jamieled

The EPS supplier has done some design work which is separate to that of the structural engineer. It partly helps them figure out how much material to send us. Only a drawing or two, so I suspect a small proportion of the overall fee. I suspect getting them to say supply only would be easier.

Our EPS has been invoiced as 'design and supply' and VAT at 20% has been charged. There is no breakdown in the overall fee as to what is design and what the materials cost. Am I right in thinking that I can only reclaim the VAT on the materials and so I will need to go back to the suppliers and get them to split it out?

Current quotes are around 400/sqm, which looking back at this thread might be a bit high. That's for 15 windows, a sliding door and an entrance door. It took 1-2 weeks to get quotes in from asking. As to negotiation, I can't tell yet, as we haven't tried. But given earlier comments it seems possible.

I've had quotes from Nordan and Rationel in the last couple of weeks. Not much in it, Nordan marginally more expensive. Can dig out some specifics if it helps.

Whilst rock can be strong in terms of its bearing capacity, the nervousness might come in the form of the interface between the foundation and the rock. It requires quite careful consideration of how the foundation is keyed in. I'm aware of examples using concrete pads supported by steels drilled into the rock, but there will be other options. It will be worth getting advice from an engineer with decent experience of this type of foundation, otherwise they may take quite a risk averse approach which may not be the most economical.

Welcome and congrats on the plot purchase. Nice spot for a self build! We're near Cannich, so not a million miles from you.

@Cpd, if you don't mind me asking, where did you source your tanks from? I'm in need of sorting one out for us.

Yes to the first question and 'sort of' to the second. We have various tickets for chainsaw work, but we also paid people to do the bits we couldn't (mainly aerial work and extraction).

Progress this week. More photos than words for now. HQ is set up, including the shower. After felling the trees on site, a few big machines visited to get the logs out. Leaving the site looking like this: The last few days have then involved a lot of muck moving and getting decent material out for the tracks and base, leaving us looking something like this: Next stop, foundations!

@Christine Walker yep, we had to pay as well. They also claimed we were paying for one and got the other free!

By way of an update to this, and as some BH's suggested, we phoned up a week ago and yesterday two bins turned up.

I'm doing mine that way. If you don't ask you don't get!

We had to do this, although we did it via the proper channels before we got planning. In our case the roads dept were keen to see the trees go for a number of reasons. I think we told the tree officer and FC what was going on (felling exceeded 5m3 so we needed a felling license exemption ). Suspect it might be a bit different if the only reason for removal is to create a new access.

Fairhursts in Inverness were happy to sign off an insulated raft for me as part of the SER. Not sure about ICF.

@joe90 thanks for that. I think they'll only pick up wheelie bins around here. The council don't seem enthusiastic about us paying council tax when I asked, and while I'm not going to voluntarily pay a lot of money, neither do I feel we should be taking advantage of rubbish collection without paying for it. How did you go about arranging it?

We're about to commence living in a caravan for our build. I'm assuming that until we're complete and paying council tax I can't expect the council to uplift any rubbish and recycling (thinking day to day rubbish/recycling, not construction waste). For those of you in a similar position, is this correct and if so what did you do? A scan of the council website leaves me none the wiser.

Would there be any major downsides to just burying a 25/32mm MDPE water pipe and have it come up through the foundation, rather than have it coming through a 110mm duct? Asking out of interest as I'm at a similar stage.

@PeterW thanks and no, it just shows solid timber, but I'll give them a ring and find out. @Russell griffiths, there's probably no reason I can't do that other than the engineering drawings show a single bit of timber and so I was keen to avoid deviating from that if possible. Kerto beams look interesting although I couldn't see them being noted as suitable for ground floor sole plate - I'll maybe investigate further.

I know a few folk on here have built out of I-beams. I'm planning to stick build on site. The structural drawings state a 300mm JJ timber sole plate, but I'm having trouble tracking down sole plate timber that's 300mm wide. If you've used a sole plate this wide, what did you use and where did you get it from? I'm aware that it's possible to use an i-beam on its side, packed out, but since the engineer has specified solid timber I'd prefer to use that if possible.

@davidc we're not too far up the road from you. As prodave mentions, passive slabs are not that common in Scotland, although there are a few about. We have had our timber frame designed to be stick built on site, on a passive slab. The engineers seemed fine with it, I think principally because they were already familiar with the system. However, I have also spoken to a company about providing the timber frame as an open panel kit. Planning on getting the ground works and foundation in this summer if you're interested in taking a look.

Similar to @ProDave our structural engineers just directed us to dig four holes on site at the building corners and had a look at what came out. This informed their assessment of the foundation design, the SER certification and therefore building warrant application approval. There was no separate G.I., and having got a quote for one (as I was initially thinking along the same lines as you are now) I would not volunteer to do it unless absolutely necessary.

I suppose if planning dictated you could only have one storey above ground and you had a relatively small site that might make sense. Given the little time we spend awake in a bedroom it would make more sense than having the living areas in the basement. If visual appearance isn't a planning restriction I could also envisage putting day rooms on the first floor if it meant you could take better advantage of the views (I've seen a couple of grand designs where that appears to have worked well).

This is the thread that springs to mind.

I have found several contractors who I got quotes from. Based on everything I've read here, I think the bigger question is whether there is anyone you can trust/ you would have confidence in doing it as it there are a few stories of it going wrong. Where are you based (roughly)?

It may have been designed more as an open soakaway type system - if it's being lined you'd want to make sure you're not just going to end up with a pond full of water that never empties (and so provides less attenuation).