curlewhouse

We got some road planings for £8 a tonne delivered as a temporary measure when the site got muddy, but I'm so pleased with how they've bedded in that I'm going to use them as the bed before my own gravel driveway goes in (the plan is to use ecogrid stuff in between to keep the gravel in place and the same eco grid where my driveway crosses the village green, but with grass growing through it on that part).

I remember a deep gravel car park behind some premises put in at a nearby market town some years ago - the first cars onto it were completely stuck and had to be towed out!

Mind, doesn't the whole self build process make you realise how this country is choked by red tape? Some control is sensible, but the bureaucracy is way out of hand now.

Quite a decent offer on just now at LED Hut , BOX15 discount code from Boxing day presumably on till New year (15% off) . I've just successfully used it on 28.12.17 so it's still running. I've just saved us about £60 all told on lights for the downstairs bathroom and utility. Theres also a £5 discount code REWARD-4496-TDX4T-XVFK - don't know how long that lasts, I think longer than the BOX15 one will. I've bought their stuff before and so far it's all been decent quality. The LED panel fittings for example have 5 year warranties on.

I like that idea of your book. We are well beyond that stage now ourselves, but I find the self build book range curious in that the most common books just give a skeleton overview or the process, or you are into very technical books, and there is little in between, which is kind of exactly the ground where self builders need to get information once they are past needing the skeleton plan stage. So each book that fills one of those skeleton categories is a good thing.

I am now a Parish councillor! I can say in truth, it seems to vary with locality and time. Opinion from more experienced ones than I is that here we have very little sway and simply give an opinion which if not supported by other input is basically ignored. This could be because my own experience showed me that our National Park planning officers have a tremendous superiority complex and our authority sees itself as more "in charge" of the occupants of the park than "working with". So if we were to seriously object to something I cannot say how much notice would be taken, but then our Parish Council (my father was on it for about 30 years) has rarely if ever formally objected actually. Interestingly, some years back a house was built with no planning permission whatsoever (!) and the Parish council raised this with the authority - nothing was done!

I have to say, we put an Ikea kitchen in our last house and the build quality was amazing (good) - it wasn't their cheapest, but it was nowhere near "designer" money (this was a few years ago, so I can't speak for currently) but we were surprised at how much better quality it was compared to what it replaced. I got a joiner relative to fit it and he decided to recommend them in future to customers, saying it was the most solid of the mass produced ones he'd worked with. Having said that, like 3 piece suites, 99% of kitchens are basically made out of junk underneath the covers, with a truly staggering markup. I mean if you were designing from scratch, who would choose chipboard as a base material in areas which may get wet? One leak under the sink and with most kitchens you've got a soggy mess. I do think that like suites, kitchens are a big quality con job (like mass built houses) that everyone just goes along with as A. they don't know any different and B. the price jump to good quality is big. Early on we'd looked in B&Q and when even their display models were rattly and falling to bits, it kind of told you everything you needed to know! As JSH says above, I'll be doing the fitting myself this time, which will take a lot longer, but means a careful job. Our joiner was great last time, but I simply can't afford it. Interesting to read about delivery and Howdens - my branch simply says they don't deliver anything! I've not bought a kitchen from them but got doors from there and what a pain it was to get them to book them with a courier.

Our lender insisted on a warranty. Which has been a nightmare as regards the inspections which you may see as I've posted about it elsewhere. So be careful who you choose. Feel free to p.m me for who I used, as caveat emptor is all I can say!

When I had a small mail order parts business I tried all ways to get reasonable carriage costs to H&I so I could offer it for free but just no way could I get it.

That's good news. We had a 6 month wait, which seemed long enough! I had done the trench and pipework and after a month of waiting for them backfilled it on the grounds of safety - and when they came to "inspect" the pipework 6 months after I'd told them it was ready, my wife handed the guy a spade and said "help yourself" ? . He then decided that our pipework was excellent and he didn't need to inspect it after all ?.

I just bought gypocks own specific plasterboard screws. Not very expensive and do the job perfectly. They are coated presumably to avoid any future corrosion staining risk.

This is more of a comment than a question. For all that the principle of sips has been around since the 1930s, we have found a staggering level of ignorance about them from people who youwould expect better from. At first, just finding builders who were interested in doing the stonework proved problematic as some shied away or I had to explain what sips are to them, even though it's really just like doing it around timber frame. Needless to say we went no further with those ones. Then we found that even our building inspector knew nothing about them & was/is *highly* suspicious of them, querying even their approval status & forcing us to do research for him quite literally every step of the way as well as adding some silly restrictions demonsrating a complete lack of understanding of the system (at least one of which would cause quite a loss of heat if we went along with it). The most recent person has been a window company "surveyor" who has also been very reticent to deal with the build, with some weird ideas (I thus spoke to this big national window company's *senior* "surveyor" about the delays this has caused & had to actually also explain to *him* too what sips are!) At its basic it is simply a much improved form of timber frame of course, but it has been an eye opener at how narrowly educated such a wide variety of the trades are & how nervous at the thought of anything "new". Our builders have just got stuck in, it has to be said, but if I were doing this again, or was advising someone just about to, I'd say to definitely double check that your building inspector had dealt with sips before, ditto any other trades who would be coming on site to interact with the structure - not because there is any issue whatsoever with sips, (in truth a lot of things are actually far simpler with it), but because of how poorly educated the trades from BCOs onwards seem to be about anything beyond brick & block & how nervous they are about anything different & the delays this can cause due to imaginary issues they may develop.

Yes, when we came to sell our old house I took out the wiring etc. for the outdoor pond, workshop etc. which I had done for these very reasons. All was within the regs of course (I grew up with an electrician father and he even to this day keeps a hard copy of the latest part P in the house long after he has retired) but I wasn't going to pay up for an inspection or for some sparky to claim he needed to do work on it. Their solicitor still tried to whinge about the fact I'd replaced the double glazing on the porch myself so had no FENSA certificate - so I said fine, don't buy the bloody house then , no skin off my nose . I asked them what was next, a certificate that the carpet was laid by a carpet fitter, a fishmongers certificate for the fish in garden pond? Its a racket I wasn't going to entertain. At that point they decided that I "must have only replaced the glazing units themselves" and not the whole things, frame and all, and thus no need for a FENSA cert. and went ahead with the purchase. It is a bit of a joke anyway when you look at the reviews of some of the major window fitting firms, all of who will self issue a FENSA certificate!

Go on, someone say "thermal mass"

I rather like the smell of real creosote actually.

I've just got to go through 150/200mm of sandstone - I'm wondering now if I'll actually get away with some eBay cheapies instead of anything more expensive.

Thanks. To be honest I think I put the fear of God into them when they came to resolve things and have a suspicion that here onwards things will be a lot simpler. I also suspect if I make a complaint I'll be subject to even more scrutiny in revenge - I'll see how I feel at the end (but if there's more nonsense I'll immediately go the formal route). I've advised the SIPS company of the issues re this particular firm (though they knew as of course I've had to keep bothering them too wth the BCO questions), so hopefully they can pass that to future clients so they don't have the problems we have.

I've smeared the staples we've done so far like you say JSH and indeed it's invisible. Bit of a "clart" (as we say up here) to do so, but effective. However, I got home from work yesterday to find that my wife had been busy putting VCL up and was finding the repeated action of the stapler was hurting her hands, so I rang BCO and said would an adhesive do, and if so (rather than go through more nonsense) just tell me up front which type/brand they like.... to which he now said I was correct all along and that with the studding screwed on the VCL could never come off so theres no reason to be prescriptive over staple spacing and he is now only concerned about the staple spacing at overlaps, (taped anyway of course) which should be ....... 300mm! (yes, after all that!) . I could have blown a gasket, but I'm too exhausted these days ! I think I was too gobsmacked to react! So basically, what I was already doing with that small proviso of accuracy at overlaps.

Unfortunately as the warranty is tied in (and paid for) it's no simple matter to sack them - if it was just the BC aspect, I'd have dropped them the first day he queried if Kingspan SIPs (all of them with prominent BBA stickers on them) were "an approved building material", as that was a clear red flag. However, I had the "Warranty Engineer" and my BCO here today to resolve matters. I set the tone by refusing to shake their hands (I've never done that in my life) saying "you try and stop me building a home for my family and then expect me to shake your hand? Your lucky I'm not throwing you off my site" - I thought it was best to set the correct tone from the start . I've been polite long enough. Anyway, they definitely want me to ruin the VCL by stapling every 200mm and thus putting several thousands of pin holes in it or they won't approve the warranty. I pointed out to them that it will thus be water vapour permeable and no longer actually a VCL, but they say that's what Kingspan has now specified. They still couldn't explain to me how the VCL will allegedly fall off if not stapled exactly every 200mm when it will have studding screwed into it every 600mm (though its on the wall now stapled at about 300-400 centres and has been there 2 weeks) . Their reply is just that this is what Kingspan specifies - I told the engineer that he wasted all those years at university if he could not use his own brain and THINK - because as a non-engineer even I cant see how the VCL could magically pass through studs and fall off. Anyway, the main point was to ensure we weren't continuing to have these discussions and me doing research for them at every single item, the VCL staples are just the most recent issue. So after about half an hour I got them to tell me now what else they want to see from here on rather than waiting until I've done it then "ambushing" me, pointing out that since they are applying rules over and above those in the building regs, without being a mind-reader, how can I comply? I also pointed out more than once that I've been unable to find a single person who has been subject to this level of scrutiny and asked them why I therefore see utter cr*p being allowed for the volume builders to get away with (since they do BCO work for some of the bigger firms too). They claimed they are this fussy with every build. Both admitted to me they don't have part P certificates, so I told them that I will not take any notice of their views on electrics and that they open themselves to potential legal action if they go around giving instructions on electrics in their professional life. I also asked them if they think a self build is likely to "bodge" things - and to be fair they admitted to me that our build is actually way above the standard they usually see. I said that "unlike some hairy *rsed bricklayer on his 500th house build, (my actual words) this house matters hugely to me, so there are no corners cut anywhere and if anything quite the reverse thus no need for micro-management". I think we came to an understanding by the end (basically they just be sensible, and I wont trash their name everywhere I can) and I did shake their hands! Its a shame it had to come to such an unpleasant situation and I had to be quite rude and forceful really. So we shall see.... (A window rep called at the same time and looked worried after he heard how I was talking to them )

I have to say that (I now know) the L.A ones here have a good name amongst builders, and the private one I've used has a good name in some areas but my own experience has not been that way, so I would definitely ask locally as it seems to entirely depend on the personality of the BCO him/her self rather than who they work for. All will (should!) keep to the rules of course, but there seems to be a huge difference in how they apply those rules. Talk to local builders and tradesmen and you'll soon find out which is best in your area.

Interesting conversation with the warranty engineer from our BC firm. Basically backing up the BCO (who apparently has been one for over 10 years - both ourselves and our builder were completely convinced he was new from his nit picking and lack of knowledge of sips and Kingspan) and now claiming Kingspan specify a 200mg spacing for staples in VCL (after the BCO stated they don't! ) . I asked him how as an engineer he feels the VCL could fall off or sag anyway once trapped under studding even if we hadn't already stapled it? Needless to say he could not come up with an answer. So their solution is that I must put thousands of extra pinholes in the VCL by stapling every 200mm ! Kind of defeats the point of a VCL surely? Anyway, both he and the BCO are coming on Friday, so no doubt that will be interesting and I'm not entirely sure I won't end up throwing them off the site if they are continuing to be so silly. I'm just waiting for them to say things like the screw heads we use should be Philips and not pozi (or vice versa) or have I checked with Kingspan if they specify what colour front door we should have (I feel its getting that stupid now), I've half a mind to call their bluff and send such enquiries to these firms in their name ? . I've already advised my SIPs provider that they may want to relate my own experience with this BCO/Warranty firm to potential clients in future who have not yet appointed a BCO since they seem to be very prejudiced against sips.

From a conversation I had yesterday with the engineer of the firm who are overseeing our warranty, I'd definitely talk to your BCO first before parting with your cash once you've identified which you want to import- a throwaway remark I was told yesterday during a prolonged conversation (covered in another thread) was that if for example I'd got our SIPs panels from Sweden they'd (the warranty firm) "just walk away", having come across some unsatisfactory ones presumably.

As regards the warning tape - check they do accept the normal warning tape - Northern Power Grid for example don't allow the normal polythene tapes use and insist on "tile", basically a hard plastic version of the tape, (which when you try and buy some you find is available only in 40m lengths (around £50)... for my 2 metre long trench! - so in my case, scrounged FOC from some NPG guys I saw working on a site elsewhere). They also would only accept "non coilable" ducting (despite the national DNO web site showing an example of coiled ducting and saying it is suitable). Everywhere else on our site after the meter is just the normal polythene stuff of course.

Thanks Peter, not with BZ as I thought (!) it would simplify matters to use the BCO firm for both. I'll have a look at who underwrites it though. The BC are big national company and I think we've just been unfortunate in our inspector - I'm convinced he is new to the job. Our mason has done jobs where this firm is involved elsewhere with none of these issues (he was busy building on our site one day and our BCO came up and told him how far apart the wall ties should be - the mason pointed out that's exactly what he was doing anyway - the ties fastened at the exact proper distance were there right in front of the BCOs eyes, yet the guy still felt the need to "instruct" the mason!).

Cheers JSH, I will send him that link! Declan - thanks, there was loads more nonsense we've had which I could have documented but felt it would have started to look excessive so that's nice to know how it comes over.