ProDave

The last one was very ancient and single glazed. No insulation under the floor and very thing walls. Keeping it warm was not the issue, but with so many cold surfaces condensation was the issue. If you put clothes in the wardrobe and shut the door, it gets so cold in there that the clothes get damp with condensation. The one we have for the new build, that we are not yet living in, is still only single glazed, but hopefully there is a bit more insulation in the walls, and there is insulation under the floor. Don't forget we are in the Highlands and we get proper winters here with snow and stuff. I would actually say the biggest issue in the last one was the bedrooms were to small. The new one that is not so bad but they are hardly palatial.

A stove will only heat one room. You will still need electric heaters in the bedrooms. We did 18 months in the 'van last build. the onset of the second winter had s moving into the house WAY before it was ready to move into, but it was a LOT more comfortable. We took the view that it needed a lot of heat to keep it dry and sod the expense, and that seemed to work okay. Keeping clothes in the wardrobe in winter was hopeless, they were kept in the house (under construction) with only the clothes you were wearing in the 'van.

Up here it's normal to apply for (and usually get) temporary planning permission for a static during the build process. they then usually insert the clase that the 'van be removed upon completion of the house. But I want to keep ours as a workroom and studio. I chose it's location as one that would fit withing permitted development rights if it was sited there after the house was completed. I then pointed out that on the day of completion, I could remove the 'van and immediately replace it with an identical one and in an identical position under permitted development. They changed my planning condition to "habitational use of the caravan will cease within 2 months of completion of the house" so my 'van gets to stay legally as a studio and work space.

My 'van has been on my plot 2 years now. I have not yet paid anything as I am not living in it. That does not stop the council tax valuer coming around for a nose every 3 months, sometimes I catch him having a look in the windows. It's a fact that they can only charge council tax on it, if it is habitable and that must include water, and drainage. I have deliberately not yet connected the electricity supply so my treatment plant so that if pushed, I can justifiable argue the treatment plant is not yet operational, therefore the 'van is not habitable.

All that the self builder of such houses needs, is the VAT reclaim scheme amended so it would also accept a letter of comfort from the council planning department to confirm the house has been built according to the planning permission. At the moment it needs a building control completion certificate which of course you won't have.

^^^ and they could find that out by driving it onto site slowly? This sort of stuff is just madness, money for old rope, the world has gone mad I tell thee.

So let me get this right. you are using piles because you have poor ground with low bearing capacity. But if you have poor ground with low bearing capacity you can't get the piling rig on your site...... And the "test" seems to be take a heavy wheeled vehicle and drive over a plate and see how far it sinks. If anything is going to bog down on site, that will. I can't see the loading being a big issue, it's only a large digger with something else instead of the normal boom, and the point of tracks is to spread the load.

In a gable ended roof, with the ridge supported on the gables, the ridge beam takes half the weight of the roof, and importantly stops the roof spreading allowing room in roof situations where upstairs you might have half height walls. Joe is talking about a hipped roof. So there is no gable to take the weight, that is taken by the sloping beams at the hips. This type of roof needs ties at floor / ceiling level to stop the roof spreading, and usually intermediate support on purlins. I can't see the loading on the gable beam being very high and am surpised someone thinks it needs a glulam beam.

+1 "shed" and "too big" never appear in the same sentence.

I would be surprised if a toilet overflowed because you flushed it with too much water, unless it was blocked. To some extent you can reduce the volume of the flush by adjusting the float so it does not fill as high if that did prove to be a problem.

The current layout is as my diagram a few posts up, so just a short drop from each pan into a horizontal run. Unless of course things change which is entirely possible. (I use the term "horizontal" meaning set to a slight fall of course)

What's the size of the bit with a vaulted roof? It might make more sense to have most of the roof with attic trusses, and the vaulted bit as a cut roof supported on Glue Laminated timber beams which can be sanded and made into an exposed feature.

That is what I would do and it leaves the possibility of a cheap and easy loft conversion later.

Thanks Peter, that sounds like a good sound solution.

But it's a trussed roof. Why can't that just support on the outside walls? what's the span front to back? He seems to be specifying a ridge beam and 2 purlins which you would expect for a cut roof, then specifying trusses?

One question you did not answer, is when using a boss to connect smaller pipes into a horizontal 110mm pipe, do you have to use the TOP entry only? Using the side entry just seems "wrong" although I have seen it done.

That looks a very heavily over engineered structure for a bungalow. Is it in a particularly exposed location? I would be talking to the SE to ask why all those heavy engineering details. There is a lot there that looks very expensive to build. When my house was first designed, the SE specified a very complicated looking racking panel in each corner that would have been a difficult thing to build and looked like it would be a massive cold bridge. I queried it and he came up with something else a lot easier to build.

That pillar is shocking. I would want to very carefully re point it and fill in every crack and crevice with cement mortar, and put a brick or at least a part of a brick in that gaping great hole.

I had in mind the alternative as a row of strap on boss's, Is it okay to go into the side of a run or does it have to go in the top? Re combining several items into one pipe. I would hapilly combine the two (back to back) showers, or the two basins, but I once had a very bad experience with a basin sharing the same run as a shower. Not quite "swapping contents" Water would come up the shower trap into the shower every time the basin was emptied. Not wishing to repeat that.

So, following on from this, I have had a day mostly of thinking and planning things, rather than doing things (always a bad move) which brings me onto my next "whacky plumbing idea" As well as connecting the aforementioned two WC pans, I have some showers and basin's to connect, and I want to keep it all within the width of the posi joists. in the last house I used one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLOPLAST-110mm-Ring-Seal-Single-Boss-Soil-Manifold-Grey-/182280025263?hash=item2a70bc74af:g:R3EAAOSwmLlX142C The hopper was placed in the stack before the branch to the WC's. I could do that in the last house because there was a large boxed in space in the room below and the hopper sat down in that boxed in space. But this time I don't want to do that, it must all go in the joist space, and there is not room for a hopper and the branch. So what if I used one of those hoppers in one of the horizontal runs of pipe? the 110mm bit would just pass straight through, and as long as the smaller inlets were above the centreline of the 110mm pipe I can see no reason why it would not work? Give me a reason why not please?

But he hasn't come back yet to confirm he actually has power on the motor terminals.

Use your mains tester screwdriver. Does it light up when touching the brown (terminal 1)? Does it light up when touching the blue (terminal 2)?

Are you looking for something like timber i.e planks, perhaps plastic or other "non timber" material, or are you wanting something that can be rendered and hopefully give a maintenance free finish that way?

.... And Munster will only do supply AND fit, and NOT to Scotland.

Sounds like it is a dangerous bend, and the highways ought to sort it out and use a bit of the verge to widen the road then. A situation where the only "safe" way to negotiate it is drive on the verge, is not acceptable.