Gus Potter

Bri. I missed Peter's post. Hang fire with the legal stuff, the lender and so on, it's probably not as bad as you think although it's no fun at all. Yes, it's a nightmare but it's worth keeping things under your control. Loose that control and ask yourself if this is what you want. In some respects as they have made such a mess of things it's actually often easier to pin them down. You've got all the emails and photos. This is the time to keep a cool head, calm things down and be forensic. It may only take a week or so to set the cat.. Once you raise the safety issue in my exerience things can start to happen quite fast as you shove a lot of liability onto the developer / builder / Enginneer and this impacts on their policies etc (you can save the facebook stuff for later). They can also get a HSE notice against them.. they (developers) are not keen on that as it has an impact on their insurance premium for example. Or, if they are also doing public works it's not a good look. Hope things work out ok. I'm not in your neck of the woods and but if you want you can PM me or look me up and I'll give you a few pointers if I can.

Hello Bri. Sorry to see you are still having problems, I appreciate your frustration. I have a case on my books that is much like your own, although it's worse (and more expensive I think) if that is any reassurance.. your not alone. You may feel that this is a war of attrition and that they are grinding you down.. a bit at a time.. nothing looks like it is a proper and lasting repair. The other posts are spot on so thank all. When stuck a bit / hitting a brick wall one tactic I use is to look at the whole construction and how all the elements of the structure are supposed to interact with each other. The design codes require that a building should be "robust" for example. Masonry walls are designed so that each brick, block interacts and works with the other elements of the structure. Once you start to make numerous repairs the walls can loose their strength and the overall stability of the building can be compromised. Can I suggest that you go back to the SE and ask directly if they have considered the overall stability of the structure given the number of interventions / repairs / damage to the block / bricks by removing the render and so on. Ask about the masonry. The render has been stripped, the block / bricks in places have lost locally / extensively? some of their effective thickness. Many mortar joints have been raked out and repointed. Pointing does not have the same bond/ compression / adhesion as the original mortar bed that underpins the design values in the codes. What we need to know, is for example; is the building still capable of resisting wind loads and so on? Ask the Engineer to say what codes they are working to and how these codes account for the numerous repairs. Also ask if they can show if the manufacturer of the helifix bars has considered the overall structural stability ( how the floors are tied in and so on, does the stability rely on the inner leaf only or both the outer and inner walls? ) if not who has. Have they also considered where the cavity trays / dpc's are and the possible associated loss of bond. If you get a reasoned justification with references to the relevant clauses of the codes backed up with the manufacture's data and your case review (which accounts for the recent interventions) then please post these here as this would be informative. We start out by designing a safe structure to say the original designer's requirements. What you can/should do as part of the remedial works design package is to review and check that any repairs are compatible with the original design intent before you embark on the works. Much of the issues you point out are what are called "serviceability issues" .. sorry to be blunt. You don't like the cracks, bad workmanship on the finishes, leaks, draughts and so on but once you get to this stage many developers start to run rings round folk and kick the can down the road. Hence your thousands of emails. In their mind it's often just you moaning and they get can get entrenched in their view as they know it's really hard to argue your point if you are a lay person. You can make a case on serviceability but it can be hard, like chasing cats. Turn this into a safety issue and in particular a public safety issue. Any SE (Engineer) will become very focused. Any confined brief they may have been given by a developer (developer's do this to keep the cost down), and any caveat they (the Enginner) will have put on their brief (you don't see that) will be binned as all SE's, Civil and other Engineers have a statutory duty to consider public safety. Your on your way then to getting some straight answers. Also, if it is a safety issue then this is a matter for the HSE! You can find that if you can pin them down on the structure and get them moving then rest can start to fall into place. It may need more extensive work / surgery but at least you'll be more confident that all is good. Bear in mind that the developer has been undertaking remedial works so they are responsible for the structural stability as they have, it seems, been instructing the remedial works and been responsible for these. See the CDM regulations and also ask if they have carried out a design review that has been passed to the SE who came to see you. If not, did they ask the SE to carry out a design review. The developer can have the rug pulled from under their feet as they should be able to show that what they have done is equal or equivalent to the design codes and followed the CDM regulations which include for making an adequate allowance for paying an SE for example who will consider the overall safety of the works. What I'm saying here is look at the whole picture, not the one the developer wants you to look at, this is how some developers close people down. If you can lift the bonnet then you can open up other avenues such as compensation /offset and so on.. for another day. You maybe can test run a two track approach, carry on doing what you are doing but open up another front, focus on the structural safety / stability aspect, ask the questions and let the developer pay for and show that SE has been properly instructed and that the CDM regulations have been complied with. If you do adopt this appoach then be careful not to burn your boat! Be canny, just ask questions and request justification as a lay person. I can be (has worked for me) that if you can nail them on a structural point then they need to remediate the structure and in doing so the other issues (insulation etc) are fixed anyway as all the work has to be compliant... You can then decide how to progress. All the best. Oh and please can all excuse my grammer /typos etc. Thanks all in advance

What a good idea. One thing that springs to mind is that you want to make sure you account for any drainage system, tanking or whatever so that any water penetrating the garden wall does not get into the house envelope. I've been toying with experimenting on my own house with something that will just emit heat in the evening, all be it a tiny amount. I dawned on me that if you can get the sun into the sunken part for part of the day then you can use the wall that gets the sun as thermal storage, so at night you get a little heat on your back and it may help keep some frost at bay for any plants. But with ICF maybe you can cast the walls, then strip off the insulation on the inside from the wall that gets the sun, render this, or scabble, or render with a pigment. If you paint it a darker colour /pigment the render then it willl pick up more energy from the sun. Is it much like the idea of a victorian walled garden? But here the heat escapes from both sides. But with ICF it's insulated from the cooler ground on the back side so all the stored energy comes out the right side. I don't know how hard it would be to strip the ICF from one side after installation? Or if it would just be a mess!

The sole makes some good points.. I agree that mileage with Engineers may vary..some provide a good service others less so, some provide more details, others less. I can understand why the Sole makes the point that the positives I made of looking at alternatives to the SER scheme are not the Sole's current experience. Different councils operate in different ways, for example Argyll and Bute often contract out all submitted calculations for review to local SER Engineers. I'll not dwell on this too much but the SER scheme was intitially set up with all the best intentions, however one could now ask if it has in some ways lost it's way, particularly with respect to the domestic, small works type of job. The sole makes a point of having received panel drawings.. There are generic panel drawings (cut and paste), and there are the real ones that a local joiner can work to, there is a world of difference between the two. Generic ones can be produced in a morning.. with a bun and a coffee, proper working and annotated drawings take a few days to produce.. the sheeting layout, the cutting list, practical guidance notes to the builder and so on, and most importantly; the tricky joint details, interface with the insulation details and so on..and integrate this with the Architect's design. It is these finer points that stop your house from falling down! You'll see some other quotes that state.. ".. on the basis that a competant contractor will develop the detailed design and adjust on site etc " and so on.. what are you actually paying for? The Sole sums this up in that the SER Engineer "confirms the design is compliant" ... in other words is conducting to some extent an audit process. If you submit calculations to BC then do they not check these for compliance? My experience is that they do.. but you don't get the smallish SER discount on the warrant fee. Yes, you get a discount on the warrant fee, it's often not that much compared with the savings you can make by having your own comprehensive set of drawings and calculations that you can use to tender to a local builder who will make the kit and supply all the insulation etc that you need, with the cost of each material item presented in a transparent way if you press for this. Yes, an SER certificate can sometimes speed up the process, much depends on where you are.. in fact doing it the "old school way" ..calculations + comprehensive drawings submitted to BC with no SER certificate can be faster than the SER route!.. my experience. It's interesting to see how the Sole notes that the SER process has become more "stringent". My feedback today from a local BC officer is that this is " partly to do with the audit process.. too many cooks" at the SER Ltd rather than a "quality issue". To get the best bang for your buck it's worth exploring all the alternatives, tried and accepted "traditional route" and the SER route. If your designer indicates that you have use an SER Engineer then ask about at other options before you commit to the SER route. You can get warrants through Argyll and Bute without an SER, yes it may take a bit longer but you can make significant savings depending on how you want to set things up. In summary, consider what is best suited to your method of construction, programme and tailored to how much you want to do yourself.

Lots of good points here. Miri Piri.. good points. You'll get there faster than you think.. break the task down into pieces, if your not sure about something then leave it and look at something else.. look at the finishes.. exciting stuff.. sleep on it. It's confusing at first but you are putting the work into it and suddenly it will all come together for you. Every day is a school day and I think we are all born stupid. In terms of designers..competancy, vision etc is a key and a prerequisite.. but it is your project. It's essential that you actually like the person, not all with agree with me but.. This is your home (not a commercial project) and if you don't take to them in the first few minutes then carry on looking, no matter how good the cv looks, trust your gut feeling and this will serve you well. No matter what you read about contracts etc, this is also a people business too.. your journey should be fun and rewarding and strangely builders are human too and like working for good folk who will give and take. If things start to get a bit rough then you need folk that like each other and this make it easier to sort things out. On big project's, HS2 say every one knows that there are no friends in the desert at the first meeting. You'll read lots of stuff about being hard nosed but it's not always the case..just be firm and fair, make sure you pay on time for a fair days work and there are a lot of builders who will return the favour!

Sounds like you are on track for a great house. Have a good look at your building warrant drawings and see how comprehensive they are. Maybe you have gone down the SER route so worth a good look at what you have to work with. Keep posting and you'll get a lot of help here, you soon be confident on getting the "hands on"..better for the wallet / purse etc and you'll have a lot of fun / reward in the process. All the best.

Thank you for you post Carrerahill. Very refreshing. The SER (Ltd) scheme is worth a bit more scrutiny, in particular in relation to the self build / house extension market in Scotland. I also appreciate the R_Sole's contribution, both Carrerahill and the Sole make good points. Broadly speaking there are two approaches to this..and it's partly about the money. Here is a bit of a summary. 1/ Much depends on what council area you are in.. if you submit calculations instead of an SER (Ltd) certificate building control will either get their own in house Enginneers to check the calcs or contract it out.. often to the same set of SER Engineers! When you prepare calculations (old school) you present them in the same format that the SER Engineers use. An SER Engineer should be doing the same amount of work, calculations, checking stability and so on as someone who is not SER registered. If not why not? Are other Enginners from Wales, England, France etc less capable / dilligent. Carrerahill perhaps alludes to this. 2/ It's horses for courses. If you look carefully at some of the SER quotes that have been posted on this site they are a bit vague. What are you actually getting for you money? Dig a bit deeper and you'll see that a lot of it is an audit process. There are two schools of thought here. The SER scheme makes much of how their members are highly experienced, this is true and for large projects you may want an SER member just to get it over the line in Scotland. But for a self build, extension etc you have an alternative. Consider the traditional route, as accepted in the rest of the UK. You'll also find that the "old school" folk also talk to the council Engineers on a regular basis as the council Engineers use this as part of their CPD and this gives weight to Carrera's point that the process in certain council areas is often not slowed down significantly. You BC officer, along with the council's Engineers will require a detailed set of drawings and calculations from the Engineer. Yes, this may cost you more on appearance but these drawings along with a good specification can form the basis of your contract with the builder, your SER certificate is of less use. This is where you will realise savings unless you pay your Architect to produce a full set of contract / construction drawings, specification and so on. But when you combine (coordinate) a good set of Engineer's drawings with the Architect's drawings (and they work closely together) it can be a good package which can save you money. Also ask, is it beneficial to have an independant check made by the council Enginneers who have no commercial interest. If an SER certificate is presented then the council have to accept this, even if they have reservations. 3/ If you go down the traditional route your Engineer will often have a much more hands on approach and be on tap when you need them. They will for example produce the panel drawings for the timber frame as the council Engineers want to see these. This allows you to get a local joiner to build the kit so you don't need to go to a main stream manufacturer or you can make the kit yourself. There are other benefits in that the Engineer will work often work much more closely with you and your Architect to make sure the structure really fits in with the vision. Yes, you need to pay apparently more up front. But ask this.. if you go to a main stream kit manufacture say, they have their own in house designers and they need to be paid too. That cost is hidden in the kit price for example. In summary, it's worth exploring this more. Carrerahill and the Sole are both correct but much depends on how fast you want to go, how you want to go about it , your cost curve / programme and what you want to do yourself and so on. There are potentially big savings to be made by avoiding or at least comparing the option of the non SER route. I work with a few Architect's who embrace the "old school" i.e non SER route as it give them another option to present to their clients for consideration.

You'll still need a pump to activate to get the pressure though.

Good points from all, ta. Just a thought. It's worth at this stage having a look at the size of the tank you'll need.. water is heavy. Look ahead and see if this will impact on the structure, would look a bit odd on the roof but you could make a feature of it, if so what are the possible cost implications. If you are on a hill then you may be able to sit the tank above the house in the garden if you have enough slope and gravity feed it all?

Ah, thanks all..I'm not alone! yes reassuring, ta

Good points from all. Eandg.. a good place to start is to look at the NHBC guidelines on building near trees. You'll find this online. Good explanation and diagrams. Type into search engine "NHBC building near trees setion 4.2." This will give you a good start.. easy to read. Clay shrinks and swells and it does this in all directions, up and down and sideways too. Your Engineer seems to be excluding this and passing design responsibility back to the piling contactor who has at least picked up on this. Turning to your quotes.. for a lot of domestic applications ( well commercial too).. some piling contractors work on the premisn of "who dares wins" When you are designing piles you want to make sure that you are not driving though made ground / fill. If this moves it can drag the piles down too so you need to take this into account. Sounds like you don't have made ground so look on the bright side. If you want to post the calculations and results of any gound investigation.

Hello Gem77. Sorry to hear that things are not going smoothly at the moment. It might be worthwhile trying to seek out a Quantitity Surveyor who works up prices for local builders when they are tendering. I'm assuming you don't have a standard form of building contract, rather, that you have a contract that is written by the builder themselves, or some other form of non standard agreement. What you may look to do is to ascertain; the value of the work to date, whether the work that has been done complies with the drawings, if not what elements don't. Also look at what materials are on site, the value of these and whether they are the correct materials. Say you have some beams.. check the lengths, weights etc and that they will fit, insulation if any.. check the type / performance of any substitute type. To find a QS like this you may want to ask here or go back to your designer and ask them if they know of somebody local. This may be the hardest part... to find a QS who can help you. You may need to pay say £ 500 - £750 (depends on the size of the project though) for someone to do a rough appraisal. The main thing is that it will give you a better understanding of the true value of the work so far. Also, you'll get someone to lend you a friendly / supportive ear (well worth the money) and advise. QS's no doubt will be seeing more of this type of outcome so they may have the makings of a solution that works for you. Once you get a better handle on the money and values of work to date then you should be in a better postition to take a view. If you have a QS on tap they can often keep you right while sitting in the background to some extent. Another key point is to try and make sure the relationship you have with your builder does not break down completely, hard to do at times. A lot of QS's are quite good at weighing up the risks and to some extent they can act as an arbitor/ mediator, depends on who you can find. This can restore the relationship and bring a project back on track both in terms of programme and payment schedule. If this can't be done then at least you'll have an idea as to how much it will cost you to change horses before you decide to part company with your current builder. It may just a fact that the builder can't do the work for the price he quoted without a substantial loss (go bust) due to the extra cost for example of materials and complying with the COVID regulations. Other builders are probably in the same boat. Having a clear view as to the quality and value of the work to date is well worthwhile. All the best.

Petew W makes a good point, Frenchdrain is a good solid solution. To be safe just make sure you don't make it too deep. Say max depth to top of foundation. If you have clay soil the French drain could dry the clay out too much under the found, it will shrink and could cause movement. If you have a gravel / sandy type soil it could start to wash out the fine material thus reduce the capacity of the soil under the found to carry the weight of the wall. If you have a sloping site then you may only need a drain on the high side, you intercept the surface ground water there. Often you'll have new rain water drains with pipe bedding and this too acts as a French drain, sometimes when you don't want it to though. With a bit of thought you can get the right solution with a little extra cost, if any.

Hello why-aye With a 17m span you can do a cold rolled steel portal frame, but as your eaves height is 6.0m a colled rolled steel frame is not really feasible to make fly. Much of this is to do with the sway in the frame. So your hot rolled frame is probably the way to go. Yes, you can basically construct an industrial building, over clad the insulated panels on the outside, for aesthetics. You are then free to fit out the space and get the acoustics the way you want. The extra dead load (of the finishes) will add a bit to the frame size though. Just watch the deflection limits - that is partly how much the building will sway , ridge bend by etc. If you are installing "brittle finishes" such as leaded windows etc you may need to reduce the movement so these don't suffer. Normally a standard industrial storage, warehouse type buiding is designed for a column height horizontal movement of height / 100. So 6.0m tall = 60mm deflection at the eaves.. quite a lot for a leaded window, sensitive (brittle) finishes. I'll post more stuff if you want to follow up.

Interesting photographs. There is a saying that if something does not look right it probably isn't. So I think you're right to query. Get some professional advice if you are not getting this at the moment. From what I can from the few photo's see the excavation may not be safe. Setting aside the geometry - blockwork setting out, as others have touched on this. The photos show a line of trees close to the excavation, you have a big "dumpling" of soil left in the middle and thus it seems like you are not doing a basement? Also, there seems to be no reinforcement in the hollow block walls etc. So it looks like a deep underbuilding to some extent. What you have seems to suggest that someone has designed this to comply with the NHBC guidelines on foundations near trees, hence the depth of what looks like a strip foundation. The thing is that these are guidelines. The key here is to look at the layers of soil. Tree roots seek out nutrients and water, once they find that they follow that strata. Often, with a bit of pragmatism you can make a case for not going down so deep. You need to look at the layers of soil and see where the roots will go, then describe this and make the case for the correct foundation depth.. thus the most cost effective option. The photos show that the wall is pretty close in places to the edge of the excavation, so not much room for a "clay board etc - compressible / void forming type material" which in layman's terms is a piece of soft material that allows the ground to swell and shrink without applying significant pressure to the side of the wall. Your excavation has what looks like a good "stand up time" that roughly means that you can dig a hole and the excavation will stay stable for a certain amount of time before it starts to collapse into the hole. How you measure stand up time is based on geotechnics and experience. It looks from the photos that someone has made the right (lucky call) and just dug the hole wide enough to get the found in without propping - thus, with hind sight the stand up time (so far) has been enough to get the outer leaf of wall in before the soil moves..for now. However, it also looks to me that perhaps someone has dodged a bullet in that if an excavation that size collapses there could be a serious accident.. ? The thing to watch out for is that if the soil now moves the single outer skin will probably collapse with it. You may be on borrowed time. Be safe first and foremost. What you have is interesting, so if you can, post some drawings of what is required, also, if you have any structural calculations post these too. Would be interested to see how this all works. Look after yourself and others. Again get some professional advice as from what I can see the excavation may not be safe.. it will serve you well. Al the best.

All the best Paris22.

Been following this with interest. Lots of good points by all so thank you. Before you progress / spend too much time / get stressed have you talked to a local Builder / Architect / Water board who knows where the drainage runs. There may be a reason for not building out too far in that if you have to deal with a public sewer, then all this could be a mute point as it could cost you a fortune to build over a public drain? Sometimes it worth looking ahead to make sure your efforts are going to bear fruit at the end of the day.

This is a bit of a tricky subject. Below is a link to a technical guide... lot's of references to technical standards. That said, it does mention benchmarking and the importance of preparing the substrate. On a large scale you can basically do a few panels, the Client, Contractor, Architect, PM etc discuss this at length and agree on what is acceptable. If you are a home owner then you can do roughly the same. Plaster a wall and a ceiling, if all agree on the standard of finish then progress. Make sure the painter / decorator is there too as they are the ones that have to work with what they have. Too rough and they may walk away or charge you more. https://www.google.com/search?q=plastering+flatness&source=lmns&bih=834&biw=1760&client=firefox-b-d&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjl4-Hjwd_rAhUBYxoKHXBRAyIQ_AUoAHoECAEQAA Another key point is that plastering / taping is a craft as demonstrated by some of the members / conributors who make a living from this type of work and you get what you pay for. To paraphrase Ruskin.. Pay too little and you risk wasting all of your money, pay a bit too much and you lose a little money, but maybe the decorator will charge you less as a properly plastered job is a dream for them.

Hi Miri Piri. Don't be put off. There is a lot to take in. I try an break stuff down into a lot of "little jobs" dip in and out and sleep on it. SEPA have some good stuff, also there is a lot of practical advice from the suppliers of say septic tanks and so on. Much of this is written in layman's / practical terms. The main thing is to enjoy your journey. You'll be amazed how stuff suddenly starts to come together and then you're onto the next stage. All the best.

Good evening Miri Piri. Looking at water supply and septic tank/ perhaps something that treates the sewage to a higher level such as a some form of treatment plant, more costly but can offset the cost of a soak away type drainage field. Broadly speaking, to get you a feel for things, you often see information presented in tems of bedrock and superficial deposits, in some ways it's much easier in Scotland as you don't have to deal with sink holes that can occur in limestone, deep clay, complex ground conditions and soil layers that you get down South. There is some tricky ground in the Forth valley / Glasgow and so on for example. Also, you don't have to deal with mining that occurs in the Central belt. I think you Mum talks sense. A superficial deposit is the soil that generally sits on top of the bedrock. The term soil is used by Engineers to often describe the stuff you build on rather than the "top soil" on which the grass grows. Roughly, Tonalite is a form of granite. The UK was not always one land mass. Essentially it was originally part of two ancient land masses that came together. Once they came together there have been a number of different ice ages, which have eroded the land, melted and dumped stuff where the ice melts, this is often called "till". It can be fine minerals, small pebbles, boulders the size of houses, more and anything else that the glacier picked up on it's way. The Late Devension age is split up a bit but roughly the last period (say 22 -33 thousand years ago) relates much to the last major ice age although there was a more recent one on the west cost, around Loch Lomand. So this descibes when the till was laid down. Diamiction often describes how this stuff (till) was then moved about, further mixed up and redeposited. In other words you could have a good mix of material, some more suited to water extraction / sewage soak away. You mention that you are on a slope and that water comes into your mum's garage. But you have a field above so that surface water may not be suitable as a potable water supply. The key here may be to tap in above the house to the ground water that lies deeper and this could give you a good reliable supply. If you are interested then to do this you want to look for the fractured / weathered rock and there could be a decent layer of this not too far down. The best way is to dig a few good sized holes with a jcb first. Dig through the top layer of soil until you hit the rock, clean it off and have a look at it. If it looks like it has fractures of a good width or lots of small fractures (you probably won't see gaps just bands of the till that have washed into the gaps in the rock) in it then it's worth exploring more. If you don't fancy that then call a few of the bore hole companies and they will give you some good pointers. As the surface ground water is high and you have a sloping site you will probably struggle to get a soak away to work at a sensible cost if at all. From what you describe it seems like the top layers of soil that could be used for a soak way are thin and not very permeable. For the sewage you may be able to use a treatment plant and run a small discharge pipe to the burn? Lastly before you spend any money give SEPA a call or drop them an email to check if there are any restrictions on a private water supply with regards to radon.

Good post Alex. Interesting stuff that it worked out financially for an ICF superstructure in Scotland. How did you make that stack up? Do you have a trade connection or can this be done by a self builder from "cold"? Have you had a chance to finish it all off and look at it holistically, installing the services and so on. How future proof is it.. can you run an extra cable in the wall without major drama or are you a bit stuck on any alteration / extension you may want to make? Good point you make about the Scottish Islands, I have family that live in the islands and it is a completely different economic ball game. You have the ferry / transport cost, there is, if you are lucky a couple of folk that have a 16 tonne 360 digger..you need to make friends with the local dump.. try getting a skip to Tiree?.. and trying to get someone with a pecker when you hit the granite dyke. A granite dyke is an igneous intrusion. Often you'll find that the earlier islanders avoided building over a hard spot where the hot granite from deep in the earth made it's way to the surface. If you are unlucky this will manifest right under your found or septic tank and make life difficult. That is partly why there are gap sites on the Islands, but more often than not it's to do with who owns what and family history. Alex makes another good point about buying a mixer and doing it your self..been there, but yes when you look back you may have lost a few quid but it's that thing about knowing you have built you own castle with your own hands and that has value, it enriches life, so perhaps appreciate that? Just to touch briefly on ICF bracing. It's essential, firstly someone could get killed if it falls over..concrete is heavy stuff. If it bulges/ start to tip a bit then it's very difficult to fix in the heat of the moment. The key here is to make sure that you have someone , perhaps an SE who has the authority to oversee the operation.. that comes at a cost but.. there is an expression that is used to describe piling contractors and it is "who dares wins the job"..so if you employ someone to do the pour make sure you know where the risk lies and who is responsible if it goes wrong. Better to brace it to death and save the aggro.

Hello Galvtheouch. I'm kind of local to you, but more from the Biggar / Agricultural area so can see where you are coming from. If you want to do ICF as a superstructure? again I can't see this panning out financially unless you own the ICF and concrete company. While it sounds attractive to mix your own it's frankly bonkers to spend all the money on ICF and think you can hand batch stuff that won't leak. You can make a concrete wall pretty water tight if you get the grading of the aggregate / cement / water content / correct compaction under control but this is not for the lay person. If you want to know more ask a Water Board Engineer how to construct an undergound water tank that does not leak...is a basement etc not just a tank with some added insulation the reverse of this? You seem to have an agricultural type backgound and thus practical skills that a lot of folk would give their back teeth to have. What about just going back to say timber frame, use a 150m kit which you can build yourself, erect with your telehandler, seems like you have a lot of space so perhaps use the digger for the founds, pan mix the foundation concrete, check your mix, make the savings elsewhere and utilise your practical skills. Just as an aside.. it's well worth looking at the stuff that Jeremy Harris has posted. I'm probably going to get pelted for this but to simplify. ICF and low U value house basement / slab / basement slab designs are basically pinched from industrial building / cold formed store design. In fact, is not a lot of current design based on lots of stuff and design codes / principles from Canada, North USA where they are used to dealing with low temperature, permafrost, mitigating heat loss etc.. we just rebrand this in the UK, make it sound difficult and charge more for it. In terms of ICF. If you are doing a basement then in Scotland I can't really see this panning out profitably unless you live in the centre of Edinburgh even then, there are not many real live jobs as the ground conditions are difficult. Even the superstructure, I can see some of the merits but.. All the best

Hello MiriPiri. You'll love living there, does get cold from time to time, but depending on what area of Aberdeenshire (I'll call it AB from now on) your in you'll also get the dry weather from the rain shaddow of the mountains. A few less midges too and you won't always have to sit out in the rain. Also, the Northern lights to look forward to. I'll touch on your wish for a private water supply. This can be perfectly feasible. Simplistically, I'll assume for now that your plot is not way up in altitude and that you can't access a burn with no agriculture above.. thus a borehole. You do need to negotiate the consent process but that is doable too with a tactful approach. Often folk think that a borehole has to be massively deep. But in Aberdeenshire is still rains a lot so the main water table.. "productive aquifer" (there are what is called perched water tables but this is more complex so I have left this out) can sit relatively quite high. AB is full of granite and hard to drill through, unlike parts of the South where you have limestone etc. But we are not looking for solid rock as this does not transmit water well, in fact solid granite not at all, in relative terms. What you want to look for here is the fractured rock.. the layer that has been weathered during the ice ages, not cooled slowly.. the rock that is like hot toffee / moulten glass that has been dropped into cold water and is full of cracks between the blocks of granite. This is where you get the water from. I'm not an expert (although Scottish) as have a preference for rum but this water does make the lighter whiskys? Now, if you want a private water supply you may also want a private sewage arrangement so you don't have to pay the council tax element for sewage? In principle you want to ensure that any discharge from the treated sewage does not contaminate the water supply or that of any neighbours. Sounds complex? Well it can be but to get you started, have a look at what is round about you. Are you on a slope and stuff like that. With a bit of finess and basic understanding you can get lucky and design the water extraction to take place at a lower level in the fractured rock, the sewage dischage at the surface water flow level and make this all work safely. Here is a link to an educational resource from the BGS where you can look at what type of ground you may have. http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html This is worth a look as it will also help you understand what you may have to deal with when you are looking at the foundations and so on before you start to spend money on consultants. If you get stuck then post here. You mention merging the house into the landscape, if you hit granite then you maybe want to work with nature rather than trying to fight it and the associated costs of doing this. Just a last point.. AB is a bit radio active.. Torness Nuclear Power station is less so apparently.. so that can be a spanner in the works from time to time. On the other hand the environmental consideration is a good bargening tool, you do need patience though. All the best, keep asking questions and enjoy your journey.

Great comments everyone, the breadth and depth of knowledge is remarkable on this site. What a resource. Turning back to T-logic's post and focusing on say small extensions, slapping holes in walls to form more open plan areas and so on, say jobs with a builder cost from £5K to £40K. Due diligence. Sadly I see about one job a month where had a bit of actual due diligence actually been carried out rather than just looking on Facebook (I'm not talking Columbo here) the customer/ client could have saved themselves a lot of grief. It's old fashioned but what about looking at some of the magazine sites (Which magazine for example).. they tell you what to do in terms diligence.. or you can look on this site. The next step could be Companies house.. for say a director check, maybe the council online records for enforcement notices, the HSE etc. Then take references and actually follow them up. Make sure it's not a best mate, wife that is giving the reference..and yes I have seen this! If you get a sniff that something is not right then resort to credit referencing if you must, but if you get a bad smell at this point then really keep looking elsewhere. The Sole is bang on with his comment. There are standard contacts available (for example the JCT suite of contracts) that are crafted by legal experts, some of these terms are based on case law. A designer always thinks twice and three times before ammending the standard terms, for a reason, so it's not a case of form filling..it's serious stuff! As a word of encouragement. I would say that in 90% of the 5 - 40K jobs I deal with the Client only employs the designer up to the warrant (BC stage etc). Often they do have / sign a contract.. but it's the builders own contract and the t&c's are unfair. There is some extra protection for domestic clients (Scots Law, can anyone expand) but this only kicks in once thing have gone wrong and there are a few other finicky bits. In most cases on small jobs the reality is this. The Client can't afford to spend the extra on professional supervision and preparation of a fully comprehensive design / tender package/ management and contract supervision.. Also, they often visit sites such as "bob the builder.com" and don't appreciate the value of independant advice as these site have a commercial interest.. the police policing themselves and so on. Possibly one key is to recognise that one purpose of self building is to save money, or to use the money you have to get something that you otherwise could not afford. To achieve this you need to put in the work and do your research. There is no free lunch but your time is often free. T-logic. I do think you have picked up on some good points that could be commercially viable. However, before you loose your shirt, perhaps consider seeing if you can develop a buisiness locally. Build your network of local builders, access the merchants and get to know the sales staff. Work on your Client base, provide a great service, deliver real savings and build a reputation for good work. People will start to seek you out! Can I suggest you start with the small jobs. Actually, these are often harder to do than a house but you can cut your teeth and learn. Make sure you get some PI insurance and some PL insurance in case you run over someone on the site say. I work with a number of local builders who have a self employed QS. A good few of them have worked with the same QS for years. They trust them to price right, too high and the builder has no work! The Qs's they use make a good living and have a good quality of life in the main. It's all to play for so I wish you all the best T-logic.

tlogic.. Have you an academic interest in this? I think you have touched on a really good point. This is a very expansive subject! If you wish, can you outline what sort of information you are looking for?