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I don't have any real advice other than to hang in there. I'm sorry it's tough just now. Sometimes a couple of hours away walking along a beach or something can help. It's a lot easier to pick yourself up and carry on again after. You'll sort it and move on from this.

We only require 'Basic' Radon protection as we are in a 3-5% area. The one issue I've got is that the membrane sits at the same level as the coupling on the rest bend. No idea how I'm going to solve that problem. But the top hats I purchased won't work. I think Juta do a liquid rubber that you create a dam and pour. The top hats are great for soil pipes in the middle of a room, but not so when your soil pipe is in the corner of a room.

If Radon is known to be a ‘high’ level, then I assume detailing the way that membrane is closed off correctly (as shown) would be a major issue here; not just time / cost, but in having this executed perfectly (BCO and warranty eyes will focus on this quite intensively if the risk is significant). Try knocking a couple of the common bricks off to see how well the Marmox breakers have adhered, as on a previous project you didn’t have to do much more than sneeze for these to come loose (tripped over a few and that was enough to dislodge them, prob too dry a bedding mix). No hate here, just sometimes replies are raw and ‘to the point’ as folk simply want to give you advice / information / direction as best they see it; often not allowing for the state of the recipient at that exact moment, which obvs does get taken the wrong way sometimes. No deleting accounts, take a breath and relax as the support here will help to get you over the finish line, you just need cut through the noise and get to the bits which you find relevant / helpful. Nobody here doesn’t want you to succeed, it’s simply not that type of forum. . If you have high levels of Radon then be aware that the rising ducts / pipes etc need to be detailed meticulously, something discovered on a current client's project. Top hats are slid over the soil pipes etc, are taped to the Radon barrier, and nave to be Jubilee clipped to form the correct detail.

Yes. Slab build up is as you have stated. Taking down the internal 3 courses won't take long and it will help considerably with gas membrane installation and concreting.

Timber frame (studs) should already be on strips of DPC, so just lap it up vertically at the walls, lay the floor, and trim off excess afterwards.

Welcome to my BS YouTube channel. Today we are going to create a minecraft inspired game in 10 seconds!. Hit subscribe!, it's you viewers I need! - thanks to our sponsor buildhub.org.uk.

But I expect I'll go Minecraft style!

All of 2 minutes work! 😀

That's awesome!

v1

I have often had to reduce some wall heights or taken down sections built with wrong DPC. You should be able to reuse the Marmox, which is good considering the price! Ground bearing slab is nicer in the winter as you don't have freezing air circulating underneath. So is it MOT, gas membrane, concrete, insulation then screed or are they in a different order? Either way I can't see too many issues that can't be worked around.

The circular columns are great.

Wonderful, congratulations.

That is lovely!

We used cellulose fiber insulation from PYC. I love it, perfect for filling irregular voids in a conversion project. I am now selling my lovely Fibre Master 750 insulation machine. It's scruffy but works beautifully. I can deliver and give tuition if required. Scally

Sorry to hear it OP, these houses can be such a massive emotional and physical heavylift.... But the shitshow will be temporary and the satisfaction and enjoyment is a lifetime. I promise you it is all worth it in the end, but you do need to smile and endure.

Though cloud tokens arent an issue for me now I use ministral mlx for fast language parse. If its a knowledge question it passes it to qwen. I suspect I'll be passing other stuff around to various models depending on the requirement. I'm having a break from that part and looking at realtime 3d scenery for the backdrop - I like my eye candy!

We've nearly finished our lovely Somerset barn conversion. The parents in law and my 99 year old mother have moved into two separate annexes. It all started 8 years ago and we've been building ever since inspite of lockdown and a nasty bout of cancer.

Oh yes. Finally got it sorted by about 9pm!!!!! It's interesting this and token burn rate. This morning I needed to do some financial modelling and analysis so selected Opus 4.8 for the conversation. 30 min later I looked at my session stats and I'd gone through nearly 80% of my session allocation. Then I select Sonnet 4.6 for another conversation - involves maths but nowhere near as complex and the conversation only burns 3% of session allocation but provides the answers I need. It certainly pays to switch models for different needs.

I did mine almost the same as yours, but stopped doing block work at dpm level. Then backfilled floor to get a level site. This allowed the DPM to be installed and taken up the external walls. Above you can see where my internal wall block work stops DPM in place with rebar ready for concrete pour. Once you have poured your concrete, you build the internal walls up from the concrete directly above your foundations. This image show the top of the stub structural walls (after floor insulation and UFH added and prior to floor being poured) You have just carried away and built too high. You need detailed drawings and make sure your workers understand them. Suspect you need to remove the engineered bricks and Marmox blocks only, depending on where you have defined the DPM/DPC levels

Ok. There is some reassurance that undoing work can make things simpler. The required preformed Visqueen internal door openings will be circa £500 alone. Let alone the additional required taped joints.

We didn't have as many internal walls (open plan), and being timber frame /no radon barrier /different construction may not be helpful , but we did exactly that....popped off some of the internal walls to allow slab/insulation etc to be much easier and then rebuilt internal walls off slab (we did check it out with both our SE and timber frame supplier). Felt like a backward step at time, but was worth it for later simplicity... self build unfortunately does feel like a steps forwards can be followed by steps back

I have a portable AC unit bought many years ago when I lived down south and it got too hot a lot more often. I hate it. Not because it is inefficient, it does work, and it does cool the room. BUT it is so damned noisy. I don't want a noisy poorly designed rattly compressor running in the bedroom when I am trying to sleep. We had the same issue on our last 2 visits to the USA. Hotel rooms with an AC unit in each room. You have the choice of not sleeping because you are too hot, or not sleeping because the AC unit is on and it is so damned noisy. Why would anyone WANT an AC unit that puts the noisy compressor in the room that they are trying to cool?

As some of you predicted, our self build has turned into a disaster. We’ve now parted ways with bricklayer number two. Choosing a ground bearing slab was a dumb idea and beam and block would have enabled everything to run more smoothly. i think the bricklayer could have made things simpler by not building up the internal walls the past the block course. This has now made the Radon membrane detailing more tricky and expensive, due to the number of internal door ways. I also feel it’s going to be difficult to lay the slab as the open door ways will mean you have different levels for tamping off. I am contemplating taking the internal walls down to the top block course. What do people think? I don’t want any hate. So if you’ve got nothing constructive to say, please don’t comment. I’ve been contemplating deleting my BH account.