Thedreamer

Hi @Afzal there are quite a few threads on the forum regarding connection costs. That does seem quite a lot, perhaps you are having to paid for transformer upgrade/road crossings. We had similar issue, close pole but unable to support another property. Our costs were significantly less than that and was about 200 meters. It would be worth looking at each part of your quote to see if there is any work you can organise yourself.

Thanks. Well spotted. Happy with the model it cost a fair bit to buy and install, we used a hetas approved fitter for peace of mind. As the wood is free the payback will be achieved relatively quickly. Day to day stuff is minimal, just bringing in the wood. Perhaps empty the ash once a week. And smoking is bad for you! ?

On the south facing glazing I was lucky in that we only did minimal modelling on the solar gains. I just wanted as many windows for the views. Having moved in during the summer I am happy that overheating won't be an issue in my location, but I am lucky in that regard. We do have plenty of velux window upstairs to ensure good cross ventilation can be achieved. Managing trees, splitting logs and enjoying an evening stove, these are simple pleasures, in an otherwise complicated life riddled with technology.

I've had a flick through it a few years ago, before we had a stove. Might see if I can get a copy. That's great. How are they developing? A lot of rough boggy ground here, which allow alder to flourish. My father in law planted a wide variety of trees thirty years ago. Some of the spruce are massive now, we got some nice oaks growing along the driveway. It can be an expensive ornament. I think if self building, only consider a stove if you are in rural location to allow your neighbours not to be affected by your smoke you should really be splitting and storing wood should not have it in a room, should be in a large open plan space to allow the heat to spread If you can't tick these three boxes, alternative heating methods would be a better way to go. I know the term 'thermal mass' has been debated here over the years. My feeling it does the job as a storage heater. The block are still warm in the morning and having it in the middle of house no heat is loss to an external wall.

I have found during our self build that we have gone against the norm for what you would expect a new self build to contain. One area was how we would heat the house. The main concern I had as we entered the winter was whether we did the right thing in disregarding the need for underfloor heating and radiators. I have found that during the day we do not need to heat the house as having sufficient true south facing glazing provides the solar gains to heat the house during the day time. When you are outside and it's -5c wind chill it's a pleasant feeling to come into a house that is 20c with no heating. At night time the temperature would slowly drop without any form of heating. This is where our centrally placed stove surrounded by dense concrete block is used. Stoves in the self build community are loved by some and loathed by others. I feel if they are used in the right setting they can be a perfect addition to a self build project. For us it was a best choice as having access to wood, space to store and being willing to provide a little bit of hard work results in the heating bills being zero. When we designed the house having a centrally place stove was one of the first items on our list. For our stove we burn a trug load of home grown logs each evening in the winter. I would never have imagined how satisfying it can be to spend an hour on a Saturday morning splitting wood to keep my family warm. It's a great way to keep fit and can be an enjoyable hobby. Recently we cut back some alder and birch trees which will be left to season and will form next year's winter wood. Using coppicing as a woodland management will allow the trees with their established roots to regenerate quickly in the spring and perhaps be cut back again in ten years. It has been an interesting learning curve over the last few months regarding heating our house with wood. I have learnt a lot from my father-in law and also from this book which I would recommend. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wood-Fire-Handbook-complete-perfect/dp/1784726192/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+wood+fire+book&qid=1613167239&sr=8-1 The garden is currently a blank canvas and this will be the focus for the spring. One job that I am working on at the moment is sorting a load of old stone to build a dry stone wall. It's hard work but a perfect remedy after a long week of crunching numbers at a computer. Hope to provide an update in the Spring. Thanks for reading.

Yes, building a timber frame is quite cheap to do. If you had all materials available a couple of joiners would knock a kit together very quickly. Making panels is a fairly simple task for a joiner to do. For ordering the materials I went through my structural engineers plan and measured all that I needed and put in orders with a building merchant. It was harder for me because of the remoteness of my location and therefore ensuring materials came at the right point. Regular communication is critical with all parties. Wastage was pretty minimal (I.e. for plasterboard I had just one sheet over ordered). Timber, OSB can be used later in the build. Some stuff you do end up with spares (like 1/2 roll of membrane) but I can use it for future project like a small shed or a wood store. If I used a single builder, for a big job like a self build, they would order the same materials and take away the excess materials priced for my job for other smaller jobs with other customers. I don't have a background in building and not good at DIY, very much an amateur. The other point you need to seriously consider is that build cost are an important, but if you are borrowing you will need a valuation report at the start and end if you build a house that looks cheap that is going to reduce your valuation and affect your ability to borrow.

Yes. Membranes, fixings and a telehandler hire for two weeks, all included in that. Also a chunk went into building the suspended timber ground floor. Velux is the way to go upstairs. I provided virtually all the materials for the build. The only stuff I did not provide was for the foundations, blockwork and drainage pipes.

Yes, just leave as a loft. Insulate to a good standard. I like our design because the engineered trusses form the structure of the roof and the first floor. The material and labour (timber, nails, trusses, sarking, membrane and other stuff) which I ordered myself cost £13k for materials and £9k for labour this was all in for the kit. My build is 138m2 but I had a vaulted area, steel beam, extra engineered timbers and lean too. I suspected you could build a slightly bigger house for the region of £20k to £25k Why not just velux windows? A dormer is like a constructing a mini house on your roof. I'm 6'3 plenty of head height standing at velux and upstairs, you get the benefits of a mini balcony. Those four got slotted in one morning. Check out my blog and the last section regarding financing and approach.

Would you get planning for this? Why not build 1.75 storey rectangle, leave the upstairs unconverted until finances allows. I would presume the need for extra space is kids, could they not share for a few years? This was a common strategy when the old RHO grant scheme was available. @Amateur bob are you based in Highlands, I can't remember, is the croft house grant an option?

I don't know if you watched the video I posted on the thread previously, about twenty minutes in, the curtains issue seem to help this guy with condensation issues. How to Stop Damp Mould & Condensation - a COMPLETE Guide - YouTube

and welcome to the forum ?

I usually recommend the book home builders bible, gives a good grounding and worth a purchase from amazon. Architects can be very good at inflating costs. I did our self build project on a sub contractor basis, where I choose the trades and also supplied the materials. It gave me control over the time, cost and quality of the labour and materials. I did use one contractor more than others, spoke with him a few times did my research and he was great during the build. You might get your recommendations of other trades through a contractor like that.

Do you draw curtains in front of the french doors in the evening?

Gutted for you. I hope you get this resolved. Can you claim on a self build insurance policy for this type of problem?

What's all the other stuff? If we have any condensation I usually just give a quick wipe down each day. Ventilation needs to be checked.

@TheMitchells thanks for your kind words. Yes, please feel free to get in touch. We about 3/4 year living in the house and we are loving it. I'm tempted to re-open the blog up or start another as we are starting some garden projects soon. Favourites shots since the last entry! One from autumn And the winter

I presume your are referring to expensive contraptions as being MVHR system? Why do you have to say it in such a ranty way? The plenty of folk live in humid locations in the UK. I used to live in a stone cottage it was cold and had condensation/mould. But I wouldn't go on about it for pages, I would accept that I had to run a dehumidifier or open a window or spent more on fuel. Or move somewhere else, which is what I did. But the trouble here is that all solutions and help is dismissed. I do think that you are do some good work like your doors a few pages back, but as somebody who has followed this thread and others you appear to go through cycles of doing some good work and everybody is like good job then you go back to ranty Zoothorn. If your feeling annoyed probably best not to post and come back when you are in a better mood.

@Highland girl If the site has been de-crofted is the farmer, the tenant or is he/she the owner of the croft? Crofters can be sub tenant, tenants, owner occupiers etc For our croft, my wife is the tenant and the owner is the Scottish Government. We had to purchase the site from the Scottish Government for a nominal amount. There are few on here, like me who have some experience with crofting matters, but your best to seek professional advice, plenty of solicitors in the Highlands and Islands that have crofting law experience. This is an item where you need a paid professional to do the work.

I watched this recently, maybe it might be of interest to you @zoothorn I have the little Humidity reader in the image below, would recommend that.

Is it crofting land? Is it listed here? https://www.ros.gov.uk/services/search-property-information

One of the holiday lets down the road had foreign tourists stay and they had to ripped out the entire toilet because one family destroyed it. I don't know what happened, but everybody knew about it.

I don't know if it possible, but perhaps certain privileges like this could be relaxed for advanced members, as these individual are established in the forum? Not really fussed as my old self build blog is done, but it was frustrating with the last few entries, particularly if I came across a spelling/grammar error after posting.

I would like to see small build exemptions for a one off builds. In some instance the building regulations can cause a really hinderance. Disability ramps should be abolished in certain circumstances, they should always be installed in developer homes, but a common sense approach should be adopted by building control. As an example our build was funded by an agricultural grant it would have been extremely difficult to work rough hill grazing if you were in a wheel chair. If the circumstances arose where a ramp was needed for us later it should be installed later by us, ramps can be costly. Without the agricultural grant and the ability to demonstrating that we would could work the agricultural ground we could not have got the grant and been unable to build. Some self builders don't have a endless pot of money and it's a build of necessity to provide affordable housing. The ventilation was another area where I felt regulations could be relaxed. We have trickle vents which work well, but you can't compare ventilation in our exposed property and a terrace street in the middle of the city. Principle based approach, common sense.

No idea why that was changed, presumably it's the software rather than an edit by the admin here.

Is the simple fix to run the heat pump at night and put some ear plugs in when you sleep???????????????