Crofter

And I can happily report that it does run my (1400w) pressure washer. A wee bit underpowered but the gennie adjusts to the load quickly. It will do what I need it to do anyway.

I've literally just fired up the Lidl genny for a ten minute test run. Compared to similar little 4 stroke gennies it seems to run very smoothly and isn't too noisy- then again I'm comparing it against various borrowed secondhand examples which were well past their prime, I've not had the luxury of a brand new one before. I'm away to test it with my dinky Halfrauds pressure washer just now, which is going to be borderline as it will probably be drawing too much power...

Or leave the steak attached to the cow and problem solved. This thread is starting to go round in circles...

Yeah but you're cheating, your island is *much* flatter than mine!

The geese are no more, and very tasty they were too! 2016 is the year of the bairn and the build, so we don't actually have any stock of our own at the moment. I could borrow some of the sheep which are on the croft (they belong to the neighbour) but moving them would be more hassle than just getting the mower out. Too many fencing projects before we can get stocked up, so the croft itself is on the back burner. I have tried to gently persuade SWMBO that it could be her wee project, but apparently babies need lots of time. Who knew?

My back garden is a PITA to mow. Very steep and undulating. I have tried tackling it with my normal cheap petrol mower, but just getting the thing up the banking feels like enough work for one afternoon. I could strim it all and put up with the unevenness and have to go around raking uo the grass. Would a flymo be a terrible idea? I do treat mowing the lawn as one of these things that should be done as little as possible because life is too short. So it is always like a jungle when I finally get around to it. Last year, I avoided the problem entirely and bought half a dozen geese

Welcome aboard! You are right about things changing- most houses built 30 years ago might struggle to comply with current building regs. I know a few retired joiners who were surprised that I'm not just nailing plasterboard and plywood to either side of a 4" stud, as for a while that was the only way to build a house!

In our previous house, we installed a 'B' grade range cooker that we picked up brand new on eBay for £500. Never found why it was graded stock- looked perfect to me. It was cheaper to do this than a smaller integrated cooker would have been, because we had fewer cabinets and less worktop to buy.

It's an interesting concept, but my first thought was that those doors would never work in the winds we get up here! 175kg for a 3m door sounds quite light. My 2.4m door is 250kg.

It's probably just fine. I imagine the engine is similar to a marine diesel, i.e. simple and robust. By far the most likely source of problems will be fuel. Old diesel can collect condensation from the air, and can get 'diesel bug' which produces horrible black sludge. So check the filter and the fuel. If it's white diesel, stick it in your car and buy fresh stuff for the gennie.

The Lidl gennie is an inverter one, max output of 1200w, 1000w continuous. I don't know if it will come anywhere close to being able to run a fridge or freezer, I take it I won't damage anything by trying, though? We probably have more in our freezers than most people, as we are three hours from Inverness and tend to stock up. Hence a full size freezer in the kitchen plus a second chest freezer in the shed.

This brings to mind the old adage about professionals vs. amateurs: "A professional does the worst job he can get away with; an amateur does the best job he can". I did my own percolation tests and my results showed that I couldn't successfully use a normal soakaway system, so I ended up ploughing about 17% of my total project cost into a proprietary drainage solution. Perhaps if I had contracted this whole thing out, I would have found a 'bloke with a shovel' who would have written whatever numbers he felt were best on the form, and then built me a conventional system... which would have backed up in the first rainy spell and left me with effluent flooding out of the ground. Mmm, nice!

Our last significant power cut was last winter- 37hrs. The novelty of playing piano by candlelight and sitting around the woodburner was starting to wear thin. I assume that for houses with MVHR, you would just crack open a window or two? I have just bought a dinky little petrol generator from Lidl which would at least give us some lighting. Have yet to test it on anything bigger like the freezer- it's surprisingly hard to find information on the wattage of these things.

Looks good! Is the PV for the shed itself or is it on FiT connected through your house?

Did I catch a glimpse of your hut on Landward the other day?

The 3mm gap is actually printed on the boards. I found, though, that the OSB was slightly undersized and it all worked out just fine. So don't use the OSB as a template to build the wall- use a tape measure!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard. Three projects at the same time? That's impressive

I am also going with a suspended timber floor (in my case it is integral to the building, as it has to be transportable). I've used JJI joists to span 4.8m. The joists are 300mm deep. JJI have a very easy to use online tool that allows you to play around with different joist specs and spacings. Pozi Joists are a similar alternative. The JJI joists were not too expensive (added about £200 to my costs) and are very light and easy to handle, and of course dead straight with no bowing. Running services will be easy as you can cut holes in the web. The main disadvantage that I anticipate is increased heat loss due to the wind that can pass through the underfloor area.

In my case I am probably ineligible for a VAT reclaim anyway, unless we make the decision to move into the new house and rent out the old one instead. We are retaining that as a possibility, though.

Thanks Jeremy, that looks fantastic. I wonder if we will see bamboo becoming more popular. What thickness did you go for?

Ah my ears are burning. Yes, my build is designed to fit within the definition of 'portable building' as ProDave linked to above. The definition is clearly intended to apply to prefabricated units, which can be in up to two sections and capable of being removed intact from their foundations. The limits on dimensions exclude eaves overhangs, gutters, etc. I have chosen this build path because it alleviates me of the need for a building warrant. This in turn means that I can be much more 'DIY' about the project. I do not have to persuade anybody other than myself that things are not going to fall down, and i have no delays for inspections. The single biggest downside is that it may be difficult to mortgage the property, which in my case is not an issue. There have also been some repercussions on my choice of foundation design. If I were to ever move the building, I would jack it up where it stands and back a tractor-towed low loader in underneath, then transport it across the fields to the road.

Just wondering if anybody has any experience of bamboo flooring? I am very tempted as the samples I have got my hands on look good, and it is supposedly extremely hardwearing, certainly better than engineered timber. Is there any real benefit to getting the thicker versions? I will need to decide on final floor level soon as I will shortly be installing my external doors.

At the moment I am using two different nail guns: a Hitachi gas gun for framing, and a Clarke coil nailer that runs off a compressor and fires full head nails up to 70mm. initial impressions are that the gas nailer is handier in many ways, no hose to drag around behind you, but overall I don't think it's any faster to use as it has more issues with jams, cold gas, and of course needs reloaded more frequently. I have been surprised by how temperamental it can be below about ten degrees celsius. The coil gun has the option of sequential firing which can make scarily rapid progress on things like sheathing. Even running it off a cheap little 12l compressor it is faster than I am. The main thing that drove me to get the coil nailer was that I was able to buy stainless full head nails for a fraction of the price of the Paslode-type ones for the gas gun. I will need these for my timber cladding and the relatively cheap coil nailer has probably already paid for itself just through the difference in cost of the nails. Plus, no more taking out fuel cells and sticking them in your armpit until they are warm enough to work!

Thanks, Ed, that's really useful. My timber-buying tip for the day: When you order 30 full lengths of C24 timber, before the lorry driver heads off check the markings stamped on the end grain of every single stick in the pile, so that you can spot the two cheeky C16s that they have hidden in there. Don't assume the whole bundle is what you actually ordered and leave it until a fortnight later before you spot it. Grrr!