ProDave

I has no stress with mine. Perhaps I approached it differently? I directly approached half a dozen quality window suppliers. After the first round of quotes I had pretty much settled on Rationel for the reasons I have already mentioned. There followed a bit of fine tuning of the spec and a bit of shaving off the price. Then, instead of just ordering the windows, I got the builders that had just built and erected my frame to supply the windows on a supply and fit basis. This had the benefit they could supply and fit free of VAT so there was no VAT sum tied up until I could claim it at the end of the build, and I would after all need someone to fit them, it's not a 1 man job. At this point they took most of the responsibility. They came and checked all the measurements were right. I had to pay 50% of the window cost up front (as I would have if ordering direct) and then paid the ballance of the cost and the labour for fitting them once they were all in.

I was familliar with mobile grades, I was one for many years. There was always the threat of a posting to Dounereay if they wanted to get rid of someone. Strangely it was only when leaving that employment and working for industry that I found a regular need to change job and that involved commuting, but never felt any job offered enough security to make it worthwhile moving house.

My 1972 Landrover was rebuilt a few years ago on a new galvanised chassis. As far as I know everything else is original though I expect the bulkhead will have been repaired and probably new floor pans in the process. A friend of mine has a similarly rebuilt early LR90, that pre dates the "defender" name. He even went as far as a galvanised bulkhead. If you are so inclined these vehicles can be repaired and rebuilt much easier than most other classic cars. And the best bit, if they still look a bit tatty, well nobody ever expected a Landrover to look all nice and shiny. This present LR of mine I am sure is worth more now than when I bought it. No "ordinary" car can do that, and I don't have the money for a true classic.

Om the basis my last Subaru cost me £3500 to buy, and I sold it 9 years later for £500 my answer would be £27.77per month

It would be interesting to drill down into the details of why cars now go to the scrap heap. When I was a young boy, I remember my dad's Ford Anglia van getting scrapped at 10 years old because the tin worm had turned it into a colander. There was no underseal or any other anti corrosion measures then. If cars now with all the fancy paints, under seals and other protection, plus better deign to avoid rot spots are rusting out at 14 years then the improvements in body protection have largely failed. I suspect rot is the reason for scrapping in only a minority of cases. I wonder what percentage are scrapped due to electronics failure or emissions failure? Plenty of things have changed. I can recall major engine breakdowns being common and expecting a clutch to last only 50K miles. Apart from servicing I never touch an engine now and have not needed one repaired for a very long time. I don't believe my last 170K mile car had ever had the clutch replaced. The other factor may be that car leasing is so much more common than owning now. Nobody will want to lease a 14 year old car, so as a "business proposition" it is worthless so more likely to get scrapped than if in private ownership. The clue to this ownership model is you never now see a new car advertised as £xx,xxx for sale, rather advertised as £yyy per month.

The next environmental issue is disposing / recycling millions of end of life batteries.......

My experience of Scottish water is the local surveyor is "GOD" and what he says goes, or does not go. He would not accept a pipe buried that HE had not inspected the track for. They tried to refuse to connect a neighbour because they had not put the toby in exactly the right place. In any case, the pipe across the field will be theirs ans they will choose the size. Your pipe does not start until after the toby which will be on your land. On the good point, SW were the cheapest of all the people we approached for the road crossing. If any of your other services have to cross the road, install appropriate ducts ready for them while the road is up. I laid ducts for telephone and electricity while SW had the road up. If you need that, insist on a cut trench, SW were mooting the idea of molling under the road until I mentioned I wanted to lay other ducts at the same time. Also, knowing now how fussy SW were, I would recommend ALL you have on your site when they come for your track inspection is a standpipe very close to where the toby is going, nothing else, and you must have an in line double check valve connected to your stand pipe or they will refuse connection. Regardless of farmers good will or not, SW will get a proper wayleave to lay the pipe and that might delay the process. In my case they dug up a bit of the field while in crop to make the connection.

This splashing issue, and not wanting screens with channels, is why we have decided on 2 wet rooms. The screens will be minimal glass, supported on 2 stainless steel feet and some sort of bracket at the top. No channels to attract grot" is the design spec.

I am struggling to understand the economics of scrapping it for the price of a new battery? My last car I sold a couple of months ago was a 170K miles Subaru Forester that had given me 9 years of reliable motoring, but the tin worm was eating it. It had to have a cill welded to get through an MOT in March and the tester pointed out the long list of other bits on the verge of rotting away but this year only still an advisory. Because it was such a reliable car I replaced it with a near identical one, a bit younger, a lot lower mileage and a lot better condition. If that gives me another 9 years I will be happy. I do wonder how EV's will be treated when they get to the 15 year old "banger" category? With so much of the capital tied up in the battery, I guess it will be battery end of life that sends them to the scrap heap as the cost of replacing the battery would not be worth it?

There is a triple glazed window manufacturer 20 miles from me. I wanted to support them and use their products, but their EX vat price was more than the inc VAT and delivery price of my Austrian windows, and they would not negotiate.

The unusual detail there is the roof biting half way across that upstand. What is the reason for that? This is our previous house. The two thin pillars were built of cut blocks. It still makes me cringe that these two thin pillars support the lintel and blockwork above the dormers with only the wall ties stopping the whole lot falling over. But they show no signs of distress. It however was a detail I did not wish to repeat on the present house.

Pretty much the same movement gap you have to allow with a timber frame and masonry skin. Wood moves and shrinks I am aftaid.

A problem with that trap is it only has a very small seal. You would have to disconnect and block it off to pressure test the pipework. I had this argument with building control on my last house. the final pressure test I could only pump it up to 75mm, not the required 100mm. At that point it started blowing bubbles through the shower traps. BC tried to insist I disconnect and cap off the shower traps for the test but I refused as that would have meant ceiling down. In the end he accepted the test. But that trap looks a lot less than 75mm seal even?

If your soil failed the percolation test, have you looked at filter mound systems? They are a pile of graded sand placed above ground and then covered with soil. I looked at those as a solution for our drainage, but in the end building control rejected it and we ended up getting permission to discharge to the burn instead.

He has an 18 month old son. When our daughter was a toddler we just fenced off a small bit of garden as a safe play area, not the entire length of the burn.

Well this has come to a conclusion now. It turns out he did in fact apply to SEPA to culvert the entire length of the burn through his garden. They refused his application, stating they would only allow you to culvert a "vehicle width" (which is what he already has) So now he's leaving it open but fencing all around it, and landscaping the garden a bit by digging into the bank on the other side to level the garden a bit.

Didn't we discuss these recently? As shown, I can't see what supports the inboard end. Nothing? So they will disappear away from you as you try to engage the screw? If you really really want metal back boxes, fit dwangs (noggins for the southerners) If you want dry lining boxes, fit appleby, nothing else. They are the only ones I know that reliably stay latched in position, and the nut inserts don't jam and spin (the main complaints against using plasterboard boxes in the first place) Re Jamies point. There is nothing wrong with the boarder cutting the back box holes as he goes if he wants to, as long as he gets them at the right height and level. But most joiners I see that board the wall and just drill a hole can't even get that right, with the hole sometimes being above the finished box height and sometimes below it.

Personally I never use 1.5 for lighting unless a very long run is involved. Some makes of downlighter just won't fit two 1.5mm cables.

That sounds a lot better that the fitting I had. I would put this in the category of a fitting you want to buy from a shop, where you can see it before you buy it, and NOT something to buy mail order, because I can assure you some variations on this fitting are rubbish.

I will be the stick in the mud here. I have used the type of mdpe to copper converter that has been recommended. I did not like them and would not want one buried in an inaccessible location. My "issue" is that it's just a rubber bung that gets compressed onto the copper. Even when tightened the copper can still flex / move a bit. Although it never leaked, it did not inspire confidence. I would much prefer the fitting Barney proposed, at least the copper connects with a proper olive in a brass fitting. I would not worry about damaging the plastic thread, you really would have to overdo the amount of ptfe for that. Actually my preferred solution is a brass sropcock that takes 25mm mdpe at the input and 22mm copper at the output. Those are really bomb proof.

A typical inverter for a typical 4WK system has two inputs that work independently, so lends itself to two banks of panels. So probably one facing south the other either east or west, depending if you think you are likely to self use more in the morning or evening. I think a gable ended house suits solar PV beter. The aesthetics of panels on a hipped roof, which usually means the bottom row of panels is longer than the top tow, does not look as nice. On s gable ended roof you can make them all the same length.

Nothing wrong with trestles and planks on top of scaffold, and the odd stepladder. One has to be flexible (not intended as advice)

Definitely. It took me a weekend to install all the ducts. For a DIY install it is probably best go go for a radial duct system such as that sold by BPC and others, rather than a branch system. This uses semi flexible duct pipes that easily wind their way through posi joists

I assume the trees marked with a green dot are to be removed? I guess you are looking at a holding tank and pump to lift your sewage up to the public sewer?

Hi and welcome to the forum. That sounds like an interesting project and you are in good company now.