Square Feet

Wow, what a stunner.

You just don't know that you want or need it it yet

Smartphones don't cost a few hundred quid. Well, they can if you are silly about it. You can get a perfectly fine second hand one that would do the job for less than £20 on ebay. My brand new 'Chinese company nobody has heard of' branded phone cost me £130 last week. I'm sorry, but it seems daft to inconvenience yourself so much for the sake of £20. They also have all sorts of other nifty features that you will probably find yourself using, even if it is only the calendar and torch....

Can't you just use your phone as a hotspot and connect your laptop to it? That way you can do the whole thing in the car without the panic.

'Preservation in-situ' is an established archaeological principle. In the bad old days a lot of sites were excavated for the fun of it and the resource destroyed as a result. With the technological advances that have happened since, we could learn so much more from those old sites if they hadn't been destroyed (excavation being nothing more than controlled destruction after all). So now the first rule of archaeology is always to preserve in-situ and only excavate if absolutely necessary or unavoidable.

Try not to get too irritated by the Wickes ads

Sounds like you need to get creative. Best of luck with finding a solution.

me too

I was watching some old episodes of Building the Dream the other night and one had a guy who built his own panels on site. It is Series 4 episode 1 (Newcastle) if you are interested: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/building-the-dream/on-demand/57257-012

I'm a reasonably competent diy plumber. I have plumbed in bathrooms and kitchens before, but not done much messing with central heating. Thanks for the tip re the pressure.

Nice one, thanks. I'm just at the budgeting stage atm, but I will bear that in mind. Cheers

Thanks Pete, that is useful. Yes I would do the work myself, sorry, I should have said that. I will stick it in the budget for £1000 and hopefully that will do it. Cheers

Can anyone give me a ballpark figure for installing UFH pipes into the slab during construction? Just a very rough guide please? Cheers

Mine...

Hi Patrick and welcome. I will watch your progress with interest as I am thinking of doing something similar. It would be good to hear the actual cost of some of your Polish materials later once you have exact figures. I hope you will do a blog on here....

The first thing I thought on looking at your plans was 'what a lot of wall and roof junctions'. These may well add to the percieved aesthetic, but they will make your build far more expensive and time-consuming and these sort of junctions are also inevitably weak points as far as insulation, cold bridging and air-tightness go. They are not very green and will cost you time and money. This may mean you have a fancier looking house from the outside, which will look good in your architect's portfolio, but it is you that has to pay for it and live with the compromised comfort and higher bills that they will bring. Unless there are a series of obstacles on your plot that you need to design around, I can't see the need for them. You can do beautiful things with an oblong house or a simple L shape if you must. Sorry to be negative...

Can anyone give me a rough idea of the cost of this please?

Useful to see, thanks. It's 'shelving' btw, not shelfing.

I found the Ecology Building Society were the only ones who would consider a mortgage on a property of that sort. This was 15 years ago mind, so it might be different now. Sounds like a very big project. Best of luck with it.

I really hated the concrete house. The guy obviously makes some serious money diving. I think any house built exclusively of one material would not look good to me, with a log cabin about the only exception I can think of. A palette of mixed materials and finishes has so much more interest and aesthetic appeal. I kept imagining the next owners of the house skimming the walls, both inside and out...

Pah, that's for wimps! I have a 4 hour round trip to get to my site just now. That's why we mostly stay over though...

This bit - if the downpipe is spraying water all around when it is in full flow, could it not be getting in here?

I have been dealing with similar issues on the property I am currently renovating. If it was mine I would do all the things you say above, plus maybe look at the leadwork between the extension and the wall as it looks to me as if there is a gap there. An overflowing cistern will dump thousands of litres where it shouldn't be if left untreated for a long time. It may dry out a fair bit now you have sorted that. Can you run a dehum inside to dry it out a bit and see if your remedial work does the trick? ETA - also is the soil pipe leaking? It looks from the wall staining as though it might be.

Hey Fish, welcome to Scotland.

Ok - I am in the middle of building this now - one quick and admittedly lazy question - does anyone know offhand what the rules are for placement of the newel posts in relation to the top tread of the stairs? Cheers