All Activity

I'm supposed to be an expert in this but am hoping for some genius or experience on reducing the vast area required by the regulations for soakaways after the sewage digester. Basically there will be a Marsh 10 person digester which removes about 95% of the nasties. However the regulations require the same amount of drainage field as if it was the 45% of a septic tank, less a paltry 20% because it is treated. I even gave some advice on this, on BH, recently, suggesting phasing the soakaway and perhaps leaving phase 2 until later.... perhaps much later, unless we can see that it is needed. This house will be kept in the family so we aren't a developer passing the buck Space is not an issue (if it was then the Env Agency often gives permission for infiltration tunnels.) We haven't tested the percolation yet , but my guess from observation is 80 s/mm. That gives us a crazy amount of trench approx 250m long, maybe more. We don't want a reed bed. A drainage mound is worth a thought. When I first used these digesters, as a new thing, the regs and BCO were perfectly happy with percolation through French drains as if it was rainwater.. ie 30m or so. The tanks are very much better now but the regs have gained this ultra-cautious approach. As I read in a sales blurb... "written legislation has fallen behind the technology available" Agreed. They then say that while the legislation has not caught up, "local authorities and Building Control have'. If only. Unfortunately I can see no sign of that unless the land is too small. The digester company cannot offer help. I'd have thought that saving customers money without affecting their own cost would be good business, but apparently not. eg they make a special model to reduce phosphates even more, but that doesn't make any difference to the soakaway area. The other manufacturers appear to say even less. It's not only stinginess (otherwise known as efficient and sustainable design): I simply don't think it's sensible or necessary. It is very simple how digesters work, as a flush of the toilet almost immediately pushes the same amount out of the treated end of the tank. 3 or 5 litres? More with a shower. That will not travel far along a perforated pipe so all the phosphorous will be at one location, close to the tank, especially in summer when the ground is drier. The regulations are assuming a day's worth all rushing through at once. BTW in passing I have read The real issue is of preventing phosphates from reaching the aquifer. that an orchard is an excellent way of taking phosphates out of the water. We will have fruit trees exactly there, but I doubt the BCO will be interested. This is the same principle as reed beds where the grasses absorb phosphates greedily and we would harvest it annually and... I guess compost it. Willows are good too, but at some stage need to be reduced and the timber taken elsewhere. A drainage field is regarded as secondary treatment rather than as a dispersal mechanism. Has anyone got a brilliant idea? Anyone used a drainage mound? Does it have to be a mound rather then below ground?

Key thing is the steel to concrete ratio along with spacing between the mesh. See if you can use this to do a quick check. https://wutools.com/calc/engineering/rebar-calculator

Maybe it just fell off someone’s project plan. Also odd though that the engineers were not inspecting. Or failed to notice.

Looks like the contractor didn’t put in the required reinforcing. Odd really as it was obviously important…

I like to stop a slab short of the inner leaf, then the ramp down is from there and the door bottom seal sits on a slope and water doesn't get through. This is because bottom seals dont really seal, but water gives up climbing the slope after about 50mm. To form this edge the shutter is simply placed against the inner leaf with any extra packing needed. This assume you now where the bottom of the door will be.

be a huge help to him in opening the packs up and tidying away the waste for a nice clear room. also any offcuts that are no use (or unlikely to be, and a pile of possible bits for fitting in where any small bits needed. In so doing you can choose to mix the packages up, look for any severe patterns near ends and ask him to use them where the ends will be cut off. How much waste have you allowed? it is standard to allow 10% with other people's money whereas 5% is more likely with care and attention. Can they be reversed? That can make a huge difference and its something that most fitters wont do. You can rota te them before they reach him. With your help and a few 'queries' , but not too many, he may end up respecting your concerns. The danger is ending up with nothing but the strongly marked ones. I did something similar with floor tiles that were a complex layout. By me handing the excellent tiler 'the next one', he was pleased with the help.

Not 100% sure but it fits inside 9m external diameter hull, presumably with some room to get past.

Blue patches are the ‘handiwork’ of the dodgy wood fibre blowers-in. This was their solution to me asking, 1/2 way through the job, whether they had thought about the gable and eaves overhangs. They obviously hadn’t looked at the drawings I sent them or even looked at the building before they started.

Amtico Spacia are the cheaper brand and the planks repeat more often than its more expensive sister-offerings You are also hampered by the laying pattern you have chosen. (IMO) Straight patterns show up repeats and duplicates more obviously. This is one of the reasons we chose a herringone laying pattern for our Amtico Spacia. Over time and especially as you fill your room with rugs and other furniture the repeat highlights will become less noticeable Regards Tet

Interesting, I hadn’t thought of hemp board.

Id imagine the would make the trap in the basin gurgle as it creates a vacuum when the machine discharges and will pull water from the basin bottle. Change the bottle for a trap with an AAV built in? Or whack in a 40mm branch with the AAV on one side?

I don't think I can start cutting sections out, as then it won't be connected to the other sheets. I might ask building control to comment

So if my toilet basin with it's bottle trap is plumbed to connect into the same 40mm slight horizontal fall waste pipe that my washing machine discharges through do I need to fit an air admittance valve ?

Wouldn't the bricks start at slab / TOC (top of concrete) with the DPC? Looks too emphasised there (imo).

We used GreenRaft for our build, helpful people and a good service. Supply only but using a straightforward, mostly mesh reinforced slab, we used local labour to cast it.

Hmm. Not sure what to make of that. Flooring boss has told me he is worried that the fitter will walk out if he is asked or told to dry lay the LVT first ! Therefore he is proposing the fitter takes one plank in turn from each of 5 boxes and glues them, with the darkest deepest featured 10% put to one side as he goes. I have proposed dry laying say 5 sqm at a time transposed to the side of where they would be glued so the fitter can then lift and glue down. He has said 'you can try that' but the fitter may not be happy. He has also said they never dry lay first and no-one really does because it shouldn't be necessary, though does accept our choice of design is heavily featured and so controlling tone variations and pattern repeats is especially problematic. Naturally he is not around tomorrow when the fitter plans to come ! Not feeling entirely happy here. Once again the boss disappears leaving me to manage the guy on the job, who, whilst experienced and hard working, can be obstinate. What can I do ? If the fitter walks they don't seem to have another experienced one, if I go elsewhere it will be weeks, probably months of quotes and availability waits with everything on hold. Feels like a kind of blackmail. Not good. Any suggestions ?

Natural fibres like wool are very good for temperature regulation. At least that’s what the smiling salesperson asserted when we signed up for a rather costly herdwick mattress. At that price I’m assuming it was made from real shepherds. So can we forget warm batteries now?

If there is only 1 layer you will be fine with the overlaps. If you can get someone to help placement it would help a lot as the sheets are heavy and awkward. You may want some tie wire where the sheets join and allow for a 300-400mm overlap (40x wire size).

Great find, cheers Crispy. I was planning on dabbing rather than full fix but I guess it won't be far off once it's compressed anyways.

If by you mean the sheets have a rebar strip all round the perimeter why not just cut that off where 2 or more will overlap? If I have misunderstood your Q then I am sorry not to give you an answer! This and other Qs suggest that good progress is ... progressing. You must be v pleased to be coming out of the ground now. Got any pics?

5, if the same as jackoboards, their instructions suggest one in each of the corners and 1 to the middle.

I purchased 4.8m x 2.4m A242 mesh sheets without flying ends. the way the sheets have to be laid means that there are some areas with 3 sheets overlapping. We are having a 150mm slab and the chairs raise the mesh 40mm off the bottom. I don't suspect that it is an issue, but just wanted to check as I don't want BC failing the inspection on Thursday and then having a mad panic to try and come up with a solution to fix the problem.

Each appliance is on its own waste so no AAV. Standpipe just to create the traps.

Thanks greatly @Super_Paulie So you don't need an air admittance valve when doing that then ? And I notice you still kept a standpipe like height above the u bend.

Good idea. Probably still have to be lucky to find a specific tile design though. I wonder if Amtico/other brands are missing a trick here. Presumably they could be approaching such stores and incentivising them to showcase their LVT designs and keeping a list. Then they could give LVT customers a list of where to find different designs locally - and the store would get more people through the door that are likely to be in the market for furniture.