ProDave

Hi and welcome. I to am interested in the CLT frame (I think that CLT sub forum is needed PDQ) Is the CLT because you want the wood to be the finished internal wall surface? I saw one build like that, then clad in wood fibre board for insulation. To say the installation of the services was "challenging" would be an understatement.

The bit I want to know is HOW did you fix the last sheet on each side, with no nice roof to stand on, and no scaffold up the gable end? 45 degree steel roof panels are to steep and slippery to stand on? I fixed my "last sheet" standing on the scaffold. Also how are you going to fit the ridge piece? I sat astride the roof, shuffling along as I screwed it in. That would be a bit hairy without the satisfaction of some scaffold to catch you if you slipped off, and without scaffold to get on and off at the ends. Fair game for doing it all on your own.

The new Amd 3 rules also cover "switchgear" enclosures. I am sure your box with timers would be classed as such. But of course you installed them before 1st December 2015 didn't you? Re UFH upstairs. fit a dummy thermostat on the wall, have your completion certificate done in summer, and nobody will ever know there is no upstairs UFH

IF there is no mains drainage available, then what you (or the seller) needs to do is perform a "percolation test". It's well documented in the building regs handbook. Basically you dig a 1 metre deep hole. In the bottom of that you dig a 300mm by 300mm hole 300mm deep. You fill that with water and time how long it takes for that water to drain away. That's a bit simplified but that's the general principle. From that, and the number of occupants that the house is designed for (a different figure to how many will actually be living in it), you calculate the area of leach field required. That can end up quite a large area. and there are restrictions how close the leach field can be to the boundary, buildings, the road, a watercourse etc which further limits available space. Then you need to see if that leaves enough space to actually build a house. If the ground is not suitable, e.g. if the water table is very high, then there are alternative above ground solutions such as a filter mound, or the Puraflow system that has tanks filled with peat above ground. We ran into this problem with our plot. we bought it and went through planning on the basis we could fit a filter mound system in. In the intervening time, building regs changed, and the distance from a road to the filter mound changed meaning we no longer had room for it. Eventually SEPA gave us permission to discharge to the burn, something they only do up here if there are no other options, and we had reached that point of having no other options that building control would accept.

The reason I asked is I thought discharging (potentially) boiling water into PVC waste pipe was not allowed? There is an nhbc document around that details how you can use a waterless hepco trap and a particular type of plastic pipe (not pvc, I forget which) to discharge into a stack, but it must be a direct run to the stack in that particular type of pipe that can withstand boiling water. I am currently thinking about the plumbing for our UVC and to be honest the run to do that would be far too long, so I am now looking at dropping a copper pipe down inside the internal walls and out through the blockwork under the ground floor level.

I changed a Hyco under sink electric water heater recently. that didn't have an expansion vessel nor a visible tundish. Likewise I wired a Quuker boiling water tap, one that sat upright under the sink unit, and again I saw no tundish. So if your had a prv and tindish, where did you drain it to?

Yes that's meant for a static van with mains water. Have a serious look at the touring van storage water heaters that will work just from a 12V pump. For example https://www.truma.com/uk/en/water-systems/gas-electric-boiler.php Similar cost new the the Morco, but much better suited to your hut.

In our touring 'van the "limit" is about 25 litres of water for a shower. The trick is to turn the little storage water heater up to maximum (almost scalding hot) then dilute with plenty of cold, then you can have an acceptable shower before the hot water runs out (the limit being when the cold water tank runs dry) The Morco heater I am pretty sure is what we have in the static 'van and it's powerful enough to heat water instantly for a shower. They do use a lot of gas while running so tend to like the larger gas bottles. Here's the sort of caravan heater I am talking about http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/caravan-water-heater-/172511488144?hash=item282a7c6890:g:KU8AAOSwnHZYknjQ

I fear you may have bought the "wrong" caravan heater. That's probably meant for a static 'van with mains water connection. You would be better off with a touring caravan unit. They tend to be storage heaters rather than instant heaters. All then need is a cold water container and a small 12V pump. Pump cold water in and it pushes the hot water out of the top. And the little 12V caravan pumps can manage to pump water from these to give a just about acceptable shower. Chances ar you could get one cheap or even free from a rotted out old touring 'van.

I can't say I have watched anything on channel 5 for a long time, it all seems "dumbed down" tv to me. I have fitted two sub £1K kitchens in our rental properties. howdens cheapest flat pack range but the results were surprisingly good (with the doors shut)

I think forks would have been a bit poor on my little digger that tended to be a bit jerky in some movements. But our builders had forks for their big machine, and also a long boom extension to use it as a crane with quite respectable reach, and that all seemed very smooth on a nice modern machine. Thinking about it, that was one delivery that needed unloading provision, the big beams for the roof. Big ridge beam lifted straight off the lorry and up onto the roof.

Find out if they are on pallets and is it an open truck? If so a digger with slings will lift them (headroom hay be an issue e.g for a curtain sider)

Just about every farmer has access to a telehandler. do you know any farmers? You can get forks for a digger. Not perfect but may be handy.

This is a review of procedure, costs, should someone other than council BC be allowed to do it etc. It's not about any proposed changes to the building regs. I think my comments would be the costs are too high, and can we have a "building notice" system (rather than full plans approval that we have) for simple jobs, like England and Wales have.

We used Protect VP400 on the advice of the builder. That's on top of my wood fibre sarking so needed to be non tenting, and they chose a good one as they knew it might be a while before the tiles went on.

We were lucky with the windows. Originally we were told it was Rationel's own wagon delivering them, and that had no offload facilities (hence the builders being ready to fetch the telehandler) but as it happened they split the load in Cumbernauld and ours came up by a local haulier on a truck with a hiab.

What materials are you talking about? I can't think of anything I have had delivered that had any particular issue. Timber, blocks, tiles, insulation, even the doors and windows all came on lorries equipped to unload, with either a hiab, or in the case of the insulation on pallets, one of those trucks that carried a fork lift truck around on the back. (we were warned with the windows to provide unloading facilities, and had the builder on hand to provide a teleporter if needed but the truck turned up with a hiab so not needed) And I never needed to use my digger as a crane for any of it.

Back on topic. Just watched las nights BTD Several things jumped out at me. What foundations system did they use? The first thing you see is lots of hardcore / type1? material being poured and rollered. No sign of trenches. Is that a passive slab? Is that okay on a plot that floods regularly? Then they went and CHOSE to start building with the house in a different orientation to that agreed with planning, taking a huge gamble that they might be forced to pull it down and build in the right place. Fortunately they got away with that one. And finally they had ASSUMED services were available. £40K and several weeks later after negotiating wayleaves they got connected. Lots of lessons how not to do it there I think.

That's an argument in favour of The Scottish system where it's still only the council building inspectors that can do the inspections. I made the point in my new house of getting the "completed frame" BC inspection done before I paid the builders their final instalment, so if there had been any BC issues they would have needed to be sorted. As it happened, BC were quite happy with the frame.

We had one hole each, but yes, the plumber got to choose which one he had as "pipes need to be short" so the cables had to take a longer route. Some of them quite a bit longer than they would have been if the steels had been put in correctly where there would have been at least 4 holes available.

Well if you do use the same builder, keep a VERY close eye on them. I don't know what it is with builders and steel beams, but on a new build I wired last year, the builders put two steels in the wrong way round, meaning most of the holes that had helpfully been drilled in them went nowhere, and me and the plumber were fighting over space in the only 2 holes that were of any use.

It would probably be wise when purchasing the plot(s) to get the title split into two at that time so you each buy half the total area (or however you wish to split the plot) since you will be employing solicitors, so there is no confusion that you are both self builders each building one house for yourself on your own plot. The fact you are related and the plots are next door is then irrelevant.

And add in the cost of changing the owners first choice of light fitting, for their second choice when they find they don't like the first one (after you have fitted them of course). That's why I only do estimates, not fixed prices....

I presume the existing planning is for conversion of the existing barn? To replace it with a new build would require a new planning application. If the barn is not listed and the new build is a similar footprint and design to the barn, then the chances of getting planning are probably good. I know someone up here who bought a stone barn for conversion, but found the existing structure was in poor condition so he got planning to replace it with new following the same outline. He built with timber frame and clad the outside in the original stone.

Hi and welcome to the forum. Another one here advising to get a drainage solution agreed first. This caused us several weeks of worry when building control rejected what I thought wa a workable drainage system, and for several weeks we had no solution = no building warrant, until a compromise was agreed. Is it a listed barn? If not, a complete new build (probably keeping the look and feel of the original barn) would probably be the better option?