Thedreamer

A few of our rafters have a white mould growing on. Has anybody else experienced this with a self build that is on going during the winter. The rafters are TR32 treated timber and the whole place is watertight and is open so don’t think ventilation is the reason. It also seems to be more prevalent on areas where sun light is coming through which would suggest a slightly warmer temperature for part of the day that might be stimulating growth. Could this be connected to extra moisture from the materials drying out? It’s too dark to take a photo just now.

I don't really like how you are pushed along a particular route. If you get good GCSEs, okay go and do A levels, then on to University. Why can't you get good GCSEs and consider a trade? When your sixteen you don't really think about it, you just follow your pals or advice of the teacher/career adviser. I was one of the lucky ones, I went to a good University before the tuition fees went up and have a student loan linked to interest rates which have been low since I graduated in 2008. Left with around £12k of debt, now if I did the same degree it would cost £45k and the interest would be ridiculous. With that debt I would definitely consider an apprenticeship.

Would it be hot to work in if you had an unexpected hot/sunny spell?

What size is that CP? Would you need a PK rather than MK size for that to work? There is obviously a cut off for a standard that must be met for fire escape, but you probably wouldn't want any extra obstacles if going in or going out of the window.

Does Frametherm 34 exist, or did it previously exist? I could only ever see 32 or 35? I used 35 140mm for walls and 32 90mm for the floor

Yes that sounds about right ..... It's really obvious but you wouldn't want to make the mistake of going with a centre pivot rather than top hung. I would imagine somebody has done that before or perhaps received the wrong window type in error and not checked before fitting. Velux are terrible for returns.

Probably not ideal but I believe you can create a wee step for gaining access to a velux if it is higher, not done on my build, but it was suggested at some point.

I really like this show. Probably because of travel, they never do any for property/land in the highlands. The best bit is the choice of the music for each property/work being carried out.

Don't know if this would be a planning issue but could you put in for double dormers instead of two front veluxs? Would make two of the bedrooms bigger, for the last single bedroom perhaps then reconfigure the hot press/wc & shower space slightly? We also have a room in the roof design, but decided to just have one bedroom in the gable ends.

@laurenco The membrane itself makes the building watertight, however you are always going to get some water ingress if you have driving rain particularly at weak points such as studs. The cladding provides the first layer of defence and the membrane then just acts as a secondary barrier. I don't really know enough to make a comment about how the render board works with cladding. Our house will be rendered as well, but I decided on certain elevations where we are blasted with weather we have build a single course of dense concrete block which will have a render added on top.

Interesting point, our house is on a decrofted house site and has no section 75 conditions attached, however we received croft house grant assistance which ties my wife's croft business to the house for ten years. I researched this a while ago to check that the VAT reclaim would not be an issue, perhaps the conditions attached by planner are tighter for granting permission connected to agricultural businesses down south? Just out of interest @Stu-UK what do you keep on your small holding, is it a business or a hobby farm?

Yes that true I'm using Frametherm and PUR over the walls. In other areas such as the rafters going for PUR because of the better thermal performance. I think I would need to have larger rafters or a warm roof to use frametherm there. It does take ages to cut PUR and fit well but if your planning to be in your house for possibly the rest of your life, if it takes a little longer into the evenings/weekend does it really make a difference?

Lots to learn. Before I started I purchased the Home Builders Bible, I think it was recommended by somebody on e-build this site's predecessor. It cost around £15 I think, but gave me a really an understanding of the build process in general.

Hi @laurenco Sorry didn't catch a photo before the cladding went on. Yes behind the cladding is the breather membrane, with battens attached to the studs this creates the ventilation gap. Are you just about to clad with timber?

Are those reclaimed slates, they instantly provide some character to a new roof. In keeping with that great flint work. ?

Although a labourer is going to be cheap, you would need to monitor that they fit the insulation well. Personally I think insulation is a job you either get done in a factory in an automated process or alternatively you fit yourself, time consuming but as it's my house the attention to detail matters most to me.

Usually water, telephone, electricity just needs to enter in one and then the internal pipes, cables take over. Drainage positions needs to be considered before the slab is poured. On our build (we didn't have a single contractor) the internal drainage did seems to be a job of with it being a bit unclear as to who is responsible, luckily our brickie and plumber were pals so was not an issue. If you have a slab contractor I would think it was their responsible, but I would clarify.

This is more a general point. If your panels are manufactured off site, do the team erecting the kit typically leave you a bit of membrane to those tiny areas? I had a fair bit of the roll left over which was handy for any small patches but it's quite handy to have the membrane for any future jobs.

Thanks @ProDave The plan shows: 2 x layers of 80mm Quinn therm in the rafters. Then a layer of 30mm Quinn therm, I will tape the seams of the insulation board in large areas otherwise it will be a membrane (probably be a protect membrane). Then a service void. I actually looked at your blog entry with the detailing around the windows recently. Did you use 12.5mm insulation for this or did you just cut odd scraps of thicker boards?

Most of the internal work to date has focused on insulating the suspended timber floor and with this completed our joiners could come back and put down the sub floor. We considered two different materials for the subfloor: 22mm OSB or 22mm Chipboard. We decided to use chipboard as it was 25% cheaper then OSB. Plywood would have been another option but this would have been more expensive than the chipboard as well. To do this job we needed just over hundred sheets of chipboard, 2800 Spax screws and 6 bottles of expanding PU foam glue. Whilst our joiners were on site they also attached some ply and osb boards to the internal load bearing walls. This will provide additional racking strength to the house. As I can walk around all part of the house here are some photos: The porch and utility room The kitchen/dining room Living room which has a part vaulted ceiling and the eventually the French doors will lead onto a decked area. When this is framed it will be a bathroom, hall & stairs Master bedroom and en-suite And upstairs: Two bedrooms on the gable ends. A key feature of these rooms is a PK10 top hung velux. The middle sections between the gable bedrooms will be a wardrobe, WC and a storage cupboard. This area has three PK10 veluxs. Having a floor down feels like a big step forward for us. One of the benefits for me is that I now have space to store materials within the house, as previously it was very awkward as often these had to be shifted around numerous times to complete a single job. The next job is back to insulating, this time in the rafters.

We have a WC in the middle section of the upstairs. Because our house is 1 1/2 storey we have utilised a top hung U04 velux which is across the length of the WC. It also provides extra height and should make the space feel light as often a wee wc can feel like a dark spot in the house.

We currently have an induction hob and will again in the new house. @Hecateh is spot on with the reasons why.

Shame about the exhaustion of rotten rock on your site. Unfortunately most folk ain't wanting their crofts dug up even if you offer a few £££. We could have built in an easier location on the croft but if you want privacy, good views and shelter you got make that initial investment to turn the site from agricultural ground to a house site. The hardest part was getting the services in and forming a long access. The investment made at this stage was only ever going to add value, although it was disheartening when funds depleted as we did this work. Yes here is the blog. It's been a long old ten years of saving, waiting and just standing on the site dreaming if it would ever happen.

Hi @Grian I'm currently self building on Skye, our planning process was straightforward we received no comments from individuals and organisations. I think what helped us was that we were building a three bedroom house with a fairly traditional design. I'm 32 so don't have the funds to build a breath taking architecturally designed house, with our build it was more important to make the most from the views in a cost effective manner. Our self build is on a slope and clay, this can make the foundations a lot more expensive. Unless your very close to a quarry the cost of importing fill for access and building up the levels can be a lot. On our croft and we had access to 'rotten rock' we were able to extract around 1000 tonnes out of the ground using a borrow pit. We then filled this pit with the clay that was dug out of the ground before putting the turfs on top. Our ground floor is a suspended timber floor if you compare this to standard slab this is not going to be cost effective or the most simplest on a flat/easy site, but once you are dealing with slopes and importing fill it becomes more cost effective. You could also consider block and beam however from my experience these are rare in the Hebrides. Might be worth asking a local digger driver what is below the surface, any recent builds close to your plot? Not sure if you have lived locally or moving to the area but with most builds in the Hebrides local knowledge can be very important. I only just realised now that we are building in a National Scenic Area as well!

Next time I'm struggling to sleep because of the self build. I will remember these articles and should be away in a few seconds. I'm terrible from going from one article to another on Wikipedia, surprised I've never end up here on these pages.