ProDave

Make SURE the ends of the gap are not open to cold air, otherwise it negates the insulation of the outer layer. Perhaps 2 layers of over boarding, the first being just 25mm to match the thickness of the braces, then a further layer covering the whole lot.

I had woodworm treatment done at our previous house, a 2 bed semi detached 1930's house. It was a long time ago and I don't have a clue about how much it cost but it was a mortgage condition because it was raised on the survey. When we sold it 13 years later (after extending it and nearly doubling it's size) nobody asked for any paperwork in relartion to the woodwork and it was not "found" on the buyers survey. I don't think they did a particularly thorough job, just lifted a few boards and sprayed as far as their lance would reach with no particular attention to whether they missed bits or not. The worst wodworm was in the back board behind the electricity meter, which I replaced with a new board.

£16 per metre sounds unbelievably cheap. I am paying more than that per square metre just for the labour to apply my render, so I can't see how anyone can do it including materials for that price.

Honest answer I don't know, and I don't know who would know.

Put a dummy thermostat on the wall of each room when the building inspector comes to sign it off. Everyone is happy. Remove when you have the paperwork. He will never know.

What's the reason for wanting brick? I specifically avoided brick or block and went for timber frame with external wood fibre insulation. My wall thickness is within your target and has a better U value, but you would have to settle for a render finish. The issue for me, was with a timber frame and blockwork skin, the cavity has to be ventilated so it's open to outside air. So the brick or block skin is adding virtually nothing to the insulation at all.

I don't mind cutting the grass, it's the MOSS that bugs me. How do you keep a lawn moss free when you have very wet poor ground? Yes I can do it often with the elecrtic lawn rake, but that's even worse than mowing and you should see the amount of moss it drags out.

What is really strange is that in Scotland, I discharged all my conditions by simple emails to the planning officer who had dealt with the application, reply rarely a day later, no cost invoved, and at the end I got an email followed up by a letter in the post saying all conditions are discharged and you may commence building.

Welcome to the slow lane. I too am doing it on my own at the moment, currently fitting the external wood fibre board to the gable end wall, just having a tea break right now.

Thank you. Every day is a learning day.

Okay, this is brobably a dumb question, but what is the significance of blue plasterboard? I know about green, pink, and ordinary grey, but what's the blue stuff?

THAT really annoyed me on my last build, and I am SURE I will have the same problem again. I used standard regularised studs, covered with standard thickness plasterboard, but do you think I could find door liners that were just the right thickness? no of course not. They were either a few mm too wide or too narrow. Thank goodness for the electric plane.

I have one rule in our new house. SWMBO is NOT going to plant any trees shrubs or "flower beds" in the middle of the LAWN. It needs to be one unobstructed area that you can push (or ride) a mower up and down, without having to go around "things"

Nice work. Looks like you wore out 2 wheelbarrows moving that lot

In case it's not obvious, the roof is a warm roof, hung from a big ridge beam. That too is clad with the same 100mm wood fibre board in place of the normal (in Scotland) sarking board. And the roof will be insulated in the same way as the walls but this time from the inside so we will have a vaulted warm roof.

You live on a croft. Shouldn't you have sheep?

Hi and welcome to the forum. Building next door is very convenient. I am building next door but one, just 50 metres up the road.

If that's the view from your site i would settle for living in the caravan.

The whole window pricing thing seems to be a lottery. As Jeremy, our Internorm quote was way more than the others at over £20K, then there were a batch around 12-15K, but Rationel were by far the cheapest here and by the time the negotiating was done it was just over £8K I'm pleased with that outcome as they were the second best in terms of U values, only marginally worse than Internorm, yet the cheapest. But then others find Rationel to be expensive and at least one reported Internorm as being their cheapest quote so it makes no sense at all. P.S my Rationel windows came via an agent and that was supply only for my builder to fit.

We need to copy across that abreviations thread.

I would worry about wind as well. There wouldn't be many days I could open it without some really secure way to hold it in position when open. And weight would be my concern as we are all triple glazed, 4,20,4,20,4 Also the amount of space you need to keep clear to allow it to open. I have a 3.3M opening in my sun room, door yet to be decided but will probably just go for a pair of sliders.

I have a wet tile cutter, the thing that looks like a saw bench but has as diamond cutting disk that runs in a water bath. I bought it VERY cheap from one of the DIY sheds years ago. It gives a very clean very straight cut to tiles, and I have even been using it to cut the valley tiles on my roof. If you can find one, then it will do what you want. It was so cheap to buy I wouldn't mess about hiring one. Best to use it outdoors though as it'a a messy thing to use.

Fridges and freezers are awkward things. Although the running current is low, they have a very high start up surge that can stall a small generator. Inverter generators may fair better. But do you really need to keep a freezer running? certainly not during a 1 hour power cut. 2 winters ago after a storm our power was off for 2 days. Thank goodness for the wood burner. Yes the freezer thawed, but was all the food wasted? No. Once thawed it's still good to keep in a fridge for a few days, so that was the next few days food sorted, and what we couldn't eat in that time was cooked, and then re frozen as ready meals. Anyone who just bins the contents of the freezer if it thaws is simply not trying hard enough. We will have a gas LPG hob again and the only inconvenience is having to use a match to light the gas when the power is off, and the kettle on the stove takes longer to boil than an electrtic kettle. So it comes back to lighting, and we have two gas camping lights that do the job.

Welcome back Yes I too am behind schedule and nearly out of money, seems quite a common thing for self builders. But I am still plodding along making slow progress with just me working on the build. I hear you have been asking for a certain Welsh plumber?

Thank you for your kind words. Hope your build goes okay, and ask questions if not (and pictures if all is well)