So about half the price quoted

Cost. Speed. If there paying.

Depending on access I would use a cherry picker in most instances these days as I’ve got access to one for £100 a day that does 12m up and 5m out and will tow on the back of most cars. Takes 10 mins to set up and is easy to reach just about anywhere.

Yes, true, and a valid point. But if it means not getting the build done, or worse, it is a price worth paying.

Chip away from the inside to enlarge the hole. Drop a rope out through the hole. attach the face plate, with copious amounts of sealant applied. Pull rope, face plate pulls up to hole. Retain tension until sealant dried. Cut rope and push the end out.

A qualified person, ie rope access trained would lower some ropes out of both windows and attach to ladder, raise ladder and secure it with ropes so it could not tip / slip. then head on up, secure your self to ladder and get the job done, well thats what i would do but i am not an authority. However finding that qualified person could be the hard part, so a tower may be cheeper.... im sure someone will have a more “normal” proposal .......

Have you looked with an endoscope to determine how large the void is? If you have been unlucky and struck a small cavity, is it possible to inject a resin into the cavity to fill it and also hold your metal stud?

Use Ardex A35 or 38. Takes ceramic tiles in 4 hours . Edit to add : you use the Ardex instead of regular cement.

If their to be painted then why the need for reclaims? There’s an imitation London Stock down here (brand new & much cheaper) that I’ve had the misfortune to have supplied to me by builders. If it’s imperfections you’re after...Jeez,the back of a brick on edge capping I did looked like a piano keyboard,that much variation in length. So Id guess your merchants up your way would do a cheap imitation of the local bricks too. If it were me,I’d be tempted to get brand new common flettons & give them a spin in the mixer for a minute before use,to rough them up a bit. Not really practical if you’ve got a big volume to lay though.

Any jobs going ? ?

Well I served a 6 year apprenticeship and I've just retired, and I consider I was still learning !!

The kind of skill that a person can learn in 3 months is EG how to build a wall - on a flat surface with no pressure; or how to plaster a square wall with a reasonable level of accuracy. This person would have no idea what to do if eg the weather is against you; there are retaining issues; the SE specifies a particular bond; the BI asks you 'why have you xxx?'. Building a house isn't like building a raised bed or even a garage. FOR SURE if (if) you have life experience; friends in the know; access to building know how etc etc you can build. But in no way will 3 months experience in anything qualify you to the necessary level to independently approach any level of house building. This is purely the opinion of someone with no qualifications at all in this area but with lots of life experience and training experience WHO has very much learned that knowing how to do something and being able to do it to a good level without external input in less than perfect conditions and facing unexpected challenges is a very different issue. Unless you are a very unusual individual

Holey moley it's another world out there. I consider £1000/yr an acceptable cost for a car, to cover say 6k miles. I can see why Tesla had to go for the top end of the market first, though, to become established. Here's hoping that the Model 3 production bugs will be ironed out and they will start becoming an option for more people (like me!)

Building a house is easy. It's like riding a bike. Except the bike is on fire and you're on fire and everything is on fire and you're in hell.

Eek! That sure is a nasty surprise. Very little seems to be cheap once a DNO is involved. The electricity supply to our plot comes in on an overhead cable that we will have buried and ballpark figures for that aren't cheap at all.