Thedreamer

Unfortunately restricted as building in the Islands, the further north you go the less lenders are available. The product will switch to a standard residential rate once a completion certificate is achieved with no exit penalty. I'm not needing a huge mortgage probably in the region of £70,000 and I've only recently drawn down 1st instalment of £24,000 and have enough to take the build pass 1st fix, so will probably being borrowing at that rate for 3 or 4 months.?

What air would you be trapping, the joists are already filled with insulation. The air below would be cold.

Nope, didn't have this with our self build mortgage, just arrangement £995 fee and had to pay about £250 for a surveyors valuation report. https://www.scottishbs.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/Specialist Mortgage Rates 17.9.18.pdf

I think generally you always want to leave the timber at the bottom of the joists exposed so enable air circulation. I'm still going to have 150mm insulation between the joists which will be sufficient.

Not sure if this is build store or the building society, but I was quoted for this 'mortgage insurance fee' and it was probably the reason I didn't purse build store further. I'm not sure what they really add, apart from being able to broker some lenders which don't deal direct with the customers. With more lenders providing self build products I can see their market share diminishing.

Been doing some thinking over the weekend. The quinn therm sandwich is now gone. New make up 22mm Chipboard, 6mm Natura Sonic Gold underlay, 18mm Engineered oak.

@ProDave See for your ground floor, how did you achieve the requirement for a continuous layer of insulation at some point in the make-up to minimise cold bridging? Maybe I've misunderstood the requirement here?

Thanks for the comments. Yes we have 5 sleeper walls supporting the joists at 400 centres. Looks like chipboard might be the way to go on the subfloor. I'll need to check the specification on the top chipboard layer i.e fixings

I'm thinking about the first layer of the sub flooring material on top of the joists. Which would be the best choice out of these three? 18mm T&G OSB 18mm T&G Chipboard 18mm Plywood Our suspended timberfloor will be made up of the following: 60mm Quinn therm (foamed to ensure tight fit) and 90mm Frametherm 32 sitting within the joists. One of three options above, followed by 25mm Quinn therm (taped and seamed) then 22mm Chipboard, then underlay followed by finished floor which will mostly be solid oak or carpet.

Russwood is where we got our Siberian larch from. Fitted by our joiners.

Single glazing, are those the original windows from the 1970s then? What sort of spec are you going for? I rented a property with single glazing when I was a student in the North East it wasn't thermal properties that scared me it was how fragile the glass was and the fact that the garden had barb wire and broken glass on the walls.

Looking good @Nelliekins apart from the first photo! ? I've got like two drips coming in one of my veluxs and I'm stressing ? Did that water gradually build up or did it just happen one day? Looks a bit like when you see crews clearing a sewer.

Yes ours is in arrears, but we already had the land so it was fine for us. We are using a RICS quantity surveyor for inspections, should be about £1,800. Our house is on family croft land so don't have any intention of selling, so structural warranty isn't necessary for us.

Just out of interest, what does an ICF block feel like? Could somebody snap one with their hands? Also do the blocks have a side for the inside facing part of the house and for the outer side?

Lots to take in. I would recommend you purchase this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Housebuilders-Bible-12-best-selling-building/dp/1911346059 I did after joining the forum. It gives a basic understanding of all the areas of self building.

Don't be dishearten. The riskiest part of the build is now behind you. Was the overspent apparent at a certain point or did this phase just creep up as it progressed? And if you were just to put in really deep foundations and no basement what would have been the cost?

Welcome. I'm half way through building a three bedroom family home on Skye. In regards to your larch cladding question. The usual way is that battens are attached to the kit which the cladding is then fixed to. I have a mixture of blockwork and cladding on our self build, but both outer skins are separate. I went direct to the Scottish Building Society for my self mortgage build. No broker fees and just an arrangement fee and valuation fee for the plot. No need for an expensive structural warranty.

@Nelliekins with a basement being constructed you had a lot more work than most to get out of the ground. How long did it take for the works to take place? Were the works undertaken close to what you expected they would cost? Looking forward to the next entry.

That seems a bit pricey. Our build is three bedrooms so smaller than yours, but our design, structural engineer, building warrant fee, planning, self build insurance (two years), mortgage arrangement fee, legal fees were £9k. This included about £1.5k to decroft our site. I almost went down the Buildstore route and Newcastle Building Society and it was very expensive, when I spoke to the adviser they just continued to list fees over the phone. Did you look at the Scottish Building Society?

@GrantMcscott we had a to purchase self build insurance as part of our completion procedure for the mortgage. The most important part to the Building Society was the reinstatement value. Could you prehaps speak to the building society and see if the reinstatement value could be £Nil and then purchase another product in six months time? You might need to get several quotes to work out the best outcome.

? Should the last bit be nails?

Okay, so knock off 12.5mm from that, would they use screws for attaching the battens through the insulation to the stud? Do you think a 90mm nail gun, would work through 35mm batten and 40mm of Quinntherm? Not planning on doing this myself, just need to understand the process.

So, how on this make up would they attach the plasterboard here, 127.5mm to the stud? Is this a single unit fabricated before coming on site?

Thanks @Redoctober Definitely feels like we are now into the next third of the build. Might be asking you a question or two....

Is it possible that the person you spoke to, was confused about different terminology and had perhaps it has gone into administration instead? I would have thought an established business with 18 years of trading would have had some value in at least going into administration for a period to try and save it before, and then being wound up? If the business is close to you, perhaps it would be worth seeing if they have popped a notice in the shop window? Companies House is probably is running at is peak time period with the 31 December deadlines so if any recent forms have been submitted might be a longer delay than normal for these to appear on Companies House beta.