Cpd

Welcome to the forum Ruth, I am local to the Oban area ? so your not that far away. There is so much good information available on previous threads so have a good read. basic questions are a good starting point ! Best of luck.

I reclaimed old slate from my house and other free bay offerings and then inspected, graded and recut thousands of them to re roof one of my houses ! …….. never again!

I turned this fallen oak (that fell on my access road) into roof ties and and slabbed the rest for future projects…..

Timber staircase made from scrap timber reclaimed from the back of timber merchants stacks and the lids of whiskey barrels as treads, even the screws were reclaimed from an aviary I dismantled….

Gabion baskets made from old fencing wire and reclaimed stone salvaged from site.

My garden seat made from whiskey barrel staves A staircase I made in Australia with all wood from an old Sydney pier.

I could post dozens of pictures of projects I have used some recycled materials on but not always recycled from my own build as I am always on the lookout for materials from anywhere I can get them. Owl box made from off cuts of sarking board and a bird feeder made from old brake discs, chimney bird cover and whiskey barrel staves. If this thread runs dry I can add lots more projects………. If your interested ????

This is what I did, once you have your benchmarks it’s very quick to check accurately.

I have the small 5kw one, been in 10 years and is still awesome!

Do you have soffits vents, what’s above the membrane, is there continuous ventilation from soffits to ridge. More information would be good. I have the 50mm gap behind the insulation with soffit vents and a vented area below the ridge, all bone dry. The photo shows the the open vented area below the ridge, I have roof vents and an open air path from one side of the building to the other . 220mm of PIR was then put up to close this area off and link into the insulation in the rafters.

Yes if memory serves me…….

As your venting above the insulation and I assume above the ply I don’t think you need to worry about venting the ridge. Vent between the ply and tin by using insect mesh along the gap at the bottom, this should provide adequate ventilation. I added some vents along the eves as well…. Probably unnecessary but additional ventilation can’t harm a roof like this. ignore the arched windows…. Was just playing With ideas. You can see the vents running down the eves.

Much more knowledgeable people will be along to advise but to my eyes it looks like a hash. @nod ?

OMG this looks terrible…….

it will be ok, the boards are level with the top off the floor joists so little chance of cold air bypassing the insulation, just make sure to squirt plenty of foam into all gaps, just jam the metal nozzle into a small crack 1-2mm and give it a squirt as this will go a long way to helping secure the boards. Silver foil tape over the joists and insulation for extra protection against air movement and additional help in securing the boards for the long term.

Photos please…. I would always fit the boards and then fully foam and then cut back excess foam and then silver foil tape all junctions post pics showing the work so people can see if it’s been done well or not.

@ProDave. Seems the price has gone up……

Second what @ProDave says. I have a few and they are great, very quiet and just a small click when the thermostat calls for heat.

Be aware that this is a long term strategy and not for the faint hearted and you need to wait at least 7 years before your first crop and then only if you have good ground and have looked after your crop. I have planted 4000+ trees on my property with the long term aim of supplementing my heating needs.

Sounds like you have a plan, I would second what @Temp says about ventilation, when I moved into my two up to down 120 year old house it had not been upgraded much at all, it still had open fires in every room, big gaps under doors etc. The windows had been upgraded in the 80s by the look of them but the gaps around the outside made the double glazing pointless. There was no sign of mould in the house. As soon as I sealed all the obvious gaps up, including two of the fires the place became very damp and mould became a problem. It was a real battle to get the ventilation balance right but when I did the house dried up. There was NO insulation anywhere. Fast forward 10 years (and a lot of BIG) heating bills and I have finally got the inside insulated. This winter will be the first with insulation and I will now need to work out the new ventilation requirements. I have not gone down the traditional route…….

Absolutely, it will turn out to be far more work than you might imagine, I have just finished digging a pipe in at 2.5 meters over 50m in length and the bloody sides were falling in by the time I got to the other end…… track back with the digger and dug it out again….. and again as the digger constantly threatened to subside into the trench….. what a nightmare. My ground conditions were fairly good…. The pile of soil was alarmingly big.

Absolutely horrendous, as others say if that’s what you can see god only knows what been done below……..

I now like to cut out a gap of about 10- 15mm (or whatever matches existing mortar joints) and then use the same colour mortar finish as whats on the wall, I find you get a much better seal with the mortar joint as a single cut has to be filled with some sort if mastic and if not done right can be a point of failure. I use a weak mix with lime in it to help it match the movement of the lead. There are probably some very good mastic / gunks that are designed for this these days….. I just do what I have found works for me.

?…..

Yup…. I had a massive level area for my polly tunnel and it was completely clear, I was moving a massive (over a ton) Boulder across the area that I had dug up working backwards with the digger rolling it toward the digger with the boom and then moving back and rolling again…. I could not work out what the strange twisted metal was that emerged below the digger as I moved backwards…. It was my very best site tripod…. The only thing on the whole bloody area…. And I went right over it.. luckily it did not have my very expensive laser level on it. My dad took it home and amazingly has resurrected it with some very clever repairs ! Good on ya dad !