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Hi, I have been living in a static caravan adjacent to our plot for the past few months. I have a wife and two girls and we have been managing fine for the past few months. There are a few tips I would share. Cite your caravan in a sheltered area from the wind and rain, fortunately we have a large outbuilding to our south side, an embankment to the east and trees to the north and west. We have heard but not felt the past two storms. Additional insulation where possible, I added 2 inch foiled insulation board to the underside of the static home (keep vent paths clear) and added a thick skirting to the caravan. This stops the winter draft sapping the heat from the under side of the caravan. We also put rubber matting over the tin roof above the sleeping quarters. Rain and hail amplify off the tin roof! My wife is a light sleeper and found this beneficial. Space is obviously a premium. Take in things you essentially need. We downsized significantly, including clothes. Use as you need, try and keep it down to 1-3 pairs of everything each (cept skivvies, need several). If you can, add a sizable sheltered porch area, we have a 2m2 one but could have don'e with a bigger one. We have a retractable washing line, cat box and seats out in it. Very handy. Static homes can have a few draughty spots, esp with built in furniture. Find and insulate as you see them. Because they are draughty, you may get moisture build up inside. A 2kw plug in de-humidifier will be essential. it will keep furniture, clothes, carpet dry. Keeps the RH of your caravan down, which if you are staying for a long period is essential - I wood burner will help do this too. Thankfully we can wash and dry clothes nearby which saves a lot of set up. If you can, you could use an ex-site office iso container - it will have connections for light, heat, water and foul waste. a used 20ft one can cost 2-3k. We have two children in one small room - it used to have those skinny single beds and room for not much else. We took those out and put in small bunk beds, slots in nicely and left more room for ikea storage furniture for toys/clothes. If I remember any more il post them. Good luck, it definitely is an experience - always remember its only temporary and its for a greater goal. Don't let cabin fever set in!

Pipe connected and working beautifully.

My thinking and what I believe.

Phosphoric acid works by converting red ferric oxide (rust) into black ferric phosphate. Nothing to do with lead, the black comes from the natural colour of ferric phosphate. Ferric phosphate is a pretty good primer base on steel, as it will provide a degree of further corrosion protection, will readily absorb oil to provide further corrosion protection for "blacked" steel parts and bonds well to further paint coatings. In this case, I'd be inclined to just wash out all the bits of rusty swarf and then just wipe away any staining if you can. Phosphoric acid isn't a very strong acid, but if you can avoid using it I would. If you do get phosphoric acid on particles of swarf it will probably make them more corrosion resistant for a time, but they will start to rust again before long.

It'semi-rigid netting to close off the narrow gap around the edges of on-roof PV arrays, to stop birds from roosting/nesting under the panels. The reasons for stopping birds getting into this narrow gap are to prevent damage to the electrical connections under the panels, and to prevent old nests becoming a fire risk.

825mm here from finished floor to top of basin. Good for me and I'm 6'4" and a bit.

Mine is at nom. 445mm, floor to top of seat: Bit about it here, with other's thoughts, to save you wading through War & Peace: EDIT: Page 20 of W&P as I cant seem to link the page.

I think from memory I might have CT1'd the back of the basin to the tiles too...I certainly did the pedestal to the floor and the basin to the pedestal. That alone would probably hold things up! It was cleaned of flush with the Fugi silicone tool, then when dry gone over with a bead of Forever White.

Just a strong, waterproof wood glue https://www.toolstation.com/d4-wood-glue/p61864?

Tbh you could go 8 or 9x2 even. Try and avoid your sink fixing screws hitting the screws that fix the noggin. I went a bit ott and let the 6x2 into the studs. I did you'll note add a cheeky 2" onto the 6x2 (on the right hand side) which was a bit short! Everthing screwed and D4 glued.

Driven by where it sat on the pedestal. Then sat it on a stool roughly the right height just to get a feel. Aim was to have the fixing bolts dead centre along the 6x2. It really is solider than a solid thing. There's a bit here about it too:

My sink screws to the bfo 6x2 screwed in horizontal: Then the sink fixings (bought seperate from S'fix) that have a bolt thread one end and a woodscrew the other end into that 6x2: If I hadn't have had a pedestal I'd have overboarded with 1/2" marine ply rather than 1/2" mrpb.

I have a SS Franke Mythos, which I like and have had for about 5 years. Retail about £600, but I looked around and paid £400. Came with nice metal drainer to go over half sink or half of main sink, plus a glass thing on runner - maybe for peeling etc. And a deep lip around the sink and drainer, which I value. I think one of your criteria should be a thickness of 0.9mm or 1mm not 0.7mm. I have an extendi-tap which is good - B&Q half price in a sale. I think solid taps are worth spending some on, as they get used so much. Ferdinand

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/franke-renodanube-polished-stainless-steel-15-bowl-sink-tap-waste-kit-60-at-bqs-3406739 Saw this advert the other day

To maximise the RHI the EPC definitely needs to be around the very bottom of the allowable level. I found that if you reduce the heating requirement, by having a decent level of insulation and good airtightness, the RHI reduces to the point where it doesn't make sense to have an ASHP installed by an MCS installer, as the "MCS premium" that's charged may well exceed the additional money received from the RHI. In our case the RHI payments were only going to be a bit over £80 a year for 7 years, no where near enough to cover the "MCS premium".

Make the house airtight and well insulated - especially the ground floor - and add MVHR and the space heating costs can be reduced to the point where ASHP v gas will make little cost difference. The gas boiler / heat pump can be swapped later but the insulation / airtightness / ventilation is a far bigger job. A single ASHP should be fine for both floors.

I could not agree more, so often we see people on this forum posting about poor quality workmanship and how to deal with it... (we also get some great positive stories as well ) It must be such a stress to have to confront these dodgy builders if your not used to / or don’t like confrontation......

On the fourth picture showing the chimney? flashing shouldn't the cut by the vertical pipe be tucked under the pipe flashing? It's not been dressed at all and is appalling. It's so disappointing when so called professionals carry out work so badly. It's the reason I ended up doing so much of my build myself.

It does come off with a rub of your finger so I did wonder about just using a dishwasher sponge and a little water in the gutter and go along and flush it all clean.

My take on Council Housing is different. I do not believe that Councils should run *any* housing. Too many conflicts of interest. I think that local politicians having potential control over particularly allocation of housing is an open door to corruption, and I think evidence shows that this happens, and that the honesty of local politicians faced with such temptations is put at risk. Where the same organisation is responsible for allocating such huge individual benefits, and also needs the votes of those people, the conflict of interest is just too great. Some may think that is an insult to Councillors. I say Councillors are human beings with feet of clay, just like the rest of us, and one key to honest administration is to prevent dishonest administration offering benefits. 5 days ago a member of the Royal Borough of Greenwich Housing Scrutiny Committee was found guilty of defrauding the Council of £67,000 by obtaining a Council House through Fraud by False Representation. That is a 4 year Councillor, and there is always a constant stream of such stories. The Councillor concerned owns 3 other (at least one substandard with vermin) houses rented out privately. An example of my second previous point. I think that creating monolithic estates of tenure is partly an exercise in trying to build voting blocks, beholden to particular political tendencies. Now, both of those points sound perhaps one sided - however remember that Lady Shirley Porter and the "Homes for Votes" episode, which was also about gerrymandering from the other side. The opportunity for this to happen should not exist. For these reasons I am also highly suspicious of attempts to frame a debate as Private Rental vs Council Housing, entirely ignoring Registered Social Providers. That feels like an attempt to being to reintroduce the type of gerrymandering I have excoriated above. Why should these people want to create conflicts of interest in Councils? I am a fan of the Right to Buy, as it gave 2 million households a potential escape from dependence, micro-control by politicians, and poverty, which is worth its weight in gold. It also started the process of breaking up all those monolithic blocks of tenure; also valuable. I think the failure was failing to replace stock, and also of tackling abuses - which could have been done; but I have some sympathy with Mrs Thatcher's failure to do so via local Councils, as throughout the 1980s (iirc) there were a lot of somewhat (!) rogue Councils out there imo. I think the people who failed to grasp the nettle were particularly Mr Major and then Mr Blair. My take is that: 1 - Social housing should be built and managed away from polticians, by law. 2 - Councils have a proper input on policy, but their input on individual decisions should be questioned. I can tell some horror stories about unlawful actions wrt private rentals by Councils, where unlawful actions have been taken because they can with virtual impunity, reckless as to the interest of the tenant concerned. 3 - Councils have a role as customer for new housing, and scrutineer for those running the,. Direct Labour organisations should remain part of history. 4 - If they are run by Registered Providers, then small estates are OK. I am undecided about RTB for Housing Associations. 5 - But the current practise of putting small numbers of social houses in other estates where suitable is probably better, as is the practise of Housing Associations buying individual houses on the open market. Other BHers disagree with this view, and we have argued it before. One other issue is rich people staying in Council Houses, when policy for at least 20 years (and I think a lot longer) has been needs-based allocation. Should people in the top 5% (say) of incomes be able to keep a Council House when they can afford their own and someone is in a B&B waiting? The usual argument is "Council Houses are for everyone for life", but that has not been policy for decades. I am not entirely clear in my view about this, but it is partially also a supply issue - back to Major and Blair. Ferdinand

Hi These are close to me, south of Ringwood Oak Craft At Holmsley Mill I know of them but have not used them. mike

Using some quality cable made all the difference to the poor signal from my loft aerial.....WF100 / CT100 grade of cable and not the standard stuff sold in DIY stores:- (other colours also available) https://www.aerialsandtv.com/product/black-cable https://www.aerialsandtv.com/knowledge/cable-connectors-and-leads/the-three-main-types-of-coax-cable#copper-foil-satellite-grade-cable

I always use clear CT1 to do the fundamental sealing, for waterproofing etc, wiped back to the point it’s not noticeable, and then apply the most minimal bead of silicone I can get away with. Silicone doesn’t last much more than 5 years or so, after being wiped / cleaned etc, so I treat silicone as a sacrificial, cosmetic seal rather than the fundamental and cosmetic seal this chap seems intent on creating in one go. A good video for ‘DIY / daily drivers’ but not what I do. The last thing you want is for silicone to get a hairline gap and start letting water in constantly, whilst you carry on bathing / showering x times a day and the water is merrily soaking into the house structure for the duration, undetected. I’ve done loads of insurance jobs where the room looks immaculate but the studwork and plasterboard are completely turned to mulch. That’s been solely down to tiny amounts of water being absorbed by the fabric of the house, day in day out, over a number of years. One job where I could literally just squeeze the 4x2 and wring it like a sponge. Two bathrooms back to back so the bath hid the leak from the en-suite shower until the downstairs ceiling eventually gave up the fault. Finished that job on a new years eve, ( just as their guests were arriving I was getting shown out via the ‘staff exit’ ), and not even a cold beer or king prawn in breadcrumbs made it in my direction. ?

Cost verses value. My main philosophy is that if I feel getting a better product is beneficial to the long term quality of the house then the cost is immaterial. Lets say you can spec a better floor and the price goes up £500, so what that is a tiny price to pay. I would rather spec the fabric of the building as best I can and buy a cheaper kitchen, you can upgrade kitchens and bathrooms, but that bouncy floor will annoy you till the day you move.

hi Gem, I lived in a static on and off for two years during our build. How much can you get done in the house/build before August?, if you could get the kitchen done then laundry and cooking will be taken care off, one bedroom to all sleep in, heating the caravan in later months will be difficult/costly but still cheaper than renting somewhere else so creating a flat in one room in the build will help in the winter. All living in the van will be “fun” at first but as the weather gets colder the novelty will wear off. Although you say self build, how much are you doing and how much (if any) contractors, if using contractors try to get them organised (if that’s possible!) with tight timescales to enable you to move in ASAP. Best of luck and keep us informed (we’ve all been there?).

I would buy two Smaller vans and park them parallel but with a decent gap between each and build a roof over the top, put Your washing machine, dryer and various other bulky things under the roof as well as all boots and work gear and keep the space in the vans for living. Sleeping in one with a space for the kids to cause havoc and the other one for cooking and general living. I have lived in various huts and caravans in my life I now really like the idea of keeping cooking and sleeping separate ! Also I have kids and like that they have there own space to play that does not overflow into my cooking / relax space..... but that may be just me.

We spent 18 months in a static caravan on site through the coldest winter for years (remember the beast from the east) That was just me, swmbo and our daughter. With 3 boys you are going to have to look at a much larger 'van than we had, possibly a twin unit if you want a bedroom for each of the boys? We had the washing machine etc in the part built house and I also had a desk and office set up in the house. That was where most stuff was stored as well. You need to seek out your local caravan dealers, there will be some and they usually have the large flat bed trucks to transport them. When finished you can just sell privately and the buyer will have to pay a transport company to move it. The one we bought however was actually advertised for sale on a site. We wanted it because it had a very unusual layout that suited us and had not seen one before, so we talked to the site owner and they were happy to sell it and have it taken off the site. I believe it just got replaced with a new one of the same type on that site.

I've never really bought into the whole 'housing crisis' thing. For as long as you can struggle to sell a perfectly good one bed flat, in a lovely fully modernised, 5mins walk from a 35min train ride to Glasgow, for peanuts then I don't buy it. It's a narrow view but I'm fairly confident it's a pattern across the country. As my estate agent explained, young people don't want to buy old flats and would prefer a 2 bed to save them up sizing later. I sold my wee flat for 60k.60k! It cost 50quid a month in gas and electric. Was massive for a one bed. Own kitchen. That was two years ago, flat downstairs is in market for 62k. It will take ages to sell. What's my point? There is no barrier to getting a house. Not really. But so many people are so indulged, so spoilt, so molly coddled they create their own barriers because they want to live in a certain area in a certain house and won't be realistic. Look round any area of Scotland and there are plenty cheap houses and flats. You'd think Scotlands housing was unaffordable - it's not.