Ian

@Russell griffiths If you don't mind the silver-grey look then you could try Sioo http://www.sioox.org.uk/wood-protection/applications/cladding/ It's supposed to last 15 years on vertical cladding

aaahh....I see what stage you're at now. When I read your first post I thought you were ready to start on site! You will need Planning Permission which is usually a lengthy difficult process, especially if your site is in a designated AONB or National Park like ours was. It's highly unlikely that all of your 12 acre site will be zoned for housing. I'd talk first to whoever is doing your drawings for the planning application before deciding where you want to site the building.

@NeverEnoughCake Just re-reading your original post. Have you got Planning Permission yet?

@NeverEnoughCake Welcome and good luck with your build! I finished my own build 2 years ago and it is similar to yours - it is in N Wales above the snow line on a steeply sloping site with difficult access. I work full time so went for an off-site manufactured timber frame that the supplier brought to site in small, easily transported sections, then they erected it & and left it weather tight. We then went with separate trades for the rest of the build. Our timber frame company did the (traditional ground-bearing ) foundations as I didn't want any division of responsibility or scope for any arguments. (Timber frame construction needs tighter foundation tolerances than a masonry build) Re your build foundations: the location will be set by your planning permission so a builder won't be able to help with that. The ground conditions of your site will dictate what type of foundation you can use but as you're on a hill in Wales it's likely that you'll have ground like us with a lot of rock/shale. If it's good ground then there's usually no need to get an engineer to design the foundations. In our case I agreed it all with the Approved Building Inspector who knew the local area well. Edit: The single best thing we did with our own build was to wait until late Spring and the improving weather before starting work on site. We started digging foundations in early June. Timber frame started on site mid June and we had a weather tight shell 2 weeks later. We were then able to finish off the build at a more leisurely pace without being dependant on the weather or being able to get access.

@epsilonGreedy Presuming there's no mortgage problems then the main issue is the lack of a building regs completion cert if you want to sell the house in the next 10 years.

That's good to hear. My own build is not too far from you (I'm in the Clwydian Range AONB) and our Radon readings were surprisingly high.

@connick159 don't forget to install a radon barrier. Snowdonia is a hot spot. https://www.ukradon.org/information/ukmaps

it depends on the wording of the condition. If there is a requirement for you to discharge the conditions before you make a start on site then the the conditions will say so very clearly.

LoL....me too, although I couldn't help feeling some sympathy for her with the roof and floor disasters. She didn't have a clue what she was getting into at the start of the build. It's a classic case of Donald Rumsfeld's unknown unknowns.

It looked like a Tata sheet

If you have a low electricity usage it would be worth looking at one of the suppliers that offer a tariff with no standing charge. I'm using Scottish Power's "Power Up" tariff where you buy the energy up front but there's no standing charge. The more you buy the lower the unit charge - the most you can buy is a 6 month block. In 2018 my usage was 1,528 kWh of electricity and I paid £257.39 in total. That's 16.8p per kWh but I've saved approx £90 by avoiding the usual standing charge which means the equivalent tariff rate compared to a normal rate with a standing charge would have been about 10.9p per kWh.

For me it’s happened a lot and I earn part of my income from photography so I always send an invoice. If they don’t pay for any reason (usually non-commercial use by an individual) and the photo is online on social media etc then I complain to Google or the social media provider which has always resulted in removal of the photo. For a £100 invoice I wouldn’t spend money on legal advice or small claims court fees but it costs nothing to send an invoice and see what happens.

Assuming they are a smallish company I’d charge about £100 as a minimum. If they agree then I can give you some wording to use regarding the license and copyright issues

@Onoff I’ve always been paid when it’s a commercial company that’s taken my photos without permission. That includes major companies (eg Gr**npeace, Local Authorities who should know better) and smaller ones like @Russell griffiths building company. I’ve also had people using my photos on social media sites claiming that they were the photographer - in those cases Google have been very helpful inc removing whole pages from the www.

@Russell griffiths I’ve had this happen to me lots of times with my photos (not this forum) and I always send the offending company an invoice

maybe an appropriately sized quadrant bead?

No I haven't used them as I did my own costings but its a good explanation of the way the form of a building affects cost.

Many members of this forum inc me have successfully done the one hit process you describe however there are 2 main reasons that it’s not more commonly used as a method compared to the more traditional method of having a sub-floor and a separate screed: - it’s not an easy job getting the flatness needed in order to be able to lay a floor finish such as a ceramic tile directly onto a mass concrete floor. (That’s why floor screeding tends to be a specialist job) - the ground conditions need to be suitable to allow a ground bearing slab. For technical reasons many builds need to have a suspended floor construction and a mass concrete one-hit floor is not used in those situations.

Link: https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/how-form-affects-build-cost/

Yes, we definitely needed it on our bungalow build.

@Russell griffiths some more thoughts: - if you’re after high quality then make sure you specify timber with no sapwood as it will not weather as well as the normal heartwood. - consider whether you want all your timber joints to line up or whether you’re willing to accept the look of random timber lengths. - do you want the timber to keep its original colour or are you willing to let it weather to its natural silver grey?

@Russell griffiths Unless you’ve very carefully planned for ways to control the effects of shrinkage of the cladding i’d strongly recommend using seasoned timber rather than freshly sawn.

The 2011 marking is not the date of the timber but refers to British Standard 8417 2011

I'd return them. It's not worth taking the risk. How long have you had them stored?

I use ‘Nest’ Edited: just re-read your question. The Nest detectors link together via WiFi but I’m not sure if they act as repeaters