Crofter

Whilst I've been luckier than many, I do tend to take the view that, if possible, confrontation is best avoided. These people are going to be your neighbours for potentially a long, long time, and being on good terms with them simply makes life far more pleasant. In my experience it's very difficult to undo a falling out. And you might be left crawling back asking someone to feed your cat for the weekend, when previously you've told them to eff off.

I suppose I'm quite fortunate in that my very small build, using simple materials, has received nothing but positive comments from neighbours and passers by. We received no objections at the planning stage either, and almost every person who lives on the road has in some way helped with the build, whether that be by helping lift the frame, or lending me a scaffold tower, or spending a day on the roof helping me install the membrane (not a one man job). I've actually got to know some of my neighbours much better thanks to the project. It's been great to have everybody on-side. I did speak to the nearest neighbour when drawing up the plans, and the house is sited so as to preserve his view of the Outer Hebrides from his studio.

Well, one of my three 10mm samples did just fine. The only difference was that it was matte finish and the other two were glossy. I'm going to order some more samples just to make sure, but as I prefer the look of the matte anyway I hopefully have a winner.

I would really need a much larger collection of samples to be more scientific about this, but SWMBO is already complaining that I've stolen all her best pots and pans, filled them with water and bits of bamboo, and left them lying all over the house. Thickness may be one factor, but I can't do a like for like comparison there. However the 10mm strand woven matte has faired better than some of the thicker samples, albeit those were of different construction and finish. I am very tempted to stick with strand woven, since it is supposed to be the hardest wearing, and the ability to sand it back would be a bonus. At the moment the cheapest SW option from the Bamboo Flooring Co is a Uniclic system which is a big jump up in price.

If they're the same as the one I got a year or two ago, then yes nice little gennies. Look similar to the sub £100 ones you can get but proper inverter output and I think a wee bit quieter.

I've done another batch of immersion tests and found something quite interesting. Out of the simply bamboo 10mm strand woven, the results are: Natural finish glossy- fail Coffee finish glossy- fail Coffee finish matte- pass I did have a natural finish matte sample but it's gone walkies. By 'pass' I mean that the surface remains intact, even if there is some swelling or distortion. 'Fail' means that the surface has begun to break up. I wasn't expecting the finish to affect the reaction to immersion, but the test suggests that it does. @JSHarris IIRC your sample was also matte, yes?

Interesting, and slightly worrying. Cable is not especially complex stuff... what can go wrong with it? Wrong material used for insulator? Wires thinner than stated? Poor quality copper leading to breaks and potential for arcing?

I went for some products from Barretine, a timber preserver and a top coat of log cabin oil. Can't give a full report as I have yet to actually finish! I've given the cladding a single coat of the preserver prior to installation, then plan to do a second coat and the top coat in situ. I've decided to switch from cladding to more urgent internal work so will let you know how it goes in a few weeks time.

Thanks for that Jeremy, interesting. My sample of strand-woven was the cheapest one from 'simply bamboo', and is only 10mm thick. I think I'll have to continue the hunt as I'd be reluctant to use it given how poorly it fared when it got wet. I might have to employ some of Ferdinand's tricks to get discounts from the likes of Wickes/TP. I can spend another £2/m2 there because of the money I'm saving on delivery!

Thanks @JSHarris for that very thorough and persuasive analysis. You put the media to shame!

Welcome aboard, sounds like a good project.Feel free to ask as many questions as you like- if you stick them in the relevant forum sections and add tags, that'll help people find them. Good luck

I've got one (actually two, but I won't go into that) of the Lidl ones. Not particularly impressed, to be honest. What did I expect for £50? Seems just sloppy enough to ruin accuracy, and the casting on the table clamp broke the first time I used it. Without a working table it's next to useless, as there is only 50mm of travel.

Given that there are no point loads involved, a piece of PIR/PUR may well be perfectly fine underneath the window. In my case there are a couple of wooden packers that gave me the ability to level up the window during fitting. As I said earlier in the thread, don't try to get carried away with making everything a tight fit. I left a 15mm gap all round and that was just about perfect for getting the nozzle of the expanding foam gun into. Anything less would have been a right PITA.

Welcome to the forum! How much a self build costs is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but there are some lower limits beyond which it is very hard to go. Most people opt to improve the spec in key areas and this inevitably pushes the price up. The general rule of thumb seems to be about £1000/m2 is as cheap as it gets (you can go lower with lots and lots of DIY labour, secondhand goods, and careful design). Some pretty desirable houses have been built for not much above that basic figure, and it's not at all hard to spend £2-3000/m2 if you really push the spec and offload more of the work to a main contractor.

It's much easier to seal up a 15mm gap than a 3mm one.

What about an engineered joist? Probably overkill but it would be nice and straight/level. You can get a 47x300 but not down to as narrow as 38mm.

I'm not sure if they would take the gennie back- you have to fill the sump with oil so it wouldn't be possible to just shove it in the box and have it put back on the shelf.

I've got the generator. It's not as noisy as some of that type, but noisier than a Honda suitcase gennie, obviously. I've not used it much but so far have been quite impressed- starts easily, very portable. I use it to drive a 1400w pressure washer which it does much better than even my limited arithmetic suggests is possible.

I can get McPhersons contract locally, cheap as chips... and would save me a trip to Inverness. I might have to go for that in the name of speed, unless anybody has any horror stories?

That sounds about right. The B&Q website says it does 100m2/l which I guessed must be a typo! If not, it would be the best value paint ever

@Grosey How did you find the coverage? I've got about 140m2 total to do.

This stuff? http://www.diy.com/departments/valspar-trade-white-matt-wall-ceiling-paint-10l/971878_BQ.prd Not too expensive... has to be worth a go!

I decided to do a 24hr immersion test of three different types of bamboo: strand woven, vertical, and horizontal. I was a little surprised that the the horizontal fared the best, by a long way. No cupping, bowing, and critically no raising of grain at the surface. Next was the vertical, where again the board remained in good shape but there was a slight raising of grain at the surface, enough to feel when you drag a thumbnail across it. Some way behind these was the strand woven. This sample was a lot thinner, so perhaps it's not an entirely fair test. The board bowed slightly, but much worse is that the surface finish has failed, buckling and bursting. I expect that this is permanent damage and would need to be sanded out. The strand woven sample was 10mm, from 'simply bamboo', and is the cheapest of the three. However strand woven is supposed to be the most durable. It was the most resistant to scratches when I scraped it with my thumbnail (pre immersion). The other two samples were from the Bamboo Flooring Company, and whilst thry fared better at the immersion test, it was possible to scratch these samples with a thumb nail, in particular the vertical one. I also got a sample of cheap engineered oak, with a 2.5mm wear layer- this is cheaper than any of the bamboo options, and looks quite acceptable. It failed the nail scratch test very easily indeed, so easily that I didn't bother doing the immersion test as I had already discounted it. So, at the moment the horizontal bamboo seems to be winning. Which is a shame, because I think I prefer the look of the stand woven! Has anybody else ( @JSHarris ?) done similar tests? Picture shows, from L to R, strand woven 10mm, horizontal 15mm, vertical 15mm

Interesting. I know a lot of people are in the market for a low standing charge tariff for the duration of the build, as the little amount of elextricity used can be dwarfed by the standing charges.

Just caught up with this. I thought I was looking at a computer rendered model at first- so crisp!