Galileo

I can't compete with that line up, my only brushes with celebrity are that I designed a website for Eric Knowles, chatted to Paul Young often and used to work for one of Adam Ant's band members. Got to be a certain age to even begin to think who they are!

I've a mate who does set dressing for a production company that's done a few property shows. Renting is what happens, they rent a van, go down to one of the large prop companies, in Borehamwood I think he said, stock up with furniture and pot plants and then dress the house like it was a drama set, in wafts the presenter, pack it all up and return the next day.

Take a look at this post Historic Scotland has some good reading on this: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationId=179c1909-3679-4486-9583-a59100fa98c1 There is a guy called Peter Ward that has a Youtube channel (and a book) talking about damp in old stone houses. Tread with caution though, his views do not align with a number of companies in the damp proof industry who he vigorously slates and I do not have the technical ability to say who is right: https://www.youtube.com/@WarmDryHome

Wonder if that renovation 24 years ago was done with any sympathy to an old stone building with for example a water permeable lime mortar etc? There seems to be a rule: air tight + stone house = damp

There's also "Eurocode 5:Design of Timber Buildings" from back in the day when we had influence. https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/book/10.1680/dtb.31623

How odd, why did you think it would be a party wall? I suspect that you were being asked if you were building next to, not adjacent to, an existing building as that means that it could become a party wall, at 3m that's not a party, that's practically strangers. Edit: I've just remembered about new buildings and 3m requirements!

There's a stonemason that comes up to Shetland from Manchester now and again that the locals speak highly of that might be worth a call, seen as in comparison you're on his doorstep. He was up doing a lot of the drystone walls around the Sumburgh lighthouse recently. 07765 493961 https://dpmccabestonemason.co.uk/

I was thinking the exact same thing, if the Western isles are anything like Shetland, if it's not fixed firmly to mother earth it will make its way to Norway rapidly. Built a storage shed on my croft back end of last year, made concrete piers formed with an upturned plastic bucket with the bottom cut off, cardboard concrete formers are not common/cheap in the UK for some reason. I used 6 piers, so I could save on timber thickness for the beams and use what the builders merchants had in stock, getting chunky Douglas Fir off the shelf is not an option up here.

It gets lumped in with the no Verandas in my backyard rule, decking is a raised platform. I'm commenting on the daft legal situation.

You learn something every day, as decking falls under "Verandas, balconies and raised platforms", I wonder how many lawbreakers are out there oblivious to their civil disobedience? I would never have thought that a bit of decking at the back of the house needed PP. Oh wait, so if the decking is less than 300mm high from the ground, that's fine. I love planning, such fun, so no, it's not a Veranda (often but not always roofed) but decking officer!

"You don't actually need to own land to apply for planning permission for it. This means you can apply for permission before deciding whether or not to buy a piece of land." https://www.planningportal.co.uk/planning/planning-applications/how-to-apply/who-can-apply

Quite like the idea of the zip board you get in the US with the air tight waterproof coating already made. It's always seemed to me that our building material technology is a bit behind others, you can get ply coated (like "Smartply"), but coated OSB seems to be a mystery product.

Speaking of the 90's, worked for a couple of window manfacturers and we used the same "Brookvent" trickle vent for everything, each one IIRC gave 6m3 air change. Didn't matter the profile, Marshall Tufflex, Swish, Deeplas and Sheerframe (just thinking of the latter still makes sweat remebering how infexible LB were with deliveries) . If there was gas burning in the room it got the non closing one. Tended to put one in each side opener or one in the top hung depending on size of room/window and style.

Looks very in keeping unlike the old garage. I'd love to use those kind of timbers but I look at my bank balance and the distance to the nearest tree and resign myself to 6x2's from whatever Buildbase are called this week!

They do that up here very well too, damp soggy peat bog and 6t of Manchester's finest from 1976 was not a good mix! Maintenance costs have been 20l of ISO 32 (one front ram leaks a bit when hot and holding up a few tonnes in the bucket), steering track rod ends replaced as they were a bit loosey goosey and a new exhaust. It's not perfect though by any stretch, things to fix are that one ram needs resealing, the king pin bushings on the back actor boom have gone a bit oval like above, local engineer suggests it's no drama, they'll just bush it. When I say no drama, it has to come off of course. Incidental items like rear wind screen wiper motor not working, heater stuck on heat (not such an issue at this time of the year), one mirror missing, some rusting under the side windows and it's done enough hours for an oil and filter change all around. Cost me £5k including all the shipping costs to get it up here, drove it 25 miles from the port including one ferry, and it then set to work digging a 200 metre track through peat down to the hard, then moving 400 tonnes of stone that was dumped at the top. My only regret was not checking that it came with a grading bucket. I've had a few people up here ask me for first refusal if I ever come to sell it.