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Self-build in Perth & Kinross - hello


Kelvin

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Very little water runs down the slope. It’s been exposed like that since February so has seen torrential rain. It was very dry behind the first retaining wall that was built when I dug the gravel out looking for the separated ducting for the electrical cable and that was right in the middle of the heavy rainfall we had. 
 

My bigger concern is the old field drain that we found last year. It was dealt with at the time but it’s been disturbed again. It still appears to be mostly running into the drain as I can see it running out of the pipe but I’ve just noticed it coming through the new bit of wall. 
 

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Edited by Kelvin
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It’s been two years almost to the day since the water borehole was drilled and we now finally have a water supply into the house. It’s the oldest outstanding action on my action log which I can now change to green! I have two supplies into the house, softened and unsoftened (for drinking) the unsoftened is yet to be connected. It’s slightly complicated by the fact that for it to bypass the softener it also bypasses the final water filter and UV light before it comes to the house so I’ll need to add that back in to the plant room before it goes to the kitchen. 
 

ASHP and HWC get delivered on Friday and it will be installed the following week which means we’ll also have heating in the house other than the oil filled rads. 
 

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30 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

It’s been two years almost to the day since the water borehole was drilled and we now finally have a water supply into the house. It’s the oldest outstanding action on my action log which I can now change to green! I have two supplies into the house, softened and unsoftened (for drinking) the unsoftened is yet to be connected. It’s slightly complicated by the fact that for it to bypass the softener it also bypasses the final water filter and UV light before it comes to the house so I’ll need to add that back in to the plant room before it goes to the kitchen. 
 

ASHP and HWC get delivered on Friday and it will be installed the following week which means we’ll also have heating in the house other than the oil filled rads. 
 

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Looks nice and tidy. Await the jumble of copper pipes when your tank gets fitted!

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Yep. I’ve done my best to make it as easy for them as possible. I tried to split the plant room in three so MVHR on the external wall, electrical, networking, Loxone in the middle leaving the other end for all the wet stuff. 

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2 hours ago, Kelvin said:

Yep. I’ve done my best to make it as easy for them as possible. I tried to split the plant room in three so MVHR on the external wall, electrical, networking, Loxone in the middle leaving the other end for all the wet stuff. 

i did something similar but to a bigger extreme! i put a block wall between the plant room and the comms room so my wet and electrics are completely separated (although i do have water pipes running in the ceiling of the comms room so they're not fully isolated).

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  • 2 weeks later...

A money-saving trick in backfilling the tank.

Assuming you are using gravel or sand as you should.

Using a sheet of ply or old metal cladding, position it in the hole about 300 off the tank. Backfill with gravel inside and muck outside, in layers. Move around and up.

Saves a lot of gravel. 

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5 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

A money-saving trick in backfilling the tank.

Assuming you are using gravel or sand as you should.

I don't like sweeping statements. like that.  It depends on the ground conditions what backfill.  Our treatment plant is concreted in, due to the seasonal high water table.

 

The wrong advice by the installer means our old house had a septic tank backfilled in gravel that can only ever be emptied in a summer dry spell.  To pump it out in the winter with the water table up would probably result in the tank floating out of the ground.  and yes I have seen that happen at another property.

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1 hour ago, ProDave said:

don't like sweeping statements. like that

You're right of course, but we know @Kelvin and his site. It's on a slope  (tick) and he does things right.

Some tanks are even bolted or lashed down to a concrete base.

The instructions will state to tie it down or surround in concrete if thd water table can be  high.

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Fortunately the fall east to west isn’t too bad so it’s made the install more straightforward and allowed us to fit it away from the house. The soakaway then naturally falls to where the ground flattens out 10m away from the burn. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Made a bit of progress over Christmas. Continued with second fix electrics, bit more painting, nearly finished the garage electrics, ceiling speakers installed, cinema room track lights installed, all prep for the ASHP and HWC cylinder done. Also started with the main kitchen. I decided to let the kitchen company install it as their guy has a very good reputation and wasn’t too dear. 
 

 

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We really pleased with ‘real wood’ plank look on the island. My wife saw a real wood hand made Italian kitchen, handle less with shadow gaps and decided early on that’s what she wanted. The cost was horrendous. We then looked at getting it made locally but weren’t confident we could get the look she wanted. This has gotten us quite close and it’s very effective. 

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Posted (edited)

Can you spot the error here. There’s a Quooker cylinder going in here. Not our fault I should add. The design and order is correct it’s what’s been supplied that’s wrong. 

 

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Edited by Kelvin
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It should actually have been a cupboard rather than drawers. We can make it work with what we have by converting  the drawer fronts to a cupboard door and removing the bottom drawer so it’s not a big problem just a hassle. 

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Number of bedrooms prevails. I suspect being too big affects the efficiency a little , but too small is a big problem.

It's not usually a big cost difference but the hole size might be.

57 minutes ago, Amateur bob said:

that looks a big treatment plant for one house?

 

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It’s a 7 pop one. 4 bedroom house technically (albeit we aren’t using it as such) So the calculation is 4+1 so a 6 pop tank needed. Graf size their tanks 4-5 pop, 6-7 pop hence the size. 

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On 07/01/2024 at 10:31, Kelvin said:

Made a bit of progress over Christmas. Continued with second fix electrics, bit more painting, nearly finished the garage electrics, ceiling speakers installed, cinema room track lights installed, all prep for the ASHP and HWC cylinder done. Also started with the main kitchen. I decided to let the kitchen company install it as their guy has a very good reputation and wasn’t too dear. 

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Hot damn, is that TWO aeg steam pros?

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We’ve never owned a microwave and don’t have an air fryer or toaster as the ovens can do both of those. The ovens can slow cook too (well any oven can) but we do have a separate slow cooker which will either be in the utility room (most likely as it’s how we’ve always used it) or in a drawer and brought out when needed. We also make bread in an oven rather than bread maker as the ovens can do proving etc. The utility room is relatively big. 
 

What’s missing from the pictures is a custom made workbench that’s being made from the leftover wood the dining table is made from. It will go on the back wall. That will have the mixer on it on one end and my coffee machine and stuff on the other. 

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