Ferdinand

There seem to be a surprising number on Autotrader. http://caravans.autotrader.co.uk/used-caravans/static

Round soffits are about £3.50 for a pack of 10 from Screwfix :-). Ferdinand

Call an engineer under warranty ?

The approach my father used with out 50mm farm track type drive was to buy a 10 ton load of gravel every decade and accept that in the meantime it would spread and eventually sink into the mud. Very cost effective, but not the way I would do it. Ferdinand

Hmmm. Off the wall, but can you use the stuff people here use for reinforcing the driven-on areas of their sites for part of the drive? Are they available secondhand and what do they cost? F

If it is on a hill and in the back of beyond, do you need to think about grip? Cross ribbed concrete (ie finished with a plank) might be better for ice and snow, perhaps? That is provided there is a cross-fall on it. If you save on the budget can you put a more interesting and practical finish on the concrete? Ferdinand

Does anyone have views / experience for a choice of materials and build suggestions for paths to a front door to be resilient to snow 'n' ice? More a general question brought on by taking the dustbin out on a frosty morning and an 80 year old person in the house than an urgent need. Finishes that I have around my house include Pressed Council slabs, gravel and aggregate-exposed concrete. Of those: Council Slabs are an elevated patio on adjustable rises, and is very well drained but perfectly flat so sometimes gets ice puddles. Gravel is perfect but more difficult for eg wheelchairs. Exposed aggrgate concrete looks OK and drains well as it has a fall, and is good until conditions become a little more extreme. Ferdinand

The turquoise light suits the bar stool design rather well, there.

Thanks for the comments. From the top @curlewhouse I have used 8mm Rawlplugs flagged as Heavy Duty. Drilled into brick. I *might* add a bead of hard setting sealant round the edge to make it slightly more difficult. IMO anchor bolts would be overkill. @AliG Thanks for your research. I think the issue with electronic keylocks etc for me is that a new door or work to the door gets involved, and it is still possible to lose the card. The Sugust one seems to not be compatible with multipoint and perhaps upvc. There are combination products such as the Yale, but I am not convinced yet. @ProDave The spare key option loses feasibility once one gets into a number of callers. Potentially we will have cleaner, nurse, LA checkupper etc. @jamiehamy Hmmm. Could work. @Tennentslager In the end I have gone with by the doorway, but only visible once you enter the porch. We actually had 3 houses down the road broken into last new year; as a No Through Road it is very quiet and only slightly lit, despite being a former country lane close to the town centre. A month ago our immediate neighbour (while house up for sale) had their bay window lead stolen. @PeterW, @TerryE I went for *this* one from Screwfix, which is the high end of their range at £39.99: http://www.screwfix.com/p/master-lock-reinforced-combination-key-safe/58460?kpid=58460 If it went, swapping out the lock barrels (we are keyed alike on our main external doors) could be done in 15 minutes. Ferdinand

I am fitting a keysafe so that a) the cleaner can get in and b) there is a key in case mum loses her key. Two questions: 1 - What do you think about siting a keysafe. I can see 2 principles a - Make it not obvious so that it can't be found easily by people wanting ro break in. b - Make it somewhere you look every time you leave so that if it has been tampered with it is obvious. 2 - Is there anything that can be put into a hole bofore a Rawl Plug to make it more difficult to lever out? What do members think? Ferdinand

Bought 3 of these sets. Done a little masonry and brick drilling. Excellent.

One of the skills you will need is how to meet onerous conditions easily, and how to demonstrate that you can meet it to the Council without being too heavily detailed as to the implementation. Otherwise you could find yourself pulled up because you have specified a detail when your actual solution is just as good but not what you said. They may accept a gentle circumlocution which reduces to "this condition will be met if the circumstances occur". You need to keep your autonomy and build a cage for yourself. There are a few examples around. For example @JSHarris met the wheel washing facilities condition on a one house build in a country lane by putting a term for delivery drivers to check that their wheels were clean. More detail in the blog entry here: http://www.mayfly.eu/uncategorized/part-ten-out-of-the-ground/ Ferdinand

Yes. And I would expect the RIBA Standard Agreement to be worded to give the architect the ability to have control which is why the small print is critical. (Though in a consumer situation a clause may not be enforcible if not sufficiently clearly explained to the non-expert party, as Credit Card companies and Landlords keep discovering). But I can't post it here a) because it costs money to access and b) because were I to pony up my £47.50 I assume I only get a License to Use rather than License to Republish on Buildhub, though I could probably post the relevant clause under the Criticism and Review exception to Copyright I mentioned above. @Sensus I think that brings us back to most self-builders not being property developers or serial builders, who would already know a lot of the background stuff having walked into legal and planning lamp-posts on previous occasions. (Which is partly why this forum is required ). Anyhoo, around here Riber is a former zoo near Matlock. Ferdinand

@PeterW @Sensus beat me to it. His link here references Meikle vs Maufe of 1941. I think the relevant concept is that the Copyright in a "work of artistic craftmanship" includes the control of how it is used, and you buy a license to use a design rather than a lock stock and barrel transfer of ownership. Even if you engage an architect, that copyright remains with the Artist ie the Architect, unless there is explicit provision for transferring those rights of control (and also the right to be identified as the artist etc) in the contract. A comparison with photographs may help. If I buy a photo from say Alamy, under traditional terms, I buy a license to use the photo in a particular way eg in a brochure, A5 on an inside page, with a circulation of 10,000. If I want a print for my foyer I have to get another license. If I even purchase the negative from the photographer I still don't get the right to publish the picture unless I have also bought the relevant image rights with the negative. This lasts until the architect has been dead for 70 years iirc. Aside: This is why museums ban high qualiy pics of their Old Masters physically ("no tripods") because there would then be no way of limiting people who started selling posters, since Leonardo is dead for >70 years. So the designer's copyright includes control over how that design is used, and any use beyond that envisaged in the initial contract counts as a further use which needs a further agreement. If the designer is employed by a practice rather than contracted there will be some words in the contract of employment, which will probably give @Sensus and his Partners or the Company itself control of certain of the rights his minions receive automatically under Copyright Law when they design a house. Meikle vs Maufe illustrates the outworking of that concept in the Courts: There is a wonderfully clear (!) legal commentary on the SWARB site (assume this is where @Sensus got the quote from), which talks about License to Use rather than Ownership: http://swarb.co.uk/meikle-v-maufe-1941/ I would need also to dig for stuff about where "reasonability" limits these rights etc. Ferdinand

Exceptions to copyright law are also important, as compared to "use" of copyright material which is an infringement. We all have the right to reproduce copyright material for private study or research, or for criticism or review (write an article on your blog :-). "Works of artistic craftmanship" on permanent public display are also exceptions to copyright protection, so if you photograph a mosaic in the pavement you are probably OK making postcards of it for sale. Good source is the Design and Artists Copyright Society factsheets: https://www.dacs.org.uk/knowledge-base eg https://www.dacs.org.uk/knowledge-base/factsheets/exceptions-and-limitations However, architectural arguments will be about the copyright that exists in the *design of the building* as well as the one that may exist in the buidling itself. I would not like to argue this with a copyright lawyer, but would be happy defending myself against a hectoring critic using it as they would need to spend money to take it further. There was a time a few years ago when Local Authorities went flappy about letting people have copies of plans on copyright grounds (had the RIBA circulated a missive?), and started using lots of popup boxes on website, but that seems to have gone away more recently. IIRC I saw a few FOIs refused on those grounds. Obviously designers and lawyers sending letters will pretend that all kinds of acceptable activities are infringements, but that is what lawyers are for and why we have courts to draw the lines. Equally I would as a user probably go a little over the line the other way. F

@Sensus: I have some sympathy with that, and I think the same applies to the term "self-builder". There is no typical architect or self-builder, and the ground each may need to cover is so great that we cannot expect that. It is not reasonable to expect any architect from the phone book or the local large practice to understand say the intricacies, how to use, and availability of types of oak frame or self-cleaning curtain wall glazing or CLT vs Timber Frame for a 4 storey house on a site on Gigalum Island; we can reasonably expect them to have the knowledge of how to find it out, and capability to make a sound judgement once they have found out, and experience/professionalism to refer us somewhere else if appropriate. Equally self-builders might be the person building a timber frame house starting, as Harvey Jones quipped of Morgan, with the standing tree and who learns how to shear the local sheep they have russled to make insulation for 4p per tonne. Or they could be a well-off person who just wants a Gin Palace with a swimming pool, who may be interested in the internal texture of his Quoins or just wants to move in asap. Or they could be a turbo-DIYer expanding their scope. There is a spectrum. The key skills on both sides are probably communciation and listening. Which is what we are about on this thread. In quantity, perhaps, but as far as I can see ALL of the longlisted houses in the RIBA House of the Year could be described as self-builders - people building or modifying their own houses. Perhaps one issue is misunderstanding of roles. And negotiating expectations and establishing particular roles and recognising what those are is perhaps the thing easiest to miss, especially as self-builders doing one or two projects may not recognise the vast zoology of architects out there - it is no use having a Hummingbird architect if you actually need a Termite Queen. Personally I think of the RIBA as being rather pompous, or (more colloquially) a little "up themselves" - the quintessential establishment. That is a view I share with several architects known to me. I think they would be more approachable after a few years were their headquarters to move to say Burnley, Haverford West or Cumbernauld. i am not sure if that is much different from eg the main membership organisation for Actuaries, but we see the products of architects every day when we leave our beds or our front doors whilst in our relationship with actuaries either us or them are dead by the time we discover it was a dud. That House of the Year is limited to "architect designed" is a good illustration of that somewhat pompous tendency imo. There's something Barchester Chronicles about it. I have views about the architect I would employ: 1 - I value people who put their money where their mouth is, so I would hope for someone who built or modified their own house and is able to communicate their rationale to me or talk about projects in that way. 2 - I expect my views in the areas I know about to be given equal weight. 3 - For the main part I prioritise practicality / pleasantness to live in, long term maintanability, simplicity and cost-effectiveness over artistic expression. But that does not rule out attractiveness, just white elephants. 4 - I would expect to see experience similar or adjacent to the project(s). Were I wanting a very effective 100sqm rental bungalow on a 250qm site I would not recruit Zaha Hadid or Calatrava; I would look for the person who designed the one built round the corner three years ago that the inhabitent likes living in.. 5 - I would expect to kiss several frogs to find my prince. But then one of my frogs could be somebody else's prince, as we are all varied frogs ourselves. 6 - As Client I get the final say having listened carefully, and specifically given my architect the right to challenge vigorously. I would hope to be billed monthly on the basis of time spent, to have the full electronic model, and a right for that design to be used on that site without further supply of spondulicks. But I have been around architects for a long time and worked in the commercial side of construction research for some time so can to an extent talk constructionese nearly as well as I talk gibberish. It is a similar dilemma to hiring an architect :-). A web designer has combine practicality and a limited selection of technology from umpteen options have to be combined with satisfying a client who does not understand all the areas (eg latest practice in accessibility design, video technology, online copyright law, traffic analysis etc) while being a designer with a desire for artistic expression (and probably higher fees than architects :-o ). I would be fascinated to hear how this goes. Ferdinand

There are some ideas there, but so many that it is not clear what he really wants. And I think it is perhaps unfortunate that the input has come from a smallish, rather expensive, house builder. The numbers are way off imo and should be doable for 70% of that even if we like the scheme and even in The Islands. Running through his house wizard gave me a build cost of 195k for a 136sqm WH202 house, which is a trad 1.5 storey rendered double fronted house with 3 beds and 2 dormers and an extra room at one end.that is standard not posh spec with them building it. Compare with a conversation on GBF a couple of weeks ago where a chap is building passive houses in lots of 4 or so at a cost of 90k each not incl. plot. THese are pairs of 3 story semis at 100sqm ea. Link http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14688&page=2 The closest I can find for HebHaus is 160k though detached. Basically 50% more for a lower spec product, allowing 25k for the detached over semi. A crude comparison, but that difference is not absorbed by location costs and extra things included if any. CLT is interesting, but not afaik particularly enviro-friendly over the lifecycle - about 15% better than trad concrete frame. The scheme seems to be a big government factory and giving houses away to lucky groups. That is a recipe for wasting a lot if money imo, and there are better schemes possible. There already exist LA supported mortgage schemes in England. Do they in Scotland? I could see the benefit of extending Help to Buy style schemes to self build. The timber frame idea seems good as it is weatherproof quickly. But then crofting etc is a little unique and may justify subsidies etc. I wonder if a specialist Housing Association would be a way with shell and basics provided on a leasehold or rented plot and sweat equity for part of it? Needs a custom designed scheme perhaps. Knowing a little about the Scottish landscape, I could see standard house type kits working as there are well defined vernacular styles. Staying off negative equity and market prices this time. Ferdinand

The old PM rule: cost increases x10 for each stage later in the project it is corrected. The old book to read: The Mythical Man Month. F

Welcome @Simplysimon Not planning extensive comments, however: 1 - It feels short on garages to me. 2 - That is a hell of a lot of circulation space. Do your corridors need to be that wide? To me a 1.4m wide passage is neither one thing nor t'other. The space could perhaps be better used in the downstairs shower room and utility. Perhaps others have opinions of living with corridors of that width - good or bad? 3 - I am not clear on the dead space between the kitchen and garage. What is it for? Is it outside the thermal envelope? I might be tempted to make it a cool pantry / wine room with a door for your produce, or put the boot room there. 4 - Is the front door prominent enough? With a house that size, and listening to @ProDave's sales difficulties on a large house in Scotland documented elsewhere, I would want to give some careful thought to exit strategy - whether for you in a few years or 20 years. Will you have difficulty selling it? Presumably the local market is different to Inverness, but for a 230sqm house consider: Personally I would try to make the plan such that it could be turned into a pair of semis with ease (see how some barn conversions do it without feeling like a suburb), provision for full separate facilities downstairs for when you are in your dotage etc, or for use as a B&B (all double bedrooms etc), or as a let. Not because you will need it , but because that will give you plans B C and D with no downside if you do it now. Ferdinand

Yes. The windows that came out of my cottage are now cold frame covers. Ferdinand

@TheMitchells I don't know about timing, but the two threads I started are. To me they seem to be quite random. 1 - Things you can use to get discounts which is pinned in the "Other" forum. 2 - Current offers, which is not pinned and floats back up when someone notices something and remembers:

WHat did that? Heat, electricity, or mechanical?

WHat about one of those trad rotary potato peelers driven off a drill?

If the past is anything to go by, the DVLA might assume you have one and issue a preemptive ticket, at the wrong address, then blame you for not receiving it, then crush your car anyway. When SORN came in they issued then withdrew 1 million+ tickets over a 4 year period iirc, which was 20% plus. Would trailers and caravans be a model of the different principle where they create a record and yadda yadda yadda. IIRC trailers on the continent have their own separate existence and are identified by the bureaucracy. There was some concession required for Brits towing their non-individually-registered caravans to be able to tow within the EU. Ferdinand

That is a *superb* idea.