SHughesNI

I have been living in a caravan since March. No running water and no electricity just solar. Not pleasant. I have 3 young boys and it gets very windy down here. 50mph winds just the other day and it felt like the caravn would take off and I doubt if a static would be any better. It is going to take a us a few years to build the house possibly 4 so want something decent for my family to be housed in during that time. The experience of building the log cabin installing the utilities will surely help us when building the house too. In theory anyways ?

Thanks for reply. This is going to be built off concrete tyre piers. I cant build it on slab as planning will see it as a permanent structure. I looked at how they built a church in tulse hill on tyre piers using tyres and gravel and will be doing the same but with concrete under the tyres too. They supplied the timber but as I said there is no marking on the timber or on the instructions for what constitutes the floor bearers. Totally different from the video on their website and the first part of their instruction booklet.

Yep. Saw this video and again the video is for a smaller cabin with single small bearers. Or maybe thats what I have got? But the only pressurized timber I could find relates to the numbers 96 and 110 which when you place together make up 8.5m which is the interior length of the cabin. So putting 2 + 2 together and hopefully making 4 am assuming the 3 bits of timber are as iselfbuild said the foundations

Hi Ok am in dire straits. ackground - Can't get a mortgage now due to the Coronavirus so having to build a log cabin for the family and stay in that for x amount of years whilst we build the house bit by bit. Thankfully we are better off than most so am grateful i can even be having this dilemma. We bought log cabin last year to build in the spring so my 90 year old mum can live in. We bought it from Quick Garden because of the good reviews on trustpilot so back in October we awaited delivery. We live on a laneway that was big enough for the lorry they had used on their website plus I sent them photos and maps of the area. However they arrive in a massive lorry which can't get down the laneway so dump the wood hundreds of metres from the site on a football pitch parking rea on a Saturday afternoon (see pics). Yep you guessed it the local team were playing that day and I had to leave the wood there till they finished. I then phoned a car break down truck and hired a telehandler Cost £250. Long story short - Managed to get it to site but not being experienced with telehandler The first crate took a nose dive and broke some wood. ? Oh and the price dropped £2k by the time it was delivered too so not a great start. Cut to now and my dilemma. See the attached pdf scan of the instructions if anyone can make any sense of this. I am a competent handyman with most of the tools , table saw, compound mitre saw etc and know my way around a diagram having part designed the house and put dozens of ikea furniture together (not sure which was the hardest ?) The instructions are written for a small shed type structure and not the 8.7m x 5m cabin we bought. there is no description as to what the bearers are or how to identify them. I have sent 3 emails to the company and do get a reply but doesn't answer my query. See below: We purchased a log cabin from you end of last year ( Crossgar). Due to major problems (live electrical cable found on land) and of course the coronavirus we are only now trying to build it on our own. We really don’t know where to start. The instructions are not pertinent to the cabin we have bought (Argo). For example it says in the instructions to screw the bearers to the foundations. and as you can see the bearers are in singles but if you look at the diagram showing (I assume as no instructions to inform us) there are 3 bearers together . My question was exactly which parts are the floor bearers? Is it NR 110 and NR 96 which when added together make the outside dimensions 8.7m? If so do we nail these pieces of wood together to form the outside perimeter? In total are the bearers the following part nos? 110, 96 and 91? I also wanted to know if it was possible to get a short summary of each of the pages i.e. what is this of? I was asking if the perimeter bearers were made up of the 3 pieces of wood 110,96 and across 91 (not marked on the wood had to measure and find ourselves ) that were shown in the diagram (again not identified as floor bearers). their reply. Thank you for your email. The pressure treated floor bearers and a massive wooden timber frame the cabin sits on are 2 different things. First, you need to assemble a timber frame base as per the instructions (consisting of 2 parts). Then, you put pressure treated floor bearers on top of this and start assembly of the cabin. Hope that helps. It didn't I did a mock up of what a drawing in their booklet may be and asked for confirmation but as yet no reply. All joiners are fully booked for months around here (limited supply this neck of the woods) and hoping someone can make sense of the instructions and talk to me in plain English. If possible I will pay someone to help me out here if anyone knows anyone who they think can help me. Many thanks Scan 1 Jul 2020.pdf Scan 1 Jul 2020 (1).pdf instructions.pdf

Thanks to everyone who commented and gave advice. I have a builder coming next week who has built foundations for these type of garages before and seems knowledgeable enough. To sum up what you said. Build it high and then a little higher ?. Will post a few photos of progress just in case anyone else who comes on the forum needs to go down the same route.

Oh I did all that and even gave him the opportunity to remove it as I owed him some money for some work done. He didn;t deny it was potentially harmful and said there was more waste in there than he had thought his mate was bringing down. As I owed him about £800 for work done I am not too much out of pocket but yes that stuff can be harmful especially in roads built before 1980s .. Thank goodness for the internet ☺️

You know I am not sure if this is even replying to you. I can only see the quote button. Everything you have said is what I have seen online and other sites so this is the way to go. The most important part is the raising as high as possible using the hardcore which I have. Great idea about wrapping the wood and using for the steps. Haven't been able to find any info on that so good advice

Unfortunately the material wasn't recycled. It should have been and I was told it was when I handed over the £1k but since found out that it was to be taken to the recycling centre so the stuff needs to go. I have some rock that can be dug up and used instead.. Thanks for message

I will take as much advice as people can give Not sure what you meant by submitting plans? Do you mean to someone on here called Hive?

you could indeed. I imagine he would be very busy but on the off chance he fancies working solo with social distancing being observed I'd appreciate you giving him a shout

Thats a lot to take in and will study it in depth. Many thanks for taking the time and effort to give me some advice.

Thanks for all the advice so far. It is giving me a clearer picture of what I need to post on a job quote website. the problem is of course with Covid all the best builders are backlogged for months ahead. there is a little part of me that says 'go on do it yourself' but I don't have the money to balls it up and do it again. Going to have a look at the suggestions and as someone said maybe come up with a cunning plan

Based in Crossgar.

I wouldn't call it scalpings. It should have gone to the recycling centre. This stuff was from a road way back and has possible contaminants https://adeptus.co.uk/waste-management/reuse-road-planings-containing-coal-tar-pahs-permit/ Not something I even want to think of leaching into the soil as I want to grow veggies the lot

Hi anonymousbosch. Unfortunately the last time i gave these documents to a builder I was screwed over. They did work except what i had asked them to do and charged me £1k for the privelege of road waste. Regarding your points: Make a plan of the area - plan has been made and approved by planning. Do a soil profile. Soil profile is clay with small content of sand. Foundations need to be deep also due to trees nearby. Look at the local land drainage with care. There is a hill behind the garage and trees. A french drain is ready to be put in. This is why the garage needs to be raised also. My question is how do you raise the garage. Look at similar buildings in the neighbourhood: what can you learn from a simple look-see? - none at this low level. None pre fab either. Design the garage - garage designed already see pics. Give those documents to (a) builder(s) - Work has been piling up for builders and it looks like i will have to underake the work myself hence the requested advice. Agree a price. see above Sit back, relax - see above

I am in dire need of some help. Quick background info. Originally from England where good builders and tradesmen are plentiful but living here in Nth Ireland there is a scarcity of decent tradespeople. Due to Covid 19 (can't get a mortgage) and the local electricity company charging me £20k+ to move electrical cables underground I am not able now to build a house so instead building a log cabin where we can live over the next few years . Planning was passed for an ICf house and we intend to build it over the next few years when the money comes in (being optomistic here). So far we have had 5 tradesmen (before lockdown) come to the site over the last 6 months and 1 last week come out. I have a pre fab garage ready to go once I have paid the other £5k (5K paid as deposit). Currently I cant get hold of them because they are still shut and no response to phon or emails. Before Christmas we hired a local groundsman to do the foundation. Instead he did everything but the foundation just piling up earth with his digger. He then charged us £1k for what he called rock but turns out it was road waste that should have gone to the recycling plant first. Having 3 young boys I don't want any potentially harmful waste on the site. So after that we tried again. Those that did come out to the land not one got back to us with a quote. Only this morning after 2 weeks did one turn up and say he's off to England to do a job but if we can wait 2 months ? Ok so what i aim to do next is post the job on a site like find a builder or if anyone can recommend a site? but what I need is a description of what needs done. I would appreciate any advice on how to build a garage in an area which will get waterlogged when the rain comes (see pic). I know I need to build high but how do I raise the foundations up? I have some rock on the land which I can dig out as I have done already. I have attached images of the finished garage along with the foundation drawings by the garage company. Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Tom, I certainly do have questions and hope you can answer them. Just received planning permission here in Nth Ireland for an ICF build. Just a handful of ICF builds so far in Nth Ireland and hoping to document it on a blog and website that I designed http://selfbuild.online/ where I am trying to champion ICF. If you do setup Instagram or post any more info on here could I link it to my website to help others think about ICF? Perhaps you could start a blog? I have just started one and it would be great if I could link other ICF builds to it as I go along http://forum.selfbuild.online/blog/ Ok my questions - at the minute am going down a strict budget route mainly because I have been landed a bill by the electricity company for over £20k to move cables underground and connect. I had thought about raft foundation but was quoted almost £12k for a fairly small foundation area (see attached). Looking at your photos it looks amazing. Why did you go with a raft foundation and why choose Izodom? Any drawings to go with your foundations? 03 Proposed Plans.pdf