Ralph

Sorry to hear this, I know how you feel. We are 150psm 2 story timber frame kit, Hardi plank cladding and metal roof in NE Scotland. Finish is good but not excessive and we're getting some prices as high as £2,500psm for the build (not including fees) I firmly believe that some of the contractors came up with the prices based on what they thought the house would sell for rather than what it cost to build plus reasonable profit. Even then they were well over. We've talked to a load of contractors and have finally found one that is affordable and actually capable but it took a very long time. Just noticed the land price, holy sh*t!

That makes me think that monobloc may well be the way to go then. We don't have a high heat load and noise would drive me mental.

I've not thought too much about that to be honest. We have plenty of space and I'm not doing the install so I was leaning to the split system.

The seem to be saying that they do manufacturer them, but who really knows.

We've recently had a contractor recommend a Grant ASHP (model not specified). I've not really looked at them and was going to go for the Daikin Altherma 3. I'm assuming the Grant will be cheaper, just waiting for details. Does anyone have opinions on the Grant? Thanks

We found some land without PPIP that was not on the market and approached the landowner. We negotiated a price then drew up a contract with the landowner basically stipulating that we would purchase at that price if we could get PPIP and that he would sell it to us for that price. If we did not purchase it within 12 months of PPIP being in place he was then free to put it on the market. We paid for the PPIP and split the cost of getting the contract and conveyancing done. We had some engineering surveys done to mitigate some of the risk involved with groundwork then made then purchase.

I'm definitely going to use that in our next UI design meeting and see how may sheep agree with me like any of us know what it means.

I found it difficult to tell, could have just been the placebo of having spent some cash on it.

I'd be very interested in a look at this as well please, if you don't mind.

Plus 1 on that. We parted company with our architect and went with a new one (funnily enough in Angus). We ended up essential starting from scratch which does feel like we've pissed time and money down the drain. The difference in the two has been marked, we're getting great service from the second and are happy with everything so far. We've gone for full service but staged based on the RIBA work plan. I think it's been pricey but not when compared to the 11% of build cost that I had been quoted elsewhere.

Can't give you much wisdom on contingency but we're planning on the usual 10% knowing that I have some more in reserve if it goes wrong. I'm also borrowing a bit more than I hope I need just to mitigate risk a little more. We're using a central contractor mainly because it's taken so damn long to get to this point I just want the bloody thing built. One thing I would say is that I'm finding that the variance in cost between different contractors is massive. Same spec and from what I can tell same level of experience and some are double the others.

Just read this from an air leakage testing compliance engineer who was trying to blow the whistle on volume builders in 2016. “obviously any new home will eventually pass an air leakage test due to the amount of mastic and expanding foam used everywhere to seal gaps. But what I see on a daily basis – and this is pretty much every house tested – is mastic being applied to the bottom of skirting boards and under kitchen units and baths with larger holes being filled with expanding foam. Then the air test is carried out and it passes. What follows is all the mastic is then cut out before the carpet fitters fit the carpets! This is standard practice and I feel a total fraud by passing these buildings but it’s what I’m paid to do. I tested one house that failed due to air leakage from all the skirting boards around the house, the builder then applied mastic under all the skirtings, expecting me back first thing the next morning. I didn’t get there until the early afternoon, by which time the carpet fitters had cut it all out! I tested it and it failed due to leakage from the skirting! The builder then re masticed the skirtings whilst I waited, I retested it and it passed. While I was packing my testing equipment away the mastic was cut out again! This is not a one off but something that is going on all the time.”

How on earth did that pass an air tightness test?

Apparently Quooker have the patent on boiling taps so only they can sell ones that actually do 100c. Others are capable but you need fiddle with the settings. Got this from someone who was moaning about their tap not making proper custard.

The seem to think axe murders are lurking in the bushes or something. There was one break in the area years ago, neighbors came home on an afternoon to find a strange car in the driveway and their house being ransacked. Other than that the biggest danger is falling in field drain after a few too many.

An excuse to buy new torches is another bonus.

It's one of the great things about living in the sticks. What surprised me was how many people (adults) are actually scared of proper darkness. We've had visitors ask us how we cope at night when we switch off the outdoor lights to show them the stars. They really get worried when you take out a torch and spotlight the bats flying about.

We ended up having getting some UV anti strike stickers from Amazon and that sorted out the problem in our last house. We were getting one or two a month before that,

https://www.qcad.org/en/ is quite good and open source.

While on the topic of maps the National Library of Scotland does a nice job with their historical maps. We used them to help with planning to show that the boundaries for our plot had been in place since at least the 1800s https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=7&lat=56.7826&lon=-2.6587&layers=168&b=1

Dundee may be a little far north for you https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-archer-b1368486/?originalSubdomain=uk

New Build Timber Frame Rates 2016 According to the Structural Timber Association UK 28.4% England 22.8% Scotland 83.0% Wales 30.7% Northern Ireland 17.4%

Any point in differentiating Timber Frame from SIPs?

Free prescriptions and and eye tests for everyone up here. Had one GP who tried to give me olive oil for earache on prescription.

A colleague is having some issues with his UHF in Aberdeen. I know we have a couple of people from this end of the world on here, any recommendations? Many thanks Ralph