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there's the 4 in question, you know they are there because the staircase is due to have a wind at the base, and I left a nice big gap for a standard timber staircase to bear down away from pipework....

crikey, good job, well done you! I've got a very rough idea where my pipes are... and they are encased in conduit. So if it comes to it I could cut and excavate, but only really as a last resort.

Large plate as a load spreader to minimise point loads? The bottom tread is going/was planned to be an large oak box type affair, so depending on if the plate is recommended by the SE then its likely to be covered... We'll see

I was given the following schematic diagram by St Goblain in relation to their suggested approach for a Radon membrane. Just wondering whether anyone know how you go about suspending insulation in the cavity with using wall ties? Visqueen are also showing a similar detail of insulation just suspended in thin air directly below the cavity tray.

Yeah I realise the only real answer is an SE, but sometimes it's good to talk and get stuff out there even if it means admitting to not thinking something through... Anyhoo where there is a problem, there is often a solution and maybe, just maybe somebody on t'internet may have just come across a problem similar to this in the past. Appreciate the comments nonetheless and I don't take anything to heart. Am big enough and ugly enough to meet problems head on. And yeah a bungalow would solve the problem 🤣.

You'll have a job the canal still has a great big hole in it!

Good questions actually, you got me thinking. We are ready to ask for help when needed indeed. Like asking here for other people's experiences with Building Regs and others that will probably come up. Or hiring consultants for the things that we find our knowledge / time to handle lacking. We have hired a PD CDM, we have had a QS price things out; we have a friendly architect technician who we reach out to for questions (on a consulting basis). Someone from this forum is lending a hand with Windows/doors. We have a project Structural Engineer. We will be hiring a project manager that will be on site as needed when we cannot be. We decided we'd make the time to handle all the design, diligently - including detailed plans, simulation, modelling, etc. The fact that we are both engineers in different fields means that, for example, the PH light/overheating problem, an optimization problem, is something that we are naturally attracted to and want to solve. Analysis skills, yep. Decision making, sure. Risk management, we both do that at work with projects regularly. Pragmatic choices, also check, and we have a very clear non negotiables that we will uphold through the project. Since we became homeowners, I can say that I have developed the skills to manage the different trades and assess quality - as every other homeowner can probably attest to. And also when to ask someone to stop working if the quality of their work isn't up to scratch and they aren't minded to improve. Mind you, being a woman, this has taken a few by surprise over the years. At work, well, projects derail and need practical decisions all the time. So all good there too. Are we biting off more than we can chew? Maybe - but it's a challenge we are willing to face head-on. We'll get help as and when needed - including from this forum! Y'all are already helping. PS: my forum skills are still a work in progress, I was trying to split your questions in different quotes when I accidentally submitted ! PS2: @ToughButterCup... that moonlight comment has me wanting the house to be finished even more! Thank you!!!

The building game is awash with such things. And everyone telling you you must do X or the world will end. Dream up a product/service, get an "industry body" to say its essential, then push it hard. Like OFTEC for oil boilers. The building regs and the BS standard say what you have to do. OFTEC have, shall we say, embellished the requirements. No doubt for their own/members bottom line. But everyone just refers to OFTEC regs. But they are not the actual regs!!

Ive never used one on any of my tiling jobs. I had my garage (11x6m) at my first house tiled throughout. By a proper tiler. Adhesie straight onto concrete. Though maybe its different when you are putting high point loads on them?

Extends well beyond markets too. They appear to be wilfully blind/stupid/corrupt (delete as appropiate) to "consequences" of decisions they make. Which everyone else can see right at the start. 70 million people to choose from, and we end up with 600 odd morons/crooks. (delete as appropiate)

If you've ever stripped old walls then you'd be surprised how drafty it is through any gap between bricks on the inner wall. Id imagine there's wind howling round cavities so you've got to do your best to stop that, I tend to just rake out and repoint but I do use FM330 if it's easier to do so.

>>> We'll be managing the build ourselves, as we've decided against having a main contractor. Maybe we'll need a project manager at some point. I’m all for DIY - as long as your skills are up to the job. But it’s good to be aware of the areas where you don’t have skills / knowledge / qualifications / contacts and have a plan for sorting those. Some questions: + do you have a ready supply of good quality trades, if not where are you getting those from? + do you have the time to draw detail designs / do purchasing / calculate quantities / run planning, building control, warranty, cdm etc paperwork / inspect work on site / review contracts and quotes? + do you have great analysis & decision making skills / risk management judgement / know when to take pragmatic choices? + are you resourceful in a jam? Properly practical? Know how and when to push trades out of their comfort zone? Good at managing unsophisticated teams? + ever done anything like this before? Built an extension, done a refurb etc.

I like a flip , but …. Piss take !

Thanks for the responses. The electrician has already mentioned the matching brand to the CU issue but he is probably going to fit Hager stuff anyway as that seems to be his go to brand.

It was a long time ago but I have it my head that it was easier than I expected. The pipes are pretty robust and the screed had not bonded to it. Think I wetted the floor and turned up the heating to see where pipes might be and worked from there. A thermal camera would do the same

Hmmmm, all the Polish plumbers have gone back to Poland - there were a few around here, but, according to our son's Polish girl-friend, post Brexit they found that they could earn more money in Poland.

Hence our passivhaus-adjacent build. In addition the fees payable on the way to certification are substantial. And there isn't (or wasn't when I did some research ) any real need for it. Germans like me love our certification(s) But in a for-ever home there's no point because we are not intending to sell. In addition I've seen many argue that certification doesn't ( or didn't back then) command a premium price. @Gema, we really love the way our house is full of daylight - what I hadn't expected was the effect of full moonlight streaming through the house.

Along with a photo looking like my mouth these days.. @Beau I'm impressed how cleanly that came out. Was it slow and painstaking? My concern would be that this is fine for a concrete slab. But in beam and block you could hit a block, which might fracture with a bolt into it, or hit a beam, which is very hard and has tendons in it, which on wouldn't want to cut. But for a stair with only downward leading, you could simply rest on the base with no fixing.

Me please, I said it too. I'm afraid most of us write something casually sometimes: I know I have annoyed without any such intention. Its the nature of the Hub.. we are not writing word perfect theses.

I had to hack out around our UFH pipes after a change of stair plan. It was easy enough to chisel out the screed and I had a steel bracket fabricated that straddled the pipe and attached to the concrete below with injection resin studs.

Only one useful post above, that's to get a structural engineer. Changes to original plans, adds complexity, things like this needs structural engineer input and design. Making it up with a bunch helpful strangers, isn't the correct way to do it in all seriousness.

Text based communication makes it harder to get intent across. In this case I'd say your post did not land well. Having the first response to a 'help i may be in a sticky situation' post be 'well if you'd had made different decisions 2-3 years ago you wouldn't be in this sticky situaion' is particularly unhelpful.

Take life less seriously - really wasn't meant to be helpful - just popped into my head reading the post

It's related to gaps surrounding the module. The regs tightened up the rules around what you can fit in a domestic CU and the effect is that most sparks won't want to fit anything that isn't certified by the manufacturer as compatible/suitable for use with that specific CU.

Given that the changeover switch is wholly cable connected and doesn't need busbar alignment/compatibility with the CU, what hazards would you envisage being on the sparks risk assessment if you used a different manufacturers unit??