Highland build

This looks amazing bitpipe.

wow the adhesive layer is much thicker than I'd imagined for tiling thanks @nod saw your post about Al Muriad and Rocia although I'm building in the highlands we've got family in Preston so might be worth a white van pick job. What size of tile is the biggest that a one man tiler could work with and for ease of handling, I've no idea of the weight of them want to make it an easy job.

What did you go for in the end @Ronan 1 and how did it work? I'm just trying to plan floor finishes on an insulated raft with UFH in the slab. So it first time build pm'ing for me first time groundworks conractor done a raft so I'm not confident enough for the slab to be the final floor finish can just see too many potential problems although I do love the polished concrete/microcement/resin floor look. So basically to ba;ance all the extra cost of the raft I defo don't want to be paying for any leveling screed I'm confident the groundworks guy can pour the slab to a tolerance +/- 3 so I want as little as poss ontop of that so if I've got a good level slab I'm thinking either adhesive tiles or amd not ruling out laminate engineered wood. Or a mix of both tiles porch hall bathrrom laminate/engineered wood other areas. Because i'm on a raft I'm trying to get my head around the thresholds of sliding doors (Nordan) the architect say they'll be 25mm above the strucural slab, so does that mean ideally i'm looking for a florr covering 25mm thick? @nod is this possible with tiles I obviously don't want an underlay or I just want layers that will radiate the UFH through the slab and through final floor finish?

this is very neat I's be happy with this!

this Graf seems to have the control panel i the box too so I think that 2/3 of the plastic box sticks up out of the ground and the aerator bit is under the ground with the pipe to blow the air into the tank. Possibly you might be able to bury the aerator bit and have the control panel in the plant I'll look into this @Barney12 Do you think having control panel remote from aerator would work? If not I'll accept the box sitting out next to the tank!

So I went for the Graf one2clean as it worked out a thousand pounds less and will be delivered to site. no faffing round with collection at a different address on a flat bed. My spreadsheet of costs will thank me for it. Just going to have to try and disguise the green plastic box housing the aerator and control panel! Thanks @jamieled jd pipes best price.

tried travis perkins they don't stock the conder anymore boo!

Its the conder solido 8PE I'm looking at, it's currently on offer until the end jan (so thats buy it on Monday or go with the Graf one2 clean), apparently prices are due to rise, tanks for everything, i think hold their stock in county durham and will deliver to most areas of Scotland free except Highland where we are! So its whether to get it delivered to a friend relative in a free postcode and then wrestle it onto a flat bed trailer and bring it up its 150kg a low dig profile one so apparently will go on a flat bed but ideally you would have a frontloader to offload which is no problem at this end but possibly not at the free delivery address on a residential street in Edinburgh ha ha. thanks @dpmiller thats good to know. Thanks @Barney12 those pics of the graf are really helpful, its where to put the separately housed aerator with the graf its a very open plot so difficult to disguise this/ house it. Yea its 5 m in Scoltand its infront and to the side of the house. I hadn't actually thought about the pipe stuck up out the ground with the conder that @SuperJohnG was worried about taking out with the ride on mower but I guess this pipe won't be as obvious ast the cabinet or a shed or hut for the graf aerator. Hmmm decisions decisions I could bite the bullet and pay delivery on the Conder.

Hello Scottish builders, I'm just starting a build in Sutherland, in March! 10 years of dreaming, 18 months in the planning, now with building warrant in hand mortgage application approve, site insurance and warranty in place, kitchen bought in Jan sales, sudddenly things are moving really fast! I'm project managing, got a groundworker (who'll call in his contacts for the raft concrete pour), 2 joiners (one man bands, but they often work together), an electrician, plumber, a renewables company doing the ASHP UFH and MVHRS, a roofer. It's only a wee house, 149m2, 3 bed 2 bath, closed pannel timber frame (Ochil timber) on an isoquick insulated raft. Nordan windows, standing seam metal roof, Russwood cladding. Its exciting but also petrifying the monies about to flow out of the bank account like water and into a muddy hole in the ground! What a journey its going to be. Material costs through the roof, will easily cost the same as a house double the size 2 years ago ? but the show must go on! just have to roll with the punches and get over the fact that this is probably the most expensive time to build. Have luckily managed to get all the trades I wanted to onboard so were all ready to rock and roll. Groundworks March, Kit Joiners May roofer June ??? I mean what could go wrong ha ha? Has anybody noticed how unseasonably mild and dry January has been up North..... Just waiting for that March April snow flurry ha ha. I'm sure I'm going to be on here alot asking for advice but thought it was time to stop lurking and introduce myself ha ha.

Hi, I'm trying to decide between the Graf one to clean and a conder solido both of these have been suggested as my drainage report wants effluent quality of >5mg/l of ammonia and so these two meet that standard unlike alot of the other common ones. There also both one chamber apparently less chambers/filtering to go wrong. The conder solido is definitely my preference as it just needs an electirc cable back to the house but the dlivery charges to our area for is are really high which makes it £1000 more than the graf one2 clean. The thing that puts me off the graf is this separate aeriator? chamber that needs siting somewhere else to the tank and then it also needs electricity back to the house. My plant is at the back of the house and the sewage tmt plant is planned to be 5 m infront of the house. the conder is all in the tank at the tank site and can come with a 30m electirc cable which will/ could go around the back to the plant i think. Ahhh. Anyone any updates on how the Graf runs? or the conder solido?

@JulesFormosathey say for the structural warranty rebuild cost as if you were starting from scratch, so I would include all the fittings and fixture costs if you can afford to. You can ask them to do a few quotes on different rebuild costs because yea past certain value the premium can jump up I think, but you just have to be happy with the level of cover. You could go lower theres no mortgage requirement for it so if it was literally there to sell a house in future I guess you could go lower but i think if its unrealistic the underwriters might say. I've got a site insurance quote thats for a bit less than the underwriters suggested rebuild value i.e my build cost estimate (with a 10% contingency) the same figures i used for my mortgage and thats about 40 quid lower, in the grand scheme of things £40 more, I think I'm just going to go with the site insurance at the same cost the underwriters suggested for the structural warranty because that would be the rebuild cost for sure if a main contractor was involved. I got 4 quotes 2 were ridiculous and then the lower two I jiggled about a little with rebuild costs to get a level i was happy with. I'm no expert just learning as i go here!

@JulesFormosaI'm going with Protek. I'd give them a ring now and see if you can get a quote because they are back offering policies. Mine went to the underwiters they looked at all the site investigations, structural drawings, elevations and they advised increasing the rebuild cost cover and their quote was the same as next best but with higher rebuild cost covered. So all in all 5 grand for alot of peace of mind. Our location is the reason for high audit/inspection costs but there is also risk to them as I am project managing. I think stick to the ones that can give you a big list of lenders their accepted by usually via a link to their websites where its all clearly laid out. The way I have now justified this cost ha ha, is that If you've got a main contractor they might be able to provide you with an NHBC warranty but your obviously going to pay the main contractor fee, possibly i think 10% of the build cost i would think. So now I've convinced myself that this is great value ha ha not as exciting as buying a bathroom suite but essential... next on the list for today sewage tmt plants ?...

I'm comparing the market with warranties at the moment and another thing I've realised you need to look at @JulesFormosa is their accepted list of lenders. I've so far had quotes of 11k selfbuild zone, 7.5k build care which is build store and their inspectors are also self build zone very confusing, then just over 5 thousand from Advantage AHCI and Protek. This list (of accepted lenders) can apparently change from time to time, but ones that are more widely accepted by all the big banks are obviously favorable. A very expensive piece of paper but I can just imagine how it ticks a very big box if you do want to sell in future. Anybody got any experience of Protek or Advantage warranty inspections? Were in Scotland (hence the price which is mostly the inspection audit fees) so this policy and these inspections will run along side Building control inspections and while I obviously want them to be thorough I don't want them to cause any unnecessary hold ups!

Hey @SuperJohnG they are back in business with the warranties but not really advertising it. Think they've just started up again. Mines with the underwriters but because inspection fees locations he said its gonna be about 5 grand ouch.

Hi All, First ever post on the forum! Just about to kick off in March with a closed panel timber frame timber clad building only 149m2 on isoquick insulated raft in the highlands Scotland and having a nightmare with finding structural warranties. I expected to pay about 3 grand but the quotes coming in high or not at all! Self build zone absolutely ridiculous 11 grand (inspection fees only apparently they only have one assessor covering the whole of Scotland). Next best quote I've got in from a broker is 5,300. I've put it out to alot of brokers and am hoping something cheapers gonna come in, but speaking to the brokers its apparently a hard market in the insurance world. I definitely want it before we start any construction. Are there any structural warranty providers that will go on the LABC inspections who operate in Scotland that anyone knows off because its the inspection fees that are the bulk of the prices, LABC the insurance firm, don't cover Scotland. Thanks in advance

@SuperJohnG really interested to know how you got on with warranty as your on the insulated raft loved reading your blog!

Hi All, First ever post on the forum! Just about to kick off in March with a closed pannel timber frame timber clad building only 149m2 on isoquick insulated raft in the highlands Scotland and having a nightmare with finding structural warranties. I expected to pay about 3 grand but the quotes are so high! Self build zone absolutely ridiculous 11 grand. Next best quote I've got in from a broker is 5,300. Put is out to alot of brokers and am sitting hoping something cheapers gonna come in! Are there any structural warranty providers that will go on the LABC inspections who operate in Scotland LABC don't cover Scotland. Thanks