Thedreamer

Strange I watched that on Tuesday as well ? Working my way through all the series.

The principal is VAT is reclaimable or zero rated for the formation of an access or driving way as this is necessary in order to allow the construction of a new dwelling. A road sign does not prevent the new dwelling from being constructed and I don't believe just because this is a planning condition it allows the VAT to be automatically reclaimed. As many other planning conditions are not recoverable. Unfortunately I doubt you will find in the VAT DIY self builder notes an explicit statement regarding the road sign.

I wouldn't bother reclaiming, why run the risk of queries or delays in your reclaim for a small amount of VAT. Is this a house or driveway sign required in order to access the property, no therefore I would not reclaim. Landscaping stated in planning for VAT reclaim purposes is usually connected to planting of trees etc.

They look really great, you will be pleased to get that job done.

I've not fully researched this area yet. But I believe the Joules Aero is an upgrade on ESP Ecocent which from speaking to my plumber, designer and others, although seems to function well, seems to require the anode to be changed more regularly. From reviewing the Joules website these appear to be manufactured in the UK or Ireland. I hope this is the case as I would hate to think it has been put together somewhere in China.

In the summer this system will help to stop over heating. In the winter, we will probably be out of the house most of the day, so should just tick away extracting any solar gains and heat the water steadily. Winter temperatures are pretty mild here as we are really close to the coast. If it's cold in the winter the stove will go on and should just take a few sticks. I probably have enough wood felled here for about ten years so the 'missing' energy will come from wood.

That's seems very cheap. Really have a good think about this as you wouldn't want to start some think you can't finish. How much are plots in your area? In Skye good plots are roughly between £50,000 to £80,000.

I'm installing a joules aero, it's a hot water tank with a heat pump on top. It draws heat from around the house. I'm hoping our south/west facing glazing will provide sufficient solar gains to allow this extracted heat to be replaced. These ducts also extract moist air in bathrooms and I've planned to put one in a small airing cupboard where our stove pipe will run through. ' Backup heating will come from electric heating if need first thing in the morning. For the winter evenings we plan to have a small 4-5kw stove centred in the middle of the house. I have pretty much an endless supply of wood/peat. Never been convinced by underflooring heating, you always hear people on grand designs/building the dream say they hardly turn it on. It would have been harder to install because of our suspended timber floor. Hopefully this will result in the electricity bill being minimal, but if doesn't then who knows what I will do.

I've just got your standard old fashion joists. I have attic trusses at the gable end and for a centre middle section I order the rafters and joists from the truss fabricator as well. Our plans showed C16 but I went for truss grade for the centre joists/rafters. If it helps this was the cost of this timber. Not having MHVR but plan to install a joules aero, so shouldn't have to many large holes.

We used a telehandler to get our 5 PK10 veluxs onto the scaffolding and then man handed these into place, but these were relatively light at 60kgs each compared to the weight of your roof windows. I think you should just bite the bullet and go for a crane rather than a telehandler @Weebles, as personally I think once you have roof structure built and parts become less accessible this is where the use of a telehandler becomes less effective. That company sounds like a nightmare to deal with. One point that might make your situation slightly better, you mentioned VAT in the hire of the crane. As this will be provided with an operator can you not ask the crane hire company to zero rate their invoice? As you ain't going to be able to reclaim the £270 on the DIY scheme or go back to them afterwards. I would suggest you speak to them about this ASAP. Here is VAT guidance for your reference. Plant and machinery may be hired with or without an operator. The hire of plant and machinery without an operator is standard-rated. However, the liability of hiring plant and machinery with an operator will follow the liability of the work that the plant or machinery is used for (such as demolition, site clearance, ground works, and so on). This supply can be zero-rated when supplied in the course of the construction of a zero rated building. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-construction/vconst02740 I hired a telehandler myself for our non VAT registered joiner to use, so unfortunately I had to accept £100 VAT would not be recoverable, but had two weeks use which I maximised as much as possible (offload the trusses, fit them, put in steel beam. put in timber beam , lift veluxs. And I would have put pallets of slates onto the scaffolding but these were delayed.) One final point, have you got any materials such a slates, tiles or any think else heavy that you can utilise that crane on site for? Put on scaffold etc, perhaps save on labour costs later?

Thanks. I see a lot of blue MBC panels on the forum and always wondered what was behind it.

Said the exact same thing yesterday!

Pallets, timber wrapped in bundles and bags of aggregate can be delivered by one of these. For an attic truss, you would need a different type of forklift called a telehandler. Or prehaps a crane or lorry mounted hiab, but if access is tight might not be an option? We paid for two weeks hire of the telehander which I believe would be a lot cheaper than a single day of crane hire. This also allowed for us to put in the ridge and steel beams over those two weeks. Here is one of me 'helping' the joiner navigate through our access!

@Ben100 Also your point regarding logistics. Our building merchants had a lorry with a wee forklift on the back, this is great, as it allows for the timber and other materials to be taken right where you need it.

Hi @Ben100, I'm in the middle of a stick build timber frame self build. I weighted up the options but choose a stick build timber frame because: It was significantly cheaper and it is the opposite for cashflow, instead of paying upfront for a kit package you get building merchant's credit (two months) We have a great joiner We cut and build the kit in June/July so it was great weather. Stick building allows greater control over the quality of the materials and the time when you need them. You can more easily adjust for changes and if for any reason your measurements between your timberframe and foundation are slightly out this is not a problem, but would be disastrous for a manufactured kit. Fitting the insulation and ensuring air tightness will take time but my time is free in the evenings Of course there are plenty of reasons for arguing the opposite. But for me I considered the self builder's triangle (quality, time and cost) and being able to only select two, I was happy to take cost and quality. It also worth considering where a stick build ends and a kit starts. I.e what was done on site could have been built in a factory/large shed and perhaps some would call this an open panel kit? Here is my blog which has a few entries on that part of the build which might be of interest.

Thanks @Redoctober. Like many others have complimented you, that stone work really does look great!

Thanks, I've ordered an expanding a fischer foam gun from ebay, recommended by @PeterW

Wow, just checked back on this thread. Looking good and the weather from your photos has been kind. So much nicer when your walking around and look through the window gaps for the first time when it's a nice day.

Quick question for you @Redoctoberon the gable behind the extension, how is the weight of the stone distributed? Does this rest on the roof truss of the extension or do you have a block wall on the gable end?

I'm using it for our self build. Didn't have any experience with scaffolding but it was easy to adjust and take down. I used it with both the long boards that sit on top and the boards that sit in the transoms. I would recommend using the latter as they are more secure and contractors seem to prefer them.

Hi @kaygoo We are about halfway through a self build on Skye. Probably the hardest bit for us has been the delays in getting materials to site. I would imagine being in Jura this will be a little more difficult. Are you able to benefit from the Croft House Grant Scheme?

Hi, Have you tried VAT services Scotland? https://www.vat-services.co.uk/ Not had any direct contact myself, but have seen various reports during the course of my work.

Is it the application stage for Scottish Water or the actual installation that is holding up the water connection? Our local Scottish Water team were really helpful even came into my office to speak to me about our connection. Have you been able to make contact with the local team?

Fitted the first batch of our PIR insulation today. I also need to fit some frametherm under the joists, if you have joists with 400mm centres, you go with the 380mm size and it plugs the 20mm gap when it's fitted?

Hope all goes to plan for you.