jamieled

Useful point, thanks, I may have an old length of mdpe I can use for this.

@Ed Davies, it's interesting that the BCO and EH took that view on your supply. Even as a type B supply under the 2006 regs (which we also are) there is usually quite a big of work convincing the LA the supply is adequate (and I think we must be in the same region?). I have been considering the need for an accumulator and haven't ruled it out. As you might have concluded from this thread, I don't have things highly planned so it's a bit of work in progress!

I agree. As there's nowhere obvious for an overflow near the tank I think I will just discharge into a ditch / small burn near the house by running water through the supply pipe constantly. This winter might provide a useful testing opportunity.

The main reason is that it's extremely difficult to get a tank close to the intake. Not impossible, but it would have required a lot of tree felling over about 300m distance, then getting a decent sized digger in to do enough work to allow a forestry forwarded or similar access to the intake with the tank. The second reason is that from the intake to the tank the pipe cannot be well buried, but the ground from the tank to the house is better. So I hope the tank can provide a bit of buffer in really cold spells.

The tank is our hill tank for raw water. From there I will bury a 32mm mdpe pipe to our treatment shed and from there to the house (5m away). Because I'm using UV treatment I don't plan on storing any significant quantity of potable water. I had been considering whether to run water constantly through the raw water tank, but decided it was probably unnecessary. It's a bit tricky as the tank is not near the source so there is nowhere obvious to discharge to. Otherwise I could install an outlet into the ditch near our house and take a branch off the 32mm and use that to keep water running through the system.

@JSHarris I think I remember the thread as well. That's pretty much what we've done with the exception of the heat pump. Got a joiner to build an airtight door and the envelope is the same as the rest of the house (but keeps the larder separated from the rest of the house if you get my drift). The vents can be closed if necessary. In all likelihood this is not really replacing a fridge, more just a big store cupboard. If I had free will I'd probably not have bothered, but I was overruled at the design stage!

Compliant with what?

We have a similar plan in that we have a pantry on the north facing side. Plan is to stick some insulation on top of the slab and have a couple of vents to outside. Wasn't keen on anything more sophisticated.

@JSHarris many thanks, as well as the tip about the servo valve. Hadn't come across that before.

I have a float valve for our water tank, used for our private supply: It has two plastic nuts on the brass thread. I am assuming that one nut ends up on either side of the tank wall, but that doesn't seem like it would give a great seal. Then again, maybe it doesn't need to as the tank water level shouldn't reach the level of the valve inlet. Any insights from those in the know?

The last week or so we've been blessed with pretty nice weather which has allowed for good progress on the frame. We hired in a hiab lorry for a morning to help with lifting the gables, ridge beam and roofing. As everyone probably finds out, now we start to get a better sense of the size of the house and how it sits in the landscape. SSE came in the other day for our grid connection. Those who have been following our progress might remember this was quite pricey, and when you see the number of vehicles involved you start to understand why. Here's hoping for a few days of decent weather to allow us to complete the roof.

Sigh of relief from me as our roof is around half of that so my original cost estimate is ok. Cheers!

@Russell griffiths how big is your roof?! We're probably not aiming for the world class end of the market, just functional will do.

Ta to all who replied. A trip to the builders merchants on Monday is in order.

I've used tyvek housewrap on my frame. The joiner reckons it's usual to use something different on the roof. I'd tend to agree but only as I haven't seen any frames near us using the same stuff on the roofs and the walls. Should I be using something different on the roof, and if so what are the main differences between main house membrane and roofing membrane?

Following this with interest! We have an I beam frame sitting on a 300mm wide sole plate sitting on a passive slab. I'd say around 20% of the sole plate sits on an eps upstand, the rest on the insulated slab. Looking at it from a relatively uneducated perspective I'd have thought the load is spread through both timber flanges of the I beam, but maybe not.

It depends where you are in the country. Our build is in one of the most wooded glens of Scotland and so inevitably any development affects woodland. But up here the authorities are keen to support rural development as the highlands are losing working age population, so they perhaps have a more relaxed attitude to woodland development in some circumstances.

I can vouch for the fact that they can get through our chipboard walls in the caravan!

Might be worth ducting the water pipe. Otherwise, with the exception of the ashp that's fairly similar to me. I taped plastic over the end of our ducting to prevent water and muck ingress.

We were probably a bit clueless about the options so an architect seemed a good idea. They did come up with ideas which were good and added to the design with relatively little cost - things that would probably fit in the 'artistic' category. I think it's one area where research might not help - I'll happily admit my creative side is lacking!

The equivalent for hydro was the feed in tariff. However, it doesn't exist now. Have a look at the powerspouts as they are relatively straightforward plug and play type systems. I am thinking of sticking one on our burn. They do low head versions ( a pelton will be fine for us as we have a big drop). However, the lower the drop the more flow most turbines need. Even if they're not suitable for your situation you should be able to pick up a lot of useful info from the website. Having worked on a few similar schemes I'd say don't underestimate the work involved in all the other bits such as getting a good intake and pipeline.

Commenting here as someone who didn't do it himself. Our concrete went off faster than I've ever experienced before. In that respect I was pretty happy we had an experienced concrete crew. Your idea of getting folk in to help with that is a good one and I'd probably do that again myself (not that I'll need to for a while!).

On a specific note, for anyone thinking of using blown cellulose as their insulation, Warmcel have advised of likely price fluctuations and will not guarantee quoted prices after 1st October. Clearly a bit vague, but might be of use to others.

Hi Joanna. We used to live round the corner from your plot, before we moved north for our own build. We saw some diggers around that area, so good to see it's being put to a good use! Lots of nice green space around. People will have varying opinions on the best way to go about the groundworks and founds. Unless you can do a lot of the work yourself, I'd be finding a single company to pick up either the lot or the bits you can't do. Mainly because it's easier to compare costs, it avoids any blame games and also avoids repeat costs like plant transport (which admittedly for you will be relatively cheap). There used to be a lot of industry round the canal, do you know the history of your site?

These are two separate functions. Building control aren't interested in planning conditions. We are in Scotland as well. I had to separately notify planning and building control that we had started. In my head I had a 7 day notice of start on site, but I'd need to check the paperwork.