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Did it again on behalf of the management committee, not building this one! Paper and pencil, kept it simple, all dimensions X 1.2m. New hut approved with NO conditions at all, none, zero. This one is 20m into a forest so very very secluded bit with a bit of a view because of the slope. I think the planners are listening to the new Scottish government guidance re hutting so hopefully we will see more people getting into this low cost close to nature stuff in the future. http://www.carbethhutters.co.uk

If your on the same footprint do you mean the excavations already exist as required. Is any of the existing building acting as retaining these excavations. If so can any of this viably remain. If it is ALL to be removed what then protects the excavations. It's very typical of Poole given land prices, to utilise every last inch of plot and so ‘real life buildability’ becomes a question to consider with your Principle Designer amongst others. You could find a logistical consideration around how a builder physically achieves a task, significantly steers what tasks you should present the builder with....so you might get a great price for icf, followed by an insistance on sacrificial sheet piling to make it safe to then waterproof it externally, followed by a monumental quote to have a waterproofing system that comes with a guarantee worth its paper. Be wary of the headline price of icf. I love the concept of icf, researched it a lot, went on the Nudura course, pushed my SE at it and had my builds working drawings done based on using it, got quotes for it and for waterproofing it. I’m definitely not against icf....but the project has to be right for it. Walking away from it crushed my aspirations to literally self build my house, and drastically reset my budget before I’d even dug a hole. Unfortunately most SE’s, architects etc are still quite inexperienced with it so aren’t best placed to instantly know if your project is right for it...they really need to engage with YOUR situation rather than just shoot back some generalist reticence about icf. By the same token, and with the greatest of respect to those who have used icf above ground and express general enthusiasm for it, Its useful info but I don’t believe it gets you any further forward...below ground retaining walls are a very different kettle of fish. Are you going to actually build this yourself.....do you actually need a lightweight, low skill product to get to the end result of a poured in situ concrete wall with insulation either side. Icf is not THE way to get a poured concrete wall....it’s A way. I used built in situ shuttered concrete, carried out by a specialist contractor, which is slow, wasteful and soul destroying, and I wouldn’t as a generalisation recommend it, but I’ve yet to be persuaded it wasn’t the best option for my project. I honestly hope you can conclude that icf is good for you (but I doubt it) as I love the concept....just don’t let loving the concept lead to a blinkered determination to use it. My build is 25 mins from yours...you are welcome to come look, just pm me....I think I can show you stuff that’s pretty relevant to your project.

Powerwall2 review by Fully Charged:

We used to have a saying when we taught wild foods ... all mushrooms are edible, some only once....

It's getting there ,One day at a time.

99% then the flaps you added are the weak point. Leaky flaps...

The top left one is pretty good, although you only typically get one drawing of each. It covers plants, mushrooms, seaweed, shellfish, fruits and nuts. I can't find my River Cottage mushroom book, but from memory it's particularly good because it focuses on the safe collection of edibles, whereas the others above are more general references. I do a bit of foraging for mushrooms, but stick religiously to those that can be safely identified. We had a penny bun (cep) in our garden this year for the first time, along with several large slippery jacks that have appeared out of the new garden beds (haven't eaten these yet - mixed reviews on whether they're worth the effort): I collect black trumpets from a forestry area near me - amazingly tasty dried. They haven't come up yet this year, presumably due to the lack of rain: I've also managed the odd parasol from a nearby cow field (this is a young one - cap hasn't opened yet):

Link ..... oooohhh this humble pie tastes good ...... ?

Might be worth reading this post?

Hi All, Myself and my other half have just bought our plot of land outside of Fort William in the Scottish Highlands and are about to undertake our first new build. It’s all very exciting, stressful, mind boggling and a tad overwhelming but we’re looking forward to embarking on the project. Looking forward to getting to know you all a bit better and tapping in to the vast wealth of knowledge, experience, advice and support from the members here. But, more than anything, I’m looking forward to being able to speak to others who have gone through or are going through the process themselves, sharing my own experiences and hopefully keeping some of my sanity ? Thanks guys Claire

Looking at the BBA certificate, Durisol is only classed as moisture resistant when an approved external waterproofing coating is applied. EPS based ICF systems won't have this limitation, as EPS is approved for use when buried underground (our foundation rests on 300mm of EPS). I'd be wary of trying to use any product outside its BBA certificate limitations, because of possible problems down the line, getting building control to sign off on something that's outwith the BBA (or equivalent) approval parameters and because of possible insurance implications. As an example, our house frame was built under the Irish approval system, which is recognised as being equivalent to BBA, but I still had to provide building control with evidence to show this.

So a few snaps from Google Earth of the before images - these may be the current images also for a few months. of course Google does mangle the views and the walls are straighter than they appear!

Ahh Great, I'm new!

It's too late now, but if they had gifted you the land before getting PP then the value would almost certainly have been below the SDLT threshold and may well have been below the CGT threshold as well, as getting PP usually uplifts the value of land by somewhere between 50 and 100 times. Probably something that's worth noting for others in a similar situation, though, so worth mentioning.

Don’t forget to save all the cable, copper pipe and other scrap metal, it’s worth a lot of money!

Ignore them......let’s get to the smashing and the building of the dream. Looks like a posh garden shed at the moment. Heave-ho !!

+1. That’s a pretty nice house to bulldoze!

Even as is this would be a dream house for most people. Are you going to demolish entirely including foundations, or modify what is there?

This is one of the reasons why I decided to use Velox instead of an ICF that uses polystyrene. The Velox product has a hydrophobic acoustic wood/cement composite board that is 35mm thick on inside walls (and also on outside for fixing cladding) and you can fix to this anywhere and no need to worry about fixing points. The Durisol product is similar since it also doesn't use polystyrene, but I preferred Velox due to having continuous concrete layer inside instead of honeycomb like would be the case with Durisol. They are both very good products though.

Sealing above the source of water that's making its way in isn't going to help, and may even make things worse. The golden rules with something like this are to prevent water getting to a low point where it might be able to penetrate, to provide the best possible drainage route for any water that does get to a critical area so it drains away from anywhere it might be able to penetrate and, finally, to ensure that the sealing system around any area where water could penetrate is sufficiently robust as to keep any small amount of water that might get that far out. Sealing on it's own isn't the fix, I think, you need to try and find a way to stop water pooling around the upstands somehow. Even if you do manage to seal things up for now, as mentioned earlier, a few freeze/thaw cycles on the trapped water will almost certainly cause further damage.

One for the ladies, what an excellently named product: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Captain-Tolleys-Creeping-Crack-sealer/dp/B003T6EJ9A

I'd flood test in that gap between the pavers and frame first. Gut feel is it's getting in the edpm "laps" up the sides on the upstand or worse at the base. You'll get a mass of water above/to the side of the leak and simple gravity will push it to find the smallest crack hole. Will v.likely get worse when any trapped water freezes, expands and widens the split etc.

Wheres the chuffing cream you tight bastard.?

We're drowning in birch polypores around here. Shame they aren't edible (and I don't sharpen my own razors, so no use for that application either). Do a little research first. The vast majority of mushrooms you run into won't be edible. The River Cottage mushroom book is a good resource. Take a look at this website too: https://www.mushroomdiary.co.uk/getting-started-in-mushroom-hunting/ Honey fungus would be my best guess too. Not many other fungi fruit this gregariously!

Maybe of a interest on the blinds is nobily (German site). I was going to use them for internal until I picked up a load of somfy motors on fleebay.

Ideally you need to photo them in their environment as that can assist in identification as for example a birch polypore will only grow on a birch tree, but can look like something else ....!

If it’s the BT armoured stuff it’s CCA and it’s ok to about 80-100ft for 70mbps so would be fine for broadband over 10 metres. Anything more than that and I think it would start to degrade.

I talked to 2 builders who specialise in ICF and who have both used many ICF products (including Durisol) but they prefer Velox. I also spoke with a family who has built their house using Velox and their builder wasn't initially familiar with it, so got trained and then said they liked it very much and would consider using it again instead of some other ICF product. This gave me the confidence in the product that I was looking for. No problem with warranty or insurance - it is ETA certified which I understand is EU specific and accepted in UK. BBA is UK specific so product doesn't need to be BBA and ETA approved (at least before Brexit). The product also has LABC and Registered Detail with Local Building Control. Disclaimer: I recently found the thread on here about it not having BBA which concerned me, so I asked Velox to comment, and I have shared what they told me. So, I am not concerned about insurance or warranty. Also, people I have talked with who have a finished house that was using Velox said insurance, mortgage, warranty etc. were not any issue for them.

A couple of images loaded here in prep for starting the blog

I suspect there may be problems because the twist and characteristic impedance of phone cable is different to Ethernet cable Phone cable twisted pairs have a looser twist than Ethernet twisted pairs, and IIRC, are around 6 times the impedance (Ethernet cable is around 100 ohms, phone cable is probably still around 600 ohms). Ethernet cable is pretty cheap, even Cat 5e underground cable (to go in a duct) is only around £20 for a 50m reel.

Can’t go wrong with a ute mate.

I have only been on the forum for 8 months but here are my suspicions about budget overruns: Commencing a project without a rough idea of the spending schedule relative to expected progress. Paying a main contractor a weekly appearance fee rather than staged payments for completed milestones. Unexpected high service connection charges. The syndrome of "It was only an extra £200 to do it right which is nothing in the grand scheme of thing" x 100 such instances. Too much bleeding edge technology which results in high-margin gizz us a job chancers buzzing around your project like wasps around a honey pot. Not allowing for the additional costs of a slow multi year build, e.g. extra travel, insurance, scaffolding rental, toilet hire and domestic utility charges. Believing in the federated responsibility model, i.e. frittering away money on a gaggle of offsite/part-time experts to provide a cozy warm feeling you are being looked after. Overlooking all the small incidental costs, e.g. fencing, H&S signage, tarpaulins to keep things dry onsite during the winter, 40 concrete blocks to prop up the static caravan and £55 of armoured cable to provide power to the caravan. Not accounting for waste material disposal costs and skip hire.

I have various books but this is one of my favourites

I am considering fitting these to my lift slide next year, don't know if you've seen them before. https://solargaps.com/

I have a birch wood out back where I have been foraging for chanterelles, been a good year and love them. By my gate I get to harvest oyster mushrooms twice a year and also find the occasional field mushroom. My parents are very good at mushrooms identifying and are always collecting exotic items...... I stick to what I know. Hundreds of magic mushrooms in my fields but of no interest to me these days. I made a drying cupboard above my wood burner and have been successfully drying the chanterelles this year so as to enjoy them in the winter.

Yes, the first thing I did when I found this forum was to search for velox so I found that thread and since it was old I decided to start my own thread asking about Velox.

You can find my plans on https://publicaccess.hart.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=P3GZVBHZH1Z00

Agree. To run a retro fit dwelling off SA's is a very tricky, and costly, equation. Perhaps concentrate on fabric first and then look again once you've reduced your energy requirements? If you do go for a wood burning stove then also make sure its room sealed and takes its air from a ducted run to outside, as that'll keep the ventilation losses of the WBS to a minimum. TBH, I'd use that money on PV and batteries and reduce your homes footprint in other ways. ASHP's aren't matched to high temperature emitters like traditional central heating radiators, so beware any cock-sure salesmen folk who tell you it is. In fairness, if you get PV to offset the electricity consumption and fortify with battery storage for nighttime use you'll be in a reasonably good place, but again beware of the high temp requirements. Fabric improvements and serious draught-proofing will help out considerably there. Another option is to change the radiators ( probably get away with doings downstairs only ) to much bigger / lower temp requirement ones but at that stage an electric boiler is still on the list IMO. A SA for DHW would be a good move however, as any electric combi will be a monstrous unit to get any even slightly decent flow rates / capacity. An electric boiler providing dumb heat only would be very efficient and very compact. PV would then give you free DHW and with really high flow rates ( via the SA ) so still retaining a bit of luxury too. FYI electric combis are heat-store / thermal store based units so need to be on 24/7 or timed well in advance of needing DHW.......yuk. Not good.

It was an annual event as a kid, going along with my Irish Mum (now 88) picking mushrooms in the local fields and I mean a lot of them. We'd eat them raw straight out of the ground after peeling. The FiL now will still happily pick the ones from my garden now. @Tennentslager, not just a bit sick if you get it wrong as this now famous case shows: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8675690/Nicholas-Evans-I-wanted-to-die.-It-was-so-grim.html Always ask the landowners permission before picking or you can get into truffle..... I'll get me coat...

Apologies ? Still not convinced??

I ended up looking at caddy and transporters. Caddy was a bit on the small side and only 2 seats. Transporters seemed crazy money due to camper conversion potential. They all had high mileage in my price range and didn’t have nice spec. Then I stumbled across this. Nice spec, one owner and a price I was happy with. It’s a highline with pretty much every option including dsg gearbox. Im really happy with it. Not going to bother leasing another car when my Volvo goes back.

Well when you've finished reading my thread look at some others!

A few good questions, maybe start a new thread?

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