Thedreamer

Hi @Redoctober these are just required for a suspended timber floor to allow ventilation, if you have a normal concrete slab these are not required. Although it is uncommon for a new build to have a timber ground floor across the UK, this was the method of choice for many houses in the Highlands & Islands that were built in the 80's and 90's, whilst down south slabs and beam & block were being utilised. We actually have quite a lot of layers under the joists. A thin slab of concrete, DPC, a layer of fine rock (whacked) and then a deep layer of compacted rotten rock. Therefore what is underneath the joist will never be damp and with ventilation externally and within the sleeper walls the joists will last hopefully a very long time.

Thanks very much for your kind comments. We got our Kerto and our steel beam today. Hopefully we will be able to make good use of the telehandler for shifting these around. Weather looks good for next week as well.

Some day for it. Today was one of those special days where suddenly years of work starts to come together in front of your eyes. No machinery here just elbow grease. It was all going so well until the building inspector turned up. A few internal load bearing walls to be finished and then on Monday we have the telehander coming to stay for a couple of weeks, followed by the delivery of the attic trusses on Tuesday.

Our joiners finished our ground floor joists last week and have been making our panels this week. Hopefully tomorrow we will have the ground floor panels raised.

I was actually standing outside with our digger driver (and a million midges) deciding on the placing of inspection chambers tonight. The red route has an 90 degree angle so your definitely need a inspection chamber there and it would appear to be slightly below the vehicle access which is handy. I would however use the blue route.

https://beta.gov.scot/news/help-to-build-own-home/ It was originally only available in the Highlands but is now being extended throughout Scotland and I believe it acts as a revolving credit fund, where you repaid it on completion, you need a mortgage promise for a standard residential mortgage before applying. I'm building in Skye and have a mortgage (or the security is currently being assigned) with the Scottish Building Society. Out of all the options the SBS was the best for us, as it provided a smooth transition to a residential product. We already owned the land and put the services/access a few years ago, so will probably need the first drawn down once wind and water tight. Not many choices in Scotland unfortunately. Where are you building?

These comments appear to be a mixture of a few areas left out of the plans/specification and building control stating the obvious. I used a local house designer and a structural engineer and the only differences between what was amended after going in, was for a space for a possible stair lift and the external drainage to be haunch in concrete where it passed over parking.

Well done, must be a great feeling!

A storage container has arrived. According to the box once upon time it belonged to Hyundai.

Was not to sure about that when he started, but looked pretty solid at the end.

I think I'm the only one on here that is not having UFH. Probably will go for engineered Oak as well, but if the budget allows would like to have solid Oak.

Looking good. I was planning to have either solid oak or engineered oak, what will be the layers that will go on top of that OSB?

Came as 4.8 meter lengths, C16 45mm x 145mm. Its quite high at the back at the moment, but I have quite a lot of 'rotten rock' at the front so this will be used to build up the levels at some point.

Following the completion of the foundations, we now moved onto putting the kit up. After putting together a list for our timber merchants we are now ready to start. The materials for framing and sheathing arrived last week. The house will be stick built by a team of two joiners, with prefabricated trusses arriving on site in a few weeks. Today marked the first day of joinery. The first job was attaching the wall plate followed by cutting the suspended timber floor. And on day two, joists finished. Next job will be ground floor framing.

For blocks houses, does it make sense for external walls to be build with aircrete blocks (because these will be easier to handle and presumably quicker) and then use denser blocks for the internal walls and the inner leaf of cavity to improve heat capacity? Should people just refer to the whole thermal mass concept, as thermal heat capacity?

I have quite a lot of south facing glazing and now I wonder if it will be too hot. I'm in Skye so usually temperatures are usually mild and midgey. My initial thoughts when posting, was that light and solar gains would come in via the south and shine pretty much on where the blocked stove area would be. This would absorb the heat and then it would be released during the evening. In the winter, if necessary the stove would be lit and then the blocks would heat up gradually and then the heat would be gradually released from the centre of the house during the course of the night. I didn't really plan my design around this, it just happens that my views to the south are of a loch, sea and mountains so wanted as much glazing as possible.

The right hand corridor is just a small room with a W/C and sink, it's only 1.3m wide. So I'm happy as long as there enough head height to take a ...... Perhaps my first question should have been, do certain blocks take longer to cool down? For example comparing aircrete block, to the ridiculous six inch solid blocks I busted my back lifting.

So what's the scientific name/process for the blocks absorbing/retaining the heat from a fireplace/stove and then still being warm in the morning? Our stove as shown in our plan below will be in the middle of the house.

Thanks for that. No, the thermal mass was some think I discovered after the finalisation of the design.

Maybe one of the administrators should delete this and we can all pretend it never happened... I noted a few articles on thermal mass recently and just wondered how our design compares to what they were discussing. Okay, I'll forget about thermal mass. Considering insulation, I would be interested in your opinions as to what kind of standard this is. Crowntherm 34 between studs with 25mm continous kingspan over the top offer. Crowntherm 90 between joists, 55mm Kingpspan between joists and 25mm Kingspan on top 2 x 80 Kingspan with 25mm Kingspan on top (trusses) Windows, triple glazed average u value 1.0

What can I do to increase the thermal mass in a timber frame home? The only high density material we will have within the inside of the house is some concrete blocks round the stove which is in centre of the house and in front of some south facing glazing. My idea was that this would act as a battery, storing heat during the day and gradually releasing this heat during the evening. Are there particular blocks that you can buy that would work well here? Presumably dense ones. Are there other materials we can utilise that would improve the thermal mass in the house? We are having a suspended timber floor, so no concrete slab/screed. We have two young children, so our house is occupied during the day, but this will become less when they are both in school.

Price today, £7.9 + VAT.

Thanks for that. One of the hardest bits of reading the plans is understanding the terms, they seem to vary to what I have found on the internet.

Putting together a very long list of timber for ground floor framing. What's the purpose of a perimeter beam?

I have a few projects planned after the self build. Would quite like to put in a simple jetty on the loch for a canoe We have a mound of bedrock which is fairly flat at the top with some amazing views. I would quite like to chisel some steps into the bedrock and create a fire pit with seating up there. Dry stone walling Probably some kind of treehouse for the kids and me.