Crofter

Similarly, it's frustrating for me as a relative young 'un that I have to ask a 'grown up' to tow anything over 750kg for me- even though I have a fair bit of towing experience and get asked by friends to launch boats for them etc.

It might be worth using one of those adapters designed for running laptops etc from a car- DC-DC should be more efficient. Generally designed to output 19v but multi-voltage ones are available. Having said that, on the boat I use an inverter all the time since my 50w solar panel produces far more power than I need so 'waste' isn't an issue, whereas destroying something by trying to run it straight from the battery certainly would be!

A good trailer will hold its value well. You're looking for Ifor Williams or similar. 8x4 is a pretty standard size. Tipping can add significantly to the cost, and will be a bit harder to find. Your tow vehicle is spot on, by the way! If you passed your test after 1997 you'll be restricted to 750kg laden trailer weight, to go above that you'd need to do a test. Driving with a trailer is easy enough with a bit of practise. Ideally, find a big empty space with nobody watching and drive round and round in reverse until you feel you're getting the hang of it.

The 3.5t limit is for the laden trailer, not the train weight. Shortlist of vehicles rated to tow this: - Defender, Range Rover, Disco - LWB Shogun - Nissan Patrol - Grand Cherokee - Fourtrak I happen to remember this because I used to own a 27ft yacht plus trailer, and it was right on the 3.5t limit. So every Discovery owner I ever met became a potential new best friend when I needed to tow it somewhere

Great wee project. Have you had much use out of the hut yet?

Did you mean "<100g" to get zero road tax? FiL's X3 is a pretty decent vehicle, not cheap but tows over two tonnes and surprisingly economical on both fuel and tax. Has the stop-start system which helps in that respect. He won't lend it to me to tow stuff with though, it's far too nice

Get a carvel hull and all will be good, or even better grp! Boats are plummeting in value as more appear on the market- fibreglass doesn't die. The saying goes that a hull is worth nothing, to get the value of the boat you add up the cost of the bits bolted on to it. Bit depressing when you come to sell, mind.

Thanks Dave, I'll look it up.

Wondering if anybody had any preferences or advice on choosing breathable roofing membrane? To be laid directly atop OSB sarking boards, followed by battens, counterbattens, and box profile steel. I plan to lay it vertically so that every joint is battened- this will also be much easier for me as I am likely to be working on my own. Anyway, there seems to be a fair bit of choice available, and the stuff is variously referred to as breather, felt, membrane, etc, which complicates the search somewhat. Finally, is there any advantage to the shiny 'thermo' versions? How would this affect U-values? I presume they don't have any actual insulating properties but is the emissivity different?

It really is a small world

You got me

Thanks, it's been a lot of hard work but this stage is very satisfying. I have decided to put the breather on the front and back walls first (tricky job by yourself in a 30mph wind!), then I will board the roof, then breather on the gables, then finally membrane on the roof. This sequence will work best in terms of working space and how the membranes overlap, I think. I've been loaned a fairly basic scaffold tower (visible in picture above, inside the house) and am hoping that this plus the ladders will be sufficient. But if I find myself in a fankle I might well be looking for more/better scaffolding...

A mate of mine lives in a rented house and runs it as a B&B- pretty lucrative here on Skye. He does this for a living, so must be pocketing most of the B&B income. Don't know how it works out for the landlord. One bonus would be that a prospective B&B operator would have an incentive to keep the place in good fettle, or so you would hope.

We can't leave the back door open because the chickens like to come into the kitchen! Despite me building them a lovely larch clad house to live in. Ideas above their station, I feel.

Try here: https://issuu.com/solotimberframe/docs/self_build_design_advice

I want to tie my rafters down onto the frame using twist straps (already purchased). There are three places that I can put them: - on the inside of the frame, running down the studs. They would then have a sheet of 50mm PIR placed over them, followed by the VCL and then battens which create the service void. So the batten fixings would hit the metal straps and prevent them from being adequately fixed through to the studs. - on the outside of the frame, fixed through the sheathing and onto the studs, either above or below the breather membrane. The first layer of battens then need to be fixed over the top, so again I have the issue of fixings clashing with the metal strap- although at least this time I'm not also working blind through 50mm of PIR. - on the outside of the frame, but on top of the battens. This minimises the clashing of fixings and metalwork (although the counterbattens will need to be able to run over the top)- but is presumably the least strong out of all the options, and would need longer fixings to reach through te batten, sheathing, and into the stud. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Thanks for reviving this thread. Just for the record, my eventual design was 42m2 net internal floor space, on a footprint of about 52 m2. I think for a one bedroom dwelling it will feel spacious enough. I won't be cramming it full of bulky furniture. For an object lesson in living in small spaces, it is remarkable how comfortable you can be aboard a boat. I had a mate who lived on a pretty small wooden yacht for a couple of years. The total floor area where he could stand up was probably less than one square metre. Everything has to serve two purposes, and it does force you to be ruthless with what you regard as 'essential'.

96 from me too. It's not as hard as you think, Dave!

SWMBO hates it when I do a dump run, because I usually come back with more than I had!

I'm going to jump right to the current status on site and at some point will go back and fill in the gaps. A summary of major jobs completed to date: - access created - water and electricity on site - septic tank and 'Puraflo' secondary treatment/filtration system installed and signed off by BCO - footprint of house laid with membrane and chips - concrete footings and piers poured - Douglas Fir ring beam installed - JJI joists installed on hangers - All four walls of the frame built and sheathed lying flat, and now lifted and fixed into place - Ridge beam built and installed - Windows delivered and now stored inside building - Rafters cut and installed When you list it like that, it's no wonder I feel like I deserve a cuppa now! So what's left to do? The pressing thing is to get wind and watertight whilst we continue to have good weather. This means installing the sarking, and breather membranes on wall and roof, and the first layer of battens to hold it in place. I will probably then board over the window openings temporarily and crack on with installing the floor. It's a bit lethal working stood on various temporary boards on top of the joists. Once we are wind and watertight, I can start working on the interior, and get on with the cladding on the good weather days. This is the site ready for installation of the ring beam. Ring beam and most of the joists installed Frame starts going up Ridge beam and rafters on- this is as far as I have got so far. It's been fun!

Still trying to work out the best way of doing this. I can think of three options: 1- A ceiling joist at each rafter pair, spanning the building. Nice and easy, simple, and supported by a partition wall part way. But lots of penetrations (16). 2- Run two joists as above, and then run the remaining ceiling joists at 90 degrees to these, i.e. lengthways along the building. Cuts number of penetrations to four. Loses benefit of support from the partition wall so probably need heftier timbers. 3- Fix a high level batten and put the ceiling joists on hangers fixed to that. No penetrations other than the screws, but now the joists are adding little or no strength to the building.

I'm about to start installing the breather membrane onto my timber frame. This will be hung vertically and then fixed via battens every 600. Question- do I fix a horizontal batten at the top and bottom of each window opening?

The ring beam was fun- manually moving and assembling over half a tonne of Douglas fir. Car jacks and ratchet straps were the answer. About 150 coach bolts holding it all together, my 12mm drill bit doesn't know what hit it. I'll do a blog entry showing current status, maybe tomorrow.

Seems a bit extreme. I would: - rod them to check that they are clear and accessible (if they are not roddable between each access point, then you will have trouble later) - check gradients by using a level or just pouring some water in - do a pressure test to check for leaks

I started the project with a pretty clear idea of what I wanted: the 'contemporary vernacular' style that Skye has embraced is a modern take on traditional proportions, using simple materials to create stunning properties with clean lines that sit well in the landscape. The best known examples are those drawn by Dualchas architects, with their designs featuring on Grand Designs and in various magazines. I seriously looked into a 'Heb Homes' kit but this would have been way out of my budget. Another contender was Loch Dhu. However whilst these provided inspiration, ultimately I decided to go it alone, both for budget reasons and because by now I had the bit between my teethe and wanted to give it a go. What all of these designs had in common were: simple, vernacular shapes with pitched roofs; vertical board on board timber cladding; roofing in corrugated or box profile steel; and simple, clean interiors. I felt that building in these materials could yield a comfortable, efficient, and value for money house which would be low maintenance and ideally suited to my requirements as a holiday let. The initial sketches I drew up were for a one bedroom build with an open plan kitchen/diner/lounge. Most of the glazing would be on the West side to make the most of the views out to the sea. The building would be a simple rectangle in plan, with a traditional 45 degree pitched roof. It would be about the least amount of house that the two of us felt we could be happy living in- so that if circumstances changed, we could sell our existing house and move in, without it feeling like too much of a compromise. The next big decision came about entirely thanks to the eBuild (now BuildHub) community: following a tipoff by the user 'ProDave', I discovered that an exemption from building regulations exists for houses that fit within certain criteria. The exemption is designed for mobile homes, caravans, and other portable buildings, and states that the building must be less than 6x18m, have an internal ceiling height of 3.048m or less, and be capable of being lifted or towed away in no more than two sections. Whilst it is probable that the writers of this exemption had in mind prefabricated buildings, this is not actually specified. Building without the need to adhere to building regulations would be a huge boost for me as a DIY builder. I would be able to put something up that I was happy with, without having to demonstrate to third parties that I was meeting various requirements. I would avoid the costs of a building warrant, the need for inspections, and the need to use certified equipment or installers. There is a significant downside to this build route. As I would not receive a completion certificate, it may not be possible to mortgage the building. However, for me this was not an issue, as I do not intend to sell, but rather keep the building as a means of supplementing our income. In addition, the building will sit on croft land and as such could not be mortgaged anyway, without applying for de-crofting first. One further benefit is that the building could be deemed as movable rather than heritable property, and therefore not accede to the croft as a permanent improvement. If the crofters' commission were ever to assign our croft to another person (a right that they can exercise if they feel that land is being neglected) we would at least be able to remove the building and look for an alternative site for it- although I expect that transportation costs would be considerable. Having made this decision, it was now time to finalise the design and prepare the planning application.