Roger440

The compressor itself trips out. I assume some king of ovrload or thermal trip.

I should probably clarify. The breaker doesnt trip. The motor pulses, and after 5-15 seconds, the compressor trip operates. Leave it a minute or 2 and you can have another go. Usually with the same result. Its a hydrovane compressor. It works fine at work. The farmer also confirmed his compressor used to do the same occasionally when it was in the same building (well the other side of the wall.)

Terminals all checked. Done that Im not seeing a volt drop with a meter plugged in to the socket thats its plugged in to. But i do see a rapid climb in current consumption when its about to cut out. Supply comes from the other half of the building. Its the incoming to that that i think is the issue. A small bit sticks out of the ground. Ive got 16mm armoured under my drive. Its WAY bigger than that. But thats not to say its that size all the way. Difficult to know. Not my farm

In the abscense of a garage at the moment, im renting a workshop at the local farm. Sadly, it seems the incoming electrical supply isnt up to much. Most stuff is OK, but the compressor is an issue. Basically, it struggles to start. The colder it is, the worse it gets, no doubt due to drag increasing on the motor. Clearly the right answer is to upgrade the incoming power supply. But not my farm or my building. Given the problem is only on start up, and just before it trips out at peak pressure, i only need short periods of extra incoming. Ive tried to find a solution, but not sure im using the right terms. Are the products avalable, such as a battery bank etc, that will, effectively support those peak loads? Im not sure im explaining it well, but hopefully the brighter minds than mine here might have some ideas? Im keen to avoid a generator as this is way to much messing about, though clearly, its an option. Thoughts?

As ProDave says, if its been up a while, i certainly wouldnt worry about building regs. Planning, thats worth checking as suggested.

Me too. But really want to do the fixed half. But not really doable. But it was the "hood" that made the big reduction in noise. The spill pipe on the return will get modified eventually. Only reason its not done is its 55mm pipe. Ever tried buying 55mm waste pipe................? Could be a really good product with a bit of thought and virtually zero extra cost.

This seems to be a problem with all of them. Clearly the designers dont have one themselves. Mines a Vortex too. Whilst the actual plant might be quite good, precisely zero thought went into the compressor and housing. It now resides in an enclosure in the wall. Its much better and probably wont bother most. But eventually im going to move it into the summer house, which is about 10m away. The vortex sellers said i would need a bigger compressor to overcome the increased resistance created by the longer pipe, but aside from that no reason it wouldnt work. The other problem was the sloshing of water noise. Ive created a sound proof hood over the entry point where most of this happens which is much better. If id known all this before, i might have gone with another septic tank and a drainage field.

Steel framed barn? Im all ears. Nothing useful to contribute though. Just something im considering. General-Lee posted a summary of his a couple of weeks ago. Is this north bucks?

I keep looking at this, but quickly realise that it actually starts to get quite expensive. And complicated. I want to water a flower bed using gravity from an IBC/Water butt. But ideally i want to fit some lawn sprinklers too. That means a minimum 1.5 bar. So a pump required. Then we need filtration on the incoming water. I can plonk the storage behind the summer house and collect that water. But its not enough water. The house and patio drain to a soakaway. Thats a lot of water. But how to get it to the the IBC? Ive got a chamber in the soakaway line that i could put a submersible pump into to pump when it rains. But again, more complication and expense. Or i could pump from the river to the IBC. But that 200ft away. So more expense and complication. And some control wiring to make it automatic. Much as its ecologically unsound, turning the tap on is much simpler!

I did once find plastic clip on skirting board, but unless you have arrow straight walls, that probably not going to look brilliant I did toy with the idea attaching the skirting boards with screws and nice brass cup washers, and simply remove after a flood and dry out. If you used a decent timber it should be ok. The main driver behind this is the front of the house is old 9 inch walls with lime plaster and mortar, so needs to dry out. So nothing "waterproof" can go on the wall

Im i correct in assuming you have rendered the walls in lieu of plaster? How does that look? Is it as smooth as plater? Definitely interested in the skirting board options?

I need to do this without any damage. Dry ice blasting looks to be the best way. Sadly, thats not DIY

Oh, i cant help myself. One more Q? Whats the build up of the side walls? Are these fully insulated all the way to the eaves? Ir are you just insulating the rooms independantly of the building?

I started a thread a few weeks ago on exactly this subject. A couple of Q's if i may? What goes on top of the joists in what is the roof void? Are you just leaving it as is? Im unclear on the planning. You say you only got planning for single story. If i understand from the responses to my thread, planning dont care whats inside, only about the outside, and as a consequence and opening such as windows. PS, nice user name, let me share one of my toys..........................

Im here

That concrete lip thats outside looks to slope inwards? If so, that needs correcting. Nice floor grinder required. Once thats done, an aluminimum strip, say 10mm high secured to the floor with countersunk screwws with a butyl strip underneath will stop it blowing under the door. I used the ally strip idea at work where we had a level threshold. Did the job for 15 years

I came up to dumfries last year in about may. To see a customer. I had the previous evening to my self, so after consulting pistonheads, as you do, had a good drive round that evening for a couple of hours. Absolutely fabulous. However, the guys in dumfries did say the midges were pretty bad late summer. Or is that not near enough the coast? IE, you need to be actually on it, like you are? I love it, but zero chance of getting the wife that far north Call me miserable, but i like the idea of getting away from people........ PS, i love what you are doing up there. (seen the other thread) Slightly mad, bonkers even, but hats off to you. That house further down the hill looked interesting, if rather a serious undertaking!

Tell me about. My neigbour commutes to canary wharf! I wouldnt, but plenty do. 10 mins drive to Milton Keynes station from here. 30 mins to Euston. Looking around at stuff as per ProDaves suggestion has me out to West Herefordshire or North Devon before im back in budget. Im OK with that. Wife is a little bit more reluctant at the distance. So, its trying to find something not so far away in budget, which is unlikely, or move far enough, which, for the reasons mentioned is probably only a bit more likely. If i can do it in budget, im happy to the majority of the work myself, to cut out the labour element as far as possible. I wouldnt be working as in a job, if i can do it in budget.

Hmmm. Need to look into this further i think. So just why does anyone waste time submitting all these detailed plans, if planning are not interested? Seems like hard work for the sake of it.

This is true. But - freeze to death on the east cost, or get bitten to death on the west! I just love the north west of scotland. Could i live there though? Probably not. I should have been staying in shieldag lodge just 2 weeks ago, but obviously that didnt happen

Absolutely. And this has been the focus of my attention. Probably because im here on this forum, barns aside, im attracted to an energy efficent, low maintenance house. Whilst that can be achieved with a 200 year old farmhouse, its an awful lot of work, probably more work than starting from scratch. Which is why i was looking at modern ag buildings. Build a good modern house inside it, at a lower cost than starting from scratch, and quicker, whilst getting the workshop space into the deal. But quality info on converting modern barns is hard to find. I guess, because, releatively they are few and far between.

I am 50 mins outside the M25. Just outside buckingham. A detached house with 1/2 acre is 800K Minimum. On a good day. Unless its listed. In which case you wont be building one anyway. Ive got 450k ish to play with. I know i need to move.

Im not sure you are correct. Why does every barn conversion plan have a floor layout? Indeed, every house? If that wasnt required, why does everyone do it? Surely just do an outside drawing, tick the planning box and get cracking. They are, however concerned with outward appearance. To function as a workshop it needs a big door! So its kind of obvious. You may be right however, though i dont think so. Happy to be proven wrong. Want to be proven wrong. But as with every option, i cant find out AFTER ive bought it. Sadly, every avenue comes back to this.

Yes, it is really. I already have the use of an industrial unit, OK, its rented which is part of the issue, But it starts to turn what is a hobby into a chore, or too much like work. You have to plan time to go there. Not like you can just pop across the garden and do a half hour of stuff. Even buckingham, the nearest town is only 4 miles away, which is where i work, on the industrial estate, takes 15 mins plus to get there. And the same again back. Thats aside from the cost. 3000 sqft unit, £400k!!! Only one for sale. Yes you could argue if thats the best i can achieve, i should suck it up. And i do. But i dont want that for the next 20 plus years.

We dont know the height of the existing building. If its over 4m its definitely not PD.