Thedreamer

In the far future there will be a post here asking what those pumps are for!

Hi Dave, On the layout I posted the plans in that blog entry if that is of interest. I looked at scotframe and fleming etc but at that stage it would have been an off the peg design of a similar size rather than our finished design. Our route is a bit different, as the land was family croft ground we expected that we would be building on clay. I made the site serviced about three years before building.

I used local joiners to stick build with structural plans. Even with me sourcing the materials (1st time self builder) we were wind and water tight in a matter of weeks. This saved a lot and resulted in me having a big cashflow advantage during the build. This is from my blog on here It cost £13k for the materials to build the kit. Included within that is £5k for engineered attic trusses from Pasquill. Labour was £9k, included within that was the time making the kit, erecting it and also the suspended ground floor. Other expensive items were a steel beam for the vaulted ceiling and three Kerto beams for the middle ridge part. I also had to hire a telehandler with a truss jib for two weeks that cost around £750. By the end of that we looked like this. That just under 140m2 for reference. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/blogs/entry/811-financing-and-reflection/ What's your plot like? I wanted to eliminate some uncertainty before building getting the foundations, access and utilities all sorted.

Switched from Bulb to Octopus in June on a two year fixed rate. Just checked and it would be an extra 6.06p per unit if I moved onto the same contract now. I seem to pay silly unit prices compared to other places in the UK. I've been collecting loads of sticks over the course of the year and now got enough to heat the house over the winter.

Backache from using the sink, what about moving it! I decided to move a double one myself about 150 meters and in the end I used a few pairs of old wet deer posts to slide it along our the access road.

We salvaged a shaws double belfast sink from a kitchen refurbishment and planned to use it for our self build but decided in the end that it just didn't work in our kitchen or utility room. It was the right decision. It's now next to an outside tap in the garden and it is a really useful item to have in our garden.

I used this https://www.roofgiant.com/pvc-continuous-dry-verge/uni-line-continuous-dry-verge-scot-strip-black/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqKuKBhCxARIsACf4XuGBnu04VOTf774trrgsKJhhzt-3LnNEI99HxQankYismHs0pEypXtsaAm-7EALw_wcB You may be able to make it out on this photo, but it's blends in with the slates and is needed for us to stop wind blown rain going under the slate at the gable ends (we are in the Hebrides). It's been up about three years now and looks the same as the day it was installed. I went with thick heavies cupa slates and at some points the dry verge is holding three layers, therefore might be a squeeze but it worked for us. When the scaffold was up you could see wee bumps when next to it but when standing at the ground that is not visible.

I'm paying by the hour so any handling is on me anyway. I agree if it was a fixed price the cost of the plant would have been included, as I'm paying them per hour then I guess paying for the manitou by the hour is reasonable. I can only go on my experience. I had to hire in a manitou for two weeks, it cost somewhere in the region of £500 to £600, from a local plant hire firm. This included delivery and collection. Have you been charged time for it sitting idle on your site? When I had other plant such as excavator this was the price per hour for machine and operator, but if the digger was not being used I would not expect to pay.

I supplied 90% of materials for my self build and never heard of this 10% charge on materials. From your post the materials supplied appear to be fairly standard and would be difficult to understand how they could justify a cost. I'm assuming here that they have been positioned at a spot on site which would require no extra work for them. The plant by the hour seems expensive to me. Depending on the size of the builder I might even expect the plant to be included in their charge unless it was stated at the start of the job.

The approach seems similar to what we have achieved with the joule aero.

We used a telehandler, for the height mentioned would a mobile crane not be the better option? Our joiner was known to the hire company and he was the operator. Our joiner said we needed a truss jib as well, that's the bit on the end. It worked a treat for us, as we used it for a other jobs as well and had it for two weeks, I think it cost around £500+VAT.

I used a similar product around my window openings.

This is a well covered topic on the forum, worth doing a search for previous posts. My advice is never accept the first quote. We had all sort of wild numbers chucked at us from SSE for a road crossing and 220 meters of cable. If it's helpful about 5-6 years ago I spent: I spent £350 on ducting A day work on the digger £400 Electricity connection 220 meter and road opening £6,300 Less grant £1,500 Less £980 - this was a cheque I received at a later date. Total connection cost just over £4,500 I paid a further small fee of about £150 to move the cable into the house from the temporary supply.

@Murdo We had Howden LVT (Quickstep) fitted last year. It's the one area in the self build where we have had some snagging issues. This has now been sorted following the fitting of a couple of thresholds/expansion joints, but the staff who advised about this not being necessary for the size of the area we were fitting. A pain taking of skirting boards. It's fine now and the LVT stuff is very robust no scratches, easy to clean and waterproof etc.

I’m sure this has been covered previously but if you insulate/airtightness a property to a good standard your heating demands will be low. As you are then likely to need your space heating when temperatures are low, say 0 celsius, presumably your COP efficiently will be low, 2.5. If you obtain COP 2.5, then surely when combining the capital cost with the unit of electricity the cost is really that much better compared to direct electricity heating. I’m still try to understand the logic with external air source heat pump for a self build. You never achieve an optimum performance as in the summer when air temperature is higher you don’t need the space heating you have the higher COP but not full use of the capacity but in the winter you have full use of the capacity but a reduction in COP. I have heard of members running them in reverse for a slab perhaps that is a bit I am yet to understand.

If it was me I would get a trial hole dug and a structural engineer to review the clay and provide a foundation solution. Oaks are very thirsty trees. How high are they? A photo might be useful.

There is a similar discussion here. New member & MHVR enhancement, upgrade and bypass aftermarket installation - Introduce Yourself - BuildHub.org.uk

Did they just not have two days of holiday pay? Auto enrolment pension contributions and SSP are not great benefits for employees.

In my photo two different products are being used Frametherm 35 in the walls and Frametherm 32 in the floor. The 32 is thicker product and more expensive.

@MortarThePoint another one here that use Frametherm. I use Quinn therm in other areas but if I could go back I probably would have done the whole lot in Frametherm. Less messy and easy to cut and store.

@SteamyTea and @pdf27 Thanks for your comments, I've learned a bit from that. And others that have chipped in with rates. It's coming up to a year since we moved into the house and I took reading on the day we moved in so it will be interesting to see what the electricity cost will be for the year. All this talk about moving from gas boilers (and I would presume oil would be the same) sounds as if consumers will be hardest hit in North Scotland. I wouldn't be surprised if people go back to burning peats here.

Yes I see that, but if renewables will be coming from rural & remote areas then why is the rural/remote 'levy' being charged on a one way basis on the grid infrastructure. Might have been case in the 1950 or 1960's when remote areas were being added to the grid, but why now? Presumably in the future, urban areas will be benefitting more and more from renewables generated in rural locations, will the charge be reversed? Also given the North of Scotland electricity production is usually the cleanest area of the UK in terms of carbon intensity, should higher prices be paid by areas of the country that have a greater impact on the environment? https://carbonintensity.org.uk/

Looks like I am paying quite a bit more. On Skye we have a few wind farms and there is a hydro power plant down the road. Stupid question, but if we produce more electricity than required on the island and we are net exporter, why do we have higher ongoing charges?

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I was with Bulb and have had a couple of increases in price this year (the last won was on Sunday). I have since moved to Octopus. This is what I was going to be paying. We're increasing our electricity unit rate from 18.837p to 18.876p per kWh and electricity standing charge from 22.848p to 26.881p per day. These prices all include VAT at 5%. What prices do others pay on a peak tariff?