ProDave

TIP (please don't take it as a criticism) Most computer screens are lansdcape orientation, so turn the phone on it's side next time.

What span is that? Our max span is 4.8 metres and our joists look a lot bigger than that at 100mm wide.

+1 I got my Gallup360 from ebay and borrowed a backpack sprayer to spray the plot.

I sprayed our plot twice with glyphosphate to kill the multitude of weeds. You have the spray the plants, during the growing season for it to be absorbed and drawn down. The instructions explicitly said do not trim before or after. Other week killers may differ.

As I have said before, I have refused to pay the (in our case) £150 fee and just started using the name we chose. The only "issue" is it is not on the postcode database, but it is now on the councils own house name database. I thought it would become an issue when we moved into the caravan and that got added to the council tax valuation list, but it didn't.

blackmore-house.co.uk appears to be available if you want to go and register that quickly

No it won't. you should treat them as they are, do not cut them first.

A few years ago I did all the wiring n a conversion of 2 cottages into one. Initially building control were going to insist the whole lot was brought up to modern insulation standards, which in an old stone cottage would be very hard. In the end the backed down a bit an only insisted on upgraded insulation in rooms that were being altered.

If your new build is not ready by the deadline, it might still be worth selling and moving into rented just to get the sdlt refunded. As long as the sdlt refund more than covers the rental so you don't want to be doing that for long. If the previous house was your main residence, there should be no CGT to worry about.

Put a static van on the site and tell them you are living in it

EXCEPT if you did buy this as a BTL and just pay standard stamp duty, then you later buy a more expensive property to live in, you would then pay the extra stamp duty on your main residence.

So whatever house you buy now will be your FIRST house, regardless of what you use it for, so standard stamp duty applies.

So what is your first home doing at the moment then?

I think the simple answer is no. It's not a "buy to let" tax, but a "second home" tax. You would have a second home and it is irelevant what you do with it. There is a mechanism that if you sell your existing home within a certain period you can get it refunded, that is to cover the situation of buying a new main residence before you sell the old main residence. Whether that would cover your situation I am not sure.

With a timber frame, like mine, the joists sit on top of the downstairs walls. The upstairs walls then sit on the joists (with a laminated ring beam all around the outside). So the ends are well and truly fixed and are not going to flex as they might in joist hangers. At the 2 intermediate (supporting) walls the joists sit on those walls. One continuous joist nearly 12M long right from one end of the house to the other. The upstairs walls again sit on the joists directly above the downstairs walls. It was designed this way, and at the ends, and intermediate points subject to the compression load from the walls above, the joists were made with solid infill pieces between the upper and lower chords. I can't measure any static deflection. I don't know if mine were pre cambered or not.

I just fug a trench 1 bucket wide (2ft) about 300mm deeper than the pipe, filled it with stones, laid the perforated pipe, more stones around it and over it, some plastic sheeting then the soil. Npthing over complicated.

In my case I was very limited for space. We have a road at the front and a burn in the middle of the plot. It was a recent change to building regs up here that increased the minimum distance from a road to a soakaway up to 10 metres (it was already 10 metres from a watercourse) That only left me with a thin strip of land that was "available" for use as a soakaway. That's why I had such a problem finding a solution and it was only then, when I had run out of options that SEPA agreed to permit me to discharge into the burn, but with a partial soakaway. So I dd the best I can. The effluent comes out of the treatment plant (which only needs to be 5 metres away from the road) across the plot a little to the "available strip" There is then a linear section of sokaway (perforated pipe set on stones and covered with stones), adhering to the other limits of 5 metres from a building and 5 metres from a boundary. It then goes back to solid pipe and out to the burn. It always struck me as completely bonkers that the soakaway must be 10 metres from the burn, yet it is allowed to discharge into the burn. It would have made more sense to me to install a larger soakaway area going closer to the burn and that would have resulted in even less being discharged. But rules are rules.

Why do you need a coat of bonding on plasterboard? Ours is skimmed with a single coat of multi finish.

If you wave the watercourse and can get a discharge permit (a LOT easier in England than in Scotland) I would do that without hesitation. We were directed to use a partial soakaway system, and I have to say it works well. This is a small infiltration field, very much smaller than you would normally use, and the far end of it discharges to the burn. What happens in practice is the partial soakaway absorbs a lot of the discharge, particularly in summer when hardly anything goes into the burn. Even in winter, it has the effect of acting a bit like a sponge so there is no sudden discharge when you let a lot of water go, rather a steady but slow (barely ever any faster than you can pee) but more constant discharge.

Another "issue" with the standard baths we fitted at the last house was the pre drilled tap holes seemed overly large. The bath we have for the new house, does not have pre drilled holes, I will have to drill them, and I will make sure the holes are only just large enough giving a greater area for any sealing washer to sit on.

I would only add that as above, if you choose an electric plant, you choose one that uses the aeration principle. I have seen the ones that have mechanical rotating parts, motors, gearboxes and pulleys in the "works" of the plant and thought I would not want to be the one replacing any of those parts WHEN they fail. I also saw one where the infiltration field had blocked and the tank had over filled completely submerging the motor.

My normal philosophy is to try and crack it open with the tank full. If it moves I proceed. If the tank starts buckling, then I abort and advise the customer a new tank is needed and hand the job to a plumber.

Take care when cleaning off the remains of the old fibre washer not to scratch the surface of the flange. You want that to be nice and clean and flat.

In the last house, the source of bath leaks was the incredably poor standard sealing arrangements around a bath tap. When showering water splashing around the taps would occasionally leak through and drip under the bath. They are now sealed to death and don't leak any more.

Try to slacken the heater a little bit while the cylinder is full. At least get it to turn a bit so you know it will undo. Once the cylinder is empty the force needed may move the cylinder if you have not cracked it first. Have some towels ready as once cracked it will likely weep a but until emptied.