Kirkibost Estate - Great Bernera. Processes involved in a Self Build Mark II Black House

This where we are located. Buying land on the Isle of Lewis is fairly easy. Freehold land is in short supply. Crofting land whereby you become the Tenant and not the Owner is more plentiful. You can build on  Crofting land is not impossible. If you need advice on crofting land please contact me.
Building a house process
1.    land
2.    land purchase
3.    house design
4.    plans. Surveyor and architect
5.    planning permission
6.    building standards
7.    Water
8.    Telephone
9.    electricity supply
10.    electricity supplier
11.    broadband
12.    SEPA
13.    materials choice and sourcing
14.    self build cost
15.    employ a builder

see google map showing where we are HERE

There aren’t many choices available to anyone choosing to live anywhere where mains sewage is not available
1.    removal from site is a must
2.    letting raw sewage onto open land or into a water course is illegal and certainly unacceptable for obvious reasons
3.    there are three choices available
•    Septic Tank with no treatment and periodic emptying
•    Septic tank with treatment by a reed bed system which still requires less frequent emptying of sludge/solids. The exit route from the reed bed is into a water course
•    Septic tank with disposal of liquids into mound or soakaway. This depends on conducting a percolation test and ensuring ground water affecting drinking water sources are not contaminated

Our choice is Septic tank with treatment by a reed bed system and into a nearby water course – into stream – into sea.

The system detailed on the attached file has been registered with SEPA(Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) and accepted

SEPA information on Reed bed systems can be found HERE
Information on all SEPA publications  can be found HERE
Contact SEPA is found HERE

Contact us if you need more information on Reed bed systems

A 75% grant is available from the Scottish Government to restore vernacular buildings such as these. A structural survey is available on request

please see

Built from Celcon 215mm blocks and covered externally in Siberian Larch T & G cladding, with 390mm Quinn-Therm and Gyproc plasterboard internally, plus triple glazed Traryid Fonster windows

Prior to making a decision to use any of these features in this new build, I considered all aspects of use, installation, cost and payback period. All these micro generation methods of producing electricity and the heat pump do not represent good value for money either for me, Scotland or the UK, especially when I am building within a strict budget.

Before you start bulding anything you need to be nice to those good people(I have to say this) in the Planning department at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.

The following steps have to be taken before building starts:

1. Planning Application - download application form HERE

2. Building Warrant Application - download application form HERE and Guidance Notes HERE

3. Structural Building Certificate - download sample certificate HERE

For more information on Structural Engineers Registration Ltd, Scheme for Certification of Design (Building Structures) in Scotland and Structural certificates click HERE and to consult the Scottish Building Standards Register click HERE

Its the end of August and full planning permission was granted last month. A structural building certificate has been granted by MacIver Consultancy who have asked for the incorporation of steel windposts in the structure to combat the wind pressures in the Western Isles. Building warrant application is just awaiting the preparation of the plans. The engineers also asked for class 4 performance standards for air pressure and air tightness for the windows. Traryd Fonster are only certified to class3. A quick survey of local and national window suppliers indicate that most window suppliers supply windows without any certification and any that do are manufactured outside the UK.

If anyone is looking to build a bungalow and wants access to plans and wants to shortcut the whole build process, we can supply plans of our house to you(at a small cost of course)  You would have the benefit of knowing it has had all the snags taken out, already has a Structural Building Certificate ans would need little modification to suit your particular conditions. Plans available on AutoCad on CD

Connected Communities Broadband is an innovative project bringing broadband services to rural communities throughout the Western Isles. The network project led by Highlands & Islands Enterprise, is one of the first and the largest in the UK to incorporate the recently licensed 5.8GHz radio frequency bands. The pilot has been funded through the DTI sponsored Broadband Fund, HIE Innse Gall (Western Isles Enterprise), Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and match funding from the Highlands & Islands Special Transitional Program.  The project partners believe that broadband is essential to the economic development of the Western Isles to allow businesses in the most rural communities to compete in world markets. Due to the wide distribution of the population across a number of islands, more traditional methods of providing broadband are impractical and would leave those at great distances from their exchanges without a service. This is why high performance wireless is being used to provide an ever increasing number of communities with a distributed broadband service across the islands. The Western Isles Connected Communities project is delivering services to locations from Ness in the north of Lewis to Castlebay in Barra in the south and at similar costs to broadband services in other parts of the Highlands & Islands.

 Jade 3 Architecture is our preferred designers who can turn the basic details contained in our standard house design into a bespoke building design suited to your individual requirements.  see www.jade3architecture.co.uk

Don’t use a small machine that cant cope with hard ground. Whats underneath the soft top soil can be very tough with rocks and stones which may require a Pneumatic drill attachment. Make sure the driver works a full day. Use a 6 ton tipper truck instead of a small one if necessary. Larger machines cost more on a daily rate but will be cheaper and quicker to finish job

Duncan Mackay and Sons

A must for any build to move materials quickly

Duncan Mackay and Sons