the_r_sole

you're not thinking this through, if you put the kamado further away from the house, you must stand close by for a number of hours drinking beers, if it's just out the door, you'll be observed! ?

@SuperJohnG first of all, do you need both those in your dining room to open? how realistic is it that you have them both open at the same time? My frugal mind says fixed on on and openable on the other I really don't like bi-folds so I won't get too involved, but for me, sliders are a better looking, more practical solution for scotland...

I don't have anything to say on this, I think a bit more explanation would help massively. What are your drivers for the house? do you need five bedrooms? what views do you have? what sunlight do you have? why have a entrance space full of doors? and a stair in the sitting room? and the sitting room is a corridor? dining to study to wc is a strange arrangement and that's the one you'll use all the time from the kitchen, all of the bedrooms have useless space in them? I'd probably make the hall bigger and have more regular proportioned bedooms.... (turns out I did have something to say, sorry about that!)

Probably by not using mm accurate steel fabricated off site and by a contractor who fixes issues as they go! If you fragment the process and introduce liability to people who don't usually have it, it won't be straightforward. And extending stone old buildings with new steelwork always needs a bit of jiggery pokery which in this case no one wants to be the cause of it ?

Out of interest @David R have you employed the consultants for construction phase or have they just been employed up to warrant stage? The thing is, what you are asking them to do is not a straight forward task on an extension project (especially one with a stone wall!) and it carries a good bit of liability if it's incorrect! (we recently completed a building in fife where we placed a steel frame inside some stone walls and the walls were 300mm out on the vertical in some places!) If we were being asked to confirm exact steel frame dimensions on site we'd need accurate 3d survey information of the site once the pad foundations are in, there aren't many architects or engineers who carry survey equipment capable of doing that, so it would be a third party survey and then it's a complex drawing exercise for them to work through - if it was a new steel frame for a new build it's a different kettle of fish! Normally the contractor would do the founds and provide information to the fabricator which would then be checked by the architect/engineers, rather than the other way around. if the steel comes to site and someone has given incorrect dimensions then it's their liability and they need to solve the problem, hence why it's usually a contractor responsible I think there are lots of comments in here which are misunderstanding the issue you are having (and the process of bum covering from local authorities and consultants!)

Hello David, No one will want to take the responsibility when it's an extension, where in Fife are you? Might be worth getting a contractor on board to help with the steelwork erection as a package of work? We did previously use a firm in fife (iirc) who surveyed the foundations as built on a site, but yours is (potentially) more complex dealing with an existing building - what extent of steel work do you have and what are the critical points?

Strawbales and Upvc?! interesting combo... What is your window detail in the strawbale? is there a deep recess? do you box it out in timber first? I'm going to suggest you won't find anyone who is experienced in this type of install so it's probably useful if you have details of how the windows should be done to discuss with a fitter

Interesting setup, a lot better website than others I've seen before! (Sorry I can't be of help ?)

It doesn't matter if you have an idea tbh, it matters what the SER certifier needs! It's a pretty prescriptive process in Scotland - all you can do is supply the information that the certifier needs to provide the paperwork to tick the right boxes. Ask the SER engineer exactly what they require (rather than what they would ideally have! )

You can't really use the small buildings guidance any more tbh, you'll need an SER cert to accompany your warrant application and its only the se who can tell you what si is required - the original question about soil testing isn't addressed in the small buildings guidance...

You SER engineer will need site survey information in order to sign off the certificate and Building Standards will ask for a copy of the SI A lot comes down to the site history/location etc and a bit comes down to your attitude to risk... normally you could get a stage 1 SI done which would tell you if there's more investigation required but that's still money spent! What you need for the engineer is trial pits, i.e. you dig a big hole and they look down the hole and nod or shake their heads ? - Just ask the engineer what SI they'll need to be able to complete the design and what the local authority usually accept (some Building Standards offices seem to want to see a lot more where there's any slight hint of a possibility of contamination or ground gas etc...

yeah, it's always more expensive but since the soffit is relatively small area it shouldn't be too bad? A builder suggesting painted plywood is why you shouldn't take advice on aesthetics from a builder ?

you could use the cedral click one for the soffits? (it looks way better than lapped boards on any application imo)

You're going to circle around this forever if you don't make a decision on how to proceed, I've had clients like this before and 6 months go by then they come back with more thoughts and ideas but still don't want to pay anyone to progress, then another 6 months later repeat... The way I see it is you either: Set the budget, get a wishlist and then get a designer to show you how many of the things in the wishlist are achievable. Or set the wishlist and get the design which incorporates it all and get that priced. What you need to think about is the quality of the spaces, not just the floor areas - the two rooms which have direct sunlight and views on the ground floor are a study and a garage, the lounge and kitchen are both North facing but have a view of the garden. Think about what spaces you would like morning light in and locate them accordingly, where you might want light through the day and early evening and spaces where light isn't important. If you are working from home could you have a North facing home office which gets diffused/constant light, does it need to be shut-off from public spaces or could it be open to a bigger space etc etc It doesn't matter how unusual your requirements are as long as you know what they are...

Fair enough, I can see that you're not going to be convinced that you can achieve way more with a design that you want to. If it was me I'd start with my budget, then get a prioritised wishlist of spaces, then work it into a design, you seem to limiting yourself deliberately before figuring out what you actually want the house to do. No matter what the projected cost of that floor plan would be to design, I'm 100% sure that a better design could be had for the same cost.

Good post here from @Ferdinand You want to work out which rooms/spaces/functions you want to use and how they suit different scenarios in your lifestyle then work it into a floor plan, rather than starting with a box and making spaces fit - a smaller, better, more light filled house will be much more valuable than a bigger dark box, and it will be a much nicer place to live too! (which is really the most important bit|)

If it's been converted as recently as that but wasn't able to be signed off then there's most definitely a reason it couldn't be signed off! I would try and figure out what it is that doesnt meet regs before I got building control involved... you may be about to open a can of worms...

But surely even an engineer mindset would concede that having a lot of the floor plan not getting natural light doesn't have any delight? Use windows for views and for light, you don't always need to have a great view to have a window... there's nothing at all to say you have to use the full width of the plot or that you have to have a set of rooms looking one way, a room looking the other way and bit bit in between looking no way! (Or that there is only one place the garage could possibly go) Just thinking of it as being shallower or deeper is your problem!

Don't design your house like an engineer ? Design it to make the most of the plot, views and light and make it work as a house that fits your lifestyle, just because one layout is dysfunctional doesn't mean they all are. I'm all for rational, efficient floor plans but there has to be some delight too, you want to exploit the opportunity you have

Is there a reason you're so tied to the square floor plan? If it was me looking at the plot layout, I'd be tempted to look at an L shape or even a T to maximise the light and views - every single one of my clients wants "light and airy" homes and I think building a new house with such a deep plan isn't going to maximise any pay back you'll get, the first thing someone buying that house is going to do is to look to see which walls they can drop to lighten it up... tbh I thought it was 4 bed at first and bedroom heavy at that, never mind the 5th bed!

If you have a big square floor plan with three rooms deep, the middle of the plan is always going to be dark especially where there's buildings either side! The garage also seems to be placed to get the best light...

at some point you're going to have to take a risk, it'll either be an investment or not, but if you're trying to do it as a development project then that's the rub of the green. We're nearly 5k into consulting fees on a development project at the moment trying to make sure it's viable... you need to take a punt tbh, although if you're building spec houses for resale the first thing to make sure is that your proposed construction method is widely accepted with mortgage companies Also if it's a house that's been built locally, why don't you ask the architect for that if you can use the plans for a planning app?

Sorry, Might just be my misunderstanding - I thought you were saying in the op that the plan is similar to what's there but higher to accommodate the first floor rooms? Maybe I shouldn't read posts after a night on the drams ? If you're one of the few that actually use a garage for cars then fair enough! The plan at the moment seems to be a bit bedroom heavy, there doesn't feel like there's the right balance of communal/family space with that number of bedrooms?

Look for ways to reduce risk rather than add it! Imo you want someone to take your ideas and put them into a set of drawings which are actually buildable under the current regs - we occasionally get enquiries from people asking us to do building warrant (building regs) drawings for something they've put through planning themselves, but when you review the plans, they don't comply with the regs!

Can you not just build the tf off the internal leaf and have a detail like you would have on a normal clad timber frame building?