Barryscotland

Is this a cause for concern or normal as the timber dries out? It’s on a roof truss that’s doubled up to support a raised ceiling .

Bought ours as a kit from ITS, they where by far the cheapest at the time and the chap was helpful.

I bought one as I wanted it there to be used when I had time and as an when it was needed (and if its there you use it for alot of things other than digging) rather than be tied to a timeline as to when its on hire. Guess it depends on the size and state of your plot and how far forward you are with your build but i'd always buy and the way they hold there price chances are you will get back what you paid. (Or at least thats what I told the wife and am Hoping!)

Just had another letter from Ecology stating another rise in my interest rate taking it to 4.74%. Thats the third rise I've had in a year although there was also a decrease as well after I submitted my EPC rating to them. Out of interest would anybody share there current self build mortgage interest rate and there lender?

last thing that was said by my painter as he left was “see you in about 6 months to sort out all the cracks” Is this normally chargeable or included in the original fee? Also main contractor joiner is to come back to sort out a few tight internal doors and patio doors. I guess this is all “snagging”? Is it normally chargeable ?

The architect marked the existing sewer point on the relevant drawing with "connection to existing sewer" written beside it and the council never mentioned or questioned it. I don't think the water was even shown in any drawings. I think the only time you will need permission is if you are needing to use it as a combined Sewer (waste and surface). So we never contacted Scottish Water at all and all was good. Good luck with your build

Yes it's the main sewer thats backing up. Will give Scottish Water a try and hope they have a solution.

There are two AAVs. There is no open to air vent on the house pipe but the lid on the inspection chamber isn’t sealed down yet so the pipe out to the main sewer can draw air

We are having a problem with our drains backing up whenever there’s really heavy rain. First noticed during a heavy downpour that the drains where gurgling and a sewage smell in the house luckily the lid at the inspection chamber came of and allowed the water out otherwise the waste water would of been running out of the shower trays, since then if there’s heavy rain I’ve been lifting the inspection chamber lid and sticking a bung in the pipe till the rains pass. I’ve had a camera down the pipe and all is clear as far as the main sewer in the road 20m away. I think the problem is we live near the bottom of a hill lined with older houses that all have combined sewers then across from us is another road going uphill lined with houses with combined sewers that run into the sewer pipe running down the road I’m on and join the sewer about 5m downhill of where I do. I think the water backs up from this point. I have a one way valve I could fit but it will end up under driveway so not wanting to do this if they are known to be problematic? The other option I may have is there is another leg of my sewer pipe that the static caravan was originally plumbed into that runs beside a french drain, had thought I could dig it back up an remove the plug and replace it with some kind of mesh then dig a channel the half meter to the french drain then back fill stone and any backing up water would go down the french drain? any other suggestions?

The Log burner must help with the sap as when we removed ours from our build we had to add a few more solar panels to offset it

I was planning on using the original immersion coil? Didn’t think a secondary element was needed but probably wrong ?

Held of buying the gadget to divert unused solar to my immersion when we bought our pv kit about a year ago as money was tight but with the rising kWh costs and the fact I’m giving any unused energy to the grid for free starting to rub me up the wrong way I looked to buy a solar iboost or similar but the price seems to have rocketed to the point there’s no point financially installing one. Is there any cheaper alternative way of turning my unused power into my hot water? it’s a 2.8ish kw install

Think you need to apply for a temporary habitation certificate? Or just move in and if anybody says anything plead ignorance then apply

on 25mm MDPE? I used the JG speedfit on my incoming water, theres 7 of them buried under whats going to be my driveway and parking. Is this a disaster waiting to happen?

Anybody no if I can use these instead of soakaway crates? I realise they hold a wee bit less than crates so I’d need slightly bigger area but I’d save lots as these seem cheap. Area is going to be grass so heaviest thing on it will be be me sitting on a mower holding a beer.

We went with claymore a small family business after visiting a few mainly as they seemed the most normal down to earth people. They asked for each phase (design, kit, roughings, windows etc) to be paid two weeks before goods delivered so we never felt like we where putting all our life savings in there hands. The amounts where small enough they could of been paid using credit cards for security if I felt it was needed. at the time of our build a stick build was going to be more expensive than a kit but that was mid Covid when materials where scarce and pricey

unfortunately there’s no budget left, that’s why we are making the ‘stone’ instead of decaroc or similar. Cement was reduced down to 50p a bag at BnQ and we had aggregate left over.

Drawings show decaroc with no sills, drawings will be amended when we’re done Problem is the depth between the lower and upper window is to much for just a sill unless it’s a monster, we could (I think) set a monster sized sill on a catnic lintel We can make a lintel or sill to any size to match the blocks we’ve made

Options put forward are stop the blocks at the height of the fascias so there’s a straight line across an clad in anthracite grey the rest of the way up. Plastic fascia on the upper angles an couple of catnics and make super sized sills or a narrow lintel with a thin sill continue the blocks up to the roof line in three ‘pillars’ then put anthracite fascia between the upper an lower windows and on the two remaining angles Had also thought I could frame it out and put render board on the angled bits above windows and make thin blocks and stick them on kind of like you would with decarock but that still leaves the between upper n lower window to make something that will work suggestions welcome and needed

Thanks for the info shared, what I've taken from it is I will need to pay somebody to put together something to present to BC as its not something I can put together myself. The ground worker has done two percolation tests and given me a VP of 38 and recommended a soakaway of 4.5m3 if using crates but he is unable or unwilling to put it all together into something like Kelvin has shared above. So back to the SE to see if he will accept our tests and work from there or wants to come out and do his own and how much he will charge us for the pleasure. Section 3.0 on kelvins report makes it clear to me that we should of been able to pipe straight into the burn without the need of the 25m3 of filtration strip.

Does anyone have there percolation test findings and soakaway design they can share with me so I can see what I need to present to BC?

Still better than a self build rate an as long as it’s fixed then I think you will be laughing and breathing a big sigh of relief next year unlike us still on self build variable rates

I think I need to go back to the drawing board with this one. The top of our site where the house is is clay and this is the only place we did test digs so the SE suggested easiest option as the site is clay just run the surface water down to the burn. As with every other suggestion the SE and Architect made we just went with it as we had no other experience in house building and have been regretting lots of them in hindsite during the build. Gutters are connected up and have ran the drainage 18m downhill from the house and the ground is nice black soil and the rain from the thunderstorms we had a few nights ago all disappeared very quickly so I think I will get a perculation test done and see if we can just put in a soakaway where the pipe terminates at the moment. Its the inconsistency that gets annoying as the chap at the bottom of the hill from us has just finished a build and he put all his surface water straight into the same burn with zero filtration or surge protection just piped straight in although maybe we could of done the same if the SE had shown it that way originally.

thanks for your explanation of why they ask for one it makes a bit more sense now. Still an awful lot to dig out and haul away an I’m going to put in about 40t of gravel which will cost me about £500 to hold about 2.2 cube of water, presume an attenuation tank of 2.2cube won’t be acceptable as it doesn’t filter or soakaway the same as a large strip? pond isn’t an option as the drain runs down the middle of two future plots and yes maybe a drive on top of the drain in the future to access the plots

What pollutants are going to be picked up between the rain falling out the sky, running down my slates into a plastic pipe and into the burn, I could understand if it was run off from a septic tank but this is solely roof water so I think it’s just about stopping a surge?