Ralph

We are struggling to get site insurance for the last stretch of job. Our builder is now off the job and we are finishing the rest with other trades. What's left to do is fairly minor, finish off kitchens, bit of plumbing and electrical. The biggest thing is glass for stairs and balconies which is stopping us from getting a completetion certificate. It may take 12 weeks to get the glass done, just because of the order time. Quite a few companies have refused to insure us because it's part way through a build, Build Care through build zone did quote us £750 for 6 months. Does that seem excessive to anyone? We could requote for 3 months but I'm not sure with Xmas and everything we will get it done. Thanks Ralph

At this point I'm glad we do have an architect practice adminstrating the contract and we also fixed price there work. One thing I have discovered is https://www.perlego.com/ have a lot of useful books including a few on JCT contract administration and construction law. It costs £12 a month with a couple of free weeks.

Cheers @Ferdinand It's a complicated one. We have retentions to this point so we are covered. By contract terms we can keep that to finish the house then go after him for more as it's a fixed price job. All depends how the contract is termimated.

The update is that he's not actually been forced into insolvency or administration at this point, he's paid off all his staff and is not doing anything, not even communicating. It looks like we will have to terminate the JCT contract either mutually or using a default clause.

I had an "engineer" come out once who from a third party contractor about 2 hours away. He was at that point the third one to come out and be surprised that the cable needed to be run up the pole and connected. He was quite angry but off he went. 20 minutes later I got call from his manager asking me to confirm that I had refused the engineer access to the propertly. He hinted that the reason was that I did not want an asian person in the house and should be paying for a 1/2 day of their time. I was not a happy man.

I had an absolute nightmare along the same lines. The only way I got it done was to make a complaint and go through the customer service person. I also ended up with £300 in compensation.

Just about everything that can be moved is locked in the house. I think I may change the locks just to be sure.

I've been told by one of his employees that my builder has gone bust. We are trying to find out from him the exact circumstances but he's not being exactly communicative (he seems to be blaming us because he went over on a fixed price job). We have a JCT minor woks contract so the contract administrator is handling that side of things. Luckily, we are near the end of the build and we have retentions that will probably cover 80% of what is outstanding. I'm trying to get a picture of what we still need to do, the outstanding work will be clear enough but it's the other things I’m trying to get a handle on. So far I’m thinking I need to sort out: · Securing the site, alarms, getting his keys etc · Site Insurances, I reckon we have 3 weeks work if I can get trades, but will I need site insurance etc · Unoccupied home insurance · Structural warranty, I have a feeling he was bullshitting us on that and it’s not in place and has not been inspected as house has progressed. · Building standards inspections and completion certificate Anything obvious that I have missed out there, any thoughts. Thanks folks

Cedral is surprisingly easy to scratch. Our joiners have made a mess of quite a bit of ours. We are also looking at what looks like efflorescence coming through. Be careful when handling the planks and make sure they are kept dry until you install. I woudl also say don't install if it's raining and make sure you get the required ventalation.

How do you get planning permission for that?

A friend of mine was doing an "eco" build in the early days of GD. The producers were very keen until they saw how organised he was. He got the impression they were only interested in something with the potential to go wrong. Drama and jepordy and being able to call people idiots makes better TV apparently.

Hi jenny, were in rural Angus as well, our broadband has just gone in and we're getting 35mb down and 17mb up so not too bad. I work from home so was also considering 4g and https://www.starlink.com/ I have a friend that is going with this and it’s spendy but fast. Another option is https://www.marykirk.com/ I would also recommend Ecology for mortgages, there are not that many availble in Scotland compared to rest of UK. It sounds like your architect is being a bit more realistic than our orginal one was but I think you would have to do a fair amount to hit 1500/sqm i think we will end up at the 1800/sqm including fees but not land. We are using a central contractor but we fixed priced the job some time ago. I reckon we would be looking at 2000/sqm if we were doing that today.

Pretty sure you only need it in the main bedroom, that's what we have anyway.

Ours was £180. I need to find out how to turn the screen off because it's quite bright for a bedroom.

I recently saw a neighbour take the lid of his one, stare at the water for few minutes, cup his hands and taste it. Going by how many people they've had in it over the summer I would imagine it was quite a meaty broth.

I tend to agree and I've work for software companies since the early 90s. All I've done is put in some CAT 6 to mitigate crap wifi. I'm starting to get annoyed by technology, i'll end up in cabin in the woods, probably with some sort of manifesto.

We have the same. I did not realise there would be quite so much gear overhead but I belive they are better inslulated than a roller. They also look quite neat from the outside. Ideally I wanted an insulated side hinged door but they are too expensive for me.

Given that mine is currently leaking I think you may well be correct.

We have our accessable entrance at the front and it meets all the access requiremnts so hopefully no issue there. Do we still need to have entrance platt of minimum 1,200 mm x 1,200 mm at the backdoor? I hoping we can get away with a single slab 1,200 mm by 600mm that will have gravel around it. I've tried to find it in the Scottish Building regs but can't see anything specifically for secondary entrances.

Had a closer look today. I think the major damage has been done by a whacker plate when the path was going in. Someone has then painted over with the touch up paint. They have then washed it and the paint had flaked off. However, I am concerned that the vent at the top of the cedral had been covered by the drip lip of the standing seam, as in the photo. Unless it's venting behind the standing seam?

Hopefully we'll get some sort of inspection from Cedral, I'll post an update.

That looks pretty much like what was done. The ones that are flaking are near the bottom but the efflorescence, if that's what it is seems to be at all levels but concentrated at the ends of the planks. I have a feeling Cedral will blame installation and builder will blame production.

So this is a photo of the top of the cedral before the standing seam metal went on above it. That looks like a 10mm gap so should be OK and I know it has the same at the bottom. I'll have a good check tomorrow.

Not 100% sure I will check.It was installed by builder. Could that cause the issue?

There is, gap at bottom and top with insect screens.