Crofter

Bit of a personal thing, I quite like it. Part of the character of that age of building. If you don't want/need a pristine finish, it would be pretty easy to make access hatches in the panelling- just use an oscillating multi tool to cut through the T+G. You'd need to have a few screws to hold the panel in place afterwards- use nice slotted head brass ones with cup washers underneath. I don't think stripping the paint is a good idea. You could spend ages sanding it back, but you'll never get right in to the grooves. And as you say varnished wood can be very dark.

Do they? Surely we want more owner occupiers? There will always be a small need for temporary rental accommodation- e.g. if you've moved to a new area and need somewhere to live while you build or buy-but I don't see how it's a good thing for it to be normal to spend years and years in a rented house, paying off somebody else's mortgage.

AFAIK you only need someone with an f-gas cert to hook up the refrigerant lines. And you'll likely need a sparky to run a new circuit from the CU, unless you can run it as a spur off an existing circuit. I could be wrong about that. I'm hoping to go as DIY as possible with my A2A install, running the ducting etc myself.

Probably not. I doubt anything involving hydrogen does either.

To answer my own question, a quick Google suggests that pumped storage or compressed air offer around twice the round trip efficiency of hydrogen. And with much simpler technology. Obviously pumped storage is location dependent. I can feel a Heath Robinson project coming on... I've got land 50m above my house...

How does the round trip efficiency of H2 compare to pumped storage?

Using a battery to provide direct electric heating sounds a bit nuts. Running your heat pump with it makes a bit more sense.

My MVHR draws 50w. Would be one of the first things I would want to get running in the event of a power cut in cold weather.

What's frustrating is that the Scottish Government don't seem to have been able to get across the message that the ban applies to primary heading methods. Some people aren't even aware that it only applies to new builds. I think it would be perfectly sensible to allow a small WBS to be fitted to rural new builds in areas where power cuts can be common and prolonged, and there was nothing in the original proposal that suggested this wouldn't be possible under the provision of 'emergency heating'.

Where does your vapour barrier go in this design? Do you need 140mm for structural reasons? Surely it would make more sense to use 120mm frame and then create the service void using battens on top. That gives you somewhere to put the vapour barrier. With the 140mm frame you'd be drilling holes right at the edge of the studs anyway to run cables so that would affect the strength. Ideally you want a continuous insulation layer to prevent thermal bridging. This can be either inside or outside the frame. I chose inside because to me it makes me sense from a condensation risk perspective, where the continuous insulation was PIR and the frame was filled with rock wool. Just FYI we did this too, used 25mm battens and 50mm counter battens, then board on board cladding with 20mm planks, so the total thickness of the cladding and battens is 115mm. I considered using 25mm for the counter battens but at 600mm centres there was too much flex and bounce, and I didn't fancy trying to nail on to them.

A bit out of the box thinking, could you use insulated box profile? You'd save the wall thickness conventionally taken up by battens and cladding.

SIPs will need some sort of machinery to erect, the panels are big and heavy. Stick build can be done with just manual labour- I did my place that way, two or three people can lift an entire gable end wall.

I did everything myself except for the major groundworks, where I hired a digger+driver, and plastering, which I consider a black art! I laboured alongside the sparky, and got a plumber to do the UVC, because I was told that I legally had to. None of it is rocket science. In a self build, you will take much longer than a professional, because you want it done right. Basic timber frame work is easy if you are half way competent with a tape measure and a nail gun. Second fix is a lot more fiddly as all your work is on show. I tried to get someone in for that but ended up having to do it all myself. That's one of the reasons I went with painted MDF skirting etc, so I could fill and paint any mistakes I made. I designed out complications early on- e.g. no joins in the kitchen worktop, just a few fairly large windows. I decided to go open plan and ended up only having to hang two internal doors.

A few years back I had a pile of very low grade rock left over from some landscaping work, and used it to build a dry stone wall in the garden. It's crumbling quite badly and I think one section might fail soon. I've tried rebuilding it in the past, using mortar to shore it up, which worked fine but was very tedious. I think the current section might be beyond that! It's only a low wall, built from two 'skins' of stacked stones with a rubble infill. I'm thinking I could just 'inject' some sort of sealant/adhesive in lieu of mortar, in to the gaps between the stones. Not sure what kind of gloop would be best though. Has to be a neutral colour and weather resistant. And fairly cheap...

Cheap, warm, thin. Pick two.

I don't think CT1 would work very well. It's got quite good bond strength when used over large areas, but it won't soak in and expand in to every little nook and cranny like PU glue will. I'm not up to date with prices but I've never considered CT1 to be particularly cheap either...

I think it's hard to beat SIPs for performance- the wall is almost all insulation, with no cold bridging.

One thing I really like about a full skim is that it's pretty easy to repair, e.g. if you need to move a socket and fill the old hole. Getting a seamless join between the filler and the plaster is dead easy, whereas on bare plasterboard the paper/filler join almost always remains visible.

According to the article that the OP linked at the start, it means that a number of local authorities have declared that the current arrangements are not working, and this has now escalated to a national situation. Fully agree with that. We don't have enough houses for people to enjoy the luxury of owning extra ones that they leave empty. Which is good. The Scottish government have begun to address this. Speaking as the owner of a holiday let, I was pretty amazed how little regulation there was when I first set up business six years ago. I'm not sure what effect the new licensing scheme is having, and it varies between different councils as they are free to implement it how they see fit. What's clearly needed is a balance, the holiday lets bring in tourists who spend money in restaurants etc, but you still need enough housing for everybody else. In my area it's close to impossible for nurses, doctors, teachers etc to find anywhere to live. In a rural area this is a major problem because the nearest available housing is literally hundreds of miles away.

This is all getting rapidly off topic. Can we talk about houses please? One thing I think is highly relevant is how the balance has changed between owner occupied, private rental, and council/association housing. I saw some interesting figures on this recently but can't seem to find them again.

Two weeks is a bit optimistic isn't it? You still want moisture content as low as possible. Is your ash suffering from dieback? I planted a few but most of them haven't survived. The mature trees are holding on but clearly not happy ☹️

I think that is location dependent.

I had to skim a few areas in my own house- chimney breasts and other bits of that size. Used 'easy sand' plaster, and sanded off the worst bumps with mesh. Bloody messy but it did the job. I'd call the final result 'acceptable'...

Just because everybody is doing it doesn't mean it's the best way. We were very lucky to find an out of work plasterer who had come up to Skye to do a job for a hotel, but they weren't ready on time. So he was looking for work while he waited, which way perfect timing for us. I had been planning to tape and fill but I couldn't turn down the opportunity and we got a full skim instead. When the SSE guys came to install our meter, they said it was the best finish they had ever seen on a new build.

Tape and fill if you forever want to know where every nail and joint are. Otherwise, skim.