ProDave

Not just "interesting" but bloody dangerous if you ask me. With the ground we have, I suspect it would be more likely to cave in, and in any case there are so many rocks and stones in the ground the chances of driving the angle iron in that fare would be very slim.

A man with a number plate on his head? A man with a spade on his head?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/wadkin-Thicknesser-/282160625212?hash=item41b215763c:g:9UIAAOSwMgdXyy82 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WADKIN-BAO-S-12-X-7-415-v-3PHASE-SURFACE-PLANER-THICKNESSER-/401175895151?hash=item5d67f25c6f:g:908AAOSwV0RXvKif http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wadkin-Bursgreen-Planer-Thicknesser-12-X-7-Ex-College-3-Phase-895-00-vat-/262606525719?hash=item3d24919517:g:OKUAAOSwGtRXydTW this one is single phase http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Planer-thicknesser-/252527061087?hash=item3acbc9285f:g:BdEAAOSwdIFXzZGO The seller of thios one will also be selling the phase converter http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sedgwick-10-Planer-Thicknesser-/322247159516?hash=item4b076d6edc:g:XoUAAOSw9NdXq1Di

Slightly old news as I finished it about 2 weeks ago, but only just got around to writing it up on the blog. The house roof was finished some time ago, but it's the garage roof that has been waiting while I do more important things like cladding, rendering and drainage. So just to show the finished thing here are a couple of pics. There is more on my blog at http://ardross.altervista.org/Wilowburn/roofing-finally-finished/ After fitting something like 1800 tiles to this house, I have 34 tiles left over. I would say the roofing supplier that specified the quantities from the plans, got it about righrt.

Mine is anchored with about 6 tons of concrete. We have a seasonally high water table here, and I would not be the one volunteering to climb down into a deep soggy hole to bang some angle iron stakes into the side while hoping it doesn't collapse while I am down there.

Yes cost is a big issue. For the same reason, there are now 5 self builds in progress within 2 miles of me, and 4 of them are using Rationel windows, no doubt because they are very keenly priced. The 5th one is being build by someone with seemingly bottomless pockets, nothing he does is to save money. Once installed your unit will perform well I have no doubt about that. The no legs thing would have been a PITA for my self install. Once we had lowered the unit into the ground it then took us the rest of that day, and then most of the following day to mix, barrow and pour concrete. My aged digger with it's (slightly) leaking hydraulics would not have held it in position that long so we would have needed to find some other way to prop it. P.S I have done the ferry ride to Westray. We did a little tour of the islands, fliying to Papa westray, then to Westray, and ferry back, just so we could fly on the worlds shortest scheduled air service from Papa Westray to Westray, takes about 2 minutes in the air.

You don't need a window in a bathroom or en-suite, but see if you can get a roof window in if not a proper one. Failing that another sun pipe to at least get light in so you don't have to turn a light on in the daytime. Re sliding door gear, I bought the cheap sliding door kits from one of the sheds and it was nothing like £150 and they work fine for me.

I know Jason's choice was limited by transport costs, but seeing that makes me glad I opted for the Conder. I am sure the Biopure will be fine in operation but disadvantages over the Conder as I see it: No legs, so you have to hold the Biopure upright while back filling the hole. (conder has legs) I don't see any lifting eyes to lift it and hold it (Conder has 4 lifting eyes) It looks like you have to lift the pump unit out to empty the tank (Conder has separate access point for emptying)

Normally the cladding (timber in your case) would go on after the windows are in, and that would bridge the gap you are talking about. Yours are Rationel aren't they? any moisture that gets between the wood frame and the ali cladding can drain out of the bottom of the gap onto the cill.

If you are sealing a timber framed building properly, I cannot envisage a situation where later shrinkage is going to open up leaks, at least not unless said shrinkage is enough to rip your air tightness tape down the middle? Yes details like a tony tray (we used that, even before I knew the name Tony tray) are essential things to build in at construction stage. How many mass builders even know about things like that, let alone implement it. And do any mass builders seal the building then put a service void so all services run inside the sealed envelope without (or with very few) penetrations?

When I was an apprentice, we picked up a mini, and "parked" it in an impossibly tight space facing the wrong way in a 1 way system.

What is the flooring? I made a mat well by our front door in a slate tiled floor. The well is "un trimmed" just the (neatly) cut edges of the tiles abutting the mat. I wouldn't want to stick trim over the edges, unless someone has made a pigs ear of cutting the well.

I got my builder to install mine. Cost about £2K but I have a LOT less windows than you. Mine were Rationel. I had done all the negotiating to get the quote from Rationel as cheap as possible. I then got my builder to do "supply and fit" so the builder ordered them, fitted them and invoiced me for the total. That of course meant there was no VAT to pay which helped my cash flow. If I had ordered them, I would have had to pay the VAT and would not be able to re claim it for some time. The fitting was simply charged on an hourly rate

Q: How many forumites does it take to manually lift an 800Kg window? At 4.7M long you can probably get 6 or 7 people along each side so that's a lift of 57Kg per person. Less if you can fit more. Do able?

Our requirement is either (preferably) a wet rom, if not a large low profile shower tray, with fixed frameless glass panels. Having had a variety of hinged or sliding, framed glass doors before, we no longer want frames, hinges, runners or anything else that can go mankey, just simple unframed fixed glass panels that might stand a chance of being able to be kept clean. And NOTHING that relies on any form of sealant to seal said glass panels.

Hi HighlandStew and welcome to the forum. First I am sorry to rain on your parade, but of you are building the house to sell in 5 years you are going to become very frustrated and disappointed. There is almost no market for large detached houses in the Highlands at the moment (for reasons I won't dwell on for the sake of my blood pressure.) Our present 5 bedroom, double garage detached house has been on the market for 20 months now, just 4 viewings and none since the summer, and no offers. The few houses of this size that have sold around here in recent years have taken over 3 years to sell. Any estate agent who is honest will tell you expect it to take 3 years to sell. Trust me, you don't want to be in the state of limbo that we are in, not knowing when it will sell or for how much. I know of a builder (the one that built our frame) that speculatively built a large detached house to sell. It's been on the market over 6 years now. He says if he knew that, he would instead have built a pair of small semi detached houses that would probably have been easier to sell. And my last bit of doom, I would be very surprised indeed if having built it, you are actually able to sell for enough to actually cover the cost of buying the plot and building the house. I am not being a doom monger, just saying how it is at the moment. Hopefully in 5 years it will be better, but a lot can happen in 5 years, good or bad, and we don't know which. If your motive is to make money, I would forget building anything. Your plot is big enough for 2 houses so I would seek permission to build 2 houses, and sell it as two plots, that way you might make some money. Back to the house. If you are building it to live in it looks nice. Re the "waste of space" on the landing and in the hall, our present house is exactly like that. Yes it's a waste of space but it does have a certain wow factor with a nice staircase. Re the stairs, I would be surprised if that arrangement meets current Scottish building regs. These days you have to have a solid wall down one side of the stair, and a certain amount of solid wall at the top and bottom of the stair to allow for the future install of a stair lift. I can't see how that stair complies. These restrictions are a great shame as that's almost exactly what we have in the present house and everyone says "wow" when they see the stairs.like that. Re the en-suites. the master gets a pokey small en-suite at the moment. I would put the en-suite at the right of the master where a wardrobe is currently and make it much bigger. Presumably the master is the one with the best views, and gets the most sun?

Interesting the different approach. I have not done a thing to the interior yet as I am still working on getting the exterior completely finished so it's totally wind and water tight and I don't need to worry about it. And I am just started on the landscaping, so soon we will have a flat (ish) piece of ground with some grass growing on it. I will admit landscaping at this stage is a little unusual but it means i will be finished with the digger and can then sell it, rather than having to keep it longer, or horror of all horrors have to hire one.

Be VERY careful with your lighting design.

Agree with the sun pipe for the landing. I am not sure you are allowed a step on the half landing. Design for two straight flights of 7 steps, i.e. make your stair well slightly bigger. you don't want to be finding out at build time that it's impossible to fit a staircase that complies with building regs. You will need 13 or 14 steps depending on your floor to floor height. Staying with the stairs, check your local regulations. they would not comply in Scotland as we have to allow a bit of free wall space at the top and bottom of a flight to allow for adding a stair lift in the future. Make en-suite 2 bigger, or abandon it. I am only seeing one "door" into the ground floor, unless that's patio doors or similar in the sun room or lounge. I would want a normal single door from the dining area out to the garden, otherwise you will be cursing when the kitchen bins need emptying. Building regs will probably require more than one door as well.

My plumber friend who is building his owh house is fuming, because the builders have sett the doors in with the threshold just 1r5mm above the cioncrete slab. So whatever tiles or wood he chooses is limited to 15mm including adhesive. That would not be enough for us. Our present hall is tiled in slate and as mentioned they are very uneven thickness and I doubt 15mm would be enough for those.

If putting an mvhr in the loft, do check access. I am working on a house where the loft is tiny (room in roof). The mvhr JUST fits. There is 1" clearance each side to get the side panels off to change the filters, and it's impossible to get passed it in the loft, so he has to have a loft hatch each side of it.

Re the "load swinging in a breeze" thing. My boat is craned in and out of the water each year, arranged by the harbour master as a group lift. We never just lift a boat and let it swing, there are always two long ropes with 2 people on the ground holding them to control any swing and keep the "load" pointing the right way. I am sure the windage of a boat is more than that of a window, and certainly the weight is more. A few of the boat owners are trained as banksmen so we only have to hire the crane, not a contract lift.

Stress is an integral part of a building project. For most of us, it will be the most challenging and largest project you will ever tackle. The stress won't stop when you actually get building, nor will the problems get any easier. My own "challenge" at the moment (and has been for some time) is the inability to sell our existing house so for almost a year now I have slowly, oh so slowly, working mostly on my own been inching the project forward trying to make the last dregs of a tiny budget stretch as far as humanely possible. Today was a milestone. Roughly 10 months since I started, I have finally finished tiling the last bit of roof, the garage roof, so now the house has a proper lid on all of it. I shall be partaking of the "good" whisky tonight to celebrate. There have been times when if someone had come along and offered me a pile of cash for the part built house I would have sold it without question. I still question the financial wisdom of building the new house given the state of the housing market up here. until that issue is resolved, our build will continue to inch forwards but will not reach anything like habitable, let alone finished for many years or until a buyer is found for the old one. The build itself I am enjoying, but I can honestly say this will be the last, if for no other reason than I just cannot face the prospect later of of having to sell a house again. Time out from the build is important, so do go off and have fun from time to time.

Don't do it. A blanked off tap hole just screams "cheap" like budget kitchen sinks that have a tap hole at the front and the back so they can be used left or right handed with a blank in the unused hole. If the bath has tap holes, fit a tap into them. That's just my opinion. P.S why is it some bath manufacturers make the tap holes so big? i have an ongoing problem with a bath that has a shower over it, and the tap hole is so large I struggle to get the hole with the tap in watertight as so little of the tap actually touches the bath, I reckon about 2mm all round in contact with the bath.

Looking at that "diagram 1.4" is seems clear that the doors open outwards so as not to swing over the "activity space" Yours is very tight. you only have .75 from the edge of the "activity space" to the wall so in all probability your door would swing over the activity space if hinged inwards. But it won't take much to make it so an inward door does not cross the activity space. How about a back to the wall wc with a slimline hidden cistern that you may be able to partly recess into the wall and choose a particularly small toilet. That might nudge your .75 metre clearance for the door up enough to make an inward opening for work. your regs seem to be the same as here in that a basin is allowed to partly overhang the activity space.