ProDave

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.

Yes that is one of the ones I contacted. If you don't mind me asking, how much did they charge?

Who have people used for a blower door air tightness test in the Inverness area? Since returning from holiday I have been searching. I found 2 in Inverness claiming to do the air tight test. I emailed both. ONE has replied (after nearly a week) to say he will reply from his other address (so are both the two I found the same person?) That was several days ago and still no proper reply. so who did you use?

A small update. The plasterer has seen the stripped garage wall, and has delivered some material. His observation, there are two base coats applied (same material) and it is the top layer of that that has failed. He bought some material with him, but he had not expected the issue to be the base coat so he had not ordered enough of that, so there will be a short pause while some more is ordered. Now, a difference. The base coat used originally was MC55W. What he has bought this time is RK39. I have not looked up the difference yet. Anyone know?

A few issues with that proposal: You will need deeper kitchen units, most full size machines need every mm of the 600mm depth so so sit behind the kick board like that the units will have to be deeper or you will need one of those "half depth" low capacity machines. The 2 hinged doors, ONE of them will get in the way while loading or unloading it. I would only do this if you have to have the machine in a kitchen. In a utility room I like the simplicity and honesty of the machine on show.

For me the killer is the inflated daytime rate and usually higher standing charge. It would probably be possible to do all your heating at night but then if someone uses up all the tank of hot water I would want it replenished and not be rationed to one tank of HW per day, which would mean daytime rate. The final nail in the coffin is we have solar PV so want to use the ASHP as much in the daytime as possible to self use that and as little as possible at night.

When applying for a new supply I ticked the box to say ASHP. We then had a discussion about network capacity and the upshot was I convinced them it was a low power inverter driven ASHP and I accepted an offer of a 12kVA supply without any network upgrades. The next person to build a new house in this street may not be so lucky. I informed them of the solar PV and that caused a minor issue as they saw the inverter's model number had "4000" in it and tried to tell me not to connect it and apply for a network upgrade. It was only when I sent the manufacturers declaration stating the output was limited to 3.68kW that they accepted it without network upgrade.

Sounds a really interesting project. I look forward to reading of it's progress.