saveasteading

That is very pretty but the price!. 40% less energy consumption to bring a room to 21°C from 10°C How so? Energy in = Energy out. 40% quicker I could believe. Less energy, no. The electric fan is heating the space too, of course.

That is true once you have credibility and people are contacting you. The knowledge and experience do the selling. But sitting by the phone or looking for non-existing emails will not get business. I started business with a partner who was 10% Engineer ad 90% sales, and he would phone /visit possible clients and connections all day. I just couldn't do that, due to some sort of shyness/modesty/ lack of skill. Once there was a job the clients wanted me not him, so it worked. Later, when he had departed, the phone rang anyway, and my sales were through networking. I recall a client telling me at the opening ceremony that he recalled our first discussion. He phoned me asking if we were interested in x. I apparently was comfortable to talk about it, but not excited ' I will have a look and see if it suits us'. whereas all the other contacts were selling like md, and could do absolutely anything, and meet him tomorrow. If only I had known that, then the negotiating period would have been less stressful. But if work becomes less plentiful, then the sales oriented businesses tend to do better. It is part of an Architect's training to sell themselves. We Engineers are more inclined to deal with what is in front of us. I once did a presentation to a school board, after which the Head thanked me for my clarity and honesty......so what had the competition been saying? Is that selling?

Using electricity to drive the fans? I do favour fans in big spaces, especially on the ceiling to force the hot air down again.

According to recent discussions on here, only mains gas would be cheaper, prior to the current price increases and concerns. There is lots of good info on bh on this, including quite recently about ashp with PV., and that is what we will be doing. Just thought though, further to saying that ducted heated air works... it worked fine in a 10 hour office scenario, but maybe not so well in domestic, with varying room conditions.

Yes in theory. But with this type of building the foundations are probably very shallow. We had area already exposed, ie the stone walls were 100mm above the visible ground, thus sitting on 100mm of exposed vertical ground. It would be very easy to destabilise the walls..indeed there are tales of them falling down during such works. And yet existing lintels may dictate the finished floor level. Cassettes of insulated timber positioned 25mm inside the masonry. That was fine on paper (or screen) but the reality is of non planar walls and so the void varies and more floor is lost. Yes that works. I designed that, with ashp, into our own office building 15 years ago. The effect is indeed quick, and can be reversed for cooling. But the ducts are large and obtrusive.

From a very quick look, the tested value for a 600mm stone wall in good condition is an r value of 1.0. So that is like 40mm of mineral wool or 20mm of PIR. Or a U value of 1.3, which is much better than the published figures for a solid brick wall (2.0) but nowhere near a relaxed conversion target of 0.3, or a modern house target of 0.18. Thus the walls are a very good start to the insulation of a building, but not remotely enough for modern expectations.

We are currently converting such a building, with 600mm of granite, plus some ashlar sandstone. There are tested figures for these walls, and they are better than the heat loss programs allow proportional to thickness. However they are not remotely close to building standards. Scottish warrant requires insulation to certain numbers 'as far as reasonably practicable'. That does not allow bare stone and no insulation, unless it is a listed building with very special walls. Heat loss is not related to the source of the energy, so ashp makes sense...we are doing this. Obv the floor is warmed more than with space heating, so floor insulation must be paramount.* As mentioned, dampness in the wall will increase heat loss. Read up on pointing. As above, if you were to have no insulation on the walls then you will need a lot of heat to warm the walls before the space becomes comfortable. And it will be expensive. * an insulated floor requires 100mm minimum insulation under a screed. Beware the effect of this on your works esp excavation ,(and wall stability) and existing door heights.

Those of us who can handle a tape measure, don't always appreciate that transferring a position from inside to outside ca be tricky, involving logic and sums. and then a cautious pilot hole. That is my guess of the issue that was then abandoned.

Not something that is easy to answer. Cheapest/ most durable/ most attractive/ boxings for columns and beams allowed? Then we could make suggestions but you cant find a builder who would do it that way, or at the budget. In principle, for small buildings use cavity wall and timber roof, with a steel beam if necessary, then any builder can do it. Do work to some approved standards please, whether they are required or not.

We should never make holes in webs or flanges without a check. In reality there is usually some spare load capacity, and spread out fixings will be ok....but a phone call to the SE is likely to result in a straight forward 'no problem'. Also consider out of balance loading..If the timber is all on one side, then the load will twist the beam....which is bad thing. I prefer to fix using purpose made 'timber to steel' screws. This allows for careful tightening , and some adjustment. Concealing the head without risking pull-out may require consideration.

Insulate. The pipes will tarnish anyway. In fact insulate a lot. Pipe insulation of the higher quality then box around.

That looks like my rendering skills. Except I know it is wobbly and make it rustic. My guess is that this is wobbly render rather than loose, but do what PD suggests....a light tapping with a hammer to listen for hollow sounds.

Doing it again I would write the floor construction tolerances on the drawings. NHBC seems to only refer to the final floor level, and not to the subfloor. Obv there are some expectations or it could be +/- 100mm. I come from doing commercial projects and can't believe how poor house building is allowed to be. Then this amount of packing would not be even argued about......'nobody cares about the subfloor level...it doesn't matter' The slab is not thin here, as there is a footing under it. That gap will be filled. Haven't decided whether folding wedges or drypack...or both.

Absolutely splendid joiner, but says slating is better by a roofer. Or perhaps locally that is simply the expectation. I guess if I was a good joiner I would pick and choose too, and clambering over the roof and cutting slates is not the pleasantest thing.

It is time to form the new openings for skylights, I think 8 of them. The joiner is staying on to do the framing, but we need a roofer to prepare, repair some sarking, then fit the skylights and retrim around with the slates. There will also be gutters and some finishings to do. From Inverness or Elgin people are travelling without any quibble. PM if you prefer to avoid it being too public. Thanks.

It is time to form the new openings for skylights, I think 8 of them. The joiner is staying on to do the framing, but we need a roofer to prepare, repair some sarking, then fit the skylights and retrim around with the slates. There will also be gutters and some finishings to do. From Inverness or Elgin people are travelling without any quibble. PM if you prefer to avoid it being too public. Thanks.

The timbers are all different dimensions, but near enough for a rustic job.

Recycling: We had to demolish 1/4 of the stone building, and rebuild in stick (kit as they call it locally). The stone was crushed by the demo company, using the jaw basket on the excavator. It all went to make the very rough base of the new driveway for future parking/garage. The roof timbers were cut apart and de-nailed. 20% unusable through worm or rot. The rest was trimmed on the table saw to get rid of the surface worm-holes. Then together with galv roofing salvaged from the courtyard roof, this was the result. The cladding was bought locally at a very good price. It will house the water tank, log store and, so they tell me, sauna!

One our site managers called me 'the skip inspector'. That other MD I mentioned, also took to allowing a limited number of skips per project. He then found that site managers were hiring grab lorries instead....hardly buying into it. But he did spot this so it was stopped. One of our managers got the message, but dealt with it by squashing down the contents with a digger. Good idea but again hadn't got the fundamental principle. He was rather good at recycling copper from a demo though....none of that in the skip. Happy to pass on more tips on request....I got an award for it. Actually it was more for efficiency of design, but it is all waste whether dumped or used unnecessarily.

Highly recommended. we don't have one on what is effectively a £400k job. My pet subject. In my business we allocated a fixed, and low, number of skips, but also had a plan for what could go in them and what to do with the rest. On occasions I had skips emptied and refilled properly: Air is very expensive to cart to tip and pay landfill on, and the skip companies make a lot by sorting and consolidating. Site manager had to fill in a form of approximate contents.....so it became easier to think rather than dump. A couple of examples of savings. A few contractors really bought into this, and I once found our electrician's boss flattening lighting boxes and tying them up neatly, reducing volume by 90%...he then took them to a recycling centre. Another company MD (we were in a waste reduction group) banned skips on a house project and used hippo bags, allocated to different products. His surprise saving was in battens. Prior to this the roofers got to the eaves and sawed off the timber , and it fell to ground then was skipped. With Hippo bags they didn't fit so might as well take them up and reuse as cut to put in the bag. Similarly, a bag full of half bricks is fairly obvious and unjustifiable. Damaged bricks can obv be hardcore. In a skip they disappear. In our study we found that the cost of a skip is not £300 or whatever, but about £2,000 when you included materials that were being dumped without thought , or shouldn't have been bought in the first place. Timber packaging from steel deliveries we gave to schools for woodwork if we hadn't used it for shuttering. The big contractors claimed and boasted of 'zero waste'. But it wasn't true....they defined zero as 'what couldn't reasonably be recycled'.

Interesting. Doesn't sound like the vat inspectors I have met.

No reason why not, but a few lean mixes in the mixer won't break the bank, and won't scuff.

Do you need to attach his purchase invoice to prove the value?

Vat is complicated and worries some small businesses. He probably doesn't want the hassle or perceived risk of a new, to him, procedure. I would let it go. If needed again, you buy the materials.

Post and Beam 2m over 18m is rather steep. OK but not comfortable for most cars or people. Also remember you need to level off at the road, so that uses some of your 18m. 2m over 16m will be 12.5% Kelvin, The bellmouth entrance is likely to be required as tarmac, to stop stones getting on the road. Whatever the material, if you can contrive a slight rise onto your plot then no water will run in. With option 2 a slight crossfall (as the existing slope) will shed the water off the side. If you have any abnormally steep country roads near you, then try driving them and imagine as your drive.