Hi from a total newbie

[MiriPiri]

Hi all, I've always wanted to build my own eco house and finally have the opportunity, but am feeling rather overwhelmed by the long road ahead.  I'm hoping this forum will be full of inspiration and sage advice.  I'm living in Derbyshire, but the house build would be in Aberdeenshire.

[Mr Punter]

Hello @MiriPiri and welcome.

 

Feel free to ask questions.  Do already have a site with planning consent?

[tonyshouse]

Start a wish list, like never paying another heating bill , and any other high level dreams 

[MiriPiri]

Hi 

I have a site and am working out my wish list at the moment. I haven’t approached any professionals yet as the opportunity to do this only arose 2 weeks ago.

 

I would like to be completely off grid, but am concerned it will be beyond my budget. I’m envisioning a timber house with waney edge larch cladding and either a zinc or turf roof. I’m thinking single storey with 2 bedrooms plus 1 office/bedroom. I’m tempted by a Klover Smart 120 for cooking, hot water, heating and solar panels for electricity, but don’t know how feasible this is. I would love my own water supply but think this will be way out of my budget. I would also like a covered verandah so I can sit out and enjoy the rain.

I keep looking for wish list ideas online but get pretty bamboozled by it all. Ultimately I would like a house that merges with the landscape, that is eco as possible and is suitable for old age.

[Temp]

Does the site  already have planning permission? 

[MiriPiri]

No

[MiriPiri]

45 minutes ago, Temp said:

Does the site  already have planning permission? 

No 

[Bozza]

Welcome MiriPiri, 
 

I’m from and building in Aberdeenshire (AB32) though nearing the end of my build and it’s not quite as Eco as your project.   Though I suspect others here can advise better on 100% eco houses, I’m happy to offer you any help I can.

 

As your plot doesn’t have PP have you spoken to Aberdeenshire Council planning dept yet - they are very helpful.

[Bozza]

Also have a look at

 

http://www.modeldhomes.com/

 

 

[MiriPiri]

10 hours ago, Bozza said:

Also have a look at

 

http://www.modeldhomes.com/

 

 

I’ve had a look at the Model D and am tempted but I would prefer single storey. 

[Bozza]

That’s understood from your requirements.  Have you spoken to them about single storey.  Having single storey with vaulted ceiling could be quite nice space wise.  I presume you’ve looked at Hebhomes but they seem quite expensive. 

[MiriPiri]

On 31/08/2020 at 09:09, Bozza said:

That’s understood from your requirements.  Have you spoken to them about single storey.  Having single storey with vaulted ceiling could be quite nice space wise.  I presume you’ve looked at Hebhomes but they seem quite expensive. 

Yes, I’ve looked at Hebhomes, but it’s still not quite what I have in mind and expensive. I want to have a clear idea of my requirements and compromise from there ?. I’m guessing they’ll be lots of compromises ahead. 

[Gus Potter]

Hello MiriPiri.

 

You'll love living there, does get cold from time to time, but depending on what area of Aberdeenshire (I'll call it AB from now on) your in you'll also get the dry weather from the rain shaddow of the mountains. A few less midges too and you won't always have to sit out in the rain. Also, the Northern lights to look forward to.

 

I'll touch on your wish for a private water supply. This can be perfectly feasible. Simplistically, I'll assume for now that your plot is not way up in altitude and that you can't access a burn with no agriculture above.. thus a borehole. You do need to negotiate the consent process but that is doable too with a tactful approach.

 

Often folk think that a borehole has to be massively deep. But in Aberdeenshire is still rains a lot so the main water table.. "productive aquifer" (there are what is called perched water tables but this is more complex so I have left this out) can sit relatively quite high. AB is full of granite and hard to drill through, unlike parts of the South where you have limestone etc. But we are not looking for solid rock as this does not transmit water well, in fact solid granite not at all, in relative terms. What you want to look for here is the fractured rock.. the layer that has been weathered during the ice ages, not cooled slowly.. the rock that is like hot toffee / moulten glass that has been dropped into cold water and is full of cracks between the blocks of granite. This is where you get the water from.

 

I'm not an expert (although Scottish) as have a preference for rum but this water does make the lighter whiskys?

 

Now, if you want a private water supply you may also want a private sewage arrangement so you don't have to pay the council tax element for sewage?

 

In principle you want to ensure that any discharge from the treated sewage does not contaminate the water supply or that of any neighbours. Sounds complex? Well it can be but to get you started, have a look at what is round about you. Are you on a slope and stuff like that. With a bit of finess and basic understanding you can get lucky and design the water extraction to take place at a lower level in the fractured rock, the sewage dischage at the surface water flow level and make this all work safely.

 

Here is a link to an educational resource from the BGS where you can look at what type of ground you may have.

 

http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html

 

This is worth a look as it will also help you understand what you may have to deal with when you are looking at the foundations and so on before you start to spend money on consultants. If you get stuck then post here. 

 

You mention merging the house into the landscape, if you hit granite then you maybe want to work with nature rather than trying to fight it and the associated costs of doing this.

 

Just a last point.. AB is a bit radio active.. Torness Nuclear Power station is less so apparently.. so that can be a spanner in the works from time to time. On the other hand the environmental consideration is a good bargening tool, you do need patience though.

 

All the best, keep asking questions and enjoy your journey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ferdinand]

Welcome.

 

I'm on the Derbyshire / Notts border. My favourite gardening programme is Aberdeen based - and I work on the principle that anything that will grow there will probably grow here.

 

I'd say consider being on grid but not totally dependent on it, which may not be that much less green.

Ferdinand 

[Bozza]

57 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Welcome.

 

I'm on the Derbyshire / Notts border. My favourite gardening programme is Aberdeen based - and I work on the principle that anything that will grow there will probably grow here.

 

I'd say consider being on grid but not totally dependent on it, which may not be that much less green.

Ferdinand 

 

Ferdinand, 
 

Assuming it’s the Beechgrove Garden that’s filmed literally 60/70 metres from my plot / self build.  They film on Tuesdays and they’ve put me in touch with one of their garden designers whose going to do a design for me because I’m a terrible gardener.

 

I see you’re from Notts.  I grew up in Cotgrave where there’s a street named after my after my Grandma.  
 

Small world.

Edited September 5, 2020 by Bozza

[MiriPiri]

@Gus Potter. I've had a look at that link and the superficial deposits are Till, Devensian and Diamicton. The bedrock is Tonalite. Does this mean anything to you?  It means absolutely nothing to me!  The field is on a gentle slope with a field behind it uphill.  There is a road at the bottom of my field and then another field beyond with a burn at the bottom.  My field is actually my mother's field and she is keen for me to move up to Scotland as she enters her twilight years.  We know that there is plenty of water that comes off the hill as it passes through my mother's garage ?.  I would also have a septic tank as there is no mains sewerage in the area.  There is also no mains gas, but I'm wanting to avoid gas and would like to have either a biomas boiler or a Klover Smart 120 (for cooking, heating, hot water).

[MiriPiri]

22 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Welcome.

 

I'm on the Derbyshire / Notts border. My favourite gardening programme is Aberdeen based - and I work on the principle that anything that will grow there will probably grow here.

 

I'd say consider being on grid but not totally dependent on it, which may not be that much less green.

Ferdinand 

I would prefer to be totally off grid, I'm thinking of being on the grid for electricity so I don't have to worry about batteries/generators. There we go I've made my first compromise already and it's only at the 'dreaming' stage ??

[Ferdinand]

4 minutes ago, MiriPiri said:

I would prefer to be totally off grid, I'm thinking of being on the grid for electricity so I don't have to worry about batteries/generators. There we go I've made my first compromise already and it's only at the 'dreaming' stage ??

 

The least expensive stage to change your mind on something  or entertain alternatives ?.

 

We need a buildhub version of the famous "design to product" tyre-on-a-tree cartoon.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by Ferdinand

[Gus Potter]

Good evening Miri Piri.

 

Looking at water supply and septic tank/ perhaps something that treates the sewage to a higher level such as a some form of treatment plant, more costly but can offset the cost of a soak away type drainage field.

 

Broadly speaking, to get you a feel for things, you often see information presented in tems of bedrock and superficial deposits, in some ways it's much easier in Scotland as you don't have to deal with sink holes that can occur in limestone, deep clay, complex ground conditions and soil layers that you get down South. There is some tricky ground in the Forth valley / Glasgow and so on for example. Also, you don't have to deal with mining that occurs in the Central belt.

 

I think you Mum talks sense.

 

A superficial deposit is the soil that generally sits on top of the bedrock. The term soil is used by Engineers to often describe the stuff you build on rather than the "top soil" on which the grass grows.

 

Roughly, Tonalite is a form of granite.

 

The UK was not always one land mass. Essentially it was originally part of two ancient land masses that came together.

 

Once they came together there have been a number of different ice ages, which have eroded the land, melted and dumped stuff where the ice melts, this is often called "till". It can be fine minerals, small pebbles, boulders the size of houses, more and anything else that the glacier picked up on it's way.

 

The Late Devension age is split up a bit but roughly the last period (say 22 -33 thousand years ago) relates much to the last major ice age although there was a more recent one on the west cost, around Loch Lomand. So this descibes when the till was laid down.

 

Diamiction often describes how this stuff (till) was then moved about, further mixed up and redeposited.

 

In other words you could have a good mix of material, some more suited to water extraction / sewage soak away.

 

You mention that you are on a slope and that water comes into your mum's garage. But you have a field above so that surface water may not be suitable as a potable water supply. The key here may be to tap in above the house to the ground water that lies deeper and this could give you a good reliable supply.

 

If you are interested then to do this you want to look for the fractured / weathered rock and there could be a decent layer of this not too far down. The best way is to dig a few good sized holes with a jcb first.

 

Dig through the top layer of soil until you hit the rock, clean it off and have a look at it. If it looks like it has fractures of a good width or lots of small fractures (you probably won't see gaps just bands of the till that have washed into the gaps in the rock)  in it then it's worth exploring more. If you don't fancy that then call a few of the bore hole companies and they will give you some good pointers.

 

As the surface ground water is high and you have a sloping site you will probably struggle to get a soak away to work at a sensible cost if at all. From what you describe it seems like the top layers of soil that could be used for a soak way are thin and not very permeable.

 

For the sewage you may be able to use a treatment plant and run a small discharge pipe to the burn?

 

Lastly before you spend any money give SEPA a call or drop them an email to check if there are any restrictions on a private water supply with regards to radon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MiriPiri]

On 30/08/2020 at 19:57, Bozza said:

Also have a look at

 

http://www.modeldhomes.com/

 

 

I’ve had a look at the Model D and am tempted but I would prefer single storey. 

[MiriPiri]

@Gus Potter Thank you for your advice. My next job ...Google SEPA! ? I need to start building a list of phone calls I need to make. So much to think about.

[Gus Potter]

Hi Miri Piri.

 

Don't be put off. There is a lot to take in. I try an break stuff down into a lot of "little jobs" dip in and out and sleep on it.

 

SEPA have some good stuff, also there is a lot of practical advice from the suppliers of say septic tanks and so on. Much of this is written in layman's / practical terms.

 

The main thing is to enjoy your journey. You'll be amazed how stuff suddenly starts to come together and then you're onto the next stage.

 

All the best.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Gus Potter
typo

[MiriPiri]

@Gus Potter thank you