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Thanks, The wall that fell over was the old one that had been there since the 1960's and was a farm building so we've no idea of the make up. We were supposed to use the old ones as a conversion just with a 2nd cavity wall. To be honest we weren't that disappointed as it meant it could be done to modern standards 🙂 It was rebuilt before anyone came and saw it so looks just like the old one. This was just to demonstrate the winds that we can have being at the top of a hill with no protection. Nothing like Scotland I don't expect though 🙂 I've no idea what mix we are using now, I'll ask when I see 'the builder' aka hubby.

You can add a cooling coil to MVHR and it will cool the incoming air. You should get a 3 to 4 Deg reduction in air temp coming out of the MVHR unit. But you change the air in the house every 2-3 hours so it isn't that useful on its own.

but unfortunately true I don,t expect it to happen as too many vested interests in politics for it to happen you only to look at the deals that were signed up for wind generation what numpty would agree to pay for energyy not supplied if grid can,t use it tough luck to pay them to turn off turbines just nonsense in this capitalist we are world in

I've still got lots to learn.

MVHR and not opening windows... You open windows for cooling mostly, MVHR and any meaningful cooling doesn't really occur due to flow rates being so low.

That is called 'The Tragedy of the Common'

Hi everyone, looking for some advice before I start and possibly make any major mistakes. I'm going to be taking up an old click flooring in the hallway and laying some lvt. Where I bought the lvt from said they would come and do a moisture test but after numerous text back and forth never turned up. I have taped a square of polythene down but not sure if this is giving me the most accurate reading. i can’t see or really tell if damp is present although a corner of the plaster bead is slightly rusted on one wall. So getting to the point should I just epoxy resin prior to self level compound? these are the materials I’ve got in my cart. Also can you recommend the best adhesive to use. Regards. James

same applies but that probably is porous sandstone is a type of mudstone and it is porous

well my view on north sea drilling is a simple one we should do it as if not other people will --the reserves are not going to sit there --someone will take them --so might as well be us and ideally it would be reserved for uk use only by a wholly owned uk company -who is paying tax in uk no consultancy fees going abroad by passing a law to ensure that and it should be same with wind farms

the reason for that is simply an economic one Iran petrol stations for 40 years before i retired and the cost of tank replacement and new pumps is too expensive for alot of the owners 80k+ for a new tank 10k for each new pump and with a profit margin of less than 3% £160per litre and dealer gets 5-7p top line before any costs -- it comes to a point where it is economically unviable to up grade a petrol station i made all the profit from the shop ==not selling petrol --so unless you have a good shop through put --then selling fuel is a waste of time and every time the fuel price goes up you have to find more money to fill the tanks when i started a load of petrol as about 2k now it is 60k-- and you will only get that dead money back when you close up and sell last tank load so unless you have a through put of over 6m litres a year fuel sales are a waste of time there has never been any credit for fuel sales -- pay by bank draft same day or at best with 7 days you will wait for 2 weeks at least to get your money from the credit card companies and they take half your profit with card charges so to operate a 6m litre site you will need to have money for 160000 litres -what you have in tanks -- your payment for last load and money coming from credit card companies you will need at least £300000k plus your shop stock value -- to operate and that not even allowing any costs for replacement of equipment or staff etc .etc and the loss by evaporation from your tanks -- 1-2%-- which you have paid fuel duty +vat on so would I ever consider going back into fuel sales --no way -- the profit fuel companies allow you has always been pence per litre immaterial of price which is why you see very few if any company owned sites all are dealers --they sold them off years ago to mugs to run that is also why you will not any new petrol stations being built--numbers don,t add up

[Note: this is not the granite building being discussed above - my stone is I think local mudstone] Thanks @Gus Potter I don't have time just now and we're still discovering as we peel off the layers. I'll just say that the stone is mostly internal. This central part is 40cm stone at ground floor (pre 1820), solid brick above to second floor and loft room. One gable end is a party wall against a brick built house (19th C. ?) and the other is external and rendered probably with the wrong stuff. A solid brick extension on one side keeps that side of the stone internal, and a 20 C. single story block work extension keeps the stone wall internal on the other side, with some solid brick exposed, sitting on top of the stone between the eves and the extension roof below. There's damp from two roof valleys on the party wall side, and from the ground elsewhere. Three levels of concrete floors and no central heating so we're removing the internal plaster (different kinds in different areas) and planning to dig up, level and insulate the floors. We'd like an extension that will bring the gable end stone wall inside, but will have to see if we have the budget (and the energy ) after the essential works are complete or at least known. We're aiming to keep the character (old floorboards, two staircases from when the stone cottage and the brick building to one side were separate, the old internal doors etc). I posted a bit in the introduction a few weeks ago, but have learned more since that. I'll no doubt be back once I understand more and am discussing my builder's plans.

If as it looks from picture it has been done with cement +sand --then no point in going lime based If you are lucky your local sand is greyish -- not red in colour my suggestion would be to mix up a small test batch at 4 or3 to1 to get colour to match what you have granite is hard and non porous but it can have hairline cracks in the stones --so make sure you wet where you are going to point to make it stick well --plastiser helps but if real problem is water ingress and pointing is ok -then could be very small cracks in the actual stones -- then bite the bullet and coat the walls and stop any water ingress full stop do not use cheap ronseal or erquivalent -- it will not last do it once and do it right i know i sound like salesman for permagaurd -- but having been through this problem with old stone house and inspected pointing very carefully before coming to the decision to treat the walls I know what cured the problem and easy to do

I used the HEP20 3/4 - 15mm push fit directly into my cross water mixer. A bit of PTFE on the threads. No issues 5 years in.

when you have repointed --with a proper mix as some of it looks very lean for pointing mix and sorted cracks you can see then I seriously suggest you treat outside of house with "permagaurd " or some other make -- not ronseal or thompsons --they do not last I can say from experience of doing it on my 1750 granite house --which looked perfectly ok for pointing -- but had water ingress issues when the winds go to 40mph+ that it will stop moisture from coming through your bricks and mortar they say itwill fill a 2mm gap and it does work very well and has a life of 20+years it is common problem in my area with old stone houses and it is also the cure--even on porous sandstone ones easy to apply ==like wallpaper paste which just sucks in as it drys. after i had done it i noticed strange wee spots around the house on the concrete when it rained -- but not there when ground dry it turned out to be where I dripped the permagaurd micro shield ultra when treating the walls -- and has kept the spots where it landed dry when it rains --so they look white as opposed the the normal darker colour of untreated concrete when wet I will be monitoring this over the years to see when it stops working . LOL

Ok so presuming you have a suitable concrete floor -- put some fixings in there to secure temporary wall braces from floor and to the walls and plastic sheet the walls with a staple gun to keep the worst of the weather off them ? sounds like an afternoons job if as you said a five block high wall fell over -- then got problems with the cement mix you are suing for the walls --too lean by a long way -- and i would not be happy continuing with any wall building till you alter the mix ratio -- me I use 4-1 minimum

thank you for the correction -- I did mean amps rather then kW what I have noticed since fitting my solar array and invertor is the vol;tage from the grid is much more stable i used to get an annoying cut out of the well pump now and then -- as the amperage draw sometimes exceeded the safety cut out never happened since fitment of solar system

We've been discussing this and like everything with building we are hitting a catch 22 situation. There are 3 parallel walls with one end wall at the moment to the East (phase 2). Phase 3 is still with the old single skin walls and concrete which all needs to be broken out and dug down to the right level which is about 1m+ Then the founds need to be poured down to 'good' soil which may be 2.5m + due to some clay. Our concern is that the 3 walls that have been done could potentially, without being braced, be unstable until the other end is done. This is not ideal but was the only option with renovating and underpinning. So, snug / hall are complete with posi roof and temp covering. The South wall (bed 3 right), East wall are done and North wall is under construction. But we then need to underpin bed 4, pantry, utility and West family wall (yes it does have the kick back from the barn) We want to brace the North to middle wall and the middle wall to South wall, the roof joists will be resting on the middle wall. the distance North to middle is 5.4m and middle to South 4.2m It is single storey. South is 11 blocks and North is 14 blocks, so difference is 3 blocks (not 2) so should be okay for roof slope and draining. Snug / Hall have their own roof which is lower than the height of the North wall. The striped walls are solid and existing, the pink ones will be stud walls and could move. The posi joists are made to measure allowing for the slope so we aren't keen on ordering the full one until we know the exact measurements. We have it specified and quoted, but don't want to say go until we are sure. Phase 3 (utility / family / pantry / bed 4) won't be built until spring / summer 2027 hence why we don't want to leave the other walls swaying in the wind until then. This phase 3 still has the existing roof which we use to protect saws, excavator, dumper etc so ideally we have the temp roof on master / office to protect from the rain. This is our catch 22 , without finishing we can't measure accurately, so we might have to pay for sacrificial joists just to brace the 3 walls, but that is expensive. Our site is windy and we did lose part of the North wall when it was 5 blocks high between some of the external doors in a gale last winter so we are not just panicking for nothing. It had not got to the stage of being braced, but the door wooden frames were in situ, but not to lintel level. Maybe this explains a bit more. Our BC and architect were all for knock down and build from scratch, but after spending over 4k on planning to do this (on top of already having spent 6k+ to get conversion planning) we gave up. The reason for refusal was that it was a new build in the countryside, even though we had planning to convert the barn. I understand that now it would be easier, but that ship has sailed. So, I hope this explains our predicament a bit more. i know that if we had contract builders it wouldn't be such as issue as it would be quicker, but as DIY these walls need to stand for another winter. So, suggestions greatly received. Thanks for all your comments so far.

Currently stuffed with pir and slc to smooth it out! Was trying to at least look at alternatives to a newel and balustrading. However If we do go the newel and balustrade route then this would be connected to the stringer and fixed onto the trimmer with a short L return into the block wall. I wouldnt need to try and do anything with the steel other than fix some timber/ply to which the flooring and balustrade channel would attach to.

What's the material infilling between the two steels? Could this be removed so you could slot/wedge timber between to effectively add a newel post?

I would like MVHR or similar, my hubby gets terrible hay fever and wants filtered air in the summer and doesn't want me to open the windows. the build will also be air tight so I don't want stuffy. But, what system we have is yet to be decided. The advantage with DIY is you are slow and have time, but there are so many considerations to everything.

Yes you can

Diesels should be replaced by EV eventually. Can’t beat the sound and experience of a supercharged v8 though

@Gus Potter this is what BC signed off... Drawing without protection to the top 2.5 treads... I'll admit I haven't read the regs and I assumed I need guarding. If I need guarding in place, then I would like something that gives a solid wall effect, but only to 1m tall. I'll give your suggestion a go, nothing to lose in trying.

As a suggestion for granite walls call: https://masonsmortar.co.uk/ The link to their website is above. This is a completely different animal. I'm assuming as it's in the centre of your house it is an internal wall? Try and post some drawings, maybe some photographs, often most helpful and describe what you are trying to do / why and your thoughts.

Hope you are enjoying BH, we have lots of fun here. Remember there is no such thing as a stupid question! As an SE I often look at bearing lengths for say Hollo core slabs. Generally on masonry standard is 100mm, on concrete (ICF) min 75mm, I then deduce your SE is taking into account construction tolerance, hence the 80mm. That's a good sign! The bearing length is vitally important as the floor slabs often act as diaphragms that tie the house together. But now we need to look at your pour sequence. Normally we would cast the first lift up to underside of Hollo slab, set the slabs, then carry on. A standard ICF domestic core is 150mm of concrete, sometimes a bit more. Now if you have a 80mm rest on your Hollo core that technically leaves 150 - 80 = 70mm of concrete before the outside skin of insulation, and that bit is going to be very hard to compact properly as it's going to be at the bottom of the next shutter lift. Have you considered extending the Hollo core slab rest to the full thickness of the concrete core so it sits flush with the outside edge of the concrete core? Then you'll have much better tying and can foam up the Hollo cores to your hearts content as they will be easily accessible? If you really want air tightness you can seal off any gaps within the floor depth as the end of the Hollo slabs will be flush with the inside face of the outside insulating layer of ICF,, that's a tongue twister! I may have missed something here. You SE may have introduced some extra floor to floor tying rebar, hence the reason for the 80mm bearing? Can you post the details you have? To finish, good question and hope you enjoy BH, folk chipping in, but also remember that folk that come after you will learn from your posts and experience. For me, it's also my day job, I also learn from your innovation, so thanks.