Completion in Scotland: Quick Start Guide?

[jamieled]

Has anyone come across the requirement of a quick start guide for attaining completion in Scotland? The BC officer has noted it as one of the requirements which I seem to have overlooked. A quick Google suggests it is easily diy able but an example would be handy so I know what to aim for.

[ProDave]

Not heard this.  When was your building warrant issued, i.e. what version of regs are you working to?

[jamieled]

Building warrant was issued around April 2019. On that basis it would be the 2017 version of the SG technical handbooks for building standards?

[saveasteading]

I had not heard of this either but easily found it here

http://radar.gsa.ac.uk/6856/1/Home Starter Guide report.pdf

 

I know it as 'soft landings', but quickstart is a better term.

 

it appears to be a template of what you need to know about your new house. an operators' manual.

in commercial terms this is the maintenance manual. that would include all the drawings, manuals and some descriptions for future maintenance.

it is sensible to keep all the manuals of course,

 

 

for the ultimate 'soft landing' in business projects we would assume that the client's managers had all left and some poor new member of staff had to adjust clocks/ reset boiler or whatever. we even got the sparky or plumber to talk to camera while doing these things, and they were proud to do so, then the film went on file.

 

I will leave it to you to read the article. for your own house it is still a good idea.

[ProDave]

More paperwork.

 

I can understand a developer being asked to provide that, but you would think common sense might prevail and a self builder who knows the house inside out and is living in it already so obviously knows how to work it, would be exempt.

[saveasteading]

Agreed, but will be a discipline to gather the details together for future reference.

A chance to hunt down any missing info now.

I am in positive mode.

 

Had a client once who said he couldn't adjust something, so I referred to the maintenance manual. 

'Never got one, don't know what one is'

'See that red file on your shelf behind your right shoulder? '

'Harumph. How did that get there? '

 

It becomes the site manger's role to pick instruction books out of the rubbish where the plumber/sparks has chucked it.

'No release of retention until information provided' is written into the contracts, and helps a lot.

 

[jamieled]

cheers @saveasteading, had found that one earlier. I have contributed to a few O+M manuals/documentation in the past and in general I would agree the principle is sound. For anyone in the SG reading this (!), the problems I have are:

 

1) There is no ongoing requirement to maintain or update it, or to pass it on if the house is sold. For us, it's not a useful requirement now as we know the place inside out so the only value would be to the next person if I sold the house.

2) The cynic in me reckons this is just a bit of a money spinner for the company referred to in the link. They are apparently produce these commercially.

3) The example uses graphics produced by the Glasgow school of Art! Not exactly encouraging for a self-builder and I have no desire to faff about producing a 3D model of my house for this. It is entirely aimed at the developer end of the market with no thought whatsoever about how these things might be produced.

4) If you look at what would be required for someone to properly understand a property it amounts to much more than their guidance suggests (6 pages, loads of graphics, v. little text). It basically gives Noddy information. It would be far better to just collate everything needed into a ringbinder (or digital version if needed). Drawings, operation manuals etc will be far more use than me trying to condense all this into 6 pages which presumably inevitably will result in referring people to other manuals.

 

As an aside I had always planned on doing something similar, prior to being aware of this requirement. But mine will be a bit more practical and will probably take the ringbinder and manufacturers instructions type approach.

 

For anyone else this might apply to, note that you only seem to have to do it if your sustainability rating (as described in Section 7.1 of the scottish building regs) is Silver or higher. If you don't know what your sustainability rating is then you're in for a treat navigating the process to produce your sustainability certificate which is also apparently required for completion (Did this today)!

 

Anyway, unless passes me an achievable example (achievable by someone that doesn't specialise in graphic design!), I will develop my own version with the minimally acceptable level of info and report back when it's accepted.

Edited July 28, 2021 by jamieled
additional detail

[saveasteading]

I was helping a near neighbour with an issue with their heating, (SE England £3,100/m2)  and they showed me the manual provided by the certain very large house developer. 

Built 10 years ago, timber frame, brick clad, 'affordable'.

It was a few sheets of paper in an oversized folder, almost entirely generic, and of no use at all.  Basically it had the sbem certificate (for a sample house) and some tips on saving energy by turning things off.

 

If tested the house would have been off the bottom of the scale....yes really.

 

So if it is alright for that builder Then We don't have much to beat.

[Kelvin]

My current house came with a very thick and detailed manual with every instruction booklet/manual from plumbing installation to the cooker, a list of every company they used, where all the pipework is, colour code of the paints they used etc. I’ve added to it over the years. We’re now selling and I showed the estate agent the folder and he couldn’t believe it ? 

 

I’ll do the same for our self-build as it’s been really useful to have. 

[Hastings]

Be aware that the regulations are designed and applied to the house not just to suit the first or current owner.

 

I found this out the hard way when, after getting through planning and getting a building warrant to start work I was informed by Public Health that even though I had no baths or flushing toilets in the property I would still need to be able to provide enough water (no mains is available) for 150L/day per person (=900L/day for my 3 bedrooms) "in case a future owner wanted them installed."

 

So my rainwater storage system plan was ditched - it needed to be so large it would have cost almost the same or possibly even more than a borehole (my only other option). Another blow to the poor old environment.

Edited October 16, 2021 by Hastings

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, Hastings said:

Another blow to the poor old environment.

That would be my argument against accepting their requirement.  They do tend to have to accept carbon-saving initiatives.

If you can show where the 'future water supply' comes from I think this might be get-overable.

 

A lot of my designs have dotted future solar panels and future lifts, as long as the design is genuine and it is doable. eg roof stronger for panels, and a box-out in the floor for a lift.

Don't know your circumstances but might work.....future additional rainwater storage?

[JohnMo]

Reminded me I need to complete one also.  Found this - may be helpful

 

https://www.gov.scot/publications/how-your-low-carbon-home-works/

[Hastings]

On 28/07/2021 at 17:14, jamieled said:

I will develop my own version with the minimally acceptable level of info and report back when it's accepted.

 

How did you get on? I am approaching the need to submit everything for completion and wondering what is possible and how to avoid the cost of those fancy 3d drawings in the Glasgow School of Art 'Good Practice Example'.

[Ferdinand]

Our Jeremy thought about this didn't he?

 

He decided that if he popped his clogs unexpectedly there was no way in the universe that anyone else would understand his house, so his wife would be beached.

So he wrote a manual.

[joe90]

3 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

So he wrote a manual.

He also ditched his home brewed weather compensating heating control as it was not off the shelf and no one would understand it (including his wife) so he replaced it with a room stat (kiss) 👍

[jamieled]

3 hours ago, Hastings said:

 

How did you get on? I am approaching the need to submit everything for completion and wondering what is possible and how to avoid the cost of those fancy 3d drawings in the Glasgow School of Art 'Good Practice Example'.

Mine was nothing like 'good practice' but it passed without comment. Just drafted it myself and annotated some drawings. Happy to pass it on if it helps.

 

I can see some value in people understanding how their house works, but you really need manufacturer's instructions for a lot of stuff. The fact that that there's no mechanism for passing the document on means unless I remember to pass it on to a future buyer it will sit on a building control database somewhere. 

[Gone West]

14 hours ago, joe90 said:

He also ditched his home brewed weather compensating heating control as it was not off the shelf and no one would understand it (including his wife) so he replaced it with a room stat (kiss) 👍

IIRC he was also thinking about connecting to the mains water supply because of the complexity of his borehole system.

[joe90]

1 minute ago, Gone West said:

IIRC he was also thinking about connecting to the mains water supply because of the complexity of his borehole system.

If I remember correctly he only had a borehole because he was a long way from a water main and ££££ to connect.

[Gone West]

Just now, joe90 said:

If I remember correctly he only had a borehole because he was a long way from a water main and ££££ to connect.

That's right, but he was worried that if he wasn't around, maintaining the system would be tricky.