Bozza

Roofing / slating is one of a number of things I definitely don’t know too much about so Thanks for your replies folks. So it seems the consensus is that clipping slate is something that is done by some roofers mainly as a design thing but perhaps more likely in Scotland as it has a function benefit (Though not essential) for water tracking. And that they’ve done a good slating job on my house. But that the lead work at the dormer needs remedial action. Wonder why if the slating has been done to a good standard, why the lead work hasn’t. Doesn’t make sense.

Makie, you said earlier that clipping the end tiles was when asked for by client / architect and also explained about water tracking. Is it the case that When it’s asked for, It’s for tracking, or just for how it looks and it helps tracking. Just trying to understand why it was done on my house by the roofers, when not asked for to be done. Namely would they do it automatically for functionality. also your opinion kind sir of the attached flashing detail at the dormer.

Yeah much better downtairs! Even getting seats in the hallway! And a pantry! A proper architect will get it even better. I would definitely only have the pocket doors between dining & kitchen. Also think about your kitchen units again. With your pantry, utility and island unit that’s an awful lot of base units in front of the back window, consider drawing your kitchen unit layout before committing to room layout. Still think full height windows there which would look amazing with your big island etc. if there is a change upstairs your stairs can start In an improved location In the hallway downstairs. i had a look at your upstairs but struggled to get 4 beds with en-suite but I’m sure an architect could squeeze them in if essential for you to have so many en suite. Bear in mind this would result in 6 toilets through the house though. Upstairs you currently have a lot of funny shaped room try to get them squared as much as possible. As opposed to shower boxes in each room. Another reason think carpets. Currently your room shapes will result in lots of off big off cuts that you’ll be paying for. Also one has two dimensions greater than 5m so you won’t get a standard carpet to fit. would love to see what your architect comes up with ! Good luck !

DC5, Ralph Is right enough re Rationel bifolds. What Rationel do do is window doors. As in full height that look like windows but hinge out and bottom frame doesn’t look like a window frame. See my pic. I’ve got 6 of them In my house £800 each if I recall. 3G aluclad. my builder said they were mega heavy. I think ADW their distributor has a place in Cumbernauld so a short drive from Stirling.

Hi, I’m in Aberdeenshire. Have you had a look at Rationel? I’ve had them - alu clad triple glazed - installed in my self build and I thought they were pretty good value and my builder is impressed with the quality etc of them. not in the house yet so cant comment further than that. Service from local distributor was superb.

Saucepan, downstairs. Try this. It might work for your needs. move the lounge/porch dividing wall maybes 1 metre up into the lounge to where the stairs end. Approx in line with where the kitchen and dining areas dividing line is. Then Move the lounge/dining dividing wall left maybes 0.5-1m left (squaring off the study to make it maybes 3-3.2 m wide something like that). This will make your lounge squarer approx 4.5 x 5.5 something like that. If you need doors between lounge and dining use pocket doors. The porch area will then be big. push your utility to the right and Into the now bigger porch space, partially under the stair, with access from kitchen or porch if you prefer. You may need to change your stairs to an L shape to land upstairs in the same place. the result will be your kitchen diner shouldn’t have the utility area stuck midway. If this new utility space partially under the stairs isn’t quite big enough your doors could be double doors from kitchen to access sort of a deep but wide utility cupboard / laundry, galley area as opposed to a walk in room. the island does look far better than the breakfast bar. The utility block as is does spoil that feature room, but I think you’re moving in the right direction,

Make sure it’s metered and Certificated/documented to allow RHI payments, something I myself had to confirm in writing just this week from my installer.

Once you’ve calculated your TRPs you’ll know how close the roots come to your proposed build. If they are big trees, 5m in particular, is quite close. Don’t forget the edge of your house Is not where construction starts as they’ll have to dig wider. you have to allow for diggers plant etc too. Whilst you could submit a site plan showing the trees, TRPs & mitigation measures yourself, neither you nor the planners are qualified to say whether your measures are sufficient. That’s why they pass that buck to pros eg a tree surveyor. As your closest tree is your neighbours tree I’m fairly sure the planners will likely require a proper tree report. So if something goes wrong and you kill your neighbours tree they can pass the buck to a degree. I can send you my tree reports if that helps you, actually just google Aberdeenshire Council planning and search Ref APP/2019/0862 it’s all there.

You can certainly calculate the tree roots protection areas yourself. Are they likely to to be breached during your build eg foundations, driveway plant access, trenching, material storage, etc. Or are they at the bottom of the garden totally out of the way of the build. I have 20+ trees on my plot and have gained a decent knowledge of trees/planning.

Thank you kind sir

ok Makie so is it for water tracking as Joe90 was told, or some other practical purpose, or is it purely a style / look thing ?

You are welcome hope some new ideas help. idea being plenty of space for family plus separate quiet living room. If you are able to move the side door from kitchen I would put a large pantry there. This is cost effective as you’d need far less tall kitchen units. Also if you don’t need a shower downstairs. At the moment, you could put a non load bearing Wall between wc & pantry, with space & plumbing for a future shower. Thus can easily reduce pantry size and increase we to fit in a shower. for the study area a couple of options. One is leave it entirely open plan, or have an internal glazed partition (Per image). Again so if you need this area as a future room you can easily put up an internal wall. you can put more storage in hallway eg under stairs etc. haven’t looked at upstairs in detail but consider jack and Jill or shared family bathrooms. Also throughout better to have more built in cupboards/wardrobes etc & less floor space, than more floor space that’s full of shoe racks, wardrobes etc etc cluttering up the space. Good luck !

Ahhhh I see, that would make sense, drips would run down the 45 cut corner back toward the roof. But wonder why this is not done on all slate roofs.

My best guess would be that un clipped corners would be susceptible to snapping In high winds, but I’ve seen loads of slate roofs without this feature. I’m sure someone here will know for sure. The slaters were subbied by my builder and awaiting their response but that may take a while.

The scaffolding is just coming down on my self build. I’ve noticed the roofer has clipped the end roof slates at 45 degrees. Has anyone seen this before or know any reason for doing it? It creates an optical illusion that makes the rook look like it curves up at the end. The site is quite exposed (NE Scotland) to wind so just wondering if it’s something to do with that. pic attached.

just an idea for you. Not to scale. If it was me.... this provides feature staircase up to similar central area upstairs. spacious entrance hallway with WC. Glazed doors to living room, and tempting through to diner kitchen. Bank of units down one wall with oversize feature island with seating. You could make the kitchen windows full height flooding this main room with light. Put utility area far side, include second dishwasher for easy loading from dining table. Study give window to rear. If you wanted to link living to dining use pocket doors but this would reduce the wall space for sofas.

I don’t think so if it’s a professional fee. I may be wrong though.

Don’t forget to consider advertising some waste material on Facebook marketplace. My demo ended up costing me £zero, and I made some profit, as I sold most of the waste material. Paid for the JCB & driver to demo my building. Nearly everyone has Facebook now. my tips: 1. Only advertise one or two items at a time, otherwise you can get inundated with messages. 2. Don’t advertise decent stuff for free for collection, otherwise you’ll be inundated with messages. 3. Don’t overprice stuff. You won’t get £50 for a battered old stainless steel sink, but someone will take it for free. Don’t be greedy. 4. If you have a lot of metal sell to scrappy, (I made £500) otherwise If just a few bits folk will happily take it off you. 5. Broken slate tiles can be sold for garden borders. 6. Rubble And soil for backfill/building up land. Free for collection. 7. Timber joists etc - denailed - flew - I had like 6 queries within as many minutes of posting. 8. Stones and rocks for rockeries / dyking. 9. Old windows for sheds. 10. Always respond quickly and be nice to purchasers. They review you. I didn’t get any time wasters, probably because everyone’s traceable via Facebook. Gumtree less so. 11. You’ll be surprised what goes. It costs nothing to advertise it so nothing to lose by trying.

Hi I’m looking at something similar, to build a large workshop. I may end up doing the frame in timber but was quite keep to put something really sturdy. I’ve been getting quotes from nationalsteelbuildings.co.uk To do a frame only. Obviously can’t comment on them beyond this stage but they’ve been responsive to my queries so far.

SSE charged me £2k to remove one pole and overhead cable, to have my supply terminate in a site box at the bottom of another existing pole that I didn’t need moving from end of my site. And to add a stay to that remaining pole. I did the trenching from pole to site box. SSE didn’t charge me VAT as was part of project groundworks etc. After their engineers left I chainsawed down the redundant pole and they refunded me £1300 as they didn’t need to remove said pole. So to remove overhead line and pole cost me £700. Should say that pole & supply terminated at my site I was at the end of the run so to speak. They needed digger and operator to dig down to insert stay line, and a couple of engineers for maybes half a days work. If you can do the trenching and pole removal yourself just leaving the DNO to do the actual engineering stuff you’ll get your quote way down. SSE were superb to deal with (My reply just in case anyone trying to assess / research line removal costs or issues)

Go for ASHP if a long term investment. You’ll save money in the long term and it’s better for our environment, in a few years time younger buyers won’t want fossil fuel houses as we wouldn’t want to buy a house now heated by coal. Won’t be long before house builders won’t be allowed to install mains gas. It’s old technology. I’m not an eco warrior BTW just my mindset has changed since looking into the options for my own build.

Would advise you to rent up here rather than living in a caravan on site through the winter especially if you have kids. Due to socialist govt you have a LOT of tenants rights including including only 28 days notice to leave etc. No long term / short term lets here they’re illegal. Sort of a pay as you go arrangement. Renting in Scotland is weighted in favour of tenant not landlord.

Your best best would be in the Huntly or Keith areas, near the A96 approx midway between Aberdeen - Inverness. Plots approx £40k and the folk up there are really nice. I see there’s a plot with PP at Gartly for oo £18k! Aberdeenshire Council are very good to deal with planning wise and Moray are too from what I have learned, When the A96 is duelled prices will go up. Would avoid the Buchan coast though roads connection not great and weather not as good on the coast. I’m saying this assuming you don’t know the area, apologies if you do. The North East of Scotland has a lot to offer as does the Highlands.

Welcome James. I’m building just outside Aberdeen but using a turn key service. We have family and work commitments in Aberdeenshire. Are you familiar with the NE of Scotland is there a reason you’re looking here?

As part of my build I’m putting a workshop / store on the plot. In light of this pandemic once things get back to normal I’m going to dedicate a section of this building to emergency supplies. Had thought about this a while ago but my wife said I was mental. Not now though. Just sensible & proportionate stuff that I could use in normal life and replenish when used especially if they have expiry dates. But enough to keep us going if something similar happened in future which is entirely possible. As my plot is slightly rural would be handy if snowed in etc for a few weeks.