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Cut it off at ground level. Drill a few holes into the stump that is left and then put a couple of these in. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Eco-Plug-Max-Tree-Killer-Stops-Regrowth-of-Stumps-WITH-or-WITHOUT-Drill-Bit-/174580877798

Whilst I am all in favour of DIY work, I am not sure knocking out and propping up the corner of the house on a post is a DIY job.

Yep ecodan supports it fine, just a dip switch and a bit of fiddling in the controller menus. (and for me, messing around in the loxone program) To be generous to installers, when they say it's not supported they may not be referring to the ASHP or RHI, but just the lack of gap-free insulation they applied to pipes, pumps, valves etc which will guarantee puddles of condensation everywhere. A system has to be designed and installed with cooling in mind if it's going to be usable, and our UK installers are just not trained to do this. Nor do they seem willing to charge a premium for the bit of extra effort this takes.

Hey all, We've just submitted our pre-app for our potential forever home in Northamptonshire. Outside the village boundaries and currently on my OH's family farm so having to go down the paragraph 79/80 route. Ideally ~300msq, 5 bed, 3/4 bath, open plan. I've found this forum super useful so far and fingers crossed we get approval!

Hi All, I hope you're keeping well! I just wanted to introduce myself 'Joe' to the forum as I have been a long time reader and now hopefully getting closer to starting my own build. The forum is such a great resource for information and the knowledge of the users is simply amazing - I really do appreciate everything I have read here as it has helped me so far on my journey. I am hoping to learn as I go and all being well, I'll be able to help others as I pass through each stage of the build and gain my own knowledge and experiences. The house is a two story house with a connection to single story building for the kitchen, dinning and living area which in total is approx 330m2 sitting on 0.8 of an acre. It will have a ground source heat pump, with underfloor heating on the ground and first floor, mechanical ventilation heat recovery system and a PV solar array with battery. Windows triple glazed throughout. The current SAP report SAP rating: 92 A Environmental: 93 A If I have missed anything I will update the above. All the best, Joe

It’s a bit rough. they get mortar in, by applying enough to squeeze some out when the blocks are pushed together, and then flushing off with the trowel

When you say "repair" what is it you're trying to do, renew/repair external walls, build new internal ones etc? We like pictures on here btw, you'll likely get more suggestions.

A pragmatic view from me..? Having built a few houses out in the sticks and lived in the sticks the last thing you want is for you house to completely burn down due to a lack of water if a fire occurs. Have experienced a neighbours hay lorry going on fire next to their house, used loads of water to stop it setting light to their house. The fire engine ran dry and we drew water from the ponds. If you have the room then ponds can be great fun, not just for kids to learn about nature but for adults too! Once you start to play with them.. it's addictive. If you have a descent roof area you can fill them pretty much with the roof and surface run off water. I can see the logic from my own experience about having a 45m^3 storage as but that is not a big pond. If you live up in say Aberdeenshire it gets pretty cold. If you are doing a pond then you want the aqua culture to thrive and not freeze in the winter. You can find plenty stuff in the SUDS manual about this but in essence you have a shallow sloping bit and a deep bit (1.5 - 2.0m) for winter conditions, lower light levels and so on. A pond of say 6 * 8 *average 1.0m deep will give you your 45m^3. It will vary a bit depending on evapouration so you need to do a few calcs. Yes if you are in sandy ground you'll have much loss so will need a plastic or clay liner. But all this needs to balanced against the fun you'll have playing about..the self build journey.. it's not all about the money you know!

Look at secondhand FB eBay Most of the sites are banning corded tools There are joiners parting with some really good kit In favor of battery saw etc

Interesting. I have the quotation from which I ordered the glass unit and while it details what I am buying, there is nothing to state the terms and conditions or guarantee period. I will search their website to see if I can find anything. but in any event there should be no doubt regardless if I get a claim in before it is a year old I would have thought. That being the case I will monitor the situation for a while longer If the condensation (and obviously excessive heat loss) alone is reason alone to reject it then that will be my approach rather than trying to prove the more elusive internal misting issue, though that will probably get worse and easier to see as time goes on.

We have a house with off grid water and sewerage. We don't have any special measures in place for firefighting water. I don't think the fire service were consulted at warrant stage.

Here’s a clearer photo. The neighbour pointed it out to me this morning, it looks like it’s within their boundary/ their side of the chicken wire. She’s mentioned it could have came in the topsoil I had delivered over 2 months ago.

I think they used to ask for 10,000ltrs! most of the time the tanks are just sunk in the ground when you're doing your drainage - 6000ltrs and the valve spec came from Scottish Fire and Rescue as the minimum they would accept to satisfy the regulations - the idea is that the fire tender can plug into the supply once they've used all the water in the appliance, so they're not assuming that 1500 would extinguish a fire? You have to request consultation with them as part of the warrant process anyway, their timescales are anyones guess so making it easy for them is usually a good idea, they no longer deal direct with you too which means you're at the mercy of the local authority to pass information on...

Go round to your neighbours and tell that that no further work is permitted untill they have a Party wall agreement in place.

No. You may have problems when you come to sell up. I think your neighbour is doing an illegal extension and thinks that none of the rules apply to them. Have you checked out that their architect is registered?

We've used armatherm structural thermal breaks in a variety of places, which like the Farrat are I think commonly used for steel balcony connections https://www.armatherm.co.uk/products/frr-structural-thermal-break-material/ They can provide bushings and washers as well Not expensive. I believe stainless steel bolts give reduced heat transfer. While I'm not a professional, even if I wasn't concerned about heat transfer I wouldn't want any structural steel running through the envelope on a building intended to last 100+ years. What if the outer end gets wet and rusts? Wouldn't want to have to replace the entire beam. In that, I'd want the balcony to be replaceable independently of the main structure. We don't have any balconies, but we have an awning bracket which is similar. The stuff that looks like wood is the armatherm FRR:

Before you do anything, tidy up the site!

I see that this is published by the LABSS (Local Authority Building Standards Scotland) which claims to be "a not-for-profit membership organisation representing all local authority building standards verifiers in Scotland. Our members are dedicated to protecting the public interest delivered by public sector expertise to ensure buildings are safe, accessible, dry and warm." To me, and I my be wrong, this looks like protectionism, because they are not saying that you can't use these systems, they are saying "any proposal should be considered only as an alternative approach with full evidence submitted to prove compliance". It's a way of generating fees for their members. I knew that for an open plan system with no fire door separating the kitchen from the entrance hallway and bottom of stairwell I would need a mist system or a fire curtain. But my BCO won't accept a mist system without a fire engineering report. The fire engineering report is going to cost £1200 plus VAT. Absolute bonkers. Given that I'll be going down the mist system come what may, I thought I would report what I've learned: A 6 nozzle system that will cover the 80% or so of my ground floor which is open plan is going to cost about £4k plus VAT. Crazy for six nozzles, some pipework and a pump. But their customer service seems very good and they are going to provide me with their stats on false alarms to reassure me that their system really is decent. Works on a heat sensor that needs to sense a temperature of at least 68C to activate the mist. Mist goes for a maximum of 30 minutes. Apparently, even if there was a false alarm, the amount of moisture released by the mist would only take a day or two to dry out from most things. But one thing I didn't like was the annual service charge of £250 a year. Seems excessive. It's not like a boiler that is constantly being used and so might need the occasional tune up. The imist nozzles are 88mm in diameter, so small but not tiny. If anybody knows of a mister system with smaller nozzles I'd be interested to know.

Leca is one I have heard of.

Bigger pallets can yield decent lengths of "shed" wood. Can be a bit of a mission to break them up successfully without a pallet buster.....like the one I made: (It now has the addition of a couple of strategically placed springs to stop the angles tipping forward).

This is the only job in my entire life when I wanted to just lay on the ground and cry, every step was like fighting a war with Mother Nature.

I can see no reason for this beam to be continuous as the loads inside will be far higher than the balcony so it would be better to thermally break the beam inside and construct the cantilever separately (but connected). in the past we have done beams with plastic flange and web plates to make a continuous beam but electrically isolated.

We have exactly this issue with a balcony in our house (except our beams are more like 3 and 9 in your drawing). Thermal breaks as mentioned by @saveasteading are one option. You mention insulating the beam inside. You can also insulate the outer end of the beam as well. Anything that slows heat entering (within the house) or leaving (in the balcony) the beam will help.

Can’t offer any info but it does make you wonder about off grid homes, there has to be some deviation route for single dwellings

There are special adapters available for this. A butt joint between the internal and external lengths of steel, bolted together in some clever, non-continuous way. I have prodded them at exhibitions but could not get a cost indication. ahhh. found one using the interweb. over to you.https://www.farrat.com/structural-thermal-break-connections?utm_term=thermal break pads&utm_campaign=Thermal+Breaks-Leads-Search&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=5261485987&hsa_cam=13260167897&hsa_grp=122980897859&hsa_ad=523953648699&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-382966641357&hsa_kw=thermal break pads&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwNWKBhDAARIsAJ8HkhcB8DpTz-Xk9vOiET718z4T9BDTbmE1D1TFVqfLh4KgC1rURMVP-EIaAqGlEALw_wcB

I’m not kidding either ? it had surfaced by about 1.5m when I pulled up on Monday. Felt like crying but it was proper funny!

If you have not done this sort of thing before, then this is not the one to start with. At least get an experienced builder to do the propping and column work, and you can assist. There is the window, too, and so there isn't much wall there anyway. Perfectly doable but you don't know how much you don't know....yet. Think of the worst that could happen. Now ask your house insurer if you would be covered.

2 minutes a week!!

That’s your weekly consumption so I thought ? ?

Well, you could make a feature of the wall/pillar and put the new RSJ on the outside to save the cost/expense/hassle. It wouldn't make the pillar that much bigger and would save you a packet. take some ideas https://www.houzz.co.uk/magazine/how-to-work-around-a-structural-pillar-in-your-kitchen-extension-stsetivw-vs~76437319

Update: We've had our Design Review Panel this week and things are still progressing. It was a very useful experience and it was great to have several pairs of completely objective eyes looking at what we have from an ecological, town planning, landscaping and architectural perspective. There were a lot of praise about the site and the characteristics that we can work with and a fair bit of work for us to do in terms of the potential concept. When we have something a bit more concrete down I will share some of the plans.

the tank popped up like a U boat. ???? Just spit my tea out

What’s up ? Have you sussed it. Mines a Graf.

it doesnt look that bad, acro the lintle in the door and a couple strongboy on the flank wall. I'd question why the steel in the first place and leave the corner as is, what is it going to be carrying ?

Only if the footer is doubled up and you can get mechanical fixings through the moisture boards. Never have the bottom of the boards where they are not against the full run of horizontal timber work EVER. I never butt the tray to the studs, I always drop the MR plasterboard / other to the floor and then the tray goes up against that sealed and bonded accordingly. Oh, and reconsider green tiles lol. They’re a bold choice

Get a tray with an upstand too, saves a lot of future grief!

If it’s all dimensionally with PD, then it’s PD ? Are you referring to a side/rear extension?

Nope. Two dirty diesels! Nearly new Leaf will be incoming once we have the build done. Maybe a VW ID4 our Hyundai EV6 down the line. I'm doing the ASHP install myself. Though I have plumbers starting on Monday and this may something I delegate to them. A Monoblock with a pre-plumed cylinder is literally two water pipes, data cable and power supply. Can't be that hard, esp with @dpmiller consulting!! Site visit anytime... I'm here 7 days a week 8am-8pm.... all ahead of you

Thank you! Not long back from staying in Co Down; had an AirBnB stay down beside Ardglass. Spent all my childhood summers down that way - lovely part of the world.

The GSHP is something I have always wanted to have in my house as it's been an idea going back maybe 10 years. Though through the planned installer, I have visited 5 of their customer's houses who has them in operation, seen a few of their electricity bills and have received great feedback, not just on the heat pump but on our planned provider/installer. The importance of the provider is so important plus my builder, who I know personally has spoken very highly of the work of their installer. What's the real shame is the lack of RHI for Northern Ireland as there is no incentive to go down the heat pump route and as you say the ASHP is the cheaper option and without the RHI incentive would takes years of cover the difference. It might be silly on my part as I am going with heart over brain on this one with the GSHP. That's an interesting point regarding 2 MVHR systems in the house, I must discuss this with the provider. Conor, I appreciate the feedback and offer to help, thank you very much. I also see you have went with Ecology Building Society and you along with others on the forum speak very highly of them. I actually plan on going with them myself - just waiting on my final costings from my builder to be sent across to submit the application.

Hi Joe Welcome from a co down member, there are a few 'locals' kicking about here. Hopefully you will have picked up we like blogs and photos.

'Bout ye Any plans to share? Any reason for ground source over air source? You'll find air source will come in about half the cost of ground source. You'll likely need two mvhrs. Plan for that now. Give me a shout if you need any recommendations for trades/ professionals.

Our roofer was telling that we recently quoted for a job and the roofing merchant was quoting 26 weeks lead time on the particular tiles the customer wanted. Maybe it would be best to order everything you need to get water tight in one go. Then concentrate on the internals later.

order now. roof tiles. bricks. order 3 months before you need it blocks insulation roof trusses windows eveything else leave to last minute sand

Thanks @Carrerahill - you are probably right, especially when delivery time estimates turn into unhappy reality I found this one - https://spreadsheetpage.com/gantt-chart/house-construction/ - it seems to be pretty optimistic, but at least it provides me with the order of things!

I found a brilliant way of getting rid of site waste. I have a list of everybody that made my life a misery over planning, and on bin day I drive around in the night and fill all their wheely bins up with off cuts of plasterboard and pir insulation, it takes a fair while to drive around all of them but gives me a warm contented feeling inside.

the only consideration would be the need for insulation in the web under the soleplate to avoid cold bridging

Wash your mouth out with soap.

2 minutes a day, = 14 minutes a week. 14 minutes = average time to enjoy a pint. So, to go with an upstand tray I would lose out on 52 pints a year. F**K that.

Yep sorted now- tried the dry install they recommend and a complete waste of time and materials. Contacted them and they’re fine with a concrete install “It’s just not in the literature because it’s German”. the tank popped up like a U boat.