Ferdinand

You are set up as a Community Interest Company? If so, it is common for these to get Discretionary Business Rates Relief of up to 100% from Local Authorities. See:https://cicassoc.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2691611%3ABlogPost%3A5640&page=1#comments I sense a trip down Alice's rabbit hole will be required. For England (and it may be UK wide) the association to talk to (are you members already) is called CICA: Community Interest Companies Association as per the above link, and their website is a Ning community. You may get help from Senscot - http://www.senscot.net/view_art.php?viewid=8949 . These guys are Scottish Social Entrepreneurs, who are often set up as CICs. If you get through this there may be value in claiming back rates paid unnecessarily since 2008 or whenever! Ferdinand

Looking around, I may be able to get a good set of French Doors in the right size from ebay for about £100-200. Save 20% on the project.

Aha. Clearly I have some plumbing homework to do! The only pressure relief valve I can recall was the one that nearly blew up Three Mile Island because they left it shut.

Looking at the eBay item you linked, @ProDave, it says "PRV included - must be fitted in every case" in the description. Perhaps it has changed? F

The things I would welcome advice on, in addition to general comments are: 1 - EDPM roofs. Quality, trims, how easy they are to work with, and how do I detail the overlapping down the sides? 2 - What breathable membrane to use under the rainscreen? 3 - What type of ventilation. I am thinking of a Vent-Axia Lo-Cardon Tempra P - which is a heat recovery fan with a boost cord and trickle mode that can be set to run permanently for about £5 a year. Would a trad bathroom fan with backdraft shutter be better? 4 - Given washers etc should I do the interior with exterior varnish so that moisture goes through the ventilation setup? Cheers Ferdinand

I'm building one! Previous thread for reference: The project is an 8x12 garden building to be used as a standalone utility room for a small house. The ground conditions are solid - outdoor loo removed decades ago, and used as a parking space, then various bits of limestone and concrete put on there over the subsequent 3-4 decades. I personally had two lorry loads of stone put on that side. Approx half is over an existing estd. 100mm concrete slab. Elements (and budget): 1 - Basic building. A SiPs kit from Simply SIPS, which gives an insulated 8x12' kiosk faced with OSB3, with a 5ft wide doorway for £1335. 97mm SiPs with U value of 0.3. Thicker panels not required as it is not designed for full day occupation in winter. Need to fetch it from Spalding - allow £100. 2 - Doorway. I will pay between about £600 and £800 for a custom made and fitted PVCu door and glass side panel to a pair of French doors for that gap, including locks and fitting, with a U-value of 1.5 or so. 3 - Base. Either 2" concrete slabs - £1 per square foot = £100, or 2" concrete slabs on Adjustable Support Pads which will allow me to adjust things after it is built if anything moves by changing the heights. 25 support pads ~ £100. 4 - Rainscreen Cladding. Box section plastisol coated corrugated at £10 per sqm including overlaps. Area required for walls ~ 25sqm => £250. Trims and special screws and things add £100 => £350. 5 - If I choose to batten out the corrugated for air circulation then approx 50 CLS length at £1.80 each => £90 plus £10 for bits and pieces ~ £100. Or 125m of roofing lath 30p per metre ~ £50. May be a better option as this is tanalised. 6 - Roof. It comes with a 1:40 fall towards the back. EDPM membrane. Say £150 including adhesive and trims etc. 7 - Captain Belt 'n' Braces may suggest a breathable membrane round the walls under the battens. 25sqm => not very much to buy. So for the groundworks and the building we are now at £2750 or so. In addition and not included: 8 - Electricity supply requiring FCU and switch in house, then about 2m of armoured cable, garage CU for lights, a ring main to power 3/4 double sockets, a small water heater, potentially a small fan heater for short periods, and a ventilation fan. Need a real electrician as it is for a rented house. 9 - A path down the side. 10 - A privacy fence across the front. 11 - 2 men approx 2 days to build it. 12 - I hope to build it such that it can be easily dismantled and relocated. The only fly I have in the ointment is, I think, that I need to watch the height carefully wrt permitted development. Ferdinand

Install those black acoustic dampening sponges inside, and return to the womb. Vertical box section corrugated would bend round it. Assuming it is only oval on plan, and not like that egg-boat that George Clarke featured. Is that the budget I can hear flying off into the distance making squawking noises? . (Hotlinking the Daily Mail ... sweet revenge.) I would incite you to try covering the egg in those gold mosaic ceramic tiles, but only from 250 miles away.

I am currently applying for a Change of Use for a business premises, and down here our local MP has been very supportive as it is a new local startup. The one thing the MP said was that they can help use, but we need to be *very* clear about exactly what we need, and ideally to show that it will fit in with the grain of local policy (which makes it easy for the Council to find a way to help us). ie specific not general request, even if informed by evidence from elsewhere.

Comment on the RV. What happens if you make them agricultural? Eg sheep? More generally, given your profile and 1000 Huts etc and how the SG have been facilitating it (?) is there not an opportunity for an embarrassing media campaign against either local or national govt? Doesn't Carbeth have 'national symbol' status, as if they were threatening the existence of the first football club or to cut down the Major Oak or the Tolpuddle Martyrs Tree? Get the MP or MSP on board? Put forward a petition to the Holyrood Petitions Committee about the excessive valuation of vacant hut plots? Online petition? Ferdinand

The insurance may be bundled or added to the bundle if you ask. It is generally a more than proportional benefit to go 1 or 2 sizes up from a micro-digger of the type that fits through your front door. The first time I had a digger I went for a 1.5 tonne, and did not regret it. It is absolutely essential - or that is what you tell the management - to have a day at Diggerland first to make sure you can handle it safely. Think carefully about whether a digger or digger + driver is the better option. Digger + driver will do 2 or 3x your work if you are new, but you will miss out on the fun. Delivered is probably a better option than self-collect. If you know a man with a JCB (perhaps a farmer or smallholder) that can be a very inexpensive and productive option. "How far do I think this can be leaned before it falls over" games are very tempting (were for me), but on balance not worth the risk. Particularly do not drop it into a hole you just dug ... that would go viral. And enjoy having one. Ferdinand

@lizzie Hope you are still reading this thread. Just a note to think carefully about the future of your concrete slab and what you put in there. Even if staying as a patio I would run a couple of ducts to convenient corners and leave voids under a couple of tiles they run to (think about support), which means that you can set up power for eg patio lights later without extensions, or should you put a garden pavilion or conservatory (some can go straight on a slab) on it later you have infrastructure routes in place. Also it could be a good place to put any extra insulation sheets left over (or rubble). Both are probably cheaper than concrete. And a membrane - cheap to do and useful later if you need. There will be a happy medium somewhere. F

I will be doing this to my new garden building (which is actually a utility for a T - and will have electric (garage cu, mini ring main with approx 3 doubles - not cut into tiles, light, single room hr ventilator), water, drainage - so I am interested. Is there a reliable way to keep moisture out of the end of a duct for say a decade or two? What is a good price for say 25mm blue hdpe pipe to use as a ducting? I am guesstimating: 1 - 25m - £1 per metre 2 - 50m - 70-75p per metre 3 - 100 or 150 - 50-60p / metre. Seems more unavailable over 150m, so presumably that is forklift territory. All I know is you buy as big a thing as can be handled and will be required for the next 5 years, and have a big shed. Ferdinand

Perhaps we had better not introduce pan-tiles into this conversation :-) (Runs away to make London Fog cocktail to hide in).

3.05x4.29m = £2059 ex works inc VAT (Spalding) That gets you the insulated box and everything to fit it together. They probably have some design flexibility if you ask. Simeon is easy to talk to. Prices and details http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Insulated-Garden-Studio-Office-Room-Pod-DIY-Self-Build-Kit-Bespoke-SIPs-Panels-/222302350517 Ferdinand

I will be doing one thing of these garden rooms in August for the prep and later for the building. Wil start a shed or a blog. Price is up to 1335 but still good.

Is there anybody out there who still puts sockets in tiles? Just asking...

My kitchen has no coats in it, either. Except paint!

It has been tiles as a backing edge or splash back and (lots of) sockets above. Ferdinand

It was a bit I took out of my earlier post ... I would use sockets with dimensions of close to exact multiples of the tile spacing. I think that means avoiding doubles. This is ia splash back, so sockets may not be involved. Inthe last couple of kitchens I have done, I simply keep the sockets out of the tiles. Too much buggeration - snd I do not think the design suffers particularly. But I am the management . F

Cheers

The tiles are only one inch x 2 inches, so I don't see that for a splash back (?)

Is there a dust-like fire risk from those paint particles as they solidify in the air? Probably a silly question, but better asked.

@Stones Invert the problem and procure some of the 25mm x 25mm samples to fill in the gaps instead? Does that also give you the nice edge to the individual tiles rather than a cut? https://www.mosafil.co.uk/sample-glass-mosaic-tiles-temple-white-25x25x4mm.html That is not quite the right version of white, but they must have them surely? They seem to cost about £2.20 for 6. As far as I can see, you could actually use a contrasting colour as you would need them all the way down the vertical edges, to give a boundary zip. Or have I missed something obvious? Add: Think these are the right ones (?): https://www.mosafil.co.uk/sample-ceramic-mosaic-tiles-white-glossy-25x25x4mm.html Ferdinand

Can you not use a normal diamond cutting wheel of a tile cutter, of the sort that are around £90 from SF or Wickes? http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-erb337tcb-750w-tile-cutter-230v/34771

@lizzieHow much height do you have to add with your concrete base?