Kelvin

Our duct is bigger than 32mm, has two significant bends and it’s 28m from the kiosk to the house. It was a pia to pull the 35mm2 through and took us a few goes at it.

Regardless of size I need to get planning permission anyway. It’s a condition of our original planning approval.

I elected not to fit PV panels to my standing seam roof for a few reasons. It’s a nice looking thing so didn’t want to spoil the look. I didn’t want the fire risk. I didn’t want any penetrations through the roof. I didn’t want it damaged. I had read about them coming off or the roof lifting off in high winds and we are in an exposed location. Fortunately I have the space to ground mount them.

We used DiY online kitchens for the utility room and a Scottish based company for the main kitchen who manufacture the kitchens in Scotland (although they also do a German brand) There’s a definite quality difference between the DiY online kitchen and our main kitchen but it’s still pretty good. There was a problem with the finish on two of the doors which they replaced really quickly. We had a few difficult install problems with our main kitchen but because they built their own units it was easy enough to fix other than the delay. We did get a quote for a handmade kitchen and it was a similar price. Our main kitchen was £27k fitted including stone worktop, Quooker, sink, and all appliances. The DiY online kitchen was £2500 including a solid oak worktop, sink and taps. I fitted the utility room kitchen and the main kitchen supplier fitted that.

Looks terrific. Well done them. As you know I looked at that steading when it was derelict so I can see how much has changed. As I recall it seemed to come with a free car. 😂

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You pay them there’s a high likelihood they won’t come back so you don’t pay them. Can you prove their guy damaged the doors? If not, they might, not unreasonably, how do we know you didn’t damage them. You really ought to have raised this immediately after the damage was done.

I’m not convinced ignorance should ever be an excuse for a professional. I used to drum it into my team (IT professionals) if you don’t know then you don’t know and it’s ok to say you don’t know because there will be someone else that does know. Very early on in our build, just after we had submitted planning, the architect was pushing me to engage a QS. They had one they recommended to people. I had two conversations with him and he succeeded in winding me up on both occasions. I could not get a rough estimate out of him for the finished house. He even scoffed at my very suggestion of a bottom middle top cost/m2, and said it was a schoolboy error to even ask it.

Yes I’ll need to submit a variation. The architect submitted an incorrect drawing for the house too that sneaked past into the warrant approval. It’s nothing significant as it’s the position of the utility room window and the side of the front door the vision panel is on so I would have had to submit a variation anyway.

All good advice but regardless they are saying it’s now going to cost double the original estimate. How can a professional who does this for a living and has access to up to date costs plus data from other work be so far out? Either something significant has changed in the design, a lot of time has gone by from the original estimate, they made a mistake, incompetence, or sharp practice. You need to break it down into its component parts and start getting quotes and figure out what you can do yourself (albeit you then need to factor in time) You need to make some decisions on quality/cost engineering such as what are the expensive elements that are nice to haves vs they are integral to what you absolutely want. Can you achieve the look, design, or performance in a different way. From reading the forum these last three or four years most of us end up having to do that anyway. My main example of that is we wanted the garage to be a mini version of the house which is what the planning approval is for. However, once we got started it was quickly very clear that it was going to cost far too much money. A tiny part of me regrets not doing it however.

So was ours. My point is more that there are better alternatives. At the very least they ought to discuss these decisions with you as in why this type over that type. When I questioned it with my architect he just said they always specify Klargester and they weren’t aware of the other systems. The only reason I became aware of the options and potential issues with a Klargester type system is I visited the NSBRC in Swindon. They have a section on treatment plants and a cut away Biodisc so you can see how it works. As soon as I saw that I immediately thought what happens if that fails, someone is in there trying to fix it and that someone was going to be me!

The professionals seem to specify a Klargester by default. Ours did the same. I changed it to the Graf One2Clean system. You do need to get approval from SEPA which is as easy as filling in a form and sending them the technical details of the treatment plant you intend using.

Oh and congrats @saveasteading on getting there. Given I did actually see it before the renovation work started I know how much work was needed.

Ah right. I may have mixed up the detector and separate head unit. Ours are integrated and at 144cm. I cut the holes for them so that might be just good luck but more likely under instruction from the electrician.

It doesn’t specify as far as I can remember other than it must be hard wired, easily visible, not covered up, not at the head of the bed, not in corners, good airflow. There are other guidelines about what it displays and how it’s displayed. It also shouldn’t have an alarm as folk will switch them off. We also fitted one in the smaller guest bedroom and the peak reading is much higher. https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/advice-and-guidance/2017/11/building-standards-domestic-ventilation-supporting-guidance/documents/building-standards-domestic-ventilation-supporting-guidance-version-2.1-november-2017/building-standards-domestic-ventilation-supporting-guidance-version-2.1-november-2017/govscot%3Adocument/Building%2Bstandards%2Bdomestic%2Bventilation%2Bguidance%2C%2BNovember%2B2017.pdf

The one we have is by Deta. Hardwired. It only lights up when you press the button and it’ll cycle through 8hr average, 24hr average, and 24hr peak. It will display Green, Amber, or Red depending on the level of CO2 detected. Currently showing 24hr peak.

Only if you use it over the winter. I don’t tend to use the outside tap much through the winter so shut it off and drain the water out of it.

This is annoying with some window suppliers who don’t have a list of accredited installers. It was the same with some of the roofing suppliers I contacted.

Are there any super airtight houses that don’t have MVHR and ventilate via other means?

There was an Eco Hub community centre in the village we used to live in that had rainwater harvesting. It worked well enough for them (in dry Cambridgeshire) but the grey toilets were a bit off putting. They did also have quite a lot of trouble with their plumbing too.

My wife was keen on rainwater harvesting. I wasn’t. It just seemed to add a degree of complexity and something else to worry about it and maintain. Had we built a house in a dry part of the UK then maybe but not in Perthshire. I reckoned it would just be better if we reduced our water usage.

My focus was air tightness and to get as low as I could (0.44) The consequence of that is you need MVHR. Therefore the payback was irrelevant. However the atmosphere in the house is very pleasant and fresh. The system is very quiet and low maintenance. In Scotland you have to fit CO2 monitors in the master bedroom. Background levels are around 450ppm although seen it much lower and it peaks at 750ppm over night with two people.

Yes but leave it for now and see if it does indeed freeze just keep a beady eye on it.

Neat job but I agree with Terry. That’s still going to freeze. You would have had to cut it slightly short of the trunking and insulate it to the end of the pipe or, as suggested, continue it into the ground and insulate to ground level. My water pipe comes out of my borehole in free air then down into the ground. I intended backfilling the area around it with earth which would have covered the pipe and stop it from freezing. However to do that required some landscaping so I never got around to it last year. Instead I insulated the pipe as best I could with a very slight bit of pipe left exposed. This worked until we had several days of -5°C and it eventually froze. This year I backfilled with earth as originally planned and it’s been fine so far. I’ve also fitted a heated cable down the ducting which I’ve not had to use yet.

We don’t get so many midges our side of the hills even by the Lochs