James H

They look like they are made of Iroko, when new they probably had a coat of oil based varnish on. To bring them back to what they were tahes alot of work to compleat and maintain some sort of work needing every year and may be more often. First it would all need sanding down to bring back the colour, or you paint it dark colour. You would still have the problem of water peneration under metal parts and in the t&g joints which would then lift the finish off and lead to rotting. I am sorry to sound so down it could look lovely but it is alot of work. My advise is to let it grow old gracefully.

I will reply to you tomorrow. When I have time.

Shed felt really only lasts 5 years, and if you are only trying to bogge it up to last a couple of years you can use anything. Give it a little fall so that there is not a puddle and just use good external ply. Seal the ply down with a MS Polymer sealant adhesive, most will stick to damp Wood, or glue down with a PU glue then put your felt on. But you will have to do it properly one day!

I read it as needing safety glass (toughened/lamanated), need in certain areas. Home and public places have diferant regs. In a house the reason to have lamanated glass is for surcurty, or some specal units which needs it. But in my under standing toughend is with in regs. and is still being manufactured.

All these figures make my brain hurt. There is one biomass power sation in Yorkshire that imports its woodchips from south American so I am told. They are brought in by ship to Tyneside kept dry and trucked down to Yorkshire. That one plant consumes more than the total of timber felled in the Uk in one year. Which is why it has to be imported. Apparently this makes sense. It raining and I am trying to draw a design for a treehouse.

We often find this when there is a small movement in the tray when stood on, which breaks the joint. Solution is to have no movement in the tray and the joints wide enough to take movement.

If I was buying now I would consider this https://www.toolstop.co.uk/hitachi-nr1890dbcl-jp-18v-cordless-first-fix-framing-nailer-2-x-5.0ah-batteries-p79906 No gas and no air line, they are quit new to the market. Good revues. and the batteries can be used in other Hitachi tools.

I have both types of nail gun (as I need for my work) I would surgest Paslode if you want to resell after the other makes are not regarded so well in the trade. Have a gun that will take the cheaper makes of nailes, when useing the nails always keep them dry especially the cheaper ones. If they get damp you can get 2 nails fired at once and jam the gun. As the paper and glue holding them gets soft. Buy a new one and that way you know it will work and you can learn how to maintain it very important and not difficult to do. I find that when nailing up side down they need cleaning more offten (quick clean in side takes about 10 minutes on a clean beanch). During the cold weather I keep it in the house day before needed, and if necessary with a hot water bottle in an old duvet when not being used. I find the gas type better when framing as there is no cable/pipe atached as one is offten changing sides and posotions whch would get the pipe tangled up. For finishing nailer I have Dewalt battery and air nailer they have diferant uses for me. The nails for the air nailer are cheaper and I find better when useing all day. The Dewalt if I only have a couple of mouldings to do. There are now alot of types of nails out there which were not so easy to get a few years ago do your research. PS. I love tools.

What a long narrow house. I wish you all the best with your project and hope it goes well for you. Only one thought your uility room seems a bit small as I would think you will need to fit alot in there. All the best.

The council want an address so that they can close the account on that house and refund you if necessary. You could give any address you want, I wanted to be legal and we were just moving down the hil so it made sense to me.

When you are moving out of area they are no longer concerned as it is no longer there problem. (Hope you get your heating sorted.)

When you are moving out of area they are no longer concerned as it is no longer there problem. (Hope you get your heating sorted.)

What I mean is that when we moved out I had to tell the local council and they ask where I was moving to. As it was only 1/2 a mile away it is in the same area and village etc. So there was no need to change many details. Only wait for the valuation. The old houses was band D.

We moved in and our council tax moved with us from our rented house, band A now. All had to have all out in the open as my workshop next to the house had to be on business rates luckily not to much and we get 100% relief on it. We had to, as all of this was in the planning permission which was hard enough to get.

We live in ours. When the local BC came around last I told him that were moving in he was not concern only asked if we would have internal doors fitted. Since then I have talked to him several times since for other jobs for my work (joiner) he has only ask how we are getting on. We won't be finished for several months mostly out side work.

We have 15mm under the doors when closed, hard wood floors with slightly raised metal thresh strips to cover expansion joints. We also find no droughts in our house, which is quite air tight. having said all that all our doors are open all most all the time. I thought that it would not look to nice with a large gap under the internal doors, but with them all the same you do not really notice.

Sorry for delay in replying to jsharris and others. The MVHR system was designed by Green building store, in Yorkshire,they commissioned it, and I installed it. They had the posibility to put the in and out lets in other locations. I did ask them if they needed to be further apart, and they said not for my instillation. Which is for 110m2 with a PAUL Focus 200. The out side wall is not finished it still has to be clad (swan larch), the back of the building is facing North and open aspect as it is a straight wall, yes there are various pipes there none of which interfere with the ventilation. Both pipes have a fall to the outside so that any condensation will drip out side and not build up inside. There is a lot of space around the pipes and in this case I think there is no real risk of air mixing. I went for a system designed by t Green building store because: 1. I knew not much about it. 2. it had to be done right first time. 3. the price was not a problem as I have spent around £200 on the heating (one panel heater) for the whole house (which is working up to now since mid December) 4.Other company's when talked to were a little bit vague about every thing as though they only wanted the sale. 5. Having the system commissioned by a professional meant all the figures could be passed on for SAP cert. We are very happy with the system as it makes the house very agreeable to live in, our main living area 19-20c and the other rooms all above 18c most of the time. Drying cloths takes no time in the utility room and no damp or musty smells on our cloths, as we used to have in our last house (200 year old stone cottage). I will post a photo of the back of the house which I will hope makes it clearer (in another post as it will be from my phone).

I am sorry I don't see why there has to be a fire collar around a pipe that is going out side. These are to stop the spread of fire from one zone internal to another. It needs to be sealed for the air test. That can be done with expanding foam (fire rated if you want). This is my in/out for the MVHR. The plastic pipe would melt prity quickly anyway. Maybe I am wrong but these are my thoughts.

Our SIPs have 12mm osb on each side. I have double battened the roof first row 400mm centers and nailed down with ringshanks from a nail gun changing the angle of each nail so that they work against each other(300mm centers) The cross lats were screwed with 2 screws at each inter setion which went right through to the OSB. Tip use lats when wet as they split less and are usually strighter. I kept mine covered wet as I was working in summer. I was putting steel on after so the second row of lats were set further apart than for slates. You do not need to use the blue/red lats they have only been salected to cut downon wast on large building sites.

I am sure that you can get a solar powered unit. I have heard talk of them being used here as some of the tanks are a long way from buildings.

To introduce my self, I was a member of ebuild before it closed and only found you last week. We have built our own home quite modest, with joinery workshop next to it. The planning was very difficult to get as it was considered as part of a field, although we have modern barns on both sides. We had to use a consultant (expensive but worth it) to get permission to build. The plot is 1km from where we used to live and I did not want to move a long way away because of my clients in the area. Permission for a double modular unit was given, so that gave use our rectangular shape bungalow 110m2. All the drawings were done by me and almost all of the construction with a help from a joiner friend (paid). I went for SIP construction several reasons, every thing is done and designed around my partner and I, so that it is easy to live in with our life style, (typing this I am looking out onto a snow covered hill with a line of beach trees going up it). Every thing as simple as possible. The U values are not bad I think External walls 0.1 Floor 0.11 Roof 0.11 Openings 1.38 Air tightness 0.71 Windows and doors upvc off the internet but well installed. Ventilated by a MVHR and heated with one 2kw electric panel heater (with thermostat). Hot water with an on demand LPG water heater. We moved in mid December, and hope to finish off to get the completion cert. in a few months, but now I am back at work. The house is great and all the time we spent deciding how it should be, are working out well. The layout would not suit every one and this house is for ever now. I found our local building inspector very helpful, and is just a phone call away. I will try and up load some photos, they always give a much better idea. My only concern is electric consumption, being all electric but we are very comfortable here (unlike our old rented house very damp never warm every where and drafty). Will probably get solar panels if we get all our VAT back. Sorry to go on so much, I have a lot more I could say but not now.

As built SAP for my new home was £190 in January 2018, BC wanted it done by some one certified. How ever the water efficiency calculations could be done by me (what a wast of time) you put in a few numbers and the sum has to be less than a certain number.