Bozza

I think it would be technically possible to get a second supply to your garage from your pole but would require a second meter/supply. Your DNO would advise you but that would be expensive and they’d probably have to trench the supply from the pole. Or put in an additional pole next to your garage. All very expensive trenching a supply from your house would be much cheaper. Or alternatively solar and battery charging for the garage if you need power. If just light then some sort of solar lighting. per previous reply why not trench from the house. Much easier & cheaper ?

If It was me I would offer him cash to compensate for the removal of the tree. If he declines then change your design / layout to protect the tree. The landlord will be financially motivated. There will be a cost to changing your design to accommodate the tree. Work out what that is to you. Then offer him something similar. The offer of cash should provoke a response and in fact that may well be his strategy holding out for a £ offer. Be straight with him just say look it’s going to cost me ££££ to change my design so I’m happy to offer you £££ to keep my original design. Knowing the tree issue is known by you, planners and him I would be very very careful about doing anything that could provoke legal recourse or a neighbourly dispute. Trees more rights than humans when it comes to planning as I found out myself with my build.

My self build mortgage is through Ecology and I was just speaking to them yesterday/today to release latest funds. They are superb to deal with so far. Easy to speak with friendly etc, personable flexible and quick to respond. It was the first time my solicitor had dealt with them and he reported from his perspective they were also excellent to deal with. My solicitor wasn’t cheap for the conveyencing but he’s excellent so happy to pay for that. Pay peanuts get monkeys.

I’m self building in Aberdeenshire and my main contractor uses tried & tested sub contractors. One of these is http://www.plumbingandrenewables.co.uk/ Who are in Burghead and are doing my central heating and ASHP. I’ve had some contact with them and they were quite impressive in terms of helpfulness and customer service etc. I did visit one of my main contractors previous houses and the owner was impressed with the heating system / ASHP.

I don’t know tbh I presume so sort of thermostat with electronics

The bedroom is 18 sq metres but has three full height windows each 2.1 x 0.9m - all 3G. The calcs they gave me was heat loss 678w, 20% uplift from cold state being 813w. 3:1 uplift for lower heat pump temperature, so 2522w output needed. So two 700x900 rads or one 700x1200. Insulation is good. 140 frametherm 35 in kit plus 25 over face.

Great suggestion / product thanks but looking in detail the wattage output is too low I need to achieve 2.7 kw output in one of the bedrooms and only have room for one large rad.

My self build is going to have a Mitsubishi Ecodan 11.2 KW ASHP with 250l cylinder. Ground floor will be Underfloor heating with rads upstairs. An optional upgrade - at £531 plus fitting - it to have both floors on different circuits, to allow the underfloor heating to run at a lower temperature, so should reduce running costs. The house - 214 sqm, SAP rating is estimated to be 89 well insulated 3G glazing and south facing. In NE Scotland. Planning on it being a house for life. for those with relevant knowledge of such matters, is the upgrade worth it? ta

I’m putting a DIY kitchen in my self build. It will be my second kitchen from them. Avoid Wren my parents kitchen was from them despite my advice. It’s rubbish and overpriced. My mate got a DIY kitchen after my recommendation he’s was / is very happy with it.

Have a look at DIY kitchens in Yorkshire. My current 10 yr old kitchen is from them and my new one in my new self build will be.

Hi Angela, though my project is different to yours, I’m currently self-building just near Westhill. If I can offer any local advice please do ask.

I’m with Ecology / in Scotland. They’re very good, easy to deal with and very flexible. Glad I went with them. You can deal with them directly. Emails are answered quickly.

Button magnets glued or even routed/recessed into the panel? I use button magnets to secure fireguard to metal fireplace and they are incredibly strong. If panel is too heavy just create a small lip at bottom of panel to take weight A variation of this might even be Velcro stapled to panel. I use this method for attaching bespoke stainless steel plinths in my kitchen. have you thought about hinging the panels if they are not too wide. Just using hidden hinges like the ones on the cupboard doors. Then magnetic catches.

I’ll pm you.

We also did / currently doing exactly what you want to do. We went for an interest only mortgage to keep monthly payments down. Santander via Buildstore to buy the plot. Then self build mortgage from Ecology to build the house. If you sell currrent home before new one is built, simply rent in interim if you don’t fancy living in a caravan

The mortgage offer would surely have been based upon the valuation & survey so I’d imagine you’d need to have a survey etc redone. Ask your lender.

Yes that feasible but stone rubble walls are very time consuming to build so though material is free I would imagine manpower costs could add up. Your builder will advise you better.

No just sticking with k rend and Siberian larch. Looking at your house design assuming it’s all rendered personally I would add either stone or timber to that protruding elevation, or somewhere. cladding and k tend is similarly priced. Stone / stone cladding is obviously more expensive. Have a look at images on pinterest - a good source of ideas / looks.

I was considering stone cladding in a similar way as yourself, to form the entranceway. The rest of the house is to be white k rend and larch cladding and sits 4m from a traditional random stone dyke. I thought this would involve too many different materials in close proximity to each other and be “too much”. Coincidentally a stranger who was passing my site turned out to be an architect. He agreed as he felt with self designed houses people often make the mistake of trying to incorporate too many things eg materials features. Obviously your site / design will be different and you should do what you want.

Are you able to work from inside . This is what I did. Safer and easier. The tile nails often protruded from inside the sarking boards so by hammering from inside this caused the nail to protrude from outside the tile and was just a case of pulling them out or using the tile itself as a lever. The slate ripper I bought was useless I used a combination of crowbars and levers. Initially lost/broke about 30% of the tiles but by the end I was losing almost none as I developed the best technique. I had some lawn nearby and just threw them onto it. Don’t bin the broken tiles sell them on Facebook people use them for garden borders if you don’t need them for that. I found the last couple of rows at the bottom most difficult to get out. Easy job (in the summer). If you have limited time don’t waste ten mins trying to get out a single difficult tile. Use the time to get the easy wins the ones that come out easiest. I really enjoyed doing it tbh. Nice clean job.

Assuming there is a route under your land that wouldn’t impact upon your build etc this is a good idea/ suggestion. I may be wrong but I believe openreach prefer to cable underground as it’s lower maintenance for them. If digging a trench for them is of no / nominal cost to you then I’d be really surprised if they didn’t take you up on that offer. The cost of cabling / ducting would be so low for them. To get a digger in would be their biggest cost. My scenario with OR was that they had third party lines going across my land being carried on a electricity pole. I paid SSE to have their pole removed etc, so openreach were told to remove their line by SSE. I offered openreach that they could re route their line under my plot if they wanted to. It was far easier and cheaper for them to install a new pole at the other side of the road and away from my land. Which is what they did. For openreach its it’s all about their cheapest and easiest route. As I said before present them an option that’s the cheapest and easiest for them other than over your land. Though OR as an organisation were awful to deal with their project manager was decent. I even offered they could use my land to park their vehicles when doing their work to make their job easier etc. If you know the legislation namely your rights to object to their proposal that will mean they will know your job will be a problem for them like anyone they’ll want the hassle free option if they can. Carrot and stick. Also so if you get on well with your neighbour maybes ask them to speak to openreach saying having their cable of your land may cause neighbourly problems etc. Good luck and would be interested in how you get on.

If you search out the telecommunications act on the internet, it’s hard reading but will be helpful. Read it in full. I had a different issue than you have and and I had to do some research. From my recollection you are right there are statutory rights for openreach to install equipment, wires etc on or over private property and gain access to do so but my recollection is there is a process for a landowner to object etc to proposed installation. If as you say the line would have to go over a certain route on your land then I would agree with others, put something in that would make it difficult for them to do so. Sounds like a line 5m from your proposed house would be a safety hazard as you would need scaffolding cranes etc.... Good luck openreach are awful to deal with. If there is a reasonable alternative route as you suggest you need to make that option far more attractive for them than it currently is. By means of making your plot route as unattractive them as much as you can within the law. That why you need to read the Act in full. Letters to MPs that kind of thing.

Was wondering how you got on with the / geocell system. I have do my driveway in it for exact same reason as yours - tree root protection. Installation instructions seem pretty straightforward but was it in reality? ta

For our planning permission, which involves driveway construction across tree root protection areas, we submitted one of the online downloads from one of the many no dig geoweb companies, which shows a cross section of a typical no dig geoweb system. And a tree survey report which supported such a system as sufficient mitigation. They were happy with that and conditioned the planning permission that sash system should be installed. I doubt your idea to replace topsoil with gravel will be a goer.

This post is a learning point for me/us to ask sellers whether they supply a VAT invoice prior to purchase so we can factor in whether we’d get 20% back or not -v- going to a non eBay supplier charging more, but we’d get the VAT back.