Gus Potter

What an insult. I'm left handed! When doing DIY electrics I just turn the sockets upside down so the earth pin is closest to the skirting, that sorts any polarity issues. Please always seek professional advice before following mine.

Reminds me of my Dad and one of his early warnings about the dangers of electricity. Electric wires, boy pliers, blue flashes.. boy ashes! He spent some time working on radar and had a few "electric thrills" in his time.

Welcome Buildabear. Well done you for taking this on. I hope you find the following info helpful and that it will give you some pointers as to what you may want to consider. Firstly and again well done..you have identifed that the 3x 3 post is splitting the span of the purlin. If the purlin is continuous between the masonry walls it will be attracting a bit more load than you would expect. Story for another day but the post will often be carrying more than 50% of the roof load if the purlin is continuous. Your starting point here is to have a look at the wall you are taking away and what it is doing. Is it just carrying some vertical load or is it also providing sideways (lateral stability to another wall? Often walls perform both functions. In the top photo you can see that the wall has been toothed / bonded into the external wall pretty well and to the right hand side there is a window. I'm guessing but is there a window to the left we can't see? If so when you take the wall away you'll be left with a bit of masonry between the two windows which now becomes a column that has significantly reduced lateral support between the floors and ceiling. Often you find that the column can cut the mustard when subject to a bit of wind load. Now lots of folk will say.. don't be so dramatic..! as we have done the same or seen other houses that have had this kind of alteration say 30-40 years ago and they have not fallen down. But back then you maybe had good solid timber windows or metal framed windows. This framing often added enough strength to maintain the stability and strength of the wall. But over time these were stripped out and replaced with plastic windows and pretty rubbish brackets so the old rules no longer apply. For the curious there is a bit in the BS design codes that touch on this swapping solid framed windows for more flexible frames. It would be worth having a chat with an SE to see if the things I highlight are relevant before you commit to much or take down more of the wall. It may be that all is fine but if you can get some confirmation from say an SE it could ease the way not least when you come to sell in case a surveyor takes the same analysis (ask questions) approach as I have outlined above. Do this and it may allow you to progress with confidence in the knowledge that you are definitly improving the value of your home with much less risk? All the best with the project and keep us posted on your progress. Oh, and don't forget to put up a photo of the finished article.

Not died yet! But like death and taxes.. both are inevitable and we have plenty hills in Scotland. Some this quote can be attributed to Frankin, others say Mark Twain but Christopher Bullock (1716) seems to be the front runner? According to the Adam Smith Institute. "I'd guess going by your comments that you havebn't dealt with a lot of building standards officers in Scotland!?" Mixed experiences here. Having been a contractor / designer working in Scotland for the last 35 years I've "interacted" with the odd one or two.. but remain hopeful..as many more rather than less are helpful in my experience. I'm now also a bit deaf and wear thick glasses with a rose tint so that helps too! "Young forward thinkers are only a couple of applications away from being jaded!" I think you sum this up well, bit of a sad situation though, can't be much fun for them either. What I have found is that there is a bit difference in approach between the different Councils, I think you expanded on this a while ago Sole. For all, this can be a consideration in how you couch an application so in some ways Sole I agree with your approach. There is a bit of a churn in staff going on in some of the councils with folk leaving and them finding it difficult to recruit and train new BC officers up. Argyll and Bute don't get a nomination from me as the best Building Standards forward thinkers of the year. This year my Central / West of Scotland nomination (so far) would go to Glasgow or North Lanarkshire. The year before South Lanarkshire.. but not Perth Council.. I tend to stay away from the east coast and up north.. as plenty to do locally, good to holiday there though. but there are a few folk on BH that can maybe add their nominations?

In fairness to the builder they may have a point just not communicated the concept very well. Also, they may not have a full grasp of all of the issues such as continuity of the insulation envelope and so on. "We have a section of stone wall to replace, and had drawn a cavity block wall onto which would go external cladding." The first question is how big is the section? A few metres or a lot? and how does it interface with the existing stone walls? If it's a short section then I would look to see if there is any merit in rebuilding it in natural recycled stone from the site to match the existing using the same mix of mortar (or as close as you can). Here you can mitigate the effects of shrinkage and avoid the difficulty of trying to bond a cavity wall to a solid stone wall.. this can be time consuming to get right. if the existing walls are a bit loose then you find you keep having to remove more and more until you can make a good bond (tooth) between the new and existing... If you use concrete blocks then they do move about differently from any existing stone walls. It may be that you can take this approach and move the external "rain screen" to another location if it intended to be a feature? "So they propose a single skin, thick block, structural wall. Small gap then stud and insulation inside, the same as we are gong to do to the stone walls, and clad outside as planned." How thick is the single skin to be? 100mm, 215mm (block on the flat) or more? "Any comments to confirm or deny this is the local way.?" It might be for small infill areas but these days we tend not to go for solid wall construction as a first option, unless it is retaining something or is on say an onerous fire boundary.

What happened to the Aberdeenshire project? I was rooting for you on that one. Now you're onto sand and granite.. help ma boab. Ok before you get carried away on drainage you need to look very carefully at where you are.. have you trucked over to the West Coast or moved a bit further into the Grampians? Quite a few of these sites (Islands & Grampians) have granite dykes with sand inclusions.. expensive if you don't know your way round the houses..a lot of the easy sites have been snapped up years ago. "I take it you know of glacial deposits that are stickier, but working with ground made of sand it is a new material to me." Yes I have a working knowledge but every day is a school day. "Yes, I learned about puddling re canal projects in the Midlands." Me too, cut my teeth on a project in the Midlands where a young couple had a canal boat building business and expanded to make a marina with a bit where folk could moor up all year round and live on thier barges. the marina bit had a lock and needed lined with clay.. happy memories! If you fancy post some stuff on your new site..to get best feedback you probably want to be a bit more site specific.. For all.. I think this is a great place to learn and exchange ideas but the folk that run it need some encouragement. That could be just a quick thanks to the mods or maybe a small contribution towards the cost of running this site? I'm more than happy to chip in with my contribution as I enjoy sharing what I know and learning from other members.

Good stuff. Do a good friendly informative report, you have the experience, take your contractors hat off and hold their hand, make it as easy for them as you can to check if they want. Yes, reference the proposed treatment plant. One key here is to make sure you say the plant is CE approved in the main body of the report..some tanks are still not CE marked so you can get caught out here.. leads back to the the Eurocodes which the Scottish Building Standard reference. The simple way is just to copy the manufactures data sheet and drawings as an appendix to your report. Then say " or similar and apporved" as this lets you select a different tank later if need be. Don't go over the score with the technical drawings.. better to include a few with your own reasoned analysis of how the tank will be installed on your site. Touch on the water table, potential flotation when getting emptied, the runs on the pipes to the tank, how you will empty it, the sampling chamber, DON'T forget to specify the manhole cover! light duty or heavy duty! It all sounds like a lot of work but you'll need to produce the same info for the builder, add a few notes and change the title box. You'll most likely sail through this but wrong spec for the cover and you are totally stuffed! Oh and are you leaning towards the pond idea yet?

Hello Old Kettle. In the spirit of BH and.. the planners.. we are all well intentioned folk. Totally agree we all need to live next to one another. To work this out you need to start from the outside plane of the roof and work back. It's generally accepted that the eaves height for PD is this. Project a line from the outside face of the wall up to the top side of say the roof tiles or roofing felt. This is the eaves height. The folk that drafted this are not daft! The wicked may add a lean to log store onto the side of their building. Here they (the wicked) would argue that the footprint of the walls complies with PD but the eaves height is say the facia level of the log store. The result would be that you could have a pretty high structure right next to your neighbours. Not very fair as they could do the same to you! The next thing is that the eaves height is normally measured from the natural lowest point of the ground adjacent to the proposed walls. Thus, if you have sloping ground it's measured from the lowest point of the established natural gound level. This to is reasonably well drafted. You get some folk that will "build up their garden" by adding decking or planters and measure from there. For the "enthusiastic reader of the PD rules" better to take your chances at William Hill. The planners have seen it all and now with google and all the histroric photos? Now you can dig down as what we are considering here is the impact it will have on your neighbours. If you sit the floor say 1.0 m below the existing natural ground level then the height for PD is still taken as that from the natural gound level. With a bit of thought you can probably get what you desire. If you are digging into the slope then you need to put a bit of thought into the SE / Geotechniques design as you are into maybe retaining wall terratory / damp proofing, maybe party wall stuff if not in Scotland. It's all a bit back to front but once you get your outside envelope established then you can work back without having to reappraise. Old kettle hope this helps.

You're doing a one off project in a fantastic part of the UK. Why put a big plastic tank in the ground! For me it sounds bonkers to put a plastic tank in the ground in Aberdeenshire just to comply with some fire reg. Save a Steading.. if you drive about you'll probably find that there are a few farms further up the hill that have clay and want rid of it or will deliver a few loads. Also, if you have loads of sand and gravel then a bit of clay introduced to the garden with the clay minerals associated will improve the soil.. all you need then is a few trailer loads of dung and hey ho..the cost of the pond will be mitigated! Remember that Aberdeenshire is in the rain shaddow of the Grampians and can get pretty dry. If this is the forever home then these things matter. Dig a pond and line it with clay! For all.. London clay was used to line dams! A well battered Scottish Glacial till will also suffice, it just needs to be a bit thicker. Oh, and once you get the Mallard ducks visiting they will do all lot of the maintenece and take care of the midge larve. For me if you have grandkids / kids then having your own pond allows you hang out with them, you can do the nature stuff but also teach then about water safety, what not to do and what you can do. When you can walk on ice and when you can't. Hey if the pond is big enough in Aberdeenshire you may be able to skate on it in the winter! Fish for tadpoles, what to feed the wild ducks... Mallards will nest in a duck house too on a small pond so long as they feel the foxes can't get to the nest. @the_r_sole "I would always rather put in the perfect application and get straight approval, but am wary of officials always wanting to show their authority by asking for more. " 'Sole.. that could be construed as just a box ticking excercise. Having read your posts I don't think that reflects the many years you have spent learning your craft and technical skills. I note you say you would prefer. Yes, there is alway the risk that we may encounter officialdom, it's something I wrestle with too.. do you design to just comply or do you challenge / stick to your design intent? Much depends on the Client.. but if you can say.. for all .. hey folks this is going to add value to your house.. no one else has this but do you want your dream home or do you want what YOU want.. Architecturally designed by the Sole say as a one off just for you.. what about putting the new Audi on hold for another year and spend your money on something that is going to deliver much more long term satisfaction and value. You can be cynical, chuck in a howler on your application with the full knowledge of your Client that the Authority will spot it and that you can compromise on, but still keep the design intent.. for me best just to stick to your guns and play it off a straight bat. What has happened to the system where we are even discussing compromising just to get approvals? Why can't designers / experienced builders / contractors use first principles to innovate? I think we can.. but we need to find a new way of communicating our ideas in a positive way that encourages the young folk that are on the Authority side to engage.

cyber attack! Yes they took a sore one on that but think they have recovered to most extent, but still feeling a bit wounded! Sole.. concur with the rest.

In the current climate I would do a good report.. Reports are often intended for a target audience as we know. Put together a report on your soakaway tests. I would aim for about 15 -20 pages. Include a site plan, an arial photo if you have one, introduction / conclusion to your scheme. Identify the objective.. tell them what you are going to tell them! Reference the head documents. BRE 365 for your rain water, septic tank percolation tests to say recommendations as per SEPA Regulatory method WAT-RM-04 for the septic tank for example.. the wee 300mm holes. Describe a bit of the local geology. Surface deposits and bed rock. You can find info here on this https://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html for your accademic research. Don't include a highly technical description of the soil, just say for example, river / glacial? deposits comprising SAND and gravel, or GRAVEL and sand. Then say what this means. For all the word in capitals mean that the soil is more composed of SAND. Don't lay it on thick just explain the reasons for the capital letters. Show dimensions to water courses and how the soakaway complies with boundary distance and proximity to the dwelling. If you have the will show a cross section of the ground. This can be helpfull. Put a note on the drawing saying for example X dimension complies with Y recommendation or clause 1.2.3. For all BH folk..if you have sloping ground what can happen is that rather than the water seeping into the ground and "going away" it just runs under the surface and appears as an unwanted spring further down the hill. Next for both surface water and spetic tanks tests and calcs. Plenty photos.. make sure you state the weather conditions leading up to the test and during. It is not unkown for folk to test at the end of a dry spell to get stuff over the line! Make sure the photos show virgin ground.. again it's not unkown for folk to cheat. BC know this and are wary of folk doing their own DIY porosity tests. Often I'll do an extra hole or two if I can if time permits. If you have good draining ground show that it is.. this can head any queries off at the pass. Now for the experienced you may wonder why I'm stating the obvious. At the moment some councils are in a bind, some less so but they are all struggling. For example one council I have dealt recently took nearly 8 weeks just to consider the information in the warrant application. I wrote to them and asked "how are you getting on" Got a very pleasant phone call from the senior BC officer saying.. we are a small council, half our staff have left and we are trying to recruit. Another council processed a warrant application faster than normal! It's worth producing a report that leads say a new BC recruit by the hand, write to give them confidence, give them pointers (SAND and gravel for example). They want to learn.. make your submission attractive, readable and friendly. For all the crusty BH members. Imagine it was one of your kids in a new job trying to learn the ropes. A good report should tell a storey and lead the reader..yes you can write a dry report, challenging and try an impress / bully with technical knowledge.. @saveasteading I would stick my soakaway report in with your warrant application. You won't get your completion certificate and probably your warrant until SEPA give you the OK. Best to get all this out the way early. In Scotland there is less of a worry about overloading BC with info, we don't have arms length BC or private BC in Scotland. But don't send them rubbish as this will hack them off. Having read your posts it looks like you have a very interesting project ahead of you. In an ideal world you may want to set this up so the Senior BC officer will feel comfortable sending a young trainee / or someone (older person) that is retraining to your site in the knowledge that you are not going to chew their head off. As you have a pile of experience you could build a good rappore with the BC officer going forward.. every one is a winner! Try and call SEPA and log the call.. but last time I called..they pretty much fobbed me off. I think it was because they are working from home and just can't shout over the office for advice from the seniors.

Yes you can mix and match. Yes there is a metal substitute for timber joists.. see Steadmans / Albion Sections for cold formed steel joists etc. You'll find these expensive as anything you buy will be a small order. Often you have to be more wary of condensation / humidity which does not fit well with musical instruments / sound production! Best to post some photos of what you have and a description of what you really want to do to get best feedback from BH. Sounds like an interesting thing with the added challenge of a limited budget.

The simple way, as you'll be needing a decent found for the two storey extension is to cast a small strip of found to extend the existing house found assuming it is strip found you have and not ground beams on piles say. Other things to just be wary of is things like ground gas.. does your house have measures to contend with this and the like? You can dowel this into the existing so long (good practice at least) as it appears to be just supporting the ground floor load. The foundation extension supports the new beam and block floor which can cantilever by up to say 75% of the beam depth to be safe if carrying a domestic floor load only. If you know what you want then find an SE who also knows a bit about design (they will give you free tips) and getting stuff through building regs. They do exist! A good experienced SE will have spent many years working with Architects, good experienced Architects have spent many years working with SE's... it's a two way street! In other words a good Architect can size up stuff structurally and not often be wrong! it's just that doing calcs for BC is not often their thing! Both if experienced will be well versed in how to do energy perfomance calcs, drainage design etc. Same applies to Building Surveyors, there are a few that are well rounded. I would shop about if you know what you want then you may be best with the SE / Surveyor route as you'll maybe get more "construction" information?

A pragmatic view from me..? Having built a few houses out in the sticks and lived in the sticks the last thing you want is for you house to completely burn down due to a lack of water if a fire occurs. Have experienced a neighbours hay lorry going on fire next to their house, used loads of water to stop it setting light to their house. The fire engine ran dry and we drew water from the ponds. If you have the room then ponds can be great fun, not just for kids to learn about nature but for adults too! Once you start to play with them.. it's addictive. If you have a descent roof area you can fill them pretty much with the roof and surface run off water. I can see the logic from my own experience about having a 45m^3 storage as but that is not a big pond. If you live up in say Aberdeenshire it gets pretty cold. If you are doing a pond then you want the aqua culture to thrive and not freeze in the winter. You can find plenty stuff in the SUDS manual about this but in essence you have a shallow sloping bit and a deep bit (1.5 - 2.0m) for winter conditions, lower light levels and so on. A pond of say 6 * 8 *average 1.0m deep will give you your 45m^3. It will vary a bit depending on evapouration so you need to do a few calcs. Yes if you are in sandy ground you'll have much loss so will need a plastic or clay liner. But all this needs to balanced against the fun you'll have playing about..the self build journey.. it's not all about the money you know!

And Great points, power to the elbow! The thing drew my attention to the stability was the aspect ratio of the structure. Height to windward length. In other words it is quite tall compared to it's footprint. There is also glass areas that would require some careful movement control not just in terms of vertical deflections but also horizontal deflections. Doing this in timber could be challenging when designing the connections to say the least! These types of TF connections need a lot of space which could destroy the Architectural intent. If you look at the the walls facing the wind in the east / west direction there are not many in the "right place" of a decent length (without some fancy modifications) to resist the wind loading in this direction. Now if we were to make the building footprint larger in the east / west direction but no taller it would be more "squat" when considering the east / west wind and probably have more internal walls we could use to brace. This would then concur with the order of your analysis. I agree that steel is not best suited to angles and curves.. in the round my feeling is that it is worth a close look at a steel frame on this project just to make sure you have not missed an opportunity. Beware modular timber suppliers quotng "excluding all steels". great advice from @saveasteading

@saveasteading You have hit the nail on the head here. You can use them as as part of the "treatment train" for water run off and pollution manangement as per the SUDS requirements. In lay terms. Green roofs can hold the water for a while during heavy rainfall and then release it slowly into the eventual water course.. helps mitigate flooding. Water evaporates too (when it stops raining locally) and so on so less ends up down steam.=adding to the flood volume. Also, during dry weather air pollutants settle and get trapped on the growing matter. If you have tin roof and a dry summer you get all sort's on the roof from bird droppings to particles from car exhausts. If you get a short sharp shower of rain this all ends up quickly in the river which probably has a low flow so the concentration of pollutant is high and it kills the fish for example. Green roofs can get you over the line for your permissions to build but saveasteading is right .. if you don't look after the roof, like you wash your windows or water your house plants it's all a load of.. guano / smoke and mirrors.

Hello Pipedream. Wow! No wonder you're happy! At first glance it may be worth looking carefully at whether this may be best build as a complete steel frame. The elephant in the room here is the global sideways stability of the building. On the ground floor you have a lot of glass, the building is U shaped, three storeys.. it will pick up a fair bit of wind load. I would get an SE to mull this over before you progress any further. Make sure you get the stability nutted out as you don't at first glance have enough walls in the right place to achieve it without some complex bracing systems and associated foundations to "ballast" it. This means money and a fair bit of it too! The above is not gloom and doom. You may find this is the most cost effective way. Steel is really versatile. For example you could look at a mixture of hot rolled steel beams ( the big I sections say) and cold rolled floor joists and roof members. They are often Cee shaped (zed shape on the roof) and thin walled.. just the same as you see in B&Q holding the cladding or an industrial mezzanine floor. Oh and you will probably easily carry any extra wieght of a green roof to boot. It requires a different approach (mind set) to the detailing in places.. cold bridging, insulation and fire protection but it's all doable. Cantilevers can often be more easily dealt with using steel, section depths are less and this allows you to more easily avoid "chunky" details and encourages more slender details for visual appearance. Really what you do is design an "industrial building" as the skeleton and over clad. The steel frame is just a meccano set, quick to erect. Also, many of the weather proofing details are already developed, you have less issues with shrinkage cf masonry and timber.. plenty positives. If you wish post more drawings. A good thing to do is put gridlines on the drawings if you can as it allows folk see at a glance how things line up between floors. Al the best with what looks like a great house.

Andy. No wonder this is causing grief. Here is a suggestion. Mull this over even if just to rule this idea out. It seems like you are getting run ragged. The following suggestion is based on tactics used to deal with say a home warranty provider who is using the fine print to avoid addressing the issues. Take a step back first. Get yourself a "street wise" Stuctural Enginneer. Get them to site for a day.. yes a day and expect to fork out £800.00 -1200 quid. Seems a lot but the SE will spend a few hours thinking time after they have left site.. not that bad. The SE will look to see where the frame is non compliant..and everything else that they can see or even if they "get a smell" they will look at that too. Once an SE is instructed to examine everything..it means anything else that may count as a contributing factor.. they do.. no prisoners! For example the SE will look at all the nail edge distances, plumbing of the frame, the roof trusses, the load paths and how this missalignment of the dormer may be changing the load paths and if the supporting walls are still ok. The ground levels, how the kit is sitting on the founds.. odd stuff that may not seem directly related to the issue.. damp proof membranes, vapour barriers.. tile batten spacing.. the lot! The reason for this is that all these other bit's an bobs contribute to what SE's call "robustness" and this forms part of the design codes. Also, if the say trusses are not sitting where they should be then questions get asked, for example are the connections still ok.. again are the tile batten spacings still compliant with the tile specifications.. it's a big can of worms to defend! Make no mistake if you are an SE and you are instructed to survey a timber frame.. well that is what you do! You don't muck about! The secret here is that once you find a non compliance that impacts on the structural safety of the building you have them over a barrel. What you then say is.. hey you may be quoting me the fine print but you have supplied / erected an unsafe structure. This cuts to the chase as if your SE say's it's not safe they have to do whatever it takes to fix it.. if it goes to court.. the SE stands up and says..they provided an unsafe structure and by that time the HSE will have been notified also, so too they will be chasing them. What I can say is that once you nail them on the structural side they are often keen to negotiate. The next step is up to you. You can try and negotiate a settlement yourself or you can instruct your SE to "have a chat" with your TF supplier. The SE will not "do a deal" on your behalf in terms of the fabric as professionaly they can't compromise on safety. The SE at this point acts as an independant person. To explain. An SE has a duty to public safety, you may sell the house but the liability rests with the SE long after you have gone. However, by acting independantly they will often use some back channels to reach encourage settlement that is equitable. They may for example say to the TF supplier.. well if you don't play ball with me I'm going to recommend to my Client that we get a QS of like mind to me.. no prisoners.. and the bill is going to go up. My Client just wants it sorted and quickly..they are not seeking to punish you but if you keep digging in they may take a different view! These are thing an advisor can say but you as a Client may not be so able to do. Andy. Quite often trusses may not be "quite where they should be" Not all of the trusses will be fully loaded so sometimes you only need to remediate a few, maybe one or two so it's not often a case of the whole lot needs to be taken down. The key here is to find the big stick to bring them to the table and quickly. The above is one possible way of achieving this. Ideally.. resolve it quickly, settle and not spend time trying to get your money after you have moved in. The moving in should be fun and if you have this hanging over your head it kind of spoils it? Lastly the supplier will also be expected to pay any SE fees you have incurred.

Jack. "It will never be commercial while I or any of the other people currently involved with the site are running it." Delighted to read this. Is there any merit in letting folk know what you need in funds + moral support + members own time to keep BH sustained? Yes BH have gone Ltd but I can understand what might drive that.. If you look back on the history of BH it seems to me like it started with a few enthusiasts all wanting to share knowledge. It caught on in a pretty big way. These founder members have put in a huge amount of work. I think to myself.. how is this to be sustained in the long term. It would be a sad loss if this body of knowledge and annecdotal evidence of folk building / renovating etc their own homes was to be lost. It is in fact a historical record! It would also be a disservice, not least, to some of the founder members that have been lost or just moved on if BH were to fall. Jack.. yes the advice on BH must have saved folk a fortune at times.. so 5% is a good ask! .. you won't get that quality of advice elsewhere for free. I ask.. how may we help?

@saveasteading Thanks for the "like".. I wrote it for you as I like the word "shifty" Just kidding. Gus

Mods.. I'm fairly new to BH, joined mid 2020. The resource seems to be expanding exponentially. This knowledge base is astounding. I think it is been so successful as you have stuck to the not for profit model. What are the plans for the future? How much more donations do you need to keep this running? How are you finding the time to run this site? saveasteading. Well articulated.

"Do you mean that a shifty supplier might have mixed nasty stuff in?" I do. "Otherwise, in what way have times changed?" Well I mentioned "happy days" Back then folk were not that daft, as are folk here are not too. In the happy days if someone had mixed broken asbestos sheets, fag packets, big lumps of bitumen, dead fish into the road planings, you will, even as a lay person be able to see it and say "hang on". But one thing that can be hidden is this. Generally modern bitumen planings are fairly benign. But up until the mid 1980's coal tar was used in roads and that contains a potential nasty mix of carcinogens that are more mobile. In other words they can leach more easily into your plot and start to contaminate your land. Now, when they are planing an old road they may take off the modern top layer (bitumen based), and a bit more.. the bit with the coal tar. So the top planings go to recycling, the last load (with the coal tar content) goes to you cheep. Back in the "happy days" we had little idea or knowledge about hydrocarbon pollution. "Have even used it under floor slabs, with BCO approval." Yes we did! For me if you have bought a plot or doing up you house why risk introducing an additional pollutant?

Yes at times. I do have a blog slot on BH but have neglected. Jeremy Harris, the mods et al have set a high bench mark! I joined BH as; it's not commercial, I find the folk here refreshing, there is humour, serious stuff where folk really need somewhere to turn to for help, great innovators.. the list goes on. I learn something new each time I look about on BH, it's a two way street for me and I enjoy being here. If there is interest from BH members in the structural side then I would give it a go and also post stuff on the blog bit so that it is all in the one place..but then it could start to loose the terms of reference of BH. In other words BH folk want to know about their own house / project and get a response to their own posts rather than read some generic stuff? I think this is the life blood of BH and why it works so well. Also, it's the Mods et al.. without their dedication, this site would not be what it is. Another thing is you have some real pro's on BH that have specialist skills. They may not post regularly, then in spurts, but the quality is exceptional. @SteamyTea "I would find it useful and save me having to find my copy of:"Why-Buildings-Fall-Down-Structures" For all. What about sticking to BH and finding out "what makes buildings stay UP"

If it's a public pedestrian path be careful as the Highway Dept may not accept as scalpings often don't comply with the plasticity requirements. Happy days when you could get road planings to do your drive to your new house or fill in a hole. Was great stuff. Times have changed. Think twice before you take up an an offer from a "road squad" who are doing a job "round the corner" and are offering a few loads of road planings for a few quid. It's not so much the bitumen content but the other contaminants that go with it! Do you really want this material on your property and the potential liability that comes with it.

Interesting stuff. "Our key driver is aesthetics." It's about 20 years ago that this cropped up for me the last time. We were talking about using concrete blockwork and brickwork in lime mortar to avoid having to introduce movement joints. Standard UK spec is say joints in concrete blockwork at 6.0 centres / brickwork at 9.0 m centres. We looked at lime mortar and as it was mostly concrete block decided not to take the plunge and spec it, knees got a bit wobbly! Fine on old stonework..but! But BadgerBadger.. hey, hand made bricks. There is a massive attraction here as you are maintaining the ethos. I commend you for that. Concrete blocks pretty much shrink over time and that's it. But clay bricks are arguably more lively and natural". They expand a fair bit in the heat, swell / shrink as the humidity changes and just move a bit as they age and weather. I'm not sure how this may stack up for you but if you have say a feature elevation of a decent length and going for the real deal with hand made bricks with a traditional clay mix then much will depend on you own personal desire. However, if you have a fair expanse of brickwork having a movement joint visible kind of defeats the purpose? And that drives you towards a soft flexible lime mortar which could do some 12 - 15m run? that much? without a joint or return corner to relieve the stresses? The other thing is whether you have a timber frame on the inside or are using a cavity masonry wall. If you're doing this then the regs on venting TF cavities could be a "damper" but with cavity masonry construction maybe easier to deal with? There is no doubt that it will cost you more but if you are going to do, it do it right and enjoy. Some folk buy paintings others build walls and get to see them every time they get home and walk in the front door. I would make sure that you don't get hung up on some building regs that require you to put in say plastic cavity vents. Solum vents would be ok as you could really go to town and get authentic reclaimed vents! Now I've just spent all your money!