Ralph

That is a good point, it's looking like the rates from accredited installers are a bit high.

We have an Einhell 1500w wet and dry that seems to work well and looks quite similar to the Titan one on Screwfix for £89

There are grants for self builders in Scotland but only if you can't get finance from standard banks and you need to either own or be able to buy the land yourself. https://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk do an interest free loan for renewables up to £17.5K, I'm looking at this one myself.

I don't think you're rude at all, it's probably how a lot of people south of the border think and that may well just be adding to feeling that we may as well go it alone. Personally I'm not sure if it would be a good idea or not and I'm inherently suspicious of nationalism and flag waving. Brexit may well be better in the long term but the short term impact could be absolutely brutal for some.

I'm not making any comment on whether it's a good or a bad thing but up here I've seen a not insignificant swing in quite a few people away from the union and towards Scottish independence. I think hard brexit would quite possibly be the last straw.

+ 1 one that. Even in the best of times a self build can be a very testing and stressful journey.

So from that you're going to need a wind speed of about 12m/s to get 977 W. That's about 26 mph or a force 6. Even in Shetland with an average of 7 m/s you're only getting about 190 W

I was under the impression that domestic turbines even with blades about 2 meters long need a quite high windspeeds to get anywhere near 1kW and mostly produced a 150 Watts on normally breezy day.

I've recently had a quote from a distributor up here in Scotland, for comparison here are a few of the prices. These are all Auraplus Triple Glazed Alucad Type Overall Size Notes Fixed Frame 1498 x 2098 £794 Guided Casement 598 x 898 £282 Guided Casement 898 x 998 £350 Fixed Frame 1298 x 2098 £712 Inline Patio 2 Pane - Part A 3213 x 2098 £2554 Fixed Frame - Part B 1608 x 2098 £825

I have heard of a timber roofing that is used in Norway called Kebony but not something I've seen in the UK

For comparison this is the quote we got AHSP NIBE Air Source Heat Pump Pack 2-12 2040 12kW/ NIBE UKV 40l 2-pipe buffer tank 28mm pipework Joule High Gain 200l HW cylinder 22mm NIBE HR10 ASHP Immersion Connector Kit ASHP Heating System Glycol/Inhibitor upto 12kW system 2 x Domestic RHI Single Phase Electrical Metering £10,250 Underfloor 9 Port Underfloor Manifold Manifold valve set 900m x 16x2 Pex/Al/Pex Pipe Up to 21m Copper Underfloor Heating F&R 28mm 5 x Heatmiser Slimline Thermostat Heatmiser Slimeline Thermostat Wetroom Thermostat Inc Sensor & Enclosure Heatmiser UH8 Wiring Center £3,800 Radiators Radiator Distribution Pack 22mm Radiator Distribution Pack Dual Fuel Towel Radiator Pack 1.00 7 Radiators: Stelrad Softline Compact Vertical IFLO 400W Heating Element and T-Piece IFLO Straight Towel Rad 1800mm X 600mm Chrome £4,000

Yeah I just realised after posting that it would be useless for you, and me to be honest. @JSHarris solution with the steel UBs makes sense and probably more cost effective. It's either that or a ford for me.

I'm in a similar position, although the water only appears once every couple of years during flooding. Everyone tells me that culverts are built to be blocked. One piece of advice is to dig it out so the water has somewhere to go and bridge it with long railway sleepers, not convinced at all by this. I've been looking here https://www.drainage-channel.co.uk/category-6086/DCGT400.html

Apparently the pre-finished MDF is pretty maintenance free and it's quite cheap and simple so I can see us going for that.

I think a very simple profile in white is what we will go for. One thing I did not realise until recently is how much a difference the height of the skirting board makes depending on the size of the room. In a large, open plan room shorter skirting starts to look a bit spindly.

We talked to a few joiners about shadow gaps as they do look nice but the extra cost is just not worth it, not for us anyway. It takes a lot of time, any small mistakes really stand out. Another alternative is this type of thing https://www.profilpas.com/en/tag/flush-recessed-skirting-boards

It depends on how it's been saved and what software you're using. Your architects will have created the drawing in some fancy CAD systems then saved it as a PDF which is a graphics format. Other systems like GIMP and Photoshop can open and edit the PDF file but not in the same way as the CAD system. You may actually be able to open the PDF in word and draw on it there then save it. If you're stuck print it out on paper, draw on it with a pen, snap a photo on your phone and send me the PDF and the photo and I'll do it for you. I can't guarantee it will be perfect but I'm happy to have a go.

You could do the edit in graphics package like GIMP which I believe is opensource so free. I think it has an import from pdf function. You may need to convert to a jpg, edit then save as a pdf.

Very true, I mapped out all the flooding on Friday to start sorting out the drainage and landscaping.

You could be describing our plot. The stream backed up at the culvert on Friday and flooded the road.

Yeah that one may come back to bite us on the arse. This was the, normally little, burn that runs at the back of our plot on Friday, I also have a new burn running through the middle of the plot. 20190809_175256.mp4

Scotframe pushed for us to spec Nordan. It did not look like they had done much development for a few years and we did not like the opening mechanism, can't quite recall why. I think the final issue was the lack of handle choice. Basically Rationel felt like higher quality for the money.

I think that's pretty much what is meant by addressing the street. I have seen it in other planning documents.

Not sure about a pruning knife but in general they make good knives for the money.

Yes that's people taking the piss. H&S is often used as an excuse for people who don't want to do something or who want to extract money from you.