Thedreamer

If you live in a wild environment like ours, what do you do when thirty/forty foot trees that have come down in storms? Drag them into an agricultural field and leave them to rot? Or replant, season the timber and save energy from another method like electricity by obtaining the heat from seasoned timber. This practise is sustainable and I would imagine the trees over the lifetime help to improve the quality of the surrounding air. The alternative would be to have no woodlands and then return the land to rough grazing for sheep. The problem you have is that the timber being burned by your neighbours is probably what has been happening for a long time and use of a MVHR is probably not even a consideration. Everybody has the right to fresh air outside or inside but I guess in certain circumstances the technology does not meet the environment or geography. I have learned a lot from the forum over the last few years and particularly about the airtight houses and the calculations/details that goes into this. Is the surrounding geography/closeness of neighbours considered when doing the modelling? Or are house modelled on the basis or the expectation that air will be fresh/clean etc. Wood smoke and use of stoves seems to be a real 50/50 split on the forum.

30mm issue reminds me a problem we had with our stair design. Technically it falls slightly short of the building regulation for the hand rails requirement. This was identified by our joiners who designed, made and installed the stairs. I phoned building control officer, pointed this out, all agreed, two inspections later (including one yesterday) all fine. Usually for some of the less critical building regulation you have a bit of wiggle room, if suggestions are sensible and agreed with the officer.

I have a wood burner and agree with this move. A wood burner in a city or town is just a luxury and not fair on others around you. We have a lot of trees and burning well seasoned wood is the best method for the environment in our particular circumstances.

Sorry to hear this @Christine Walker Why could the staircase not been situated where they shown on the original plan?

Hire of plant & machinery is standard rated, no reclaim at the end. The only difference is where you hire a plant & machinery with an operative. Then zero rated.

Common question on here is about self build insurance. Just a few figures that might help somebody else. I paid £706.35 for two years (£240k reinstatement, £2 mil pub liab, £10k for plant hired in) underwritten by Zurich. Did the classic mistake of being short by about two months before completion. I've renewed for another three months to the middle of June for £120.06, considering the bit of admin on the insurer behalf a proportion increase from £88.29 seems good value. I have seen others on here mention this can be very costly and I was worried that I would pay a kings random for a short extension. If anybody is interested who I went with feel free to PM me.

A dormer is often described as building a mini house on your roof. I prefer a velux window, went for large top hung ones in the bedrooms. - They are cheaper than dormers - Quicker to install and are a single unit. - In our roof in the roof design because they are on a angle I can stand out and feel the fresh air on my face. - When the house gets batted by the recent storms, the double glazed dormers in current house seem to get the full force of the wind on the pane, but a velux on a angle does not seem to take this hit as badly. I've lived in two properties with dormer windows, double glazed and both times we have had to put tea towels when we get hit with the storms. They are out at the moment. People often mention about the hail or rain on a velux window, but where we are, you hear the wind on the slates so your gonna hear noise regardless. I would also say that in our room where are children sleep they have never been woken by hail on the velux.

@Lois welcome to the forum. We are at second fix on our croft house on the Isle of Skye. Lots of options available in the Highlands and else where in Scotland.

Hi @Neoscan Welcome to the forum. I'm at second fix on the Isle of Skye.

As per @Ferdinand Get the house built first and then the right name will come. I also agree with @ProDave surroundings are a good method. We have trees, mountains, sea, a loch and the remains of a iron age structure in our surroundings, so we will use a name connected to these. One of the names we are considering is Darach which is Gaelic for Oak, as we have a quite a few oak trees on our access. Quite a few older and new properties are called 'Taigh Name' (Taigh meaning house in Gaelic)

We used a single piece of caithness slab for the hearth, was very heavy. The stone merchant we went to had all sorts of stuff, some of the marble was like looking at a hubble telescope photo. Half of the stove surround is dense concrete blocks with a lime render on the inside.

Or large family homes to be run as B&B under that allowance rule. Around us there is very little affordable housing. It's all either B&B or Self Catering. Any property on the open market is vastly inflated because a lot of property is no longer reviewed as being 'residential' people hold out for the 'commercial' value this is particularly true for self catering. Instances have occurred here when a badly needed social development was built, somebody transferred in from another local housing association in Scotland and then started to let rooms as B&B. Some of the neighbours started to get annoyed when tour buses were pulling up.

I feel housing policy in the UK is all over the place. Help to Buy - cheap housing, tarmac towns, driven by pension scheme profits, results in young people being up to their eyeballs in debt for the rest of their lives. Rubbish quality of life. It surprises me that building regulations are getting tougher and more expensive to meet. But we are building on rubbish flood land. We need to look at the European mainland, renting can be normal, more self build homes properly supported by council/government. I feel that self building is often seen as being a folly of older middle class. Small self building developments should be an option for everybody. The government support should be more than a rubbish portal.

I'm needing to build a small retaining wall to get a bit of height to tick the access box on our front door access. Anybody considered using oak sleepers?

I used sheets from our local Jewsons. Seemed to be reasonably priced. But they cocked up the flashing which meets the slates. I was in a rush for this and used the company below which provided a quick turn around https://planwell.co.uk/about-us/ They are based in Buckie. In hindsight I probably would have purchased the sheets from them as well.

I have positioned one of our exhaust heat recovery vents in the utility room where we plan to dry clothes in the winter months. We will use one of those heated drying racks and this should allow the warm moist air to be recycled into our mini hot water heat pump.

I remembered seeing a post about this.

We choose to split it 50/50. I did the outside painting last summer and now it's over to her.

Since the last entry we have completed the upstairs. This area consists of two bedrooms and an open plan play area landing. Carpets were fitted after the Christmas break. Lights, switches, sockets and fire alarms have now been installed. My wife is working her way through the rooms downstairs. Painting, caulking and tidy up plastering work. We are really happy with how this is coming together. The temporary supply electrics have now been taken away and we are now wired up to our consumer unit. It’s great to be able to use lighting and sockets throughout the house. The bathroom, en-suite and utility have been ordered today so hopefully I will have some progress here in a month or so. Feels very close to being finished or being able to move in!

Does artex have low grade asbestos in it?

Truth be told I didn't even understand what a consumer unit did until a few weeks ago. We have one here and never had a problem. They seem to me to be a long standing manufacturer of these units.

I purchased this a few weeks ago and one of the rcds was faulty. I'm surprised as Wylex appears to be reputable brand. Going to buy a separate rcd and screwfix are apparently going to give me a credit.

Not 100% clear from the photo, but at the bottom of the stove flue is the bottom plate, ventilated?

Yes this is coming back to me. I was considering at one point stuffing insulation in the service void, but decided against it because of the affect on the electric cables. I note that the likes of the scotframe on their kits provide a 38mm batten, probably the best size to go for. I ordered a batch of those blue 25mm battens for another job and they were rubbish. I learned during the process unless you are doing the work yourself, small gains are not really worth it (i.e. use a batten here and another one over there etc) best to keep it all simple.

Hopefully your croft is well sheltered. I would be concerned how well it would stand up in the Highlands.