ProDave

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?

I would be having very serious words with your builder, to the point I would stop all further work until this is sorted. Those packers are wrong, they have to be changed. At the left hand end it has been designed to sit on a stack of 6 uprights to support it, but because the timber and the steel beam are too short, only 4 of the uprights are taking the load. The builders should have realised this was wrong when they came to put the first steel in, but they have swept it under the carpet hoping nobody will realise. If they don't offer a solution at their cost I would tell them I will be getting the building inspector to look at it and let him say what needs to be done, then they will have to do it. I would definitely want the SE to look at it and propose a solution.

That's not what I call "precision" work there. For a start the timber the beam is sat on is too short and the beam is too short. And what's that blob of cement for? I would have preferred the packer to have been re made the right thickness. Can we have a more general zoomed out shout? Has this only just been done?

I don't understand the need for the extra wall plates? Our present house has UFH upstairs on conventional solid joists. 9mm OSB to support UFH pipes, 25 by 50mm battens then whatever floor you were going to have anyway. Nothing complicated or particularly expensive at all. And yes why so much insulation between floors? Less insulation and the saving more than pas for the extra floor make up.

What's wrong with a single pane of glass for a Front door? We chose frosted glass for ours. The "letterbox" issue has been solved. I was given a good condition Swededoor by our neighbour, so that is now the pedestrian door into the garage, complete with letterbox. That is where the postie will be directed to.

I know my browser is old and does not always show pages properly, but I can't see what the price is?

I had a go in my BIL's 13 ton Komatsu on our trip down under a few years back.

It's a regional thing. when I was in the South, Timber Frame had a bad name, because some mass builders built some shockingly bad TF houses. Then I moved to Scotland. TF is the normal construction method up here, they have been doing it for decades and know how to do it. Everything fits properly, and nothing rots. Granted over the years insulation has improved. I have encountered older TF houses with a 4" frame and no insulation. It wa about 15 years ago that they moved up to 6" frames being normal to fit more insulation in.

Fun, and satisfying isn't it.

I set out to build the best house I could for the money I had available (and yes not having unlimited funds probably forced a compromise) I did try to get a quote from MBC for their twin wall system, but that never happened. I documented my search for a builder at the time on the other place. I also looked at Touchwood (too expensive) and Beatie Passive (too big up front costs for the design). So I ended up with the best I could find which was a local designer and a different local builder to build it. One of my "design briefs" was I did not want a cavity and rendered blockwork skin. That is just an expensive rain shield adding virtually nothing to the insulation. That's when I was offered the wood fibre and render option which seemed to tick all the boxes. Yes I would have preferred that wood fibre and render finish on a twin stud frame, but that just wasn't to be I am afraid.

Interesting. Our present house has a constructional hearth (it didn't need it) and one of my design "features" was I didn't want a raised hearth, so the finished, tiled surface of the hearth is dead flush with the surrounding wooden floor. BC never raised any issue with that.

Is that you in your own digger?

Look for a portakabin type building. I connected the electric to one that would have suited you perfectly, insulated and lined, windows, electrics, and a small kitchenette across one end.