ProDave

My overwhelming thoughts are the sheer enormity of the task, and I don't believe we have a government capable and competent to make the changes needed. Housing stock. Just WHO, how and when are the UK's mostly poor houses going to get updated? Who is going to pay etc? Transport. I don't believe EV's are the answer unless electricity generation gets significantly greener and more of it, I just don't see that happening quick enough. And other nations that continue to burn coal in power stations, unless they stop the rest of us are p*****g in the wind.

Which country are you in, may affect the answer.

Warranty has nothing to do with it. We didn't bother as no intention of selling and it was several £K that could be better spent on building than a bit of paper that would have no value after 10 years. If you switch to normal insurance before sign off then perhaps they could try and wriggle out of a claim? but once signed as complete by building control there can be no issue.

If you extend the warrant you will stay on the old regs (I am still working to 2013 regs) It is ig you let it lapse and then re apply they could enforce you adopt anything new.

So they only introduced a little Hydrogen? Typical journalism. So when we shortly go to E10 petrol, the Times will be reporting we are powering our cars from Ethanol then? I would have expected better from the Times.

£100K will get you a plot in the north of Scotland. From where we are, 30 minutes north of Inverness it is about 2 1/2 hours drive to Perth. 5 hours will get us to the English border. When we moved here, our target was 30 minutes from Inverness as it offered employment, shops, and transport, and this side is less wet and less midges than the West coast, but we can still get to the West in an hour and holiday there often. But also look at the Southern Uplands that might offer what you want. Much of the property sold in Scotland gets advertised on the Solicitors Property Centres and they are all brought together here https://www.sspc.co.uk which would be a good place to start browsing to see what is available.

You would be best off looking for a croft. A bare croft (with no house) should be not too expensive and they are usually sold with a decrofted house site. For a start, try here https://www.hspc.co.uk/crofts.asp

Yes, we are occupying the house on a "certificate of temporary habitation" but that has actually expired as they only gave it a short validity period and I can't be bothered to go through any more hoops, we will be applying for completion shortly. But I know 2 cases where the system does not work. A neighbour has started to build a house, though it is not finished and work has ground to a halt and he has ignored there letter telling him the warrant has expired. And another one has bought a building plot with PP and has been living on the site in a Yurt (yes in Scotland) for years with no sign he has any intention of actually building a house.

Dry lining boxes usually need at least 9mm thick panels, the thin backs of some kitchen units might not be thick enough. So yes, surface mount boxes.

I have extended 3 times. Each time you are asked to give a summary of where you are, as long as they can see progress I don't see an issue. What riles me though is how long they extend it is discretionary. When I first enquired I was told something like 9 months first time, 1 year second time 2 years third time, but each time I have been given 1 year. I was finishing the wiring for an extension last week that has been going on a while, he got a letter telling him the building warrant had expired and he needed to renew it, he phoned them and explained about Covid delays and they extended it FOC.

What do building control say about this? Up here there must be an inspection chamber wherever there is a change of direction of the run. You need a lot more inspection chambers.

Another one suggesting a static caravan on your plot might be the best option. The ADS question is interesting. You already own the plot, but don't own a dwelling so I would think you pay none of that if you bought another house. And I have a feeling building a house on your plot would not trigger it either as there is no "sale" In much the same way buying a plot is usually below the threshold for paying LBTT, but then building a house on it does not trigger paying any LBTT.

For home (or grid scale) energy storage mass and size of the batteries is not really an issue (that is an EV issue only) The important issue is total cost of life, which is the cost of the batteries and the lifetime of them. So more important to me is batteries that would have a very long life and not be particular about how deep they were charged and discharged.

Unless the concrete goes over the top there is nothing really holding it down. By my estimate the concrete is not up to the half way point of the "cylinder" And how do you propose to rod it if it blocks? That's going to need at least 2 very deep inspection chambers.

And you must tile under washing machine / dishwasher space. Leave end panels off until tiled and cut to length to suit?

Pump out the water and at least get the concrete over the main "barrel" of the plant. TIP for any other readers, while you are right you cannot fill it with water all the way to start with, you should keep adding more water as the concrete is poured so the water level inside is as high as the concrete outside as you pour.

That listed building looks fragile and a money pit to try and build literally underneath it. I would be keeping it as a folly, and building the new house close to it but not right under it.

This is a serious reply. Consider it as a knock down and rebuild plot. It could well be cheaper and quicker with a better end result.

The obvious question has to be WHY are you doing this?

The Silikon top is a pre mixed product that comes in a plastic tub. You just give it a miz mix and apply it. If there was anything "wrong" about the mixture that would have been a manufacturing fault.

Picture of a sample of failed render. From the front: From the rear Held up to the light to show pinholes.

Okay here is the latest. The plasterer has made contact with the technical rep of another distributor of the Baumit product, where he can have an open, frank and honest discussion without them being on the defensive to defend a claim as they were not the supplier and have nothing to lose. The plasterer has also had a pick through some of the render that has been removed in sheets and is sitting in my trailer at the moment. One observation is a lot of the Silikon top top coat render appears to have a lot of pinholes in it. And observation of some of the other areas of the house that have blisters but have not yet been removed seems to show the same. The technical rep cannot think of any reason to do with application that would result in this happening. Product failure? Following on from that, these pinholes would allow rainwater to get through to the MC55W base coats which would become soaked and then frost over the winter would cause the breakdown we have seen. I presently have some sample pieces of the render collected that I am going to photograph in as high resolution as possible to email to him, and I might well then package them up and physically post them to him. Regards MC55W Vs RK39 base coat. This technical rep is of the opinion RK39 is okay and has the advantage that it is rated as a sole coat i.e should be waterproof even without the Silkon top top coat, so any further moisture penetration should not cause it to fail. So we are making a little understanding about what might have happened.

The timber supply (and cost) in the region is not going to be helped by the fire at Fettes sawmill on the Black Isle. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-58099277

Do you mean to stop them opening more than a few mm unless you fiddle with some convoluted fiddly little catch every time? I will be removing mine from all our windows the day we get a completion certificate......

I kept enough Kwikstage to scaffold one entire wall of the house, so it was perhaps just over 1/4 what I had. That won't be going anywhere. The rest I sold. It is important if keeping it long term to store the boards carefully. I built a storage rack under some decking where it can live, dry, on two racks with the boards sitting vertically with a small air gap between them.