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And adding number 3 to this! When I went to remove the spacers between the boards they just came straight off... The boards just didn't take to the knauff plasterboard adhesive. I guess I'll go tile adhesive and try again.

Thanks @saveasteading that was my exact thought process as well. I can then lap up the DPM on the inside of the inner leaf which can then potentially be placed under the bottom seal rail of the garage door. This will stop damp from being able to make it's way through into the garage. I always that that whilst taking the slab and mesh through the opening gives a solid base for vehicles going into the garage, the top will be exposed to the elements and if you have a garage door that sits behind the inner leaf, you have a visible 350mm slab of concrete that if not finished well when poured will look a bit naff.

Hmm. Well now I am in new territory already ! Fitter didn't arrive at 7:45 this morning. His 2 year young co-worker/apprentice eventually arrived at 09:30 and is apparently now to do my job rather than the experienced guy. Spoken to the boss this morning (who spoke to me and the experienced guy only yesterday). Boss spoke to fitter again first thing today and upset him enough that he is refusing to do the job. So now I have the same youngster that blocked my drain with levelling compound working here. Boss says he is fully capable of laying the floor which he claims is not really that difficult given the floor is prepped. The youngster has already laid some other floors himself. Boss says the youngster will dry lay sections and check with me as he goes. Somewhat troubling ! How demanding is it to fix the LVT ? Should I be worried and refusing the other fitter myself ? (Obviously the boss has told me any floor problem from the young fitter will be his responsibility to fix, but he is confident and will call in tomorrow to see/discuss progress.)

Ok, boards are on. Just need to do the mechanical fix and foam the gaps as above. Two questions have arisen though. 1. Does it matter if the screws are stainless, they'll be getting tanked over anyways? 2. I've got FM330 in the gun, but I'm thinking I should be maybe using something more sticky between the gaps like Insta Stick?

Flanagaj, I think maybe you are trying to be a builder without being a builder. I write with sod all experience except my own troubled extension. We ended up having to ditch a bad builder and then decided (as we had a dry shell by then and good alternate builders were not available for 18months plus) to continue by bringing in trades to get to completion. It is not an easy process because unlike a proper builder... 1/ You do not have a little black book with several good contractors for each and every trade - people you know from experience are capable and you can work with. 2/ You do not have any real clout with trades because for them you are a one off customer - a few £k's or £10k's of business - builders will be known sources of regular business 3/ Some trades people may be wary of a novice builder, or sometimes take advantage. 4/ You lack deep knowledge and experience of your own - of trade specifics, trade tendencies, what to watch for, how to specify a job These things do make it difficult. Finding good trades can be a lengthy process where the only proof is in eating the pudding. These things affect timeline enormously, you can never call in a favour from someone, no one will ever call you looking for work, you are potentially the job that gets delayed in favour of others. For your slab specifics, do you have a concrete mix specification defined that is what they are going to meet. My SE sepcified the mix for us. And where you don't have a contract only a price/purchase order/invoice then I would suggest always emailing to ensure you have something in writing which defines your requirements. In case of dispute at least you then have something more than verbal conversations and a price. You can even then write down what the contractor has told you verbally about the job, answers to your queries, etc. But try and get someone you can talk to, I've always been able to talk to my SE or Architect or the QS that dealt with closing my original builder contract, to get bits of advice or a site visit.

Do you want for looks? We've gone for weep holes, which are much less visible, even though there are lots of them, and vermin proof! (Uninsulated cavity between GF block skin round timber frame).

Well the good news is they haven't tried to cover it up. Get a full survey and report. Make sure it includes roof condition, timber condition, damp, dry rot and condition of brickwork.

So is this an insulated masonry cavity wall?

You need to confirm with the contractor that they will immediately spray the curing compound on the finished slab. If the water evaporates from the slab too quickly the concrete will not properly cure. That said, the house will not fall down.

Good point. That would indeed push half a day's stuff into the drain. I've looked at, smelt and let settle in a jar, the effluent from 4 installations. No strong colour, smell or settlement but presumably there is still chemical content. I don't think much sludge reaches chamber 3 and then that decomposes like the rest. I'll have a read about the Solido for interest.

Hi all The pipes for our ASHP are being fitted through an external rendered wall of our MBC timber frame. The external rendering is starting shortly but we haven’t had our airtightness test yet. We are hoping to get ASHP pipes in through the wall and fix grommets and tape in advance of rendering (after airtightness test) so that they a render around. There are so many different grommets and tape. We think we will go for Pro Clima but not sure which. Do we need different kind for external and internal? Thanks all.

Does this calc sound right (as it sounds like a lot of air bricks): If I'm using these air bricks which say they are 1,290 mm^2? List No. 350 Square Hole Air Brick 215 x 65mm - Forterra I'm only ventilating a few cm behind a brick plinth which doesn't do any structural support btw. Can I still use the floor area calc even though I'm not ventilating the floor area? Would peeps use, say, some stainless mesh masticed behind?

I appreciate that you guys have been doing this for a long time and I suspect that you are all very fortunate to have created a 'goto' list of trades for certain jobs. Most of my questions are around using the forum to either get validation on a specific process or where I simply cannot find the detail I require. I shoulder blame partly there by not choosing a decent architect who in theory is the person who should detail every aspect.

Are you sure about this for your chosen unit? Our Solido runs as an SBR plant and only discharges twice per 24hrs, immediately after a settling period. It pumps (well, airlifts) down to a fixed level each time so up to a few hundred litres in 20mins.

@flanagaj it's just that some of us have done this for decades. It is never easy for us either because every job is different And because people are people. We may get a little cross when our advice is ignored. But hey, we could be wrong. Listen to the advice.whether you take it is up to you. No violence, but make big decisions to take advice or not. I sympathise, but never assume that building is easy, or that the man in the white van has expertise. And keep asking and listening.

@JohnMothats helpful thanks, and will be especially so if I find we have overcalculated the area. Your numbers are much smaller than ours, but that will he because your percolation is very fast. 8 times as fast percolation means one eighth as much area. In my opinion, there is no chance that your drainage runs more than 5m into the system before disappearing, and the rest is redundant. I don't want to build a needlessly huge trench.. that's bad design. That's not how i have spent my career. Always looking for better, more efficient solutions. You know when they work because everyone thinks it's obvious. Equally, I'm happy to be told of a reason why I'm mistaken. That's expertise. But for now I think it's a very conservative design set by bureaucrats who are not thinking it through. Identical. The current project is SE England. At the Steading, the digger driver said he had lifted in about 10 digesters and all went to a rubble soakaway. So either he was mistaken or the bco's were equally ignoring the rules. Rules that inspire contempt are bad rules.

It's not that simple @Gus Potter unfortunately, we moved to an area where I have zero connections. Previously, I knew many, but it's too far to travel. The downfall was in thinking that I could find reputable trades who would do a good job. This has been an absolute mare and it's akin to the Wild West. Shysters who are either shit or think they can take you for a ride. Our last bricklayer was exactly that. As soon as I picked him up on his levels being out, I'm convinced he binned us off, but continued for 5 days before walking off site and onto a new house build for a builder. In hindsight, a single contractor for a shell would have been the best option, but I'm here now and I've just got to get slabs done and then the next lot of bricklayers can start mid August. Unlike many on here, we are not blessed with deep pockets and have to watch every penny. This build is being done on the basis of keeping to the Estimators QS and that means me managing trades. The question I have for everyone is what is this site for? I ask questions, because either they are not specified in the LABC manual or the trades person I'm dealing with does not fill me with confidence, that they know what they are doing. Just for the record, the concrete company is a large Southampton based outfit and not some bloke who happened to overhear a conversation in the pub. So by that very nature, I'd expect them to be professional and make sure the slabs are done to industry standard and protected from shrinkage post pour. I also don't know what you mean by 'big boy hat'. Am I to start getting violent with these people when they deliver substandard work? I've already sacked two bricklayers, so it's not as if I cannot have the conversations. It's finding reputable individuals.

This is our design - effectively a fail on perc test as stated in the text. This is a early revision of the drawings shown as a 10 person drainage field (final was a 6 person) Big area, but simple design. Don't overthink it just follow the rules

Sheet of plywood cut to the cover size, 110mm pipe in the top, allow a bit of wiggle room to slide ply out and give it a hose.

Depends what you want to do with it, I bet if you visited ten Victorian terraced houses in that road they would all be the same, unless there’s some large trees near this one I would think it’s fairly standard. have a good look outside, are the tops of the windows level, what about window cills, on the wonk, the benefit of a terrace is it’s held up on both sides. have a look at the neighbours houses, any movement ? you need to remember there will be very little in the way of foundations under this place. walk along the street look for signs of men working, maybe carrying out a full refurb, ask to look in it, talk to the builders, what did they find when they stripped it out. are you going for the full strip out and re build ? if it’s been in the same ownership for 60 years it will probably need it, are you prepared for this or do you just want to wall paper over them.

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 ?