ProDave

It was probably a case of they had a surplus of Maple to get rid if, and they spun me a yarn then? But it still seems fine.

I think I am qualified to make a judgement. When building the present house, 13 years ago, we paid a man with a JCB to install our septic tank. It was in March, so the water table was quite high. He had dug the hole, and had the tank slung from the bucket of the JCB. He was just starting to lower it into the hole when "plop" a bit of the side of the hole fell in and deposited a big rock right in the middle where the tank was about to be placed. Without thinking, I put a ladder down the hole, climbed down and moved the rock. Even the JCB driver told me that was a very very silly thing to do, even though it would have meant him untying the tank and using the bucket to remove the rock, then slinging it and trying again. That's why in our ground I would never ever go into a hole that deep again. I would say you have to be pretty damn sure of your ground conditions before you can say it is "safe"

Yes each bit has been seeded as I have done it, which is why some parts are more green than others. The bit I finished today will be seeded when I get some more seed next week. Infinitely cheaper than turf and a lot easier. I am not after a perfectly manicured lawn just now, I just want the grass to get established before the weeds do. I hope it wil all get some growth before the winter sets in rather than spending the winter as bare earth.

When we had Open Reach survey our plot, they just gave me a drum of SWA phone cable and it was up to me to get it from our house across the road to where the telephone cable is. They will then connect it hen we want to go live. Total cost £nill. It worked out fine for us as we had the road up once and put in water, electricit and telephone cables all in one go.

I haven't repaired it yet, I have been using it very carefully. I needed to burn off some fuel so there is less than 20 litres left so I can drain and remove the tank to get the welding done.

I am sure most of you will think I am bonkers landscaping the plot of a house that's not yet completed outside, and barely started inside. In the last few weeks all the ground around the house has been leveled and final garden levels established. I have even started to grow some grass. It was completed today, here's one view of how it now looks: (the nice green lawn in the foreground is my neighbours front garden) There is more on my blog here http://ardross.altervista.org/Wilowburn/landscaping-part-1/ The motivation for doing this at this stage, is that is was something very cheap that I was able to do, and this now completes most of the jobs that require the digger, so just one more little job and that will be for sale.

Last time around, everyone advised us against using Oak with UFH. The one recommendation of a hardwood that was okay with UFH was Maple, and they would only warrant that in the narrow 90mm wide planks, no wider. So that is what we used ad 13 years later it's as good as new, no warping, no cracks, very little shrinkage.

It won't help but might be a comparison. I paid £350 for 50 good used Kwikstage planks (so 8ft long and 2" thick so they can span the whole 8ft without intermediate support) that's £7 per plank, so your £8.50 new sounds good. Transport is the killer, I collected them myself 25 at a time on my own trailer, they were only 5 miles away.

I have a friend using satellite broadband. The price goes up with the amount of data you use (no "unlimited" option.) He moans with two teenage daughters with ipads surgically attached they are paying about £80 per month. It would be a lot lower if you used less bandwidth. Even at £80 per month, that install cost is nearly 8 years worth of satellite broadband. Aren't Open Reach supposed to pay the first £3K of the install? so that should knock it down to £4.5K Is any of this work contestable like with water and electricity connections. Get a quote from an independent contractor to mole under the road and install a grey duct with a draw string (Open Reach should free issue the duct to you) and then get a quote from Open Reach to just come and pull a cable through that duct and connect it to the pole and your house.

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?