Square Feet

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

...Canterbury

I was in Hawick this week and Homebase there is closing down. They have 10-50% off everything - it seems it all has to go. They are not closing til Christmas apparently, but I doubt there will be much left by then.

Thanks again Ferdinand. The ceiling is t&g cladding and I don't want to hack into it. I also think that two floor to ceiling posts in the middle of the room would completely ruin the aesthetic if I am honest! Yes, will try a belt and braces approach for the newels. ETA: The whole thing is going to be U shaped so hopefully it will derive some strength from the 90 deg joints. Cheers

Thanks Ferdinand, - only just seen your reply. That is very helpful. Yes my concern was also about how to make the 'free' end of the bannister stable enough for folk to be able to hang onto it as they went up or down stairs. In this case I have two such ends - one either side - so I need a good solution. I have just finished doing the ceiling so I can't attach to there now, but can still go through the floor to screw to a joist. I'm just a bit worried in case it isn't strong enough for the surveyor to sign off on though. Thanks too for the shopping list.

Thanks for that. Yes, that was my idea too. Nobody ever done that sort of thing then?

Hi - I am currently renovating an old cottage. The loft was converted at some time in the past and stairs put in. The opening for the stairs is just a slot taken out of the floor above. The previous owners had built a ply stud wall around this instead of a bannister. I have removed this wall which makes the space seem much bigger. Now I need to put some sort of bannister around the hole to stop people falling down it. I had hoped to pick something up on eBay, but after several months of patient searching I have found nothing. Buying something in would be too expensive, so I am looking at putting something together myself. I have seen some metal rods that I could use at the appropriate spacing, and was thinking of fitting them together with CLS. I wondered if anyone here has any better ideas. Has anyone made something themselves like this and if so how did you hold it all together and how sturdy was it? The property is going to be sold so longevity is less of an issue for me than the surveyor being ok with it, but obviously I don't want it to collapse and hurt someone. Cost is also a big issue - I need a cheap solution! Cheers

Thanks for that everyone. Some good ideas there. Cheers

My knees are well and truly done for. I have been working on the floors for the past week and it has really done me in. I try never to kneel, always squat but it doesn't help much after a while. They have been getting worse and worse over the years. I saw a lot of you all complaining about your knees and I wondered if anyone had any ideas about what I could do that might help. Knee pads make them 100x worse for some reason. Sometimes I put arnica cream on them which helps a bit but its more of a sticking plaster than a cure. Anyone recommend any exercise or diet type remedies? I take glucosamine already too.

This was on a sheep farm so the whole place was teeming with rat traps. Never saw a single one in all the years we lived there.

I built a pallet shed too. Mine was a bit bigger - 4.5m by 2.5m. I got the doors off Ebay for £12 and the roofing sheets came from there too for £90. Decking boards were £100 if I remember correctly. There was a huge window inside that came from a skip - it was south facing so let in lots of light and heat. It was at a place I was renting so sadly I don't have access to it since we moved.

Article in the Guardian today - shame it will be five years until it is available - maybe I could make one out of bits of something I have lying around.... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/05/groundbreaking-spinning-wind-turbine-wins-uk-dyson-award

I tried to get that recently for an attic conversion and came to the conclusion it was a non-starter. From the folk I spoke to it seemed that I could only get it for the horizontal part of the attic, not the sloping part of the roof. As others have said though it seems to vary enormously from one council area to the next. I just googled 'free loft insulation' plus the location and it came up with several companies. I rang a few and they all said pretty much the same thing. They also had access to old home report energy surveys so they could see what was there already which was interesting.

I don't know a great deal about French door locks, but if it is the same as many front doors - a Euro lock, then they are a doddle to replace and are very cheap. I did one recently on a front door and was stunned how easy it was (I had to break it as I had no key). https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p80969

Wow, she must be good! A friend's son just got a place with the Glasgow conservatoire so I know what a big deal it is.

Those windows don't look like they have rotted in a matter of days. I would have thought it would take years for them to get like that. The shutter ply does look like it has had it though.