ProDave

Hear hear. I have lost a stone in weight and 2" off my waist in the last year of building. I have gone back to having to wear a belt to keep my trousers up.

I guess the important thing is the overall thickness of the unit must be 52mm as that is what the window is built for. I will have to check building regs, but the bottom of the window will only be about 300mm above the floor of the half landing, so I would expect it to require toughened glass, and probably a handrail across the window opening? (if it does need a handrail that will be made "portable")

This does seem something site insurance does not cover very well. My site insurance covers my static caravan, but it was unclear if it covers the contents. A phone call to the insurer got verbal confirmation that it does, but I couldn't get anything in writing. What about when we do move into the caravan, then all our furniture will be stored in the part built house? On our first build, 13 years ago, that policy made it clear it covered the 'van but not the contents. I tried to buy contents insurance for that, but it seemed nobody wold insure a static caravan unless it was on a recognised mobile home park.

Interesting point. I have wooden fascias that I intend to over clad with aluminium. Do you think the likely expansion over a 4 metre length would be such that I should machine slots, rather than holes, for the fixing screws?

We have Rationel triple glazed doors and windows. Most of them are 4,20,4,20,4 which I understand. The doors however, and one of the larger windows, have toughened glass on the inside, and the make up of those is described as 4,20,4,18,6,4 Now I understand that means the inner pane is thicker and is toughened glass, and hence to keep the same overall thickness, the "inner" gap is 18mm instead of 20mm. But the bit that confuses me is the 6,4 at the end. Does that mean 6.4 (six point 4) mm thick toughened glass? or does it mean something else? I am asking because one window, the landing Window, we want a stained glass unit in that. Because Rationel don't do stained glass, we have bought that window unglazed and are looking for someone to make up the triple glazed unit for it with the middle pane being stained glass. Because it will be quite low on the half landing, I think it also needs to be toughend glass on the inner pane. So I am trying to understand just what we need to specify.

No condensation trouble with ours, it passes through a cold roof space so would be a prime candidate for such a problem. Ours is a "solar tube" if that helps, It is just a steel tube with a very highly polished mirror finish to the inside surface, a plastic dome and flashing at the roof end, and a fairly flat round fitting at the ceiling end, not unlike the cover of a round 2D type light fitting (I have lost count of how many times guests have asked about the "light" on the landing and how to turn it off) A big improvement in our case could be mader by lagging the tube as it goes up through the cold loft, and some sealant to seal the ceiling fitting to the ceiling would help. I will digress to the condensation issue. It is something I have never understood. Our present timber framed house is absolutely bone dry. You can hang wet washing in the utility room on the "pulley" and it makes no difference. You can bath or shower and there's rarely any codensation on the mirrors. Now our previous house was a 1930's semi with solid 9" brick walls. So it was obviously a poorly insulated house. It had run of the mill UPVC double glazing. We never had condensation on the windows, but any cold surface, like a toilet cistern full of cold water, would be dripping with condensation after a bath or a shower. Now the house was heated so it was warm and comfortable. What puzzles me comparing the two houses is why did the 1930's house have so much moisture in the air it condensed on a cold toilet cistern, yet the new house doesn't. It can't be the amount of moisture produced by the occupants, so the extra moisture must have come from the fabric of the building. I can well see in a "damp" house like that, a solar tube might have problems with condensing moisture.

I think the basic rule, is take the bottom of your foundation trench, project a line outwards and downwards at 45 degrees from the bottom of that trench. Your excavations should not pass through that line. If you are digging 2.2 metres away from the foundations, then even with very shallow foundations, you would need to be more than 2.2 metres deep before you would cause concern, so I think your 1.5 metre hole will be fine.

We have a sun pipe in our house and it does its function of illuminating an otherwise dark space very well. But I agree it would take a lot of detailing to get it completely air tight, and it is bound to increase heat loss. I guess the question is whether the gain from lighting a dark space is worth perhaps a slight reduction in the building's performance?

In a case like this, they should have the power to grant permission with an expiry of 12 months. The builder did say it was URGENT didn't he? Then if they re apply after it has expired, refuse it because there clearly was NOT a need after all.

What took the 4 years? getting planning? or finding a buyer?

I understand the process is simply one of registering an existing system and is pretty much a formality. When we built this house in 2003 there was no requirement to register it with SEPA. I believe it is the same form we used to apply for their discharge permit for the new house, just a different box to tick.

It sounds like an Ecocent for summer use (to help cool an overheated house) would be a good thing, and something else for the winter? but that's duplicating equipment so probably not viable.

I have not heard of a blanket law requiring all septic tanks to be replaced on the sale of a property. But certainly up here, SEPA have the power to enforce a change. One of the houses in our road, the old, big house, had an old concrete septic tank (in next doors garden!!) discharging to the burn, and following a complaint and investigation, SEPA ordered them to replace it with a treatment plant, that is now located in their own garden, It seems this action is only being taken with tanks discharging to water. I have never heard of a case of a septic tank draining to land having to be upgraded. Perhaps this is ammunition to renegotiate the purchase price?

I don't want you to think I am obsessed with the things, but part of the thinking of buying a static caravan is when it's done with for habitation, it will remain and become a work space. I won't call it a "man cave" as Kathy will use part of it as a studio. 28 square metres of workspace for £4000 or £143 per square metre. you wouldn't get even a rubbish shed that big for that much. And we will keep the loo, and probably the kitchen sink working in it so you can make a brew or have a pee while working (the shower will be taken out and become a storage space) I will probably at some point fit some more insulation and wooden cladding around it, and a better roof so it looks more like a shed and less like a caravan.

Do you have any test equipment e.g a multimeter? I would want to check the earthing to that switch, and the lighting circuit in general. just because there is an earth wire connected to ths switch does not mean it hasn't fallen out somewhere else along the chain. If you can't test it yourself, get an electrician in. I don't know who fitted the metal switches and don't want to cast doubt on your ability if it was you, but the house I have been working on this week is turning into the house from hell. I started out doing an EICR and the first 3 light switches (brass) that I unscrewed had loose wires, in one of them one two screws had completely fallen out of the terminals and were sitting in the bottom of the back box. What I am saying is some DIY electricians are frankly dangerous and may have left the whole lot unsafe. If the front plate was earthed properly, I would not expect a situation where you could get a shock from it. If you do get an electrican in, tell him you want the earthing checked at ALL the metal light switches and light fittings. A normal EICR only calls for a sample to be inspected and tested, though in the case of this week's job when it became clear that the first 3 were unsatisfactory, on that house I am checking the lot.

When digging my foundations this time last year (it was wet then as well) I used a submirsible electric dirty water pump to pump the water out of the trenches. For all the complaints I have about our lousy soil, none of the trenches ever collapsed.

Mine came "pre plumbed" off site in the small bore stuff all apart from the loo.

Less chance of sag I would say?

This will be an interesing difference between the present house and the new one. The present one is reasonably well insulated but nothing startling, so once warmed up, it needs the stove to tick over at a low heat output to maintain comfort, and that's when it's burning too cold and inefficient. The new house should be a lot better insulated and air tight, so I am hoping all we will need is a short hot burn to raise the temperature a bit and then let it go out, and the house will stay warm, so probably a lot less chance of poor combustion.

Make sure there is a GOOD fall and no sags in the pipe for stagnant water to collect and freeze. then I think you will be okay. Not a great deal different to me having the same under the static caravan. I don't think the token bit of wooden screening around the bottom will do much to keeop the temperature under it above ambient.

Your sums seem right. It looks like you will need to use a neck extension on the plant. It also of course means the outlet will be that much deeper. Will that be okay for your soakaway or whateverdrainage arrangement you have? if not you may need a pumped outlet version. Why is the drain run so long? Building regs only need the plant to be 5 metres from a building (That's what the Scottish regs say, it may be different in other parts) so could the treatment plant go closer to the house? Also be aware that a lot of the manufacturers stipulate that if a neck extension is used, the entire treatment plant plus neck exrtension must be encased in concrete. If the weather is too bad for foundations, is it really okay for digging the deep hole you need for the treatment plant? I had to chose the time carefully as we have a high water table. Even waiting for a long dry spell, the hole started filling with water straight away. Another thought: Your chosen plant seems to be a "low invert" type? the one I used, a Conder ASP6, has an inlet invert depth of 760mm so would only need the small neck extension. Could a re visit of which plant you are using, together with trying to shorten the drain run, give a solution that doesn't need a neck extension? The Conder is very close to achieving that. One last thought, I am on a sloping site, so I am building up my ground levels from the original levels when I landscape the plot. In effect, the drainage slope and the invert depth of the treatment plant has set one of the "datum" points for how much I raise the ground level at that particular point and from that, the rest of the landscaping levels flow.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well at least nobody is going to drive off with it are they?

My Hermes and Interparcel also do the same rate for the Highlands. Tried either of those? We get a lot delivered by Parcelforce, always the same driver and he knows the "routine" if we are out and we just find our parcels waiting for us.

The one "issue" we have had with our stove is keeping the door clean. The manufacturer tells us it has an "air wash" system to keep the glass clean etc but the reality doesn't really bear that out. After much experimenting, the conclusion is with the primary air intake fully open and a roaring flame, it will keep the glass clear. But apart from the initial burn to get it up to temperature, we don't run it like that. As soon as you shut down the air intake, the door clouds up. So it is something we just accept now, and likely to be a similar problem in the new house.