Russell griffiths

So sitting here thinking between the cold meat and leftover Christmas pudding, pro dave mentioned that when he told TF companies he planned to add extras to there frame they weren't interested in supplying. So if you were buying a frame and going to have a large cavity and a brick skin and put further insulation in the cavity I'm sure they would be happy with this, so what's the problem if you want to screw it to the face and then clad With something else.

So if I was to go down Daves route, can you tell me who did the design of the frame and who designed the insulation side of things and also the condensation risk, i think I have a problem coming up,I have an architect who I like very much as he has come up with some very valid points that I hadn't thought of, the problem comes as I don't believe he is going to be up to speed with the timber structure design or some of the newer thoughts regarding insulation and air tightness. Oh well another hurdle to get over. Russ.

Thanks for the reply Dave,I was just reading your blog. I built our previous house in 2006 and did it completely on site stick frame style and have considered doing it that way again, the reason for getting a company to do the frame was to speed the process up as the last one took weeks wielding the nail gun. At the moment I'm struggling to comprehend why every thing seems so sodding awkward when it needn't be. Plenty of more random questions coming, cheers russ.

So just wanted to find out anybody's experiences with taking a fairly standard mass builder spec timber frame and upping the spec. I was thinking that a lot of the standard spec frames use 147mm studs filled with various types of insulation with a cheap house wrap on the outside. My thoughts were to add additional insulation on the outside, as well as insulating the service area on the inside, then using one of the top grade airtight membranes as well as the addition of a suitable all singing all dancing rainsreen on the outside. The thing I'm wondering is the time I do this would I have been better of paying for a passive spec frame in the first place. Cheers russ.

E bay start the bidding at 99p I bet someone buys them. We have just turned an old games room into a tool shed inside the room was an old pool table from a pub I thought I was going to have to smash it up with a sledge and throw it in a skip, so I put it on e bay and it sold for 99p 2 lads turned up and loaded it on a trailer, I didn't even lift a finger.

Thanks for all the replies just to fill in a few gaps. We will be contacting the local planners as soon as we have finalised the drawings, I just wanted to hit them with as much justification for the replacement dwelling as we could, the planning consent we have in place at present we managed to secure through the planners complete lack of enforcing there own rules, so managed to slip it past them. I believe we are not exactly on there Christmas card list, so as soon as our application goes in I think it will make them sit up really quick,so just wanted to be fully prepared. Bat survey done newt survey done full topo done flood risk assessment done hydrological survey done so the things I was wondering about was what things I could include regarding energy efficiency and how the house will be far superior to the one already on site. Thanks russ.

Ok a bit more about our build, we have a planning consultant working with us, earlier this year we secured change of use from a managers dwelling to permanent dwelling, we are continuing to use them for the next stage which is replacement of existing dwelling, I am just trying to help them with any info regarding how fab the new place will be compared to how crap the old one is so it makes more sense to replace it, so far planning has cost us £5000 to date and I see it costing another £10000 before we get to the building stage so just trying to smooth the way with a lot of reasons to justify why we want to build it. As as far as the local plan we are told Cotswold district plan is so outdated that they are supposed to have drawn up a new one which they are a couple of years behind doing so there is little in the planning polices regarding how big it can be cheers Russ. Ps it's fairly rural we sit on 17 acres with the next nearest house 300 m away.

Hi we are currently putting an application together for a replacement dwelling. What I am after is a list of any information that either should be included with your application, or information that you included as you thought it was relevant and could help your case, we think we have got a fight on our hands as the replacement is a lot larger than the house on site so would be happy to do anything to smooth the path th full planning. So far we have had done: Topographical survey flood risk analysis hydrological analysis ecological survey so I'm now thinking of all the good bits about the new house compared to the old one,. But unsure what to include and what not and also are a lot of things covered later at building regs stage or is it best to chuck so much at them there seems little point in arguing with you. Thanks russ #confused.com.

For the fishermen amoungst us, main lake 7 acres mixed fishery, plenty of silvers, lots of tench average 5lb, low stocking of carp stocked at about 8lb now coming out at 18 plus with a few pushing 20, should all be 20 plus next spring. Good head of pike up to mid 20's stock lake approx 1-1/2 acres 100 5-8 lb carp and plenty of silvers crucian lake ,approx 1/3 rd acre stocked with hundreds of hungry crucians and tench, growing well going to be moved about and a few sold on when they are bigger. Thats about it.

Hi just found this forum and hope it's going to point me in the right direction on a few things, I hope I can help out also as this will be our second new build, and I've been involved in the building game for 30 years now. Right what can I tell you. Married, no kids, 46, just bought into a business that provides holidays and fishing, located in the Cotswolds, we have 17 acres and 3 lakes the biggest is 7 acres. We have just spent a small fortune and a year gaining change of use on a former manager's cabin on site, the plan now is to go for planning on a replacement dwelling and remove the old cabin and build a nice new house in its place. We have a planning consultancy company working with us who have cost us a small fortune, but I don't begrudge them a penny of it, they have achieved loads and the planning we have in place so far has put the value of our site up tremendously. That's enough to send you to sleep. Get ready for the barrage of questions. Russ