Jenki

+1 Do this^^^^^^^.. Before living in the Highlands, I would have read this response and thought that's a bit overkill. I read this now and feel the earned experience of Highland living flowing through the advice.🤣

Good example of this in Scotland, we now have a "Short term let Licence" (TAX) for B&B / AirBNB properties etc. The licencing officer gave me his card. He was the area Bereavement officer, point of contact for Births, Deaths and Marriage and now Short Term Let Licence Officer.

I put a KuWfi link (wireless bridge) in for a neighbour to share his Broadband to his rental cottage 300M away, works fantastically. Only issue is power cuts as sometimes the handshake is lost and needs the slave switching on 30 secs after the master. I'll use the same to run a Lambing camera into the barn later this year.

I built another building for Washing / dryer / power. This is now the amenity block for the cabins we rent out. Storage is the main issue on site, especially when weather is inclement, so as @Russell griffiths says go big with the shed. I managed to be out of the static in 16 months before the second winter, but keeping the wet clothes etc out (we didn't manage this) would be essential. We went cheap on the static, for budget reasons and motivation, I wanted to a reason to get up and get out, and for us it worked. I wanted my build up and done ASAP, We were building it ourselves full time so that was the choice we made, the static was a place to eat, wash, and get our head down. Be realistic with the reality especially if you are dependant on other people.

I used Grass seed store, you can get bulk qty for acres if needed. You can get some wild flower, clover options. All good for Bees and you don't mow some through summer which has to be as bonus 😉

For the driveways I'd be tempted to put them on a firm base, possibly concrete but only to the base level, or a flag stone. I would back fill all of them with pea gravel, or where I am quarry dust. If you ever need to dig them up you'll regret throwing in random stones. Make sure you get your levels and falls sorted. The main flow should enter the bottom of the channels, as the branches are usually higher.

It's doing what it's designed to do. Film won't work, I've built a few, too late but if livestock were going in .I.e. lambing or poultry you can use Opel sheets. Other option is to cut some windows in either end you'll definitely need cross ventilation. Mine is in the Highlands, 12deg outside can see mid 20's inside

Any warm air at all would have been luxury for our 18 month sentence 😜

Is used sap4u, I think that's the name. An online service. I paid around £120 for the design SAP, and it was £50 to produce the as built. I paid a little more for the as built as I changed from timber frame to ICF. They wanted photos showing details as well as info from the ICF supplier.

Expanding PU glue all the way. And loads of it. All edges, even cut edges, and joists. Depending on the set time I also use ratchet straps to squeeze the joints tight. Once dry the glue can be scraped of the floor where it has oozed from the joints. I used egger protect on my projects, with their own glue and you get a solid, water proof, hard surface floor. Rolls Royce solution. The glue expands and fills any unevenness and you end up with a flatter floor, solid and no squeaks, now or in the future.

You don't mention your location, so assume not Scotland. For a detailed reply we need to know the dimensions, current floor make up, height between current build stage and FFL any. Details you have will help with a solution. What U value do you need to achieve?

As @Dave Jones says extensions are different, and you can often offset deficiencies in one area with increases in others..I think your renovating a terrace? So EWI is not an option? The mantra of insulate and improve air tightness still applies. Design the small space efficiently (built in furniture/ bespoke furniture etc) to see if you can shrink the area to accommodate more insulation. Will 150 / 200mm make that much difference? Drawings and spec of the space usage may help with some ideas.

Being on site is a must to keep an eye on quality, timekeeping and being around to solve issues that occur can ensure the specification, quality and financial implications are all weighed correctly. We went full immersion as this was also a lifestyle change, wife leaving work, setting up a holiday rental, livestock etc Our budget was tiny, so the cheapest option for 'living' was essential and a fixed cost of accommodation (static) helped with the budget. Good luck whichever way you go.

We lived in a very end of life static, North Highlands, and coastal. It was sh*te- 2 floods, frozen water 3 times, -5 inside, ice on the inside of the windows ... But I would have only done it this way. Ours was a self build in its truest sense, all work carried out by us with little help. The accomodation provided all the motivation needed when times were tough. A lot of the time in winter it was warmer in the build than the caravan. We both signed up for the "experience" so never argued about it, we moaned a lot..now it's just a fleeting memory a part of the project. Hopefully we will bid a fond farewell (good riddance) to the static this summer.

😲.£18 k for drawings plus structural they are having a 😂.

Mines 90sq m, materials around 4.5k max that's Samsung ASHP, controller, cylinder, pipe work, UFH pipe, manifold all hot and cold fitting and pipe.amd electrical supplies. I spent a lot of time hunting stuff down, eBay etc for surplus stock

But your looking at this for one job, he's a plumber doich.ng 10/ 20 jobs a Month. Every invoice he raises he adds 20% vat to his labour, so in this one instance he would have a shortfall say 2k, but on the other say 30 days at say£250/day he will add £60 vat / day so £1800 and any extra for the uplift of supplying materials this sits in the account or a superate Vat account until he pays the HMRC. So no issues. If switched on he would probably get the supplier to zero rate for him. Plus the goods on account won't be paid for for 60 days. It's just how it works. And back to @JohnMo point, which ASHP is £10k

I didn't do any new builds when VAT registered, but did a remodel for a person with disabilities. He gave me a number for VAT exemption, a quick chat with the accountant confirmed I just zero rated the invoice. When I produced the invoice I used 0% for the vat field, similar to the 5% on certain items. Job done no issues, and yes I had to stand the several hundred quid until the vat reclaim. In reality this is not an issue, as you have a VAT pot as the majority of the time you are a tax collector and hand the VAT collected for labour over to HMRC.

Only issues I've run into, and it depends on the mesh size, is that when you get 4 layers of mesh getting a poker through all the mesh layers can be sometimes an issue. Also 40mm cover on top needs lots of support for the mesh or you may find its a lot closer to the top due to the mesh bending and doing what mesh does.

Any Subcontractors invoices for qualifying items will be zero rated. So I don't understand where the delays will be, they send you an invoice with no VAT - job done. You don't need to worry about those items, or their VAT returns.

The soffit H was worse than the real stuff. I've used both and would prefer to use the clear sections. My advice would be to remove the thin section of plastic on the sheets. By this I mean some sheets on the edge are cut in the middle of the cell. So I would trim these off back to the cell wall so it's solid along the edge, a small block plane would be ideal. Then some WD40 it needs two people,.i held the sheet in place with a ratchet strap The using cheap butter knifes works well to open the trim and slide the sheet in. start at one edge, and once started put a screw at the bottom far edge of the sheet,(away from the trim) to stop the sheet popping out.

you need to be able to see either the Tun dish, or the discharge point. you don't need to see both to be compliant.

Bit late to reply, but on here you read real world experience from well insulated, air tight homes. Unfortunately there are too many poor installs in properties not suitable. The BUS scheme is just another lobbied robbery scheme to make business owners rich with tax payers money or maybe well intentioned but poorly executed, but I lean to the former. Don't tell anyone😉 who will know?

Yes, and not without issues A large extension I built had a 600mm sewer at a depth of 6M across the corner of a proposed extension. United Utilities agreed to a build over, with a piled foundation, ( seems like a must as the ground is backfill). The customer needed a sewer camera survey before and after works, in my case the later was when the issues started as 1 pile cored the edge of the pipe. Luckily the piling contract was direct with the client and bypassing me. Stress full time.

MY view on this is similar to few others, I arranged a Kick-off site visit with My BCO, this for me has always been a way of getting a positive relationship with the BCO officer, in Scotland with the Warrant the work is very formalised anyway. My invitation was open the discussion similar to "I'm planning on doing X, Y, & Z over the next few weeks, do you want to see any certain aspects? want me to send photo's? etc. and an open offer to visit whenever they were passing. I have nothing to hide, their experience and help is more valuable than then turning up ad-hoc IMHO. This worked to my advantage on the build they did call in one day and I went through the progress, all good, then when It came to pouring concrete, They were unable to visit due to other commitments so I sent photos and moved on with no issues. IF I was a BCO, and the client got twitchy with me turning up, I'd be suspicious. If its purely Insurance etc, I'm sure that could be worked around with a site visitors book for signing in etc. @JWHIT "it also seems to be the case that because we are doing a fair amount of work ourselves, and not using any of the main island contractors, they have sparked a particular interest " My View on this is simple, they don't know you or the quality of your work, so for me it's up to you to A: help them understand your ability and quality - i.e. let them see your work, your passion for the quality etc, B: be cryptic, evasive with them, and expect them to look under every stone to make sure their happy with the progress.