jamieled

That's what I did for my longest run to the treatment tank, no problems so far.

1 in 40 to 1 in 60 is fine for underground. You can go to 1 in 80 if the flow is high enough but in my opinion best to avoid if possible. There is no maximum gradient as far as I'm aware (there used to be, but someone, somewhere decided it was no longer necessary). It was thought too high a gradient would result in solids and liquids separating, but this is apparently not the case (not done any first hand research myself).

I would say they are relatively stiff - need a reasonable radius format 90 degree bend. Think it's reinforced 1 inch hose. Haven't found the pump spec yet but wte told me the back pressure should be around 150mbar and no more than 200. @Miek Thanks. Gave them a quick call following your message - prices have gone up a bit as I was quoted £29!

@PeterW it looks like this. I assume I need to get a gauge which fits between the hose and blower fitting?

Has anyone commissioned a vortex treatment plant and can give some advice on checking the back pressure in the air line? WTE (who I bought the tank off) require me to take a photo of the backpressure reading in the air line in order to validate the warranty on the air blower. I'm not entirely clear on how to do this and they don't provide much explanation.

We are hoping to get into the house very soon. I expect it will be some way off before I can properly commission the MVHR (set the flow rates etc). Is there any problem with using the system unbalanced initially? Does it put more strain on the mvhr unit or can I just use it on a low fan speed and not worry about it? cheers in advance.

We were pretty lucky to get a big plasterboard delivery the week before lockdown. The inside is now boarded, taped and painted. The bathroom floor has been tiled. A wee thanks to @nod for pointing me in the direction of ditra. Floor seems solid enough and looks neater than I thought it might. The water treatment has been plumbed (thanks to @PeterW for the plumbing advice). Needs a bit of refinement to make it look more aesthetically pleasing but it is watertight, which is the main thing. Next stop second fix electrics and plumbing. I'd originally taken a year off work which is now up, so the sooner we get out of the caravan the better. Laptop on a wee solar panel and dodgy 4g connection isn't ideal.

Welcome Paul. Located about an hour east ish of you, currently on second fix.

@AndrewR. The comment about structural work being certified is only relevant for the building warrant. If you are doing any structural alterations or work as part of your conversion, then, in Scotland there are two ways you can go about providing building control with the information they need. One is to use an external 'approved certifier of construction'. This is an engineer on an approved register (also known as SER) who will certify that the structural design meets Scottish building standards. The second way is to provide building control with the structural design and they will get it checked to ensure it complies. Building control in Scotland generally discourage the second approach, because they are pushed for resources. They discourage by giving you a discount if you use the SER route, plus it's also usually faster as the building control officer (verifier) just needs to check the certificate and drawings are there. Building standards rarely deal with a lot of the planning related issues (in my opinion) so I'm curious as to how the building warrant requirements are influencing your planning app? In many cases building standards are dealing with very specific detail that would never be mentioned in a planning application.

You are very unlikely to get pre-app bc advice in Scotland I reckon. I'm not aware of BC rejecting applications, they may ask for modifications if you don't include all the relevant detail they want. It sounds like an unusual project if you think you need bc input to define planning. Most folk would tend to do the planning first, then apply for the warrant? Planning is pretty high level in my opinion, dealing with visual aspect, change of use etc. You don't necessarily need lot of detail for a planning app. Are you doing any structural work and if so how are you going about getting that certified?

Maybe I've misinterpreted the drawing but I'd not be keen on running a pipe within the 110mm soil pipe. Stuff will get caught on it and it will be more difficult to rod.

Theres a guy about 400m up the road from me who's also restoring a big church. He's done the roof and walls and made the back bit habitable but it's a huge job. Friendly guy, church is between Cannich and Tomich.

We used a bit of plastic sheeting to protect our frame last autumn. It was a pain in the arse as it constantly blew out. It was quite windy here. If you go down this route I would suggest not just relying on staples, they will rip through the plastic no bother. Perhaps use the polytunnel approach of trapping the plastic over and under a batten and nail through this?

Despite extensive reading on here and elsewhere, I'm a bit unclear as to whether it is sensible to tile my bathroom floor directly onto the chipboard. Floor is 22mm caberdek glued and screwed to wide posi joists. No noticeable movement in the floor. If this is a bad idea, what do I need to do? Would like to avoid adding ply if possible.

I will add to the mix, though we have vertical board on board cladding. I ripped a bit of larch approximately 50mm wide and fixed that over the top of the aluminium window frame. The top edge of this ripped bit of larch is bevelled at about 15 degrees to allow any water behind the cladding out. The cladding then comes down so the bottom bevelled edge of the vertical cladding is in line with the bevelled edge of the piece ripped for the reveal. There is about a 4mm gap then for water to drain out the cavity, with any water running down the vertical larch dropping off on to the aluminium cill of the window.

Highland pump centre. That's the retail part of the business, they are also known as commissioning solutions Scotland.

Thanks @PeterW, very helpful. @SuperJohnG, we are on a surface water supply from a burn. The big cylinder is the iron treatment filter, as we have a high iron level. Not sure we ended up with the best bit of kit here as it doubles as a water softener which we don't need. I think I can get away with out using this part of it. I went through a local company in Inverness. They double checked what I thought I needed. Happy to pass on costs for comparison if it helps? Agree on all you say about the plumbing. I too work in hydraulics (more on the design side), so happy with bigger stuff generally! As this is so important to us, I don't really want to outsource the fitting. If it ever breaks or needs work, I need to be able to repair relatively quickly so being able to put it together and take it apart is more important to me than aesthetics (so long as I can get it functional).

Evening all. My next job is to plumb in my water treatment system. Some of it is shown here: There is also a UV filter to go in. I do not have a lot in the way of plumbing experience so need a bit of direction. I would like to use copper for the majority as I find mdpe fittings bulky. It seems I can use soldered, compression or push fittings for copper. Any advice on the best way to go? I will be using 22mm copper and will need to be able to go from copper to plastic on occasion as a couple of the filters have plastic female threads. Secondly a more specific query, how do I include a couple of pressure gauges like these? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Low-Pressure-Gauge-air-oil-or-water-50mm-0-30-PSI-0-2-Bar-1-4-BSPT-Bottom/142459828791?hash=item212b447a37:g:cpsAAOSwcUBYH2qi I can't quite understand how the gauge goes into any fitting. Do I need a t piece with a 1/4 inch fitting?

I'm another one not far from you. I can recommend a good groundworks contractor if you need one. I know they work down that way.

Unless they've changed recently, I don't think AFT do groundworks themselves. They only do the foundation. If they do groundworks, they'll probably subcontract it.

We're a bit further north than you, getting to the end of our build. We used I beams, stick built on site. To give you a rough idea of price differences on raw materials: A 12m length of 300mm JJI A I beam was about £70 for us as I recall. Today I picked up a 4.8m length of 6 x 2 for £2.10/m, so around £25 for 12m. These are not the most competitive prices. We wanted a thicker wall with blown insulation, and the I beam allows us to do that relatively easily. There is not much difference in the framing/frame design.

Something similar, but quite upmarket, in the summer isles: https://www.thebrochs.co.uk

I was pretty surprised how refined our finished walls were given the relatively rough nature of the boarding (no worse than many others I've seen). Good tapers and plasterers can deal with some pretty rough edges I reckon.

I've been getting stuff from pipestock no bother. Quick delivery.

You're still working on a building site and subject to any noise/working hour restrictions. Whether you are a paid contractor is irrelevant.