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You have my phone number.. you know the rules, text me first as I'm a bit deaf and I'll help you out for free for half an hour. You just keep digging yourself a hole you fanny! We have I believe talked already engaged by email? I'll give up a bit of my time for free 30 minutes and that's it. This is my last and final offer. You are so out of your depth it’s bonkers.. but I think you are just stubborn and that is is you downfall. You are not even out the ground yet! On balance of probability you are going to regret this. You seem to be falling for, say the casual internity trades folk. You are off your head! It's time son to get your big boys hat on and wake up and smell, the coffee. This is tough love but I recommend that you also call/ pm @Nickfromwales for a very quick chat. His time is not free ( I think you get 15 -30 min pro bono) but it could be the best call you ever make! You have not even got out the ground yet!

The regulations can be wrong conservatively.. leads to over design and you lose a bit of money, but they can also be horribly wrong! to the extent that it makes a building plot worthless. @saveasteading has the advantage of a large plot.. you can often get something to work here with a bit of imagination.

Considering buying a Victorian terrace in Bristol which has been owned by same people for 60 years. Visited and noted some worrying signs (see pics). I couldn't see anything on external walls but they looked to have been repointed recently. Is it even worth getting a structural engineers report / RICS survey (or what would be the best report?) or is this a hard avoid?

Can’t help with the connectivity, but I can offer a simple alternative. Rather surprisingly still available…. It saved us over £1k in portaloo rental fees so it really must be worth a few bob…. 😉

Hi all - just taken on a new project - and I figured this time I'd buy myself a 'temporary toilet' Photos attached of the toilet in question. It has an outlet for 110 soil pipe out the back - and I had figured I would just connect it directly 'to the main manhole'... ... but now it's arrived, I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what's the best way to actually do this - i.e. leaving the cover open and plopping a soil pipe straight through the top - is that the play ? I don't really want to go too far away from the 'main manhole' - because the groundworkers are going to rip up and re-lay all the soil pipes... ... any practical suggestions ?

I seem to remember someone saying that you have stricter waste water rules in Scotland. Not an area I have looked into much.

Good luck and stay calm and smiley. with 20% you could just about throw away he ones that bother you most. I reckon it will go well.

Yes but it is not in the regulations. A reed bed is. From Google Earth I can see historic views showing that the land was once a commercial orchard. Thus I know that there will be fragmentation of the clay from the roots, which will long have rotted, and that there was drainage to the field in herringbone layout. I'd also expect the trees and apples to have depleted the phosphates from the ground (this latter is not my area of expertise though: it's a guess) . None of this will matter to the BCO.: I'm just expanding on the particulars.

I have blue Tescon patches on the inside of my SmartPly Airtight panels and roof membrane where holes were made to pump the cellulose

I have found a company to come and pour and 'finish' the concrete slabs next week. As always, everything is vague and nothing is done with a formal contract. Just been told the job has been booked in. Should the company be responsible for applying a curing agent as they have already said that they don't provide polythene sheeting to cover it to aid curing.

Ok good points. But as a designer.. if you came back to me and asked.. is it ok Gus to bump up the ridge height? Given that it is not going to say cause an over shadowing problem, it is well away from other development as above and so on. I would say to you, ok fair point but this is not the end of the consideration. Raising the ridge can introduce a what we call "massing" in Architectural terms. The wall / roof relationship changes for example, the mass (size) of the individual elements (be that render cf the roof tiles for example) can suddenly become unacceptable as their proportion relative to each other changes. Then if we make the ridge higher we can invite what we call a "scale" problem. The house is just bigger in elevation for example. This could be relative to the skyline or the ground levels. If you want to ignore this then you are taking a risk.. Sometimes the risk is low, but the consequences can be catastrophic.. but the Daily Mail may pay you for your story! If any Client asks me if it's ok to just pop the ridge up a bit.. I would try my best to discuss with them the risk they are taking, make contact with the planners for clarification. If it's obvious to me that it's daft and the Client persists, I'll probably withdraw from the project as I don't want my name in the Daily Mail either. @ETC may be able to add detail to this or be better able to comment?

I have certainly got 20% more than I need as deliberately over ordered to have a spare stock for any future maintenance. Also reasonable number of places to put rejects under appliances etc. some are reversed as they come out of the box. I generally do all I can to help people, clearing work areas, endless vacuuming, disposing of waste, preparation, ventilation, clear driveway, tea and cake, tools. If I knew what sequence he was going to work I would dry lay then box up again in the laying sequence if need be. Despite being sleepless and exhausted and growing more decrepid by the day.

Thanks for posting that. It's not easy to see, but I reckon they've done something like it but not as drawing, and also there probably shouldn't be a discontinuity. Yes, I've been the Contractor's Engineer and also the consultant's (acting for the client) on different big projects. In all of these the checking was very thorough by both. But I've no idea of the US (prob NY own rules) ways. perhaps the contractor and designer were the same ownership. Remember too that it is easy to see now, but during construction this is a birdcage of steel with no floors... No excuse but it would not be for the faint-hearted to check every detail in-situ.

@Great_scot_selfbuild Thanks for the insight on BroadAxe. I sent out some initial enquiries a few weeks back and was impressed with the response I received from them. Interestingly, I sent the exact same enquiry to Frame Technologies but didn’t receive a reply. Pleased to note your positive experience. I will definitely return to them upon completion of our design which is now in progress. Are you able to provide a bit more insight on the responses you received i.e. the detail or lack there of? Also, how did you structure your tender document and what sort of information did you include on your inquiry? Thanks Jeremy

I shall follow this, not because I want one, just that I find it interesting. You say you don't that a 'reed bed' but is a small orchard not the same thing? 'Let my plops fertilise your crops'

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.