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We had our first air tightness test today and achieved 0.25 ACH!! 🎉 Absolutely chuffed to bits with that. We have spent a lot of time taping every possible penetration, but I was still anxious in case we hadn’t quite been as scrupulous as needed.

After my horrid time earlier this year I am now going to post something more positive. As of yesterday, I was offered a job, not ideal (is any job ideal), rather than working from home I must go to the office which takes 40mins each way and hubby is disappointed that he will be left on his own all day. That said even with time out for funeral 250 miles away and wet, wet, wet we have progressed. Some pictures. hardcore & binding (take 2 after previous issues) now the expansion foam around the sides The heave protection next then taping next was the rebar here is the pour on top of the rebar - 200mm drying concrete slab with no hint of everything underneath, typical building, lots of expense and nothing to see. the first row of outside blocks added showing the cavity first blocks over DPC with all the rain we have created a bit of a swimming pool It was at this point that we purchased a puddle pump as hubby really didn't like having to kneel and build low in water going up with some windows & doors framed insulation going in joining the existing walls to the new part this is where some of the kitchen cabinets will be hung, so although internal we are using heavier blocks to take any necessary weight On the left hand side you can see part of the existing barn that will be staying. The roof is currently being held up with barrels and wood building from scaffolding is a real milestone, makes it seem like we are getting somewhere. To protect the insulation, we have the original insulation from the barn roof cut up to provide a 'roof' over the cavity. Having made the frames for the remaining to windows these need to be placed in situ for building around. This area will be our front hall and snug. Of course, the front door will only be used by visitors, but we will go through the hall internally to get into the snug. With all the cavities it is smaller than I hoped, but with all the insulation it will be much warmer than our single skin house. Hope you enjoy the pictures, next time I hope to be at lintel and wall plate level, but we would like the weather to improve. Thanks for reading Jill

Hi, I’ve been a member for a while but have been mostly sitting, getting frustrated, waiting for our planning decision. 2 weeks ago we finally got our approval for a strawbale house in the village of Minard, in Argyll and Bute. Now we’re moving into the building warrant stage and at least this time, we’re prepared for a wait - our planning took ten months after being told ten weeks. I’m a bricklayer by trade and this one is going to be the last house I build. 61 years old and I’ve had enough, but definitely looking forward to getting stuck into this. Graham Walker

We made a last minute change and added a rooflight for the hallway. I considered a light tunnel instead but we decided that making a feature of the rooflight would add some interest to otherwise flat ceilings. It has a created wonderfully light airy hallway. I love the being able to see the sky when you walk in. There’s a glazed door to be fitted giving you a view to the hills beyond.

Hiya. I'm Scottish base and have family that live on one of the inner Hebrides and have lot's of experience dealing with BC on the Islands. Also I deal with Scottish Building Standards on a regular basis and have done so for the last 40 years. Some of the BC officers I know quite well, we have a chat on the phone about our careers and reminisce on how good the old times were. In other words they are folk just like us.. there is the odd exeption but that is life. In the round though BC officers actually do have your best interests at heart. It would be great to have a BC officer or two join BH! On the Islands there is a lot of politics. Some Island builders are really shite, cut corners in a big way, some are better / good. BC know who they are so maybe you are getting a heads up and not just seeing the wood for the trees about the work that has been done by others. Now you are doing a bit of work yourselves.. well how much and when did you start doing a lot yourselves? It is in your own interests to build your house right? There is always friction on the Islands... BC know this but are not corrupt at this level. There are loads of other Islanders and folk moving there that do DIY projects so you are not the first and last. @JWHIT "surely this is trespass" My advice.. get this right out your head now. If the BC officer can access your site then you have a Health and Safety issue and they can hammer you on that. The HSE law is quite clear on this all over the UK, if your site is accessible then you are on a hiding to nothing. Have a looked at your site security? Don't pursue this route as you will likely regret it. Too late for that, BC can hammer you much earlier. There is no argument in law for shoddy HSE by saying.. hey I'm insured. Insurance is for when you have tried to do your best and things still go wrong. If they can see bad things from outside the site boundary then surely.. you may be making a cock up? If you try and play hard ball with them then they will pull your trousers down and you won't get to pull them back up until they have run you ragged. Now you may feel that the BC officer has turned up with no appointment.. but they are allowed to do this under UK HSE law (not just Scottish law) .. part of their remit is pubic safety.. they can hammer you on this too! To lay it on a bit thicker they may start to ask if your project should fall under CDM regulations., just to give you the run around. In summary: 1/ Yes there is Island politics, don't worry too much about the main Island Contractor not getting the job. 2/ Phone the officer up and ask when they are next on the island and arrange to meet them in person. This is so imprortant. You are on an Island.. you must get to know folk.. the emails you get from BC only show a snap shot.. sometimes they write stuff that seems really daft / aggressive.. but they are pushed for time and under funded. Cut them some slack and cut yourself some slack too. Keep an open mind as while you see this as a personal opinion then they may be able to give you good advice? Also if you hit it off with them then later on when you apply for a completion certificate you'll probably find that part of the process much easier and not get hit with a load of things that don't conform. 3/ Build a rapport with the officer.. recognise that they may be trying to help you rather than hinder. You may have a young and inexperienced BC officer. Be very careful here not to bully as their boss will then give you the big stick! Listen to what they are saying.. put forward your ideas and have a bit of fun.. seriously they are just folk. To finish @Kelvin may be able to give you some advice about how you deal with BC when relocating to the north of the UK ( Scotland) 4/ Some of my family live on Tiree. Clocked this at the end! Well it does.. Some of the building regs are open to opinion / discussion / detailed design. BC officers often hold professional qualifications / have great experience. They are entitled to question. As before one big stick they do hold is the public safety issue (I do it too as an SE) . Lot's of folk on BH think that this is their house and they can do what they want. BC say and I.. that house has to last for 50 years at least and you may sell it to a family in a couple of years time. Our duty is not just to you but all the folk that come after. Just copied this right at the end. The above is misleading as if it is deemed to be a risk to public saftey then the LA can effect immediate access as what they do will call on the Fire service, the Police , gas board and me as an SE. You see.. who knows what building regs have been compromised? Is it just an extractor fan of a serious structural defect that could cause a gas leak? If push comes to shove and I'm acting for the local authority.. I'll find a legal way of getting into your property if I feel there is a safety issue. You are pissing in the the wind! If you have nothing to hide then you should be relaxed about all of this.

My 200m2 of porcelain have arrived from Italy today Two weeks from point of order It will keep me out of trouble this morning 💪🏻

Yep that’s the way to do it. don’t do little bits of ply though. cut a 250mm wide strip the length of all the cupboards.

This guy is a legend! Designs them and gives it away for free. Currently printing this ... SWMBO WILL HATE IT! 🤣 https://www.instructables.com/Time-Slider/

Typically needles penetrate the building in the room above the room where the steel is being installed. Yes they are disruptive and result in more remedial works but they are a significantly more robust and safer method of providing temporary support vs strongboys particularly in wide openings such as yours. No doubt strongboys and back propping joisting is used also by some, ultimately it's your call.

Hunted down some bits and diy ‘d it

HW cylinder £1k to 1.5k incl vat Depending on ASHP £2 to 3.5k incl vat Plus another £500 for misc bits and pipe.

+ I’d do this too exactly as @Russell griffiths suggests. Personally I’d big screw the new ply strip at the vertical joist locations, though it would go through the membrane it’s clearly going to be trapped and clamped and thus sealed. Also some good quality no nails along the length too. makes hanging those big units a doddle.

I got a provisional quote for boreholes when I was considering my options in 2019. The cost for two boreholes was estimated to be £17,000. Here is a comparison I made. I was effectively installing a completely new heating system with all new pipework as well as radiators. You'll have to ignore the RHI subsidythat was available at that time. ASHP GSHP Installation Cost £16,653 £23,528 RHI (No inflation) £10,255 £23,170 Difference £6,398 £358 Boreholes £0 £17,000 Property value enhancement £0 ??? Difference £0 £17,000 Running cost over 10 years £10,460 £8,270 Total £16,858 £25,628

I would recommend FAAC for the automation kit. Most of the kit knows when there is an obstruction and will stop. I wouldn't get a builder to fit it unless they have done them before. Will you have a keypad and intercom as well?

I just wanted to let you all know that this project is still pending. With rain every day for months and no time to do it, it could be another few weeks yet before it's done - but I will keep this thread updated with the outcome. Thanking you again for your help and contributions of ideas.

I would walk away. There is no way you can build a garage on top of next doors drainage field, even before you think about distances to the house. Unless an off site drainage solution was available for both houses I would say the plot is not viable. The minimum needed is permission from the land owner to the south for drainage fields for both properties to be installed under that field (assuming it is a field not other houses). If I was the vendor I would be looking for such permission, and then thinking of installing a large TP to serve both houses and the drainage field for it, then sell the plot as a serviced plot. That is about the only way I think it is viable.

Dunno wot you all fink, but this is sooooo much better than following Grand Designs..... Its not often that I read and re-read many posts as carefully as I do this series.

You could present the sellers with the problem and your view of it and allow them to investigate whether they have any solutions.

Now that I’ve looked at the block drawings I’d walk away. I wouldn’t want any aspect of my house relying on someone else’s land but nor would I want any aspect of someone else’s house relying on my land. Everything to do with our house is in our land. It’s easy to get over invested in a plot of land as you can start to see your finished house etc. It’s what I did on a previous plot but my wife hated it. We found a much better plot that very day. My dad used to tell me that if there’s doubt about something then there’s no doubt. So I’m with Russell, walk away.

Time to walk away, it looked overpriced to me.

Were you having a moment? Sorry, couldn’t resist that 😂

As a self builder haven't you been told to get the professionals in when your skill set isn't enough.....

We used Tescon tape. The wide one was handy for window reveals, and the split one was good for the fiddly bits.

If you could see PM10s, let alone PM1s, you could get a job in a chemical laboratory, would save getting the microscopes out. As I said, you are only convincing yourself.

Seems I can pick up a non fake 4.0 battery for £45. Will prob go with that and the dewalt recip from eBay at £65.

I am entirely convinced. My wood burner is a modern, Norwegian built Jotul F373, installed as I was building my house in 2016. It has exceptional performance and I use excellent wood which is sourced locally. When it burns you have to look very hard indeed to see anything coming out of the flue and on a gray day you won’t be able to see anything. I also had the flue cleaned and after 8 years of burning the guy said he could find nothing in the flue. in this 8 year period I have planted 208 trees on my property.

I've heard a lot of stories from bcos about incompetent work from self builders....and people expecting a free design service, Deliberate bodging and cocealment, usually by contractors Rubbish work by supposedly experienced builders. Promises to remedy a problem, only to find it ignored or concealed on a quick return. I don't fancy the job.

I always like it when my Grandmother said "5 and twenty past" or "Five and 20 to".

Then they need to supply parts at a reasonable price. There are 2 headlights in a car (sometimes more) I simply do not believe at manufacture time they cost £1600 which would have been more than 5% of the cost of the car (possibly a lot more)

I reckon the pot hole repairs round here last longer than the LED stuff (all makes) I've fitted. Green washing the lot of it.

I wish someone had told my electrician this! He fitted Saxby downlights. £10-12 each and they haven't lasted 18 months. I will systematically change them over time

At least you had the sense to fit light fittings where you can change the bulb. There is a growing trend for downlighters to have non replaceable bulbs. If anyone asks me to fit some (I would not buy them) I advise them to go and buy a box of spares, on the basis when one fails in a few years time, you probably won't be able to buy identical replacements.

And this is why all old pubs mysteriously burn down.

Remember to position the steels in the room on the floor before you put the acros and needles in, once you have it all propped you sometimes cannot get the steels in. I have seen this a few times. if the celcons are not strong enough you might need to chop them back and build up in 7n lightweight concrete blocks. you can also change the cavity into one solid pier.

As above. Why would I want a split unit that requires an F gas engineer, so I could not fit it myself, and why would i want the noisy bit with the compressor inside the house?

Yes you certainly will need temporary support of the external leaf. That is a significant opening and if I understand correctly has two storey of brickwork above it. Similarly I'd question supporting the inner leaf by solely propping the existing joisting. Sounds to me like a job for needles penetrating both leafs.

MY view on this is similar to few others, I arranged a Kick-off site visit with My BCO, this for me has always been a way of getting a positive relationship with the BCO officer, in Scotland with the Warrant the work is very formalised anyway. My invitation was open the discussion similar to "I'm planning on doing X, Y, & Z over the next few weeks, do you want to see any certain aspects? want me to send photo's? etc. and an open offer to visit whenever they were passing. I have nothing to hide, there experience and help is more valuable than then turning up ad-hoc IMHO. This worked to my advantage on the build they did call in one day and I went through the progress, all good, then when It came to pouring concrete, They were unable to visit due to other commitments so I sent photos and moved on with no issues. IF I was a BCO, and the client got twitchy with me turning up, I'd be suspicious. If its purely Insurance etc, I'm sure that could be worked around with a site visitors book for signing in etc. @JWHIT "it also seems to be the case that because we are doing a fair amount of work ourselves, and not using any of the main island contractors, they have sparked a particular interest " My View on this is simple, they don't know you or the quality of your work, so for me it's up to you to A; help them understand your ability and quality - i.e. let them see your work, your passion for the quality etc, B: be cryptic, evasive with them, and expect them to look under every stone to make sure their happy with the progress.

Do NOT inject any insulation in the cavity between a brick/block outer and the timber frame. Simply not a recognized system/method of insulating walls. Cellulose cannot be used in external masonry cavity walls.

Thanks @Gus Potter Happy to share my experience and how I approached it. When I got the warrant approval letter and therefore got the name and number of the BCO assigned to our build I made a point of asking a few folk that had built houses in the area what their experience of the BCO was. I also asked some of the trades I had lined up what they were like to deal with. The common feedback was helpful, pragmatic, and practical. I then called him to introduce myself and tell him a little about our project. I asked him how he liked to work and if he had any advice for me. He asked me which trades I’d lined up and while he didn’t offer a direct opinion on them I still got his opinion (if you catch my drift) What I did notice was that the trades I was using made a big difference. For example when I told him the groundswork company I was using he immediately said brilliant you’ll have no problems there which presumably helps him a bit too. They are busy people working in an underfunded department so getting them onside early is important. I can imagine that their approach on the islands will be quite different to my area due to necessity of geography. My BCO can drop in when he’s passing which he has done a few times. Yours can’t so when they are there they are likely to want to make the best use of their time. Plus you’re doing this yourself and their experience of people doing much of the work themselves is mixed hence his slightly more thorough approach possibly. The BCO told me of some horror stories when he first visited. All of that said, the guy might just be a bit of an arse, some are. If so you’ll need to bite your tongue a bit and work around that. One last point, whenever I’ve visited the islands I’ve seen lots of building work going on and very little in the way of security fencing in place. If that’s you then I’d make your site more secure. Your site insurance could be invalid if it’s not secure. Clearly Heras fencing isn’t the last thing in secure fencing but it stops people randomly entering your site.

In this case I think we all need to re address this question. a few diagrams would be good. im saying your biscuit mix is no good to support your tiles and you will need a load spreading board of some description.

Thanks to the relatively mild weather this winter i decided to start chipping away at the bathroom project, which is being extended into part of the extension which was finished over a year ago. This gave me the opportunity to install the bath, sink and toilet in the new bit, at which time I’d totally disconnected the old bathroom allowing me to strip it out and that’s worked really well for my as I struggle to do more than 4hours in a single day so I could keep doing a bit and stopping when I’d had enough. didn’t fancy tackling the ceiling for plastering in the new bit so got a pro in to do this bit for me, all done in a couple of hours which was nice. and made the most of the space and got the painting done after putting a layer of 10mm marmox board down ready to accept the underfloor heating mat Next job was to start making a frame to hold the toilet frame and the sink and cabinet Decided on making my own cabinet rather than paying silly money for an MFC one, got pine furniture boards, a pocket hole jig and a new router and came out with this which I’m pretty happy with that all got painted and the sink installed, wall mounted tap and the wet room panels that I’m using both for this and for the walk in shower area all installed. got to work cutting the OSB backing and wet room panel for the toilet in prep for the final big push to disconnect the old and commission the new, that was a hard days work! And then bath and toilet all installed once the shower area is complete the bath will be disconnected again to lay the underfloor heating, self leveller and the flooring before being put back in place, and eventually building the wall and plastering it. Made a start on stripping the old bathroom out Next job is to patch up the loft insulation where the old spotlights were, new wiring in place for a single light fitting this time, airtight membrane adhered to the walls and then battens before reboarding it ready for plastering. Floor is coming up also to be replaced with 22mm chipboard to match new bit.

Old house sink on the island. New house, sink on the wall and hob on the island. Far better for many reasons. Less mess, more sociable when cooking, looks neater etc.

A question that is ask on a regular basis Fixing track or studs to a floor without drilling I found this stuff to be cheap and the most effective way to fix I put these two bits of track down at 4 and built the stud up a 6

Or better still start a new thread in the appropriate section. This is the place we welcome new members.

Welcome Dee! It would be worthwhile changing the title to "Advice on floorboards after initial poor job" or something similar to get the attention of the right people.

I got timed on the editing so have reposted in full. My passport says I'm a citizen of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland." I do not support Scottish , Welsh or English nationalism in any way. We live on a small island and face many global threats to our way of life. We have a massive immigration problem, some legal, some not. It is putting tremendous strain on us., some is stressing out our health care system financialy.. but there is a big threat from radical "Islam". It is the big elephant in the room. In Scotland we have this new hate crime bill. I have to be very careful about what I say as I could face 7 years in jail for posting this. What you folk don't really know is that if you say something that can be read on the internet in Scotland then you are fall under Scottish law as you are deemed to have published this in Scotland. You could be hauled up to Scotland in our courts. Also if I report you for a hate Crime even anonomously it will go on your record , thus if you are say a teacher in England and they do a full record check then this will flag up that you have been recorded for a hate crime. Do you know about this? Now most of us up in Scotland are absolutely against this law. Also in Scotland the next thing they want to do is to abolish jury trials for rape cases as not enough blokes are gettting convicted. But Imagine if this was your teenage lad that got a bit pissed, the girl is pissed.. now it is down to a single Judge to determine rather than 15 adults. To make matters worse the Scottish Gov have now taken control of our legal system. @saveasteadingI wonder if this is cultural matter that has to be worked around pragmatically. Yes it is. It's basically a contrast between say living in London and contracting where every one is shafting each other and a bunch of adults being fair to each other in Wales or up Durham/ Yorkshire way. If you want to go culture then a Yorkshire man is one of the hardest folk to deal with. I know as have just had a Yorkshire man as a Client, six foot two, retired Quantity Surveyor.. we are still friends. Most folk in Scotland don't get hung up on folk moving about the UK. Some get touchy.. say I trucked down to Cormwall and started shoving haggis down your thoats? Now for you folks that do think that you want to have a bash at English nationalism.. Up in jockland we have 1/3 of the UK land mass. Also we the sea bed and fishing rights that extend 200 miles from the Scottish coast, the defense envelope that comes with that and a bit of oil, yes we may cut out the gas but you'll still need to oil the hinges on your doors? Yes I know when you look at the BBC weather forecast Scotland seems small.. but that is the BBC for you. We also have the land that defends the high north arctic circle, the big submarine base with deep water access. For the English nationalist.. do you really want to give away 1/3 of your country just to get rid of the jocks? Oh and then you'll give away Northen Ireland.. yah dafties! @saveasteading'Can you come and inspect the drainage trenches'? Yes of course: 2 weeks on Tuesday at 11.30 and don't fill them in. No.. It won't work up in the islands.. it needs much more give and take.. also our ferries don't run if they turn up at all. The Scot gov have just spent £400 million on two ferries that are stilll being commissioned, we could have ones that work for £20.0 million.. so we could have had 40 working ferries by now. Bc are still ok but seriously underfunded. All of my posts about this is trying to encourage @JWHIT not to try and apply mainland rules to an Island situation. It won't work. rather get with Island life and enjoy.

I've posted this before but take care screeding through doorways. You end up with the screed in two rooms joined by the narrow bit in the doorway. The screed in each room can shrink towards its centre causing a crack at the doorway. The crack is unlikely to be straight across but may curve significantly into one room and propagate through tiles/stone. The solution is some kind of expansion joint (aka deliberate crack) at the doorway. You can arrange it to be under a grout line or sill piece. In my case a curved crack propagated through stone laid in a Opus pattern so several pieces were cracked.

If the BCO can get into your site easily what about kids and thieves?

I used the Postsaver wrap on my last fence, but only 5 years back so much too soon to know how well it performs.

@Temp That is a genius idea, thank you. I shall be using it! I shall also include the timeline of when we notified of completed rectifications/documentation requested, and when he responded with new requirements, which will show up the times he has taken months to come back to us and also that new requirements have been thrown our way very late in the day, and in a piecemeal manner. The beauty of the spreadsheet is that it is all there to see, without having to actually put words together that sound like an accusation.