Kelvin

I’ve had a few comments about the garage being so ‘massive’ and much bigger than how it was drawn and what people were expecting. Whereas it’s actually smaller and the ridge height lower than the planning drawings so much so I have to submit an amendment.

I used something similar that also let you do 3D renders. I did a combination of what @ProDave suggested and the 3D render. Both bathrooms worked out perfectly size and space wise.

Oh he definitely has was. I had two conversations with him about our build because Heb Homes are keen for people to use a QS. He managed to piss me off on both calls. He wanted £2500 to produce an order of costs. I was doing the groundswork so I had all the costs for that. It’s a timber kit with kit erection included plus the windows and all insulation. I had quotes for everything else except any extra timber and boarding materials so I had 90% of the costs in hand. With a straight face he said send me your spreadsheet and I’ll put it into my format and send it back to you for £2500 😂 I worked out that if we took his full service it was going to cost £12,000. Ridiculous.

Well, it all really depends on the architect. Our plot probably shouldn’t have got planning permission. The architect that achieved outline planning permission for it has a reputation for being very successful in achieving planning on otherwise difficult sites. Read into that what you will…

If I’ve learnt anything these last few years it’s that there’s no consistency with the LPA across councils and even within the same council. Too many decisions are based on the opinion of an individual rather than the strict application of their planning guidelines. They are also underfunded which isn’t helping them.

High cost doesn’t guarantee good work unfortunately! Inflation has only started recently coming back down to target levels but that’s just a slowing of price increases. People have gotten used to paying higher prices for stuff so the higher prices stick. No let up on demand for trades.

On the not being aware you had to point. My building warrant makes it clear that it’s an offence to occupy or use (although what does use actually mean) the building unless the appropriate approval certificate has been granted except where it’s a renovation. I assume every council warrant will say the same thing.

Depends on where you are. Where I am in Perth & Kinross trades are still in high demand. I need some landscaping done. There’s a company about half a mile away. Dropped by the other day to discuss it with them. They don’t have a free slot until next year. Same with fencers. I have friends that have been waiting for months to get their house finished as they just can’t get any trades to come and quote let alone do the work. As for materials. I found timber and sheet materials had come down in price and merchants willing to haggle a bit.

It’s mental. You’re told you have to fit these things but they are then not taking into account because you might sell the house to someone that doesn’t do any of the things you are doing like owning an EV.

The BCO regularly drove past the house as on his route. Illegal to move in without approval etc. He has been really easy to deal with so keeping him on-side made sense. That includes getting me out of a rather large hole the groundsworker caused me!

Reading between the lines it hadn’t got final sign off but they had been granted temporary occupancy. I was getting all this third hand from two builders so who knows so I suspect I didn’t have the full story. It’s why I was surprised when I applied for the temporary occupancy approval that it was initially rejected because they wanted the house completely finished as per the warrant given other houses I was aware of that had loads left to do compared to us. Different councils.

Quite. The various policies and departments aren’t joined up. Like almost every other parts of Government. It suits the council not to approve rural builds and promote more urban development. If we all lived in towns and cities they could cut all the services to the rural areas.

They set out to build as airtight as possible and fit MVHR so few penetrations through the walls, windows didn’t have trickle vents etc. They ran out of money so didn’t fit the MVHR and then started having condensation problems. This was the suggested solution from the QS of all people included breaking the window seals. Their intention was to get it back above three permanently not just to get it past BC. I’m sure I posted about this at the time. The kit erectors left my house to go to this house to make the necessary changes to get it above 3. They weren’t that happy about it but were doing what they were being told to do.

To some extent they are correct. Well they are clearly wrong insofar that they aren’t looking at the sustainability of the proposal as a whole including using an EV. But people do prefer to use a car, particularly if you live rurally, even if car usage is reducing across the population. We live rurally and have two reasonably sized towns a few miles away in either direction. Both are relatively well connected to Dundee and Perth. I can drive to Dundee in 30 minutes. I’ve tried using public transport and it took 90 mins door to door. I can drive to Edinburgh in about 90 mins but to use public transport it would take about 2.5 hours. I had a chat with the BCO about sustainability and rural living and he said that there is pressure on them not to approve houses in rural areas for similar reasons that you’re facing. They are also keen to see that people that live in the area also work in the area. But they don’t seem to appreciate the extent to which professional people are wfh so are, in fact, doing just what they want. As far as what might change if (when) labour get in. This will be a slow long drawn out process I expect.

The builder told me that they’d been in the house a year before putting holes in the building so already had a condensation problem and early signs of mould. Pretty awful situation. If that wasn’t bad enough they had employed a QS at great expense and still ran out of money. It was his suggestion to put holes in the building.

Yep and I know of people who have ‘purposely’ achieved slightly higher than 3 to avoid putting it in. The consequence of this requirement in Scotland is if you make any reasonable attempt at air tightness you’ll be below 3 so therefore you’re better to do it properly and aim for below 1 or plan to be above 3. I was told of a situation where someone achieved just over 1, couldn’t afford the MVHR system as had run out of money so put holes in the building to get it back above 3.

In my limited experience the planners aren’t massively interested in how highly efficient a particular house is as long as it meets building regs. Our final air tightness result was 0.44 and the building control officer wasn’t that interested. I doubt he’ll have seen many houses lower than this in his career.

They are very long. The trailer I bought I sized to be able to fit a standard 2.4x1.2 sheet. Heras fencing is much longer. I got our 30 odd fencing panels delivered.

Sorry to hear about your loss. We lost our father-in-law suddenly during our build. He was an architect so it was a double blow that he never got to see the finished build. If your dream is to self-build rather than self-build on that specific plot don’t give up on it. We drove up to Scotland to look at one plot that I loved and was all in to buy but my other half, rightly, didn’t like it. We sat in a cafe licking our wounds and came across another plot that was nearby. Didn’t look much in the sales particulars but we went and had a look anyway and loved it and put an offer in that day. I subsequently retired (55), we sold up in Cambridge and moved to Perthshire. We move in to the house we built this weekend three years after walking onto the plot.

The plot looks terrific so well worth another go. I’d also still be looking for other plots however.

Our oak flooring is fitted upstairs on the Egger boards. However we were told by the supplier to wait until the RH in the house had stabilised before taking delivery of it. When it was delivered they wanted it delivered into the rooms it was being installed in and left wrapped. Our planks are 19mm thick. I can’t recall how thick the oak is though, 5mm maybe more. We had a dining table made locally from ash. The planks at each end have expanded by 4mm. The cabinet maker told us this would happen and to wait 6 months and he’ll re-finish it. It demonstrates how much wood can move.

Highly recommended for anyone with a problem wall. I had one problematic wall where the mist coat was bubbling up on application of the next coat. It was only happening in the bottom half of the vaulted ceiling wall. Either I applied the mist coat too soon or the second coat too soon. I’ve left this section as the last thing to sort out as I cba to deal with it. I sealed it with the Gardz stuff the other day and just applied the top coat of emulsion and it’s worked a treat.

Here it is:

OSB can be airtight enough for standard building regs testing. The concern, I think is the sheets can be a bit variable during production. When the walls are pumped with blown cellulose much of the airtightness comes from that. However OSB is vapour permeable so some people use a different board on the inside and OSB on the outside. There’s a very good thread on here on this very subject. I’ll try and find it.

They could have been buried beneath the screed. They are sometimes called joints but that’s the wrong term I think in this case as it’s not a joint.