ProDave

And the figure for Scotland is in invisible ink.

There is a growing north south divide in the UK. In London and parts of the SE house prices have risen much, in places doubled since 2007. In the rest of the UK which is probably more than 50% of it, prices are at or below 2007 levels. But building materials and labour costs have not gone down, certainly material costs have gone up. I have mentioned my own example. If I continue as I am doing all the labour I think we will get our new build 3 bedroom house done for about £210K in total. It is only that low because I am doing so much of the work myself. I reckon if I had paid tradesmen to do everything, that cost would have easily been £250K if not a bit more. Now to put that figure into context. We tried for 2 years to sell our old 5 bedroom house. We only had one person who even came close to making an offer and he was mumbling about sub £250K for it which we would have rejected (it was valued at £300K and we would have accepted £280K) The point being, there was a real possibility, if we were desperate, of selling the old 5 bedroom house for less than the cost of building the 3 bedroom replacement. A situation that would have been harder to avoid had I not done so much of the work to keep the costs down. We still don't know what it will sell for. It's currently let to tenants who say they want to buy it in 2 years. I will believe that when / if it happens. If not it will go on the market again, but I see nothing to make me think the market will be any better in 2 years time than it is now, in fact plenty of things that make me think it will be worse. At least by that time I should know with more certainty what our final build cost is, and we will have had a couple of years rental income from the old house that may help to sweeten the bitter pill if it has to sell for less. The plasterer that rendered my house and has just plastered the upstairs is just in the process of buying a plot. I was talking to him about what he is building (I will be wiring it) and it turns out this is not his forever home, he hopes to build it and sell it at a profit. I have warned him that may be hard to achieve. I think he's in for a disapointment. I think mass builders can just about make a profit, because by building lots of small house on a densly packed estate they can build cheaper than a self builder can on an individual plot. Plus new house qualify for the help to buy scheme, something that massively skews the market in favour of new houses at the expense of limiting sales of used houses.

It sounds like you have what I call an "egshell" wall. Basically 2 sheets of plasterboard about 50mm apart, with a lattice of cardboard between them. the timber battens will be at the joint every 1200mm Your bathroom counter should be self supporting from the floor. If necessary fit additional feet or a more solid support for the base (assuming it is hidden by a plinth) so all the fixing to the wall does is stops someone pulling it over. If you can get one fixing into a timber upright I would have thought that was adequate.

I was told tile battens are given such a vivid coloured treatment so the BCO may determine from ground level that they are the correct treated battens.

I am sure we discussed this before but I can't find the thread. My neighbour has Rarionel windows and timber cladding. The cladding just turns round the reveal and comes to rest on the front face of the aluminium cladding. I did the same thing with my own, but mine are rendered. The render turns the corner and stops, with a stop bead against the front of the window. The important thing in both cases is nothing fills the gap between the edge of the alu classing and the window reveal. (i.e rendering without a stop bed would likely fill the gap with render) Mine are sealed to the reveal with compriband, but that is far enough back that it is between the wooden part of the rationel frame and the window reveal so again that is not bridging the gap between the wooden frame and the alu cladding.

I installed a pit. Only shallow at about 1 metre deep, so that when sitting (on a duck board) my eyes are about level with the floor. Makes simple things like an oil change a whole lot easier.

Mine's an old Landrover, but you knew that.

We planted a Laurel hedge at the previous house, thinking it would be more manageable than Leylandii. Well after 10 years, it has not reached 3 ft tall. As a hedge for privacy it is useless. It has only had a very minor trim to even it out, not because it is too big. It either does not like our soil or our climate up here, so I could not recommend it. It does tick the low maintenance box.

I will have to confirm with a tape measure, but I am 99.9999% certain the OSB we get here (made by Norboard next to Inverness airport) is 2400 by 1200 metric size. It certainly fits 600mm centre studs, and then when battened metric plasterboard fits perfectly. Reading between the lines, some of you are only able to buy 1220 by 2440 imperial OSB?

Interesting. Almost without exception every TF house I see (usually the ones I wire) are 600mm spacing, my own included. Though (don't ask me why) I have very awkward 450mm spaced rafters. I have built all my internal stud walls to 400 spacing. 400mm spaced JJI joists downstairs. 600mm spaced posi joists upstairs

Are you taping and filling, or plastering? Completely different answers depending what you are doing.

I'm in the "it looks just fine as it is" camp. If you fill it with anything it risks looking poor in the future. Grout may crack. Sealant may discolour or become dirty and grotty looking. If anyone asks, you have left a carefully engineered "shadow gap" instead.

You can terminate directly into RJ45 plugs if you prefer to avoid sockets and a patch panel. Somewhat more fiddly but doable. https://www.cableorganizer.com/learning-center/how-to/how-to-terminate-RJ45.htm

Get your building control inspector for a walk around to check he is happy with everything as built to date. That's what I did before paying the final stage payment.

We can get the same here. I recall one Christmas a few years ago driving from the Highlands to mid Wales for Christmas with the in laws. It was - 10 all the way down and the only time I have driven over 500 miles and had snow alongside the road all the way. A few days later we went to bed with the temperature at -10, and woke up to +10. I mused at the time at the phenominal amount of energy needed to heat the whole of the land mass of Wales (and beyond) from -10 to +10 overnight.

Our tv aerial is on the shed, about 10 metres or more from the house. We have a masthead amplifier there mainly to overcome the loss in the cable from there into the house, where it then feeds the distribution amplifier.

Solution. Put the drain cock at the lowest point.

Ze is the earth loop impedance at the origin , Zs is the earth loop impedance of a particular circuit. So you have Ze 0.3 ohm from the PME earth and 4.1 ohm from the rod. These are both connected in parallel. So your actual Ze at the origin will be a bit under 0.3 Ze at the sun room will be Ze at the origin plus the impedance of the cable, so 0.25 sounds suspiciously low.

I think they are trying to establish it has all the basic needs for you to live in it safely and perform all usual functions you would expect in a house. I am sure there is a great deal of flexibility. We intend to start sleeping in the house soon, but will still be using the static for cooking, washing etc.

Actually, if there is drainage for a sink (and therefore a bath) but no drainage for a WC, then you could consider a Warterless Closet (composting toilet) so not necessrilly a deal breaker. Building regs (at least in Scotland) allow a waterless closet, and I have seen one sold as a packaged system that looked quite reasonable to use and service.

You need to do some research. There might be enough land for a private drainage system, but expect any excavation works to come with a whole load or archaeological conditions. It looks close to the village so mains drainage might be possible, but even if it is, you would need a right over some land to lay drain pipes.

I would echo Jeremy's comments above. Can you post a site layout or something similar? How much land comes with it? That can be an issue with churches. Does it actually have planning permission to convert? I recall reading of one on here where PP to convert a church was refused because it was liable to flooding. I don't know if that ever got resolved.

My BC insisted on a vent through the roof unfortunately. I had hoped the vent at the end of the run at the static caravan would have been sufficient but he took the view that might one day be removed and the vent capped. He would have accepted an external vent up the gable end of the house, but unfortunately by the time I knew this, I had already concreted the parking area so it was too late to do that. But if you are still able, you should be able to connect into the pipe run and put a vent up the gable wall of the house.

For a certificate of temporary habitation the house must be basically safe (i.e handrails on stairs in place etc) must have heating, one working bathroom and toilet, and a working kitchen.

My old house is still for sale. you will get the last 20 years of the FIT contract as well.