Thedreamer

Home Builder's Bible, well worth a purchase. On the slope there is actually a diagram in the book that suggests what extra % you pay when building on a sloping site.

Thanks

If your not using the joiner in the future, I would just leave the invoice in a folder/tray somewhere. I wouldn't pay an invoice if they have not even provided a bit more detail, how long would it have taken to add a few lines to an email or on the invoice. It also sounds as if they are not hard up or they would be doing your work. I'm sure if they want payment they will be in touch again and prehaps this will allow some more discussion regarding the matter. Photos and evidence and other joiners invoice ready (prehaps ask them to itemise the batten correction work on the new joiner invoice) I do think with other that they should be paid for some work but that needs to be agreed. Did you supply the materials?

Thanks very much. Thanks It's a long old journey, self building. I've mentioned before on here that the blogs provided a great deal of encouragement to me during phases of this project, and really show that people can self build even with very little prior building experience. I was 22/23 went I put in outline planning and now I'm 34. I don't what has silvered fastest over the last few years, my hair or the larch! Time and determination. Living in the Hebrides power cuts do happen a couple of times during the winter. I like the feeling of having a bit of control over heating the house. I would also say that I know stoves on the forum seems to attract split views. Many on here really like them and others detest them. I think it depends on your setting (neighbours, do live somewhere the smoke would settle, valley/glen etc?) and whether you will actually be able to enjoy them without risk of overheating. They work for us because of a fairly unique set of circumstances and consideration during the design stage. I should also add that my father in law created an area of woodland from scratch 25 years ago and this allowed free access to wood. Yes this is feature we like. I used to stand at the top during the 'saving' years and wonder how it would look. We can also peer up to the township road from the kitchen below and see if visitors are coming. Always nice to have a minute or so before somebody appears. Thanks

Thanks

Following on from the last entry we had our final inspection and were on the cusp of getting our completion certificate. A few final documents were uploaded and a certificate was received from building control. We had built a house. A few final jobs were completed following the last blog entry. I order 20 tonnes of gravel from a quarry on Skye and then barrowed it down the access and spread it around the house. I also had enough to put some at the top of the access as well and fill a couple of bulk bags. The last job for the joiner was fitting the downpipes. We used the cast iron effect ones as these provide a bit more of a decorative look compared to the standard glossy pipes. We seeded the ground at the start of lockdown and now after a summer of growing the grass is coming on nicely. The grass seed cost very little money. It cost us around £15 to do all around the house. We are pleased with how the house fits into its surroundings. Our pallet wood shelter was finished and I’m currently building up the wood stocks. I am also storing fresh cut wood for the future years. These old CUPA slates crates are useful for this. As we are now heading into colder times of the year, we have had an opportunity to have a few burns from the stove. I’m really pleased with how well it is performing. The stove is bang in the middle of house surrounded by thick concrete block with a lime render. It heats the entire house and the increase in room temperature can be felt twelve hours or so after the last log goes on. I wouldn’t however recommend fitting a stove in a self-build unless you put some serious planning into how you will actually use it. Even a small stove could easily over power the heating need for a living room. Solar gains produce our base heating, keeping the temperatures to around 20c and the daily electricity usage at 10kw. We don’t have any underflooring heating or radiators. If we reach a long cold spot and need a quick boost, I plan to wheel out an oil electric heater or use the towel heaters. . What’s next. I need to crunch the final numbers. I also need to put a final layer on the access road but might put this off until the winter. Thanks for reading.

Very tidy. Top job ?

Interesting article from a few years ago. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jul/16/howdens-kitchen-varying-quotations-customers-confused I choose Howdens because it was just a bit easier dealing with a local branch. I scheduled the purchase of the kitchen, doors, floor and ironmongery with the October sale. We took an credit application out. It's a bit unusual in Skye to be able to have access to a national chain at lunchtime or before going into work. As we were doing a self build this was just a single part if I was just doing a kitchen or floor I would look further a field.

For the structural policies I just feel like they would wiggle out of making payment if I needed to claim. Have any members here ever made a claim? (Hopefully not!) Same with large builders that offer an guarantee, it's a battle to get any work done in say three years after finishing. Your point @SuperJohnGabout lack of Scottish Surveyors is that just for this provider, or generally? I wondered why in Scotland hardly anybody is doing it?

My mortgage just converts from a self build to a residential policy, no additional fees. I will review this position after two or three years if I need to move. I've not sure on your remortgage query it's a bit different to me.

I choose TF on price. Much much cheaper than block here. I know this to be case as I can compare the block work on my outer leaf. The block work was dense concrete blocks. I know some people use lightweight blocks but I don't like these as they can crumble easily and get knocked/chipped. Our TF was stick build, so I could get credit on the TF and control the quality of the materials used. Therefore more risk but nothing that could not be managed. I didn't know about build hub or ebuild when I had my plans prepared and would have consider myself as a beginner at the start. On the noise, all houses here are room in the roof designs, therefore you would be having timber in the first floor. It's would be unusual to use beam and block upstairs (and actually on the ground floor as well here). Therefore noise would be much the same. Going back to the original point of the thread. I would consider a passive house, however my concerns are cost and time. When I am fifty or sixty and retired/semi retired than I would have the time to provide the attention needed. But a normal working week, overtime and two children would mean this would not be achievable. I would have pay a contractors a premium to achieve the level required. Yes you could do it slowly but a normal build is already expensive and time consuming. From my experience Passive houses tend to be self built by people as they approach retirement. Not all, but definitely a majority. I plan to do the same in 25 or 30 years.

Yes in Skye, our lender had the option of: Architect, NHBC builder, warranty or Surveyor. The first two I did not want because of high professional fees for a fairly simple design and a large builder would have been very expensive. I would be financing, skips, scaffolding, loos, containers, admin and profit margin. As mentioned earlier nobody has warranties here, presumably to far to travel. The Surveyor inspections at around £1.2k seemed reasonable and he also did a review of my costings to provide a qualification for my mortgage application. Also as somebody who is very inexperienced in building, having a professional I could speak to was very comforting, however selecting good contractors and lots of research and ample time between stages, meant that I did not need any extra help. Also had regular building inspections by Highland Council.

Yes, that is definitely a consideration. However for us, we won't be moving away because of our family croft.

No architect. Used a house designer, (design, planning and building warrant work) structural engineer (structural work and SER certificate) and RICS surveyor for inspections and certificates to the lender. All in cost £3.5k.

Still to use any heating. Put on the stove a few times in the evening, working well, heating the house into the morning. No sun today, but the house has been 19.5C. Ideally I like it when we are 20C

I looked into this but didn't bother as the mortgage lender did not require it. Also nobody takes out self build warranties here.

Many on here has used frame therm they easy to apply, I would go with frame therm 32 if your cavity is smaller. I wonder what the outside skin of timber frame was, plywood/osb? It would interesting to see what condition it is in at least from the inside, being that the build is 45 years old.

It worth bearing in mind that depending on what is structural in the house, the layout might not be final until later in the build. Until you can walk around and have sunlight in the rooms etc you might be tempted to alter slightly. We did a way with a planned internal wall upstairs once we were wind and water tight, worked really well for us.

Ok, thermal capacity. How come people just don't use this term instead?

My device which should not be named, is burning away at the moment. It's surrounded my 6inch dense concrete blocks and in the two nights I have had it on the blocks have held the heat well and the temperature is perfect in the morning. If we didn't have these blocks then I would imagine we would get a hotter room just now and then a colder temperature in the morning. Is this not what is trying to be achieve with folk who use the sunlight with thermal mass. Can somebody just give it a new name!

Hi @PeterStarck can I ask do you live in a hard or soft water area? Also how much do these cost?

In Scotland we have both, habitation certificate and a completion certificate. You have three months from the date of the document you submit as evidence with the claim.

I think people used to get in problems when they had planning agreements applied to the land to get secure planning permission.

I've been on here for few years, seen this discussed, my observation is that is not that some architect gave it the thermal mass name? What people really want is material that hold heat, whatever that term is?