Grian

They are already a little on the generous side so that would be in our favour... and being in-frame the drawers have plenty leeway. Thank you. Ouch, we are a shoes off household! My husband creates dirt so I am resigned to regularly wiping most of the kitchen for spills! I might actually prefer wiping the top surface for dirt compared to trying to get the accumulation of dust and dog hair from those corners under units though. That is very true. Please let me know if you have bandaged toes on the 14th! I feel the same, it gives base units a bit more solidity somehow.

Thank you.

Well that is a relief, I had convinced myself it was 10m and was having trouble finding a suitable space for a 'shedroom' ancillary accommodation.

I love the appearance of kitchens which have skirting (see cream kitchen example) rather than recessed kick boards, I think this would make my secondhand bargain units look pretty posh. I do appreciate it may be less ergonomic as you have to stand a few cm further back, but in case I prefer them I'm wondering how easily they are stabilised/attached compared to recessed? Also, I have a freestanding cooker and dishwasher so this may bugger it up as it couldn't have a normal skirting corner at those gaps in the run... Can anyone advise, and any experience on the ergonomics would be very welcome too. Thank you.

Am hoping that applies to my painting too! Thanks.

That's good to hear! Thank you.

Not polished, but just ordinary concrete made as level and smooth as possible and painted - is there a reason not to use it as a floor? I have wet underfloor heating in the slab so it wouldn't be cold. I don't see it being any harder or more slippery than tiles, and an advantage being it can be repainted for a change of colour. In practice I've only had this on utility/garage floors, but it seemed fine there. I must be missing something or people would have this...? Thank you!

Thank you, that looks like it would be good to use. Not clear if it has any added insulation? Lower part of building is constructed from SIPs panels and this will be over the biggest warmest room, so I reckon I'll lose a fair bit of heat if not well sealed and insulated...?

Very exciting, house is really getting there now! Have discovered things I overlooked and among these - access to the loft. Foolishly didn't give thought to loft hatch size and the one that came with our (Scotframe) kit is too small for regular use. We have little storage and plan to use the uninsulated attic as a big cupboard so will access it perhaps every couple of weeks. Don't want to create a cold spot in the ceiling so am looking for a well insulated hatch with a good seal, preferably with a good quality ladder. Max length 1150. Budget is tight! Any advice appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for replies. Natural matt top oil on order, unfortunately won't arrive until Monday. Sourced sister's Polyx oil to do the back and underneath as weather is superb and I can put them outside on trestles.

Is there anything that is effective (and ideally non-yellowing)? Sensitive to VOC's, strong scents etc and try to avoid them in my new build. Recently treated external timber cladding with an Osmo product and was headachey and congested so if the Top Oil is similar I don't fancy being indoors with it. Would also prefer it not to yellow the timber as I have just spent ages hand sanding someone's ugly white wax finish off some bargain 2nd hand full stave worktop! Thank you.

We are running on MiFi mobile interweb while we try to sort out a line problem, it is really good.

Thanks, it will be softwood of some kind. Rest of the wall are clad with siberian larch, hmmm, maybe the fascia etc ought to be too. Duh!

I opted to have timber instead of uPVC on my timber-clad house and I'd appreciate advice on treating the fascia and bargeboards please, in order to prolong lifespan, bearing in mind: It is a very exposed coastal location - could throw a stone into the sea, gales most of the winter. I'd like to paint it before it goes on, and the temperatures are going to be low which seems to rule out linseed paint. Doesn't have to be coloured (so maybe wrong part of the forum). Again, thanks for help.

The posts I'd read describing these problems didn't always give an obvious cause, it just seemed as though it could happen, and some mentioned the more high end manufacturers as being prone to fail in these ways. In my own case I can foresee that keeping it clean could introduce a lot of moisture on a regular basis, I have a working sheepdog who's main role in life is to bring the outdoors in several times a day, so mop frequently!

So glad to find this, I'll need to paint fascia and soffit for a windswept (storm blasted) coastal house and have been considering linseed paint. Bit concerned about the temperature being too low at the moment... However that aside it does seem the longest lasting option?

Hello, ages I've been on here and as I type my SIPs panels are going up! House will have wet underfloor heating and I'd decided on porcelain tiles in the open plan kitchen-dining-living space. Also wondered about engineered wood, but other forums had a number of horror stories about it failing, peeling, bending, warping, rotting and generally being a poor idea. I reckon you guys will have a realistic sense of how robust it is - so, would you fit it in your kitchen? I'd like to put this to bed once and for all, so I can get back to the gazillion paint charts I'll examine before choosing magnolia Thank you!

Thank you, a friend used this company as well so I think it is looking a likely candidate.

After getting advice here a while back things have moved on - glacially slowly but now the building warrant application is in and ought not be problematic... They have asked for a few details, including specification of the metal corrugated roofing we will use and I'm stumped. The kit is coming from Scotframe but they leave it to the customer to specify and source roofing. Does anyone have any recommendations for a suitable product, preferably to be sourced in Scotland. It needs to withstand wind and salt-spray on an exposed west coast site, so plastic coating is a must. Has to be black as that's what planning permission has been granted for. We are budget-constrained. Thank you!

Well mum is probably going to choose engineered wood, other than in the utility and bathroom, result! Since her kitchen is coming from Howdens and we have looked at their flooring I expect that's where she will source it, unless anyone can advise differently. I'm going to do the same, but not necessarily source from Howdens as I will be buying a used kitchen. Thanks for the help this has moved things on hugely.

I think polished concrete is expensive too... budget is a constraint so I'm looking for tiles or engineered wood in the £40/sqm range.

Well this is encouraging, I think. What a lot of good info, thank you. Engineered wood is definitely an option then. We are no-shoe households but there are dogs and with my current Karndean I mop regularly, I will look into how well it withstands a bit of moisture. The UFH is embedded in the concrete slab laid before building begins, if that makes any odds. Good point about when heating might be off completely in summer. Thank you again for responses. Now to browse all the wood floor options

My mum and I are both building houses with wet UFH (using an air-source heat pump). Choosing tiles is proving difficult (blood is coming out of our ears), we dismissed engineered wood because it would transfer heat less efficiently but now are wondering, how much difference does it actually make - are we looking at a noticeable difference in heating bills to achieve a given temperature, or just slower heating up if we alter temperature? Any advice welcome as I can list the entire catalogue of several tile outlets and that is not healthy! Also, travertine and slate, are they really onerous to maintain, are they worth considering? Like we need more options! Thanks Kirsty

When knocking our current kitchen and dining room together I was dismayed by the new kitchens in our budget and instead bought one from eBay. 3k bought me a vast number of solid handmade maple units and dresser, acres of granite worktop and a bunch of appliances. I sold the latter, used most of the rest in kitchen and utility, and had some over that neighbours used in their utility! 15 years ago it had cost 35k new, and to have replaced today would be over 50k (I contacted the maker in case I damaged anything bringing it in). Builders didn't seem to have massive issues with fitting. Granite Man (not his real name but defo his super-power title) turned the worktop into our new configuration plus a brucie-bonus of matching upstand using the excess! It is so solid, so beautifully made, the materials are absolutely gorgeous, and it cost so much less than the very meh alternatives! We are looking at doing the same again when we build, and now I've discovered these middlemen companies I hope they take some of the risk out of buying unseen - I think at least one inspects the kitchens they advertise and provides a general condition report...

Thanks for further input. Under a previous planner my parents had a struggle getting permission just adjacent to me when they wanted to move from a tenanted house onto their own land, and other's locally have had difficulty. However I've had a positive response to a pre-app so am confident if I conform to what is asked I should be ok. I've been advised that from a building perspective a simple rectangle is the cheapest way to go and fortunately the 'longhouse' style has become a local norm for new houses. I've tended to see a septic tank as the default as that is what I have grown up with as the norm, with the only maintenance being emptying from time to time. In places certainly the underlaying substrate is bedrock and the guy who does the majority of digger work hereabouts said that he had come across similar elsewhere. Perversely, about 70m away my mum's standard onion tank was easily installed by digging out some boulders and rotten rock. Unfortunately our source of rotten rock has run out so I will have to buy in any infill / hard standing that is needed. @Thedreamer is your build ongoing then? Good luck if so. Sounds as though you are in the same boat with great views and strict budget. @ProDave your words are very reassuring! I made a crude attempt to measure the surface-level difference in height from front to back of the footprint of the house and I concluded it could be in the region of 900mm, and then there is the difference in soil depth... I have dug so many holes trying to figure out what can go where that the site is more hole than land now!