ProDave

Just to give an idea, my building warrant for a roughly 140 square metre house cost me £1480 I am just about to stump up another £200 to extend the warrant for 2 more years.

Do you WANT them left open? If so stick some half risers on with silicone then remove them after sign off

Personally I think it's like an MOT. Leave some simple "fault" for them to find that is easy to rectify so they stop looking too hard once they have found the fault. Drain pressure test is something they seem very hot on up here. and electrical and gas cerificates.

Did the stair manufacturer not point out they would fail building control without something to limit the gap? Half riser, or a bar across the middle are about the only solutions.

Here is a link to the official percolation test method and the calculations you do to get the Vp figure https://www.wte-ltd.co.uk/percolation_test.html You don't need a hole as deep as you have. You dig a big hole to the depth your soakaway will be (usually about 1 metre) and in the bottom of that dig the 300mm cube hole which you fill with water and time how long it takes to go down.

I estimate to get the tiles onto my roof by carrying them up the ladder, I have climbed 3 Munro's up that ladder. Think of all the execise I would have missed out on.

They do one test pressurising, and one depressurising. So it will average out at "half a leak" I have just fitted the standard tundish and D2 pipe to outside. I have not yet experimented with ways of enclosing it. For an air test, I could just tape all over it. In fact thinking of just wwapping the tundish in clear tape, that would seal it, and let you see if anything is discharging.

I am sure ALL self builders go through low points. It's almost as if it's a rite of passage in the process. You will get there, no matter how many things get in the way.

It overflows out of the pumping chamber. So first you have to get someone in to pump it out, then call the plumber as I was buggered if I was going to lower my torso down the hole to detach the failed pump. Then and only after it has all been hosed down with plenty of clean water did I connect the new pump. Some pumping chambers have 2 pumps built in so at least it avoids the need to get it pumped out, but make sure you KNOW when pump 1 has failed and get it fixed before pump 2 fails.

I hate that method. The builders did that when building our extension to the 1930's house. Then the renderer rendered round the poles and patched it in later. I would MUCH have preferred free standing scaffold like used on timber frame.

I would seriously look and see if that would work. Then you are pumping only grey water. I have only ever seen one raw sewage pump chamber, and it is not a pretty sight. I would not want the job of replacing the pump WHEN it fails.

I have this dilemma. When I last visited the optician, they gave me a lovely set of distance glasses, that not only correct the focus, but I have a bit of astigmatism. They also gave me a set of reading glasses. When I collected them and tried them, the distance glasses were fine, I now wear them when driving etc. But the reading glasses were hopeless. Perfect for reading a book but such a very limited range of distance over which they focus, i.e the PC screen when sat at a desk is much too far away for them to focus. So I went back to the optician to "complain" They gave me a card with small text and asked me to read it, which I could. They declared the reading glasses were "working" I explained the problem, and they said I needed work glasses, but there is no nhs subsidy for those and prices would start at £150. I declined on principle. So I just use a pair of weak self select reading glasses. They don't correct the astigmatism but that is not bad, and they work over a surprisingly large distance range. My prescription reading glasses only come out of their case once in a blue moon for something really challenging. It's easy to forget I have the glasses on, for most things indoors I can see perfectly well the other side of the room. Its' only if I step outside and try to look at something really in the distance, I realise something is not right and take them off.

We thought about moving in and sleeping in the house over winter. But ruled that out as we would still have to cook and wash in the caravan. Even now with a working bathroom in the house we are still not moving in, until we have a functioning kitchen in the house.

You will have to explain to me why putting a bung on the branch to the missing bath trap made the washing machine flood? But regardless, this confirms my view that a room containing a washing machine or dishwasher should be built to near wet room standards to contain any leaks.

Not at all. Why would you want to buy or build a house in a lovely quiet spot with views, and then have a developer build a housing estate behind you? We front and back onto fields and any attempt to build on those would fail the local plan so we bought in the fairly secure knowledge that housing behind us would never happen, but we accept if our neighbour ever applies for permission to build another house alongside us, that would almost certainly be approved.

Just looked My house shell and foundations (built by local builders) £59K roof £3K done by me cladding and render £7500 Rationel windows supplied and fitted £13K

I think my neighbour is about to do this. His plot has an oddity, a little bite of land adjoining the field is missing and fenced off. It is clearly shown on the land registry as being part of the field, but has in the past just been used by them to dump rocks they pull out of the field when ploughing. It is fenced by a wooden post and rail fence in very poor condition. While talking to him over the weekend he mentioned he had spoken to the farmer who said he can take the fence down. I suspect that is a rather tall story aimed at me saying nothing when the fence goes as stage 1 of his land grab.

What make are yours? The ones I know in an office I look after I think are Britmac. I know the cable flap on many has been broken, some have had the main lid hinges broken, and then when the main lid goes AWOL, people stand on the socket front and break that. I am sure yours will have a pampered cosy nice existence by comparison.

I doubt the seal is watertight, more to keep most (but not all) the dust out. Those are common in open plan offices. Most of them that I see have the lift up cable flap missing, because if you leave it open like in your picture, someone will trip over it and break it.

Nordan are quite reasonable. I take it that does not include a blockwork skin for that price? and insulation?

And try telling some couriers that the Black Isle is NOT an island. (I don't live on the Black Isle, bur some couriers think I do)

I am another timber frame fan. Our last house and the present one under build are both timber frame. I think it is far easier to achieve good insulation and air tightness with timber frame, it can be done with masonry but you are into a wide cavity to get enough insulation in, and good attention to detail to get decent air tightness. The present build does not even have the usual vlockwork outer skin. Instead it has external wall insulation and render to improve things further.

Watch out if Windows and doors are included they are half decent. I have seem some really basic soft wood windows supplied as standard. If it matters to you, talk to them about upgrading to a decent quality well known make.

I am a fan of Scolmore Click Mode. The ones I use are the simple white ones, which are cheap and not bad looking, and seem reliable and easy to terminate with no issues. I latched onto these some time ago when I found the switch modules are interchangable, so you can have say a 2G light switch with one of the switches being an intermediate switch. This is the only make I know that allows that other than grid switches. Click also do fancy ones. In my daughters bedroom we have BG polished chrome screwless at her choice (and ridiculous expense) that seem okay. The ones I would avoid as often giving trouble to get a decent termination are some of the LAP ones.

Watch that overhead power line with the digger and tipping trucks.