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Hi everyone, I recently got planning for a shepherd hut to use as a welfare cabin on my small plant nursery, and will also be renting it out for 28 days a year under the planning rule for Hollidays. After looking at Shepherd huts for sale online, I soon discovered that the one my wife would be happy with was over £40k, whenever my wife points to something that is expensive in the shops I always say 'I could make that'. This is the first time I actually decided to take the plunge and go for it, and so far it's been an eye opening experience, and more expensive than I first expected with the cost of materials going up by the day. Overall I have really been enjoying it, and haven't chopped my fingers off yet with my dads saws. The worst I had was falling off a ladder and twisting my ankle. I've learnt so many skills while building the hut and it's given me a lot of confidence to look into the possibility of building my own home one day. I was determined to do everything myself, but decided I should get a professional electrician, as it could be dangerous if I got it wrong, I have also decided to get a plumber to install the LPG gas boiler for safety reasons. The hut is a standard wooden framed building insulated with sheep wool (treated for moths) and internally cladded in Tulip wood reed and bead cladding, externally I have added a breathable membrane, added treated roof battens vertically and then used flat head stianless steel annular ring nails to hold the Siberian larch feather edge cladding in place. The roof beams are made of Tulip wood and treated with two coats of osmo oil and then I will be fixing a corrugated roof to the top. The windows are hardwood double glazed and the door is a composite stable door. The flooring which I have recently finished is laminate flooring by quickstep which is water proof. I am at the point where I need to put the drain pipes and soil stack in place and connect the toilet shower and two sinks, I also need to do all the plumbing water pipes, which I thought I'd use push fit flexi pipe for. I have recently joined the forum as I really need some advice on the best way to do the drains and plumbing. I have a water well on site that feeds into a holding tank and has a gravity fed booster pump to get the water pressure to 2bar and a domestic sewage treatment plant that the 110mm drain pipes will run to. I'm looking forward to getting some advice and hopefully doing lots more DIY projects without killing myself Jonny

Our Scottish Larch has been on for around 11 months now and has stays remarkable straight. So no complaints, photo was taken a couple of weeks ago after oiling. About 30 roads miles from woods, to saw mill and my house.

the other option is to build a cabinet on the boundary to house elec and gas meters as a few of us here have done. when they disconnect get them to make the capped connection in the cabinet ready for you to connect if you wish after putting pipe in ground, just in case.

New toy alert !! Cooooooorrrrrrr . Makes drilling into steel easy . Must remember to disconnect power when SWMBO is standing under it .

Tapered wooden peg knocked in and glued, cut them flush when dry and if you want to then a quick smear of a part wood filler into any remaining holes. Use 5 Min Polyurethane glue so you don’t need to wait for it to set overnight.

As I have said previously I am thinking about installing solar PV on my garage roof, @ProDave installed his own (and got a bike shed out of it as well) I just came across this on fleabay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323762945539?hash=item4b61c67e03:g:tZoAAOSwiwZcG6G6 Which seems a good price but interestingly enough I also came across this in the fine print Not that I am thinking of using FIT We offer full MCS commissioning from £345 meaning you can self install the system and we can sign it off

@SuperJohnG may be able to help recommend someone in your area for the soil survey.

SEG pays 7.5p per unit, so the £345 quoted above for an MCS cert could pay back in 1-2 years if you failed to self use much of the output (e.g. during the build??). And the 20 years after that is pure profit. That's without going on Octopus Agile outgoing which is currently paying 30p/unit, I hear?? So could pay back within this summer. Over 20 years, who knows what will happen to export prices, but if they continue to rise above inflation, you'll kicking yourself in a decade.

Sorry but as the one dissenting voice here, but I would spray the lot off with glyphosate (RoundUp, Gallup360 etc) and then top soil over the lot when it’s died back and then seed or turf. Anything else you’re just asking for it to come through.

There may be a lanyard attached so that you can hook it onto a beam/scaffold in case the power fails. More to protect the machine and those below than the operator. It is not uncommon for the power to be switched off by the operator, oops, or someone below.

No, he finished my turnbuckles 😇

Why are you not having a pressure reducing valve as the supply comes in or just in front of the softener?

Dithering idiot here. Got a bit more £ & going flue out back now, not straight up. A birch tree adjacent to cabin LHS I hadn't accounted half overhangs cabin. So flue the extra 2ft further back is best. Thx zoot.

I would ask for supply to be cut off via your supplier. They will most likely want to take the meter away and cap the pipe. Once this occurs your standing charge should become deleted. This should be reverse of what we had when being connected. Once meter installed standing charge started, even though a gas supply was in the property for several months.

I have gone the same route with heat pump, solar panels and battery storage. Changed the gas stove to induction after using gas for 40 years. Had the gas meter removed and capped to make sure i avoided the daily standing charge which amounted to £92 a year.

It’s cutting oil, mix it roughly 1 part oil to 20-30 of water. WD is good but a squirt from a spray bottle or washing up liquid bottle every few seconds keeks the bits cool .. more important on the bigger diameter cutters.

Sounds like a good compromise. I'd keep the MVHR in the plant room for noise and serviceability. Run the ducts through the first floor posi joists for the ground floor and up through the attic and into the bedrooms etc for the first floor. Make it all a warm roof with a glulam ridge beam and cellulose filled I joists. It'll make it easy to route services and deal with airtightness.

I don't understand what you're saying. Install now (or ideally March) to get max summer electricity generation. Deferring to October is about the worst option as you get the wear and tear (and expiry of warranty) of having it installed over winter with virtually no generation to show for it

My effort. It's tricky to make it look ok with the ends of the main roof pitch clipped into gables. The main roof pitch is 40deg into a 20 deg catslide over the porch, Similar at the rear. Trying to keep the number of roof surfaces to a minimum.

Adam, thanks for your input, appreciate it. May I ask whereabouts in Dorset you are? I've been communicating with a few suppliers in China and they nearly all have an MOQ that makes it slightly less of an incentive to import just for my own install. And the pricing isn't far off the retail for the Cool Energy units by the time you've added Vat on the import and handling by my air-freight courier. £3k for the 9kW inverter machine looks like a fair deal now. Is this the unit you have?

Bugger. You've been let down here I feel. However it is what it is. I don't know your supplier but Walltite have a video of foam+ stone. Maybe worth a call.

Just been reading up on this and found this sentence interesting….. The Act contains no enforcement procedures for failure to serve a notice. However, if you start work without having first given notice in the proper way, Adjoining Owners may seek to stop your work through a court injunction or seek other legal redress. Yes you are digging within 3 meters of their footings and as long as yours is no deeper than the 45’ rule you don’t need to mitigate your design. Your neighbour is just being a pain in the arse and as they won’t answer the Door don’t try being nice anymore, if your building inspector is happy I would crack on and let them do the running re “legal redress”.

Hi and welcome. Do you really need a party wall agreement? As you are not fixing to, altering or undermining their property there should be no problem or reason. sounds like you have tried to be considerate and respect their privacy etc. I would just crack on with it now

The Siberian larch wasn't quarter sawn, it was flat sawn like the Scottish stuff. Same supplier (Russwood), same machined profile. When we were first making inquiries, the supplier specifically warned that there'd be more movement over time with the Scottish stuff, and I have no reason to doubt that.

is this about fitting really, or

No problem @MikeGrahamT21 Thank you for responding. I hope you feel better soon. I'll do some digging around 😉

I’ve looked at this . 40mm tiles - which limits choices somewhat . So instead I’m going for ‘ plastic ‘ type recycled decking .

It was the Arkiplan number that I found to be quite high (used their instant online quote), didn't go as far as sending Draw+Plan anything via email as I'm sure we will use our architects anyway. Happy to share their details via PM, no complaints from me apart from the design process taking longer than I had originally envisaged. That's more down to the number of different directions we went (refurb, new build, changing exterior finishes etc). They've certainly been quite patient given everything.

East West need 1 mppt each. Optimisers not useful if not shaded. Two small £250 inverters require you to mount with 8 screws and connect 2 AC cables. One big inverter with dual input requires 4 screws and 1 AC cable. They can share the cable running back to the consumer unit. The DC side is identical. These even have the isolation switches and WiFi built in. It's all of 30 minutes work to screw both units on the wall and wire them. Most of the work is getting the DC cables to them and the AC cables to them. I don't know of a low power dual input inverter with dual DC isolation switches built in that's compatible with your current ratings and costs £500. Search by all means but this is what I decided was best for a small south + west arrays on my own house. When my hideously oversized and inefficient but £50 3.6 kw dual input Aurora inverter goes pop that is. Can't justify £450 to replace what already works given that I'm spilling much of the generation as is. (1x "1.6 kW" array, 1x "1.2 kW" array, but built from £140 worth of secondhand 20yr old panels with bad orientation, because they were there on eBay and nicely offset the daytime hotel load)

Are you suggesting that @pocster can’t use a tape measure to get the holes in the right place ..???? He’s got great skills in measuring ….

If you have a prescribed ridge height in m above ordnance datum then that is serious and provable. If a height above ground then you will have some leeway. 100mm up will save 100mm down, and surely not trouble the authorities.....although they might be reading this.

I've only done the top and bottom so far... 😉

Guns are bad for you

Did they detail what the MSC is? …. Marine Stewardship Council maybe, Midlothian Stolen Cycles? I wouldn’t bank on it being worth the money it costs

And I just assumed trusses, but maybe not. Everyday is a school day

Like that. What did it cost, £39K? 😂