Kelvin

Site loo costs have gone up since I negotiated my contract like everything else so it’ll likely be dearer than that. Just keep in mind if you decided to fit a loo in this garden room and use it as a site loo then it’ll have a load of different folk trudging in and out of it in all weathers during your build. Some folk have a different attitude to loo use than you might have… (my other half refused to use our site loo and it was kept pretty clean)

My other half told our friends that I have become a snagging pia. Apparently everywhere I go now I spot poor workmanship and bore her by pointing it out. The other week we were in John Lewis in Edinburgh. As we walked down the stairs from the car park I noticed that where the stair handrail returned back along the flight the angle hadn’t been cut correctly and the handrail stuck out 5mm from the next run of handrail. I only noticed it because I was running my hand down the hand rail and felt it.

If it’s oil then it’s easy to tell. Just pour a tiny amount of water on it. The water will be repelled by the oil compared to the non stained pavers. If you pour more on the patch you’ll likely see an oil film on the surface of the water. Oil is easy enough to remove with liquid soap or baking soda. As others have said it’s unlikely to be oil.

What about a composting loo. Nice and simple and no plumbing needed. If it’s just you using it then it won’t see a lot of use. The really dear versions will turn the waste into compost. The cheaper ones separate solids and liquids allowing the solids to dry out. You then empty them every week or so depending on use and size. Whatever you do, not entirely sure I’d use it as a site loo. Our site loo cost £105/month which included weekly cleaning/replenishment and we had it on-site for 9 months. It’s an extra cost but even if I had suitable alternative loo on-site I’d still have hired a site loo.

I’ve bought a lot of things at auction both agricultural and general. Luckily it’s all worked although I’m relatively handy at fixing stuff. It is a risk but my experience so far is positive. Stuff at auction will be well used but most of the mechanical stuff and engine based stuff seems well serviced especially if it’s come off a farm. What I tend to do is look at the cost of spare parts for the thing I’m interested in and see what’s the most likely part that might need replacing worst case or how much a professional service would cost. I factor that into the auction price.

This is the most noticeable thing. Our house was up a year before we installed the MVHR last month. Even though I’d been managing the humidity using dehumidifiers and opening windows etc and the house was pretty dry generally the MVHR unit completely changed the feeling of the atmosphere in the house. Most standard houses are full of cold bridges with no mechanical ventilation and average insulation and they generally don’t show any/much mould.

We did 1 fixed rooflight that is 1m x 1m over the hallway. It’s 3G with a protective glass cap. Ours is over the entrance hallway on the North elevation. Without it this would have been a dark corridor so glad we did it. It wasn’t too dear.

I did what @saveasteading describes. Filled the I with PIR in my case. I used expanding foam to reach the bits I couldn’t get into. Then faced with thin insulated cement board then the airtight membrane taped and sealed. I had a similar problem to you in that mine was fitted then closed. Fortunately I was able to open it back up again easily enough giving me access to most of it.

Yes ours is European and is marked both on the spacer bar and the glass.

You can insulate them using expanding foam or PIR. Bit harder to do on the opposite side. How big is the gap on that side? On the second picture, what’s the beam that runs perpendicular to the door sitting on?

I thought it was best practice to mix the blocks anyway

This happened at a previous place we lived with the common areas all blocked paved. They were all lifted and we mixed all the blocks up and relaid.

I would never buy or build a house that shares a private sewerage system or a private water supply. I also wouldn’t buy or build a house where either of those two things weren’t on land I owned.

83% of new builds in Scotland are timber framed.

Wife’s uncle lives in a Huf Haus. Stunningly well built. Build team were exceptional. The whole process from start to finish was slick and smooth. The only issue was with the foundation which the British did.

It should have a kite type mark on the inside pane like this. Excuse the dust as still sanding and painting 😭 Actually ours has that on both sides so that doesn’t help! All of our glazing units have a slight blueish/purple tinge on the outside pane which is presumably the Low E coating.

The biggest issue isn’t the technology. It’s all there to be used. It’s the awful standard of quality of too many of the trades who just don’t care. My experience has been bloody awful frankly. The UK builds pretty average houses that are poor value for money.

I started off using trades and have ended up doing much of the internals myself. I got sick to the back teeth of the unreliability, incompetence, and damage to our home by some of the trades we used. I’ve found the whole process frustrating, infuriating, and soul destroying at times. We are nearly done and I’ll never have another trade in my home ever again. So my advice do as much as you can yourself and only use trades where you are legally obligated to use them or you genuinely don’t have the skills.

Yes I’ve done that. The problem I am having is getting them to do anything once configured. I’ve not looked at it again so will figure it out.

I didn’t want to fix it electrically as it takes it out of Loxone. However, I’ve fixed it using a “mood” which switches the other lights in the room off and switches the bedside wall lights on which we can control with the integrated switch on the light.

Hard to say. You could try and put on another coat of paint with a roller on another part of the wall. If it’s really not adhering it will lift off. Alternatively ignore it until it becomes a problem. It might not.

Doesn’t look as if the top coat has adhered to the mist coat. Is it a waterproof type paint designed for kitchens/bathrooms? I have previously found those paints and the wipeable kind harder to work with and very susceptible to poor surface prep. I have a similar problem on the lower part of one wall about 2m wide. I mist coated everything over the coarse of a few days using Valspar Express Coat which doesn’t need to be watered down and can be used for fresh plaster. When I apply subsequent coats of paint it’s lifting the mist coat off the plaster in a few places. Everywhere else is fine. I waited for two weeks after the walls were plastered before painting and checked with my moisture meter. I also sanded the rough bits off every wall. But I can only assume that I missed this wall somehow and the plaster wasn’t fully dry or the surface was too shiny when I applied the mist coat. I’ve bought Gardz Surface sealer to hopefully address the problem. The challenge you’ll have with repairing is trying to sand it back to get a feather edge to repaint. What I had to do was sand the area back then fill it with a very thin layer of filler and sand that back.

Find somewhere to rent that’s much closer.

We didn’t bother with a temp supply either and went straight to a final supply in a GRP box. The issue we had was it took months to get the meter installed. Up until then I used our EV too. Worked really well.

Thanks. Very helpful. It’s a capacitive switch on the bedside switch. I spent 30 mins on config earlier as a break from painting and have set a few moods up and automated it a bit more.