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Blogging: an activity where the perpetrator converts trivia into prose and in doing so reorganises their own otherwise disordered mind. Possible side effects: perpetrator enhancing feelings of self importance; boredom amongst those reading; history being rewritten. I find it interesting to contemplate why I don’t have quite such a burning need to blog at the mo. I’ve always enjoyed working with wood and metal and power tools. And that’s what I’ve been playing at for the last three weeks. I’m not really at home with concrete and soil and masonry - they’re from another planet. On top of that I’m working closely with Rolly the chippy, and he is knowledgeable and experienced, which translates into me having great confidence in him, and additionally he is calm, and has a very powerful calming influence on me. So my head isn’t quite so haywire most evenings now, certainly less than it was during both demolition and groundworks. My head is also full of diagrams and schedules. Both the project and the timber frame kit are constantly changing puzzles which I do kinda understand and can usefully sit and think through - and having puzzles to occupy me keeps both anxiety and random diversionary thoughts at bay. Which is a v long winded way of saying that I’m happy with how it’s going right now. Since the last entry the house has shot up. We’ve had roughly a metric ton of steels popped on to the top of the downstairs panels. Two steelworkers, me, and a genie lift, watched by J and Steve the injured builder. It’s fascinating how banter volume is inversely proportional to difficulties being encountered. It’s also fascinating how distracting, frustrating and irritating little side comments can be from the audience. I’d never cope with stand up - even the gentlest heckling would completely derail me. Jerry and Paul however are made of more hardy stuff. Most of the steels they got up in no time, but then we got to the bogey - the longest, heaviest beam. It would have been massively easier had it been wheeled into the house the other way round, and in hindsight we’d have finished quicker had we put it back on the trolley, wheeled it out into the road, smiled sweetly at the scowling motorists who appear to turn purple if delayed by more than 2,345 microseconds, spun the beam round and wheeled it back in. In fact that was even suggested, but no, perhaps because it would mean admitting defeat, we soldiered on regardless. Regardless and in near silence. Even the audience cottoned on and were uncharacteristically quiet. Then suddenly, we got the beam to spin round above the head binders, dropped it into place, bolted it up and the only thing drowning out the huge sigh of relief was the loud resumption of banter. Banter and tea appear to run our build, both as a glue and a lubricant. Feelings do run high at times and managing feelings, both my own and others, is far more important than I ever imagined. An essential part of that is that the peeps working with us seem to care about our progress, take pride in helping us. We make no secret of our inexperience and our reliance on others and so far that has been met with both kindness and determination to help us. We’ve been stupidly fortunate. Anyway, we’ve also put up the rest of the downstairs panels, including the monster 11’ wide one which was the heaviest of the whole build. Leaving that till we’d done the rest of the downstairs turned out to be a very smart move. We probably found it easier than any of the panels we put up in the first week of frame erection, despite the weight of it and the fact that it was awkward. Part of that is Rolly and I settling in to work with each other. There is now a lot less verbal communication than there was to start with. We’ve also honed panel handling so there’s less pure physical grunt needed. And of course, as time goes on with each panel fitted we’ve more room to work, and that’s also significant. With such a cramped site we are constantly tripping over stuff, moving stuff repeatedly, trying to get stuff delivered at the last minute, etc. But much as I might try to plan, at times there’s no choice but to work with way too little space. A good example is the joists. They were delivered before we’d finished putting up the downstairs panels and there’s an awful lot of them. Ideally I’d have put the delivery back a couple of days but that wasn’t an option. I had no idea how much time the limited space would cost us. Ho humm. Talking of joists that was the next job. Rolly and I deposited nearly another metric ton onto the downstairs panels by hand, (just how much does this ‘lightweight’ timber frame structure support?). I say by hand, but shoulders, knees, and just about every other available body part was deployed. I don’t know what lifting capacity each of us have but somehow when working together we exceed more than the sum of our two capabilities. It’s probably simultaneously driving progress and pushing us a teensy bit too far towards injury risk but it’s just what one does. Joists up Rolly set to making us a temporary staircase while I attacked flooring boards. The temp staircase really has helped reduce fatigue and made getting things upstairs safer and easier. Good idea Rolly. Anybody would think he’d done this house building stuff before. We’ve so many joists we almost don’t need flooring boards, but they’re on the design. Yet another metric ton of them. Plus several kilograms of this funny polyurethane glue stuff. That’s really odd to work with. The first day I came home with black gloves on, only non removable ones. I’m sure my fingerprints must have been obliterated (I certainly couldn’t unlock my iPad) so that would have been the time to do a bank job. But there was no time for niceties as the following day the upstairs panels were due and the telehandler was booked, so I had to get enough decking down to allow the piles to be dropped upstairs and sorted/distributed so the other two piles could follow. Rolly was given the day off for the delivery - he’s not supposed to be full time anyway and his skills are reserved for the clever woodworky bits. So Andy the Boss supplied a telehandler driver who was also a power lifter and another equally capable bod to help me sort the panels. When the downstairs panels were delivered they were dumped in the piles they were transported in and Rolly and I had to reshuffle them, which took lots of time and energy. This time I got the long suffering timber frame company to send me pics of the piles so I could work out which pile to do first and how to sort them into sensible piles. For once the theory worked in practice and despite the complaints about how near the edge of the deck I kept walking that day ended with three piles in a near sensible assembly order. I was pleased with myself but I had a nagging doubt - would it speed erection? As I was pondering this very question Dean the neighbour (two doors down) wandered onto site to offer his help with future deliveries. “Why wait for a delivery?” I asked, there’s tons to do and I’m certainly not too proud to accept help. Next day Rolly and I attended to the odd bits and finished the decking whilst the first lift of scaffold was put up. I’m not sure I did anything but look for discarded cups, (sort of) wash them, boil a kettle and make tea, repeat. Rolly has a near infinite tea consumption capacity but the scaffolders beat him hands down whilst managing, like Rolly, to work hard and get lots done at the same time. The song definitely has it wrong, nothing stops for tea but it gets drunk anyway. Tea is useful though. Rolly arrives way before we are allowed to start work so tea helps him cope with rising agitation as the clocks edges glacially towards 08:00. Tea (and biscuits) helps me get Rolly to stop work long enough to help me plan too. And as we drank our tea and discussed the upstairs panels Dean the neighbour arrived. “I can help for a few hours” he said. Now Dean is in his mid eighties so the average site age rose to 73 that day. Hence my initial caution. I started getting Dean to help me organise and stack lightweight stuff, but it became clear that as he tuned in to the way Rolly and I worked (it’s a kind of grunt and nod based language previously unknown to science) that more ambitious stuff was in order. Panels! The three of us got the first two corner panels up, rather effectively. Whilst Rolly was checking and bracing and securing those panels Dean and I got ready for the next panel, only we didn’t, we put it up ready for Rolly to do his check/brace/secure thing. Fast forward, and I do mean fast, and five hours later almost the whole of upstairs was up. Staggering. And very satisfying for all concerned. Perhaps the speed was helped by my sorting after all. The next day Dean pitched up we lifted the gable panels from the ground floor - there was no room on the deck to use the telehandler to get them up previously - we used ropes, crabs, ladders and way too much giggling but up they went so another keep me awake job was dashed off. Don’t underestimate the capability of us wrinklies. Not so easy was the cement board fitting next day. It’s a bitch of a material to work with and slower than I’d have predicted. But we need it done before we fit the roof trusses - finishing these and getting breather membrane on will be the first job next week. On Friday we were ready in good time for the roof trusses, all 19 of them. Two powerlifters from Andy the boss arrived just as the lorry backed onto site. It’s almost like it was planned. They took one look at the job, shook their heads and took up positions. It worked like this (after a couple of false starts): Driver on lorry pushes ends of truss to edge of lorry. Shortest guy on site grabs end furthest from house and has the job of stabilising the truss. It’s at this point I realise why I need platform steel toecapped boots. Short tempered power lifter grabs end of truss nearest the house. Truss is run towards house like a pole vaulter on speed. At last second short tempered power lifter pushes his end of truss skyward. Shortest guy at back of truss grunts and struggles to keep truss upright whilst swearing, profusely. Truss end is caught by other power lifter (the smiley one) just before it lands on the upstairs floor. Smiley power lifter drags truss upwards as shortest guy is dragged along the ground with it still trying to keep truss upright. Rolly and smiley place truss neatly on rapidly growing pile. In total there was 31 minutes between lorry arriving and the truss pile being completed - if my pics weren’t time stamped I’d not now believe it. That made even the short tempered power lifter grin. To finish the week while I continued fitting cement boards Rolly prepped the first truss for a test fitting. Getting the first truss up felt good, really good. That made me grin. I’m loving this part of the build. Yes, progress is visible, and that helps, but it’s more than that. Even when I’m doing things I’ve never done I’m in my comfort zone, and the muscle and joint aches diminish overnight, and I’m not generally laying awake worrying. OK, that probably means I’ve missed some thing or things that are really important, but I’m feeling good. Long may it continue.

That was an advertising slogan from the 40’s and 50’s, which persisted in popular culture into my childhood in the 60’s (I’m a wrinkly, but not that much of a wrinkly). And oh boy, with the recent downpours we desperately needed a hat on the house. As kids we used to turn the phrase around - “if you want to get a hat, get a head”. That’s what counted for humour back then. But like all my frivolous tool purchases over the years that turn out to be really useful if not vital during this build, so that phrase became immensely apposite. Our timber frame paddling pool needed a head to put a hat on. In the case of our design ‘a head’ meant a full set of trusses, all braced as per, a layer of OSB (a softy southerner version of sarking), anti everything mesh closing the continuous ridge vent, the eaves bunged up with timber, and the flue hole cut and the attic bits of the flue in place and the final length ready for erection. Rolly the chippy and I had discussed in great length how to put the trusses up. They were in a pile on the upstairs floor needing the bird’s mouths to be cut. We concluded we needed more hands to do it. At this stage we both nod, look round, remind ourselves that we are alone, then stay silent till one of us gives in and says “shall we give one a try anyway? See how we get on?”. That’s the danger of two peeps working together who each refuse to believe they can be beaten. So, Rolly cut the bird’s mouths on three trusses while I pointlessly thought through different lifting options for a pair of old codgers whose combined total age is 140 years. If only I’d bought a chinook. Anyway, there we stood, each end of a truss, silently psyching ourselves up. That was brought to a close by a series of half sentences, which we took turns to utter. Things like “well, we could lift this end onto the plate, then, ummmm….”; “would a rope, sort of….”; “could the scaffold tower help with, maybe, erm….”. We were facing certain defeat, or at least, the need for help. Where was my octogenarian neighbour when we needed him. Visiting friends in Europe, actually. So we did the only thing left to us, we applied good, old fashioned BF&I. (A core skill of mine, as it happens.) We fluffed it twice, each time returning to the starting position. I’m not sure an onlooker would have been able to discern any difference in approach between the three attempts, apart from facial redness growing by each failure. But attempt three worked. Hussah! We sort of repeated the same process, each time making small changes. By the time the eighth truss went up, as I mopped up the blood (I’d bashed my nose) I wondered what on earth we’d found so difficult. Rolly then did his orang-utan impression, while nailing the bracing on to give us a firm set of trusses to build from while I tidied and generally fussed, pointlessly. It’s amazing how a couple of well nailed cross members stiffen an otherwise wobbly set of timbers. That done we continued getting more trusses up. With each one it got easier with practice but harder with less room to work with, ending up with three trusses bunched at each end that we walked to their position once all was up, Rolly on the scaffold outside, me on my tower inside. Simples. By the end of that day we had got all the trusses up and braced enough to get through the expected storm, v pleased. Not so pleased about the next day though. The forecast was dire so Rolly stood down and I tried to have a Tidy Friday. However most of the weather missed us so it ended up a day wasted in many ways. The only really good bit was the roofer popping by allowing a discussion about gable verge and soffit details - that went well, or so I thought - with the roofer happy with our design and booked in to felt and batten us next Thursday. Monday we got the rain we were promised for Friday. Sigh. Dean, the neighbour, turned up to help just as it started hammering down and I’d put the kettle on. Obviously we blamed him for bringing the rain with him. I fed everyone biscuits but had none myself (sniff) as our BCO turned up, and I discovered the recipe for a quick and positive BCO inspection. Try really hard to do good stuff; know one’s design intimately and by heart; and further than that, understand it at a micro level; and have the inspection done in pouring rain so it happens quickly. I think the last bit overrides all the rest, but they’re still a good thing. We are lucky to have a BCO who is a nice guy, who is himself a self-builder, and who loves his job. Either way our BCO was a damp but happy man with our build. Dean and I got a bit of the OSB sarking on when it dried up, while Rolly closed the eaves, so it wasn’t a complete wash out. Next day Rolly and I got a rhythm going and got loads of sarking up, using ropes for security, leaving just the top rows each side which were thankfully half bits. So next day, with nearly a complete layer of OSB on, we discovered how useless sarking is at keeping rain out. Cue yet more depressing sweeping water off of the upstairs floor. Yet even in such circumstances illumination is to be found. Tony trays. You thought they were just for keeping the air in, but no! they are far more versatile: they keep the rain in too. With a flat surface like an upstairs floor however fast one sweeps torrential rain towards the stairwell much of it reaches the walls. When it hits the Tony trays it is skilfully guided round the end of the joists and then down the inside walls. Of course, this is good news especially when one has carefully stored lots of stuff out of the rain, neatly stacked round the edge of the downstairs walls, as all that dry and dusty stuff gets a good cleansing rinse in pure rainwater. All my paslode nail boxes are now papier-mâché, which doesn’t bloody help. The best laid plans and all that. And the delays meant that the plan was starting to look too tight. We had a day to get the rest of the sarking on and a few other bits and pieces done to be ready for the roofer. Cue the cavalry - which in Suffolk can be a helpful neighbour. Rolly did the clever woodworky bits while Dean and I got the top rows of sarking on. Our scaffold is v thin on one side as we are so close to our neighbours, so I could only safely lay a ladder up the roof on the other side. We’d used a roofing ladder for the lower rows but that didn’t work for the top row as the hook was in the way of fitting the boards. So we laid a normal ladder up the roof, and then I laid on the roof, feet atop the ladder, while Dean attached each sheet to a rope and pulled it up to me to fit in place, first on my side then on the other. Worked a treat and with Dean holding the rope we had a backup against the gusts of winds which was never really used but was a comfort to have anyway. Actual safety verses perceived safety is fascinating. As I lay on the sarking getting ready to pull up the next board, waving at a regular passer by (who took another picture), Dean took one look at me, perched on the top of the ladder and asked if I was sure it was safe. “No”, I said, “I’m at significant risk of bashing my thumb with my hammer”. If fall off the ladder AND I didn’t keep one hand on the top of the last fixed board I’ll collect the odd splinter as I slowly slide down onto the scaffolding. Our 40degree pitch means one cannot walk on the OSB but it did mean I could hold myself in place with one hand very easily. OK if I did slide I’d swear a lot but we’d have a laugh about it after. If I was monkeying about on a felted and battened roof the risk of falling through would be massively greater and much more dangerous. In reality I was much more at risk of injury lifting panels on the slab - back injury, crushed fingers, etc. But Dean saw height and that triggered his ‘oh my’ function, (he’s American so he says things like that and “do the math”, and “oh shoot”, etc. bless him), whereas he and I lifting panels didn’t bother him one bit. Peeps (no names, no pack drill Rolly!) constantly leave stuff about which constitute trip hazards, and I’m regularly kicking them to the side or picking them up as I fear peeps tripping and the resultant injuries, which depending on what is there to fall on could be really nasty. Hence my obsessive tidying and my Tidy Fridays. It took me a while to realise if things get untidy I get a big knotty ball of anxiety in me that I just couldn’t turn off. But everyone else wanders past the mess oblivious. So my perhaps irrational trigger is disorder. Go figure, as Dean would say. Once I’d put the last bit on I treated myself to a sit down with a view, on the ridge. I had been looking forward to that moment for many, many days. My favourite place in our current house is on it, on the ridge to be exact. The view is spectacular. Turns out the new pad’s ridge view is just as good. Sitting there, looking across the river towards the ancient burial mounds, even with the rain starting again, felt like the Pooliverse (any Perishers fans out there?) was telling me that it’s all ok, this is meant to be. As the roofer arrived next day I was back laying down on the job, this time fixing stainless steel anti-everything mesh along the gap at the top for the ridge vent. I was very glad to see him, until that is, he asked about the gable verge and soffit details. They are as we agreed, I said, happily. Only it turns out that he had no memory of our previous discussion and anyway he’s a visual sort of guy, rather than a discussion with drawings, sort of guy. So I’ve simply no idea what he thought he was agreeing to the previous week, but we had to do the whole discussion again, this time with wood to mock it up. Fortunately the end result was very similar to my original design, but sometimes trying to plan ahead and get things nailed down in advance in the building industry does feel like trying to buy spirit level bubbles - impossible, and at the same time a source of great amusement to others. That discussion was had on the scaffolding in bright sunshine. But grey clouds were on the horizon so that time wasted was bad news. Two strips of felt later the heavens opened in one last assault before we put our hat on. I guess the Pooliverse has a sense of humour which is hard to appreciate as one sweeps and sweeps and sweeps endless puddles away. But the rain stopped and the roofer got back up there and we finally weren’t topless any more. While the roofer roofed I carried on setting out my flue and while my back was turned Rolly threw up our internal upstairs walls. Perhaps he wiggles the end of his nose, that would account for the speed. We were slowed a lot by the joists being slightly not where I thought the plans showed them to be, (“what do you mean I can’t cut through a pozijoist? I’ve big saws, of course I can!”), but a small (40mm) wall shift sorted the flue run and suddenly we’ve gone from wooden cathedral (micro version) to embryonic home. Albeit a damp one. The week ended with just me doing my Tidy Friday bit and knocking off early for a bit of a low key garden party held by one of our new neighbours. I know our build has upset some a bit but, we are again, ridiculously lucky that the vast majority of our new neighbours are very welcoming and tolerant. The Pooliverse continues to be good to us. Oddly, I then hit a downer, which is very ‘me’. I have no idea if this is an unusual habit, but when faced with the achievement of an important milestone I don’t feel like celebrating, I suddenly have the bandwidth to contemplate what’s left to be done. This time was a lot worse, as I suddenly realised that my time working with Rolly would soon end, and working with him felt really good. Funny old emotional roller coaster, this building malarkey.

Don't Panic - we're not selling what we've been building. Back at the end of April (I thought it was longer ago than that - time either slowed down or we sped up, not sure which) SWMBO had just had a toe joint fused together to try to resolve a long period of pain following the critical infection she got over 3 years ago. We're pleased to say that it seems to have done the trick, and she has now rejoined me in getting the house ready for habitation. I left you all with another list to contemplate. So here it is with some brief updates: Hassle the SH1T out of the window installation company to investigate and fix the leaks (three fixed windows and a sliding door) that came to light after we did the first lot of plastering - it worked, and the window no longer leaks - yeehah!! the rest of the plastering - was all completed the rest of the mist coating and painting - one bedroom and an ensuite left more stone work - still on the list moving as much stuff into what we now call the attic (a very large room downstairs as we don't have a real attic) in order to clear all the other rooms - done Install the UFH upstairs with plywood cover - done, and manifold connected up and filled fit the bathroom - done fit the kitchen - done fit the utility and cloakroom, utility done electric 2nd fix - done and signed off rainwater soakaways - still on the list rainwater collection system - still on the list backfilling - partly done, still on the list concrete lego brick retaining wall - delivered, to be fitted Flooring - in progress Wood cladding - still on the list Air tightness test (as I write this, I think "oh, sh1t, I must get that booked in") - done and certificate issued Fit internal doors - still on the list Fit en suite - still on the list Build MY garage - still on the list A green roof system, because its on the planning application, and may be required for certificate of completion (unless someone can enlighten me as to how to avoid this, and be able to delay the installation) - still on the list So, that big window, the one in the middle bottom below. First chap who came to inspect and report back left the company without doing anything, so two chaps came out (I think mainly as protection for each other from my wrath). Suffice to say they inspected thoroughly having listened to the fact that we had investigated excessively to find the point of ingress of the water. The ensuing repair entailed the whole window (glazing, individual door frames, and the outer rail frame) being removed from the hole (thank goodness for the steel beams above), a manufacturing fault being rectified, and the multiple installation faults also be repaired and then finally reinstalled correctly. A few days later to allow the massive amounts of sealant that were applied to cure, we sprayed a large amount of water at the window and gladly it seems to be OK. We now await a traditional SW'ley storm this coming winter. All the remaining plastering was completed, and not only did the mighty SWMBO mist coat all but one bedroom, she also painted all the walls bar the bedroom and the en-suite. I'm not sure she wanted to see a paint roller for a few weeks after doing that lot. As you can see in the picture above, on the right hand side, we started laying the UFH insulation and pipes and overlaying that with 6 or 9mm ply, depending on what the final floor finishing was going to be (we planned ahead 🙂 ) In May, we were joined by our son who had stated clearly that he wanted to help us with fitting the kitchen. This was very welcome as there were a few heavy units to move into place, and it was fantastic to have a pair of stronger arms (than mine) around. And so with his help we managed to get to this point (left photo). Since then I've been doing all the finishing off (doors, plinths, hidden handles etc..) But the "pièce de résistance" was having the breakfast bar made from planks of the trunk of a walnut tree that we had to remove to build the house. Here it is in the right hand photo Having done the kitchen, focus turned to the bathroom. Here's the result We started putting down final flooring. In the breakfast bar picture above you'll see the stick down LVT that we had fitters into do, and we've done LVT click flooring in the bathroom, a bedroom, the utility and cloakroom, and one other room. We also had some of the backfilling done, meaning we could do away with the temporary steps upto the front door and the areas around it. So, still a lot to complete. This last week has seen the temporary utility removed and the permanent one installed, and a bed has arrived into the one floored bedroom. Selling up: We've sold our "holiday home", and our primary residence is on the market (anyone want a four bed detached with double garage in the Reading area?). Next week we begin the process of moving into a building site, albeit one with a few luxuries (like the ability to cook a full roast dinner without the electricity tripping, and have the option for a bath!) No new list this time around 🙂

Floor The main focus this week has been laying the DPM + 220mm PIR floor insulation + 50mm upstand insulation round all the walls, then the UFH perimeter expansion strips and the vapour separation layer ready for the UFH pipes. It’s proved intricate work. Ken our first fix plumber assisted by local builders Barry and Jordan together have been working hard to complete the task by the end of August so that the liquid screed can go down during the first week in September. Early this week it looked like there was too much to do in the time available which added to everyone’s stress levels but by the end of the week the guys have made good progress and appear to be over half way through. We have a little bit of contingency with the screed team who are happy at this stage to leave the pour date a bit flexible during w/c 1st September, so we are hoping we will be alright. One thing that is particularly pleasing is the meticulous attention to detail being applied by Ken, Barry and Jordan. The PIR boards are being cut and fitted really tightly and the taping of joins and of the DPM is being done with real care. If we were doing this again (Mrs P: “We’re not”), I’d consider building the non load-bearing internal walls later, on top of the screed, which would have saved a lot of effort intricately cutting, fitting and taping DMP and insulation to those internal walls. But no doubt a different series of problems would have ensued. Electricity supply Also this week, SSE came in and moved our electric supply from a meter box which used to cling to the side of a now-demolished wooden garage, inside to the plant room. Two SSE engineers for two hours = 3p change from £700(!) Hey-ho, it’s done now. External battens I reported that these were all done last week but I forgot about the cross-battening required for the vertical timber cladding. Anyway, that was duly completed by Alan and Chris this week and the walls are ready to receive STS construction boards plus Ecorend thin coat render (for the rendered sections), and Brimstone Ash vertical timber cladding on the other areas. I need to arrange delivery of the latter when we have sufficient space (the cladding is bought and being held by Vastern Timber pending delivery). But work on the backing boards for the render starts on Monday - yes I know it’s a bank holiday but the render people are keen, so who am I to stop them? Carpenter Chris also sorted out the ply protection for the front door and here's our lovely temporary door - the real one is safely wrapped up in the workshop. Scaffold Also keen to work the bank holiday weekend (well, ok, after a bit of encouragement) were the scaffolders, who arrived on Saturday morning to remove the scaffold, which they did in a few hours with no dramas. So we can now see the house! although it’s still looking very shiny-silver. The plastic protection is remaining on part of the zinc pending the completion of the vertical cladding of the wall on the left And finally… Remember this rogue beam from last week’s blog? Too close to the window reveal to allow us to fit an external blind… Well, I asked Matt at Turner Timber Frames to check with the engineers whether it and the one at the other end of that roof canopy are structural and it turns out they are not, they are purely 'cosmetic' and can be removed if we wish. However, in the meantime we are wondering if we really need and external blind anyway(!) Also, we need to talk to Alan the carpenter about how we are going to finish the roof in that area, and he’s away until next Wednesday. The soffit will be clad with some of the Brimstone Ash but should the soffits be horizontal or follow the slope of the rafters? Do we need some kind of clad gable at the end? Also, how easy will it be to take that beam out? It’s on joist hangers at the wall end but how is it fixed to the top of the oak posts? At least we have options to consider now though. Dashboard: Contractor days on site this week: 19 Contractor days on site since build start: 211 Budget: No change, running slightly over. Plan: On track to move in by Easter 2026. New measure - Number of bacon baps bought: 8 this week; 41 to date. These are ‘keeping people happy’ baps. Unfortunately there is no entry in the budget for them so I have explained to Mrs P. that they’ll have to come out of the kitchen budget. Kitchen -> food, it’s obvious! (Although as Mrs P. points out: "No kitchen; no food" which is a concern.) At any rate bacon baps from time to time feel like a worthwhile investment to keep everyone happy. Issues and worries closed this week: Scaffold is now down; the renderers can get at the walls! Current top issues and worries: Insulation - the additional ceiling insulation is still a worry - going to need to schedule it in after the screed now. PS We’re at a wedding next weekend so the weekly blog may be delayed or skipped. I imagine you’ll all survive the blow.

Came across this forum recently whilst searching for information about BNG, after delving deeper I wish we’d found you all about 2 1/2 years ago. My wife and I are just finishing our build, hopefully by the end of this month. Maybe 6 months later than projected, so probably not too bad. Our struggles along the way have been for the most part due to our main contractor going into liquidation in December 24. In some respects this may have been a blessing, in others not so. We realise now that not all of the headaches end with the completion of the build; reverting to LA building control after the liquidation is challenging, we still have outstanding land transfer issues and obtaining planning permission for a ground mounted PV array is laughable. Our build is a new build replacement of an old tractor barn, close to the ridgeway in Oxfordshire. It seems the forum likes photos so I will attach a couple.

Very busy again this week - we were probably running at the maximum people we can have on site without contractors getting in each other’s way. On Thursday we had the carpenters, the insulation team, a roofer and the window installation team on site, and it’s not a very big site. Windows and doors The main highlight of the week was the arrival of the windows and external doors on Thursday together with a team of four (from Ukraine, though the windows were made in Estonia). The installation team led by Alex and Val were on-site by 7:30am and the windows arrived at 8:00. All the windows and doors went in smoothly over the next day and a half. Barring a factory error, we knew they were going to fit as Alex and Val had done a pre-installation site visit three weeks ago. There were no factory errors and everything fitted perfectly. There was no fuss about our difficulties with getting all the requested scaffold changes done (we didn’t) - the team worked around the shortcomings. For those interested, the windows are triple-glazed, alu-clad, inward opening tilt and turn, Norrsken P33A units; the doors are S305A alu-clad, composite panels doors and the 4 metre lift and slide, which is also triple-glazed, is Norrsken’s S305A door. The lift and slide door weighs in at 475kg and was moved by hand down a 500mm wide gap between our scaffold and our neighbour’s fence, then lifted manually into place. Here’s the sliding panel coming in first - it was stood to one side then fitted in once the frame and fixed panel were in place. I have to say, we remain very impressed by Norrsken and would recommend both the product and their installation subcontractors. Alex and Val suggested removing the front door, wrapping it and storing it safely, then cladding the frame in ply with a temporary door in place during the remainder of the build. Seemed a sensible suggestion and that is what we aim to do next week. Here's Dima, Alex and Val from the Norrsken window installation team: Having the windows and doors in is obviously a big step forward but we had progress on other fronts too: External wall battens and roof Our carpenters Alan and Chris made a start on (and indeed finished) fixing the 50 x 50mm external ventilation battens and have pretty much finished. (That’s messed up my wallplan - it’s not supposed to be done until next week!). They also boarded out the plant room walls with 18mm ply - it seems sensible given the amount of kit we need to fix to the walls in there. Just in time for the electricity supply, which SSE are coming next Tuesday to move into the plant room from the current external meter box. The slate edged, solar panel roof was finished this week too and now only needs the zinc mono-ridge capping/facia to be fitted (tomorrow) for the roofs to be complete. Insulation The team from Cornwall were back this week for what was supposed to be week two of two, to membrane and insulate the insides of the external walls and the underside of roof (below the blown cellulose layer). Progress has been slow for a number of reasons and the work remains a long way from complete. Still to do is the insulation on a couple of high walls and the whole of the roof. Partly, the job has proved a lot more involved than I or the contractors realised. Also they were delayed this week by other work over-running, sickness, and a funeral. On the one hand, given it’s a fixed price contract, we should not be too worried. But there is a potential impact on the schedule downstream if this work is not complete by about the 3rd week in September. And for the next 3 weeks our focus shifts to the floor: fixing the DPM, insulation and UFH pipes, then pouring the screed. So there is no access inside the house for the wall/roof insulation team until about 8th September. I can see this getting messy but for the moment we are trying to keep to the current plan which leads to the plastering starting on 6th October. It might be time to fire up Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field (well, it worked for him... until it didn’t). Mistakes - I’ve made a few… Here’s a good one: We planned to fit an external blind to the master bedroom window, partly to keep the solar gain down and partly for blackout purposes. The idea was that the blind would be hidden in the timber cladding, out of sight when not in use. But despite poring over drawings and designs endlessly, I failed to spot that the roof canopy has a return beam that comes in 20mm above the window reveal - so there is no way we are going hide a blind cassette in there. I’m not actually sure what that beam is doing given there is no weight hanging off it and surely the roof trusses provide enough of a horizontal tie for the oak post? It’s probably too much effort to challenge or change now though and Mrs P. and I both feel we can live without an external blind there (and fortunately our Part O Overheating assessment did not take the external blind into account but listed it as an optional improvement). Other mistakes are either too minor, or too embarrassing to mention. Stress Yes, I can confirm that running a self-build is pretty stressful - on a par with the stress levels I used to experience running big IT programmes, I’d say. I won’t deny we’ve both had a few sleepless nights worrying about what’s happening tomorrow, or the day after, or next week... Still, every task done is one we (hopefully) no longer have to do. Dashboard: Contractor days on site this week: 26 (that’s our record week!) Contractor days on site since build start: 192 Budget: No change, running slightly over. Plan: On track to move in by Easter 2026. Issues and worries closed this week: The windows are in! Our scaffold issues haven’t held the window installation up (though the scaffold itself did fortunately hold the window installers up!) Current top issues and worries: Insulation - still lots to do, increasing potential for the dealys to impact our overall schedule. Scaffolding - still a worry, although we do now have a provisional date when the scaffolders plan to take the scaffold down, so fingers-crossed that holds. Scheduling future deliveries: insulation, battening, cladding, render boards, MVHR, UFH kit, ASHP, HW cylinder… all due in the next four weeks.

After the advice of pretty much everyone, for once I am going to admit defeat and have some professionals in for this job. We have found a couple of options we are happy with and will readjust the budget a little to accommodate but its not something we can afford to go wrong. I will take some pictures and update you in a couple of weeks when it's done but thank you so for your advice and help and I now know what to watch for when it's poured and what to prepare

As promised, I spared you a Week 14 blog due to our visit to Yorkshire for a wedding and catch-up with old friends. It was lovely to do something unrelated to the house and it made us realise how all-consuming our build has become. We will definitely try to have some more non-house time through the rest of the build. That said, it’s back to the matter in hand: UFH Two weeks ago the guys were battling through laying the floor insulation in preparation for laying the UFH pipes, ahead of the screed pour which was booked for 3rd September. In the end it was a very close-run thing - the UFH pipes were ready by 13:30 and the screed arrived 10 minutes later. Too close for comfort really: Tight project scheduling is one thing but the stress of 11 cubic metres of unusable liquid screed potentially being dumped on the site was a very uncomfortable feeling. Screed Once started, the screed pour itself (by Williams Walls and Floors) seemed to go very smoothly (hah!) and it looks fantastic. We have had 65mm of Cemfloor Therm liquid screed laid. Still in stressed-out mode I woke up before 4:00am the next day worrying about what would happen if the pipes floated up or the screed was laid too high (they didn’t; it wasn’t). (I helpfully woke Mrs P. too just so that she could share the experience - she seemed not to appreciate it.) We left the house shut up for 24 hours as instructed by the screed man Rob Williams. On Friday morning I went over and opened up to find we had a sauna! All perfectly normal apparently, but the combination of heat from the screed setting reaction, the well-insulated relatively air-tight house and (presumably) 1000’s of gallons of water created an atmosphere that made Singapore seem like a desert. Sadly, I failed to get any photos of the clouds created as the windows were opened and the saturated ‘sauna’ atmosphere hit the September morning. By the afternoon, with all the windows and doors open the inside of the house seemed perfectly normal again. Seeing the screed poured in a few hours and reflecting on how fiddly all the underfloor insulation had been to lay, made me wish there was an option for a poured floor insulation - it would surely have been so much less effort and faster? Edit: There is apparently - https://www.rtu.co.uk/assets/documents/RTU-Ultrabead-Brochure.pdf. I have no idea if it is any good, what the pros and cons are etc, and it is too late for us but if we were doing another build (Mrs P: “We’re not!”), I’d certainly look into it. Render Just to make sure we weren’t missing an opportunity to get some outside work done while the focus was on the floor, we had booked our render team (Caesar Spray-rend and Plastering) to start boarding up the 50% or so of the external walls that are to be rendered (the other 50% will be vertically clad in Brimstone Ash). So on week 14 the STS construction boards were fixed to battens and last week the base coat was sprayed and smoothed out. It already looks a lot better just for some of the shiny breather membrane walls being covered up. We now have to wait a week before the top coat can be applied. We’re using EcoRend Thincoat for anyone who is interested. And finally… Marcus from our super groundworks team came in on Thursday to set all the stainless steel oak post brackets in concrete on top of their support pillars, and also to lay the smoothest, tidiest concrete slab you have ever seen to rest our ASHP on. …Which is just as well because the ASHP arrives on Monday! Dashboard: Contractor days on site this week: 22 Contractor days on site previous week: 16 Contractor days on site since build start: 249 Budget: Getting more challenging tbh - beginning to eat into the contingency - mainly costs I hadn't properly estimated. 😱 Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026. Issues and worries closed this week: UFH pipes laid. Screed down! Current top issues and worries: Insulation - the additional ceiling insulation is still a worry - scheduled for w/c 15th September.

It’s taken a little while to get an exact figure With some moneys and bills still to go out and £1500 off the vat reclaim off a supplier Which we’ve now done We ended up with £42800 back off the vat Most of which went on the landscaping and gates So I’ve knocked that out of the total spent Carpet curtains blinds wood burner I’ve left in as part of the spend fees surveys buying costs Architects BC fees All in Land purchase omitted from the spend tax All complete 420m2 £386000

The principle is good but these are wrong, it gives a very false understanding. There is a tolerance between the frame and building, whether 5 or 10mm, there is either bracket install or screwed through the frame, so the tape needs to be able to bridge those areas. Covering the brackets correctly, ensuring the membrane goes from frame to building and 99% of the time, the airtight membrane is fixed to the sides of the frame not the face of the frame. A better video to watch would be the following.

Plenty of rain last night for sure . Didn’t witness it . But bone dry 😀

Pretty much as I expected. It is pointless to engage with Climate Change deniers and Covid conspiracists, who never provide peer-reviewed sources and do not engage with reasoned debate backed up by evidence, but cite the Great Barrington Declaration as if it was a statement of fact. As an essential worker, visiting clients daily throughout the lockdown, I experienced more than enough of the horror of the pandemic's effects. I can tell you that the true Co-morbidity cost to my customers was traumatic enough that I still find it hard to discuss. 46 of our clients died in the first week of the lockdown alone, and I stopped counting after that. Is that 'normal for the flu season'? Those who stayed safe at home, fomenting conspiracies, can never understand how truly insulting it is to hear such utter rubbish repeated, let alone as part of a general discussion on a building forum. I'm thankful that I wasn't working in a hospital where I'd have actually had to watch them die, but I can tell you that there are many thousands of bereaved family members, traumatised medical staff, carers, and other essential workers who will never forget the lockdown and will never forgive conspiracy theorists who make light of their cost. Many lessons should be learned from the lockdown, and there may be alternatives to the various forms of lockdown and vaccination schemes used around the world. But all of these should be attempted with the best of intentions - to save lives, rather than prevent inconvenience. This is something for suitably qualified and evidenced discussion between experts - not a shouting match between DIY builders...

Let's not go down this rabbit hole but suffice to say, these are either untrue or at best highly contentious. Just because you believe them doesn't mean they are true.

Politics, climate change and Covid are three subjects where the populations view has been polarised by the media and now the vast majority sit in two camps with hardened views and no discussion is going to change either sides point of view…….. Quite sad really

I did every penetration of the envelope myself for this reason and designed out all but 5 wires through the roof membrane. I had an absolutely no blame policy if anyone accidentally made a hole. "Just tell me and I'll patch it up" It worked well.

We batted back to about 60degrees. This was based on an assessment of the soil by the SE following a trial hole and a determination of soil modulus. A key thing to remember, is that weather and time are enemies of a stable slope. To help mitigate this you can employ various methods to stabilise the slopes. I chose to use woven membrane, overlapped and staked in to the ground, lapped under compacted stone at the top. At the bottom we had a sturdy catch fence to stop any material to spill in to the working area. No issues. through a wet winter. One corner was particularly wet with a constant flow of water the pulled out a bit of clay. had to be cleared out a few times. Also, critically, an exclusion area at the top of the slope so vehicle or material weight aren't too close to the top edge.

Yes they do and I put this on my drawings and specification. You will find the nailing schedule and nail type, durability etc on any SE fixing schedule. The nails holding everything together are just as if not more important than the timbers say. It is fundamental to the SE design as different types of nails have a different performance. Ring shank nails have a different load capacity from a smooth nail, length and diameter of the nail is vital as is their coating for durability. From time to time I get asked to verify that what I have designed has been built.. I check the nails on site as the performance can be 30 or more % different! Lots of builders cut corners here and use the wrong nails, they don't follow the edge and end distances that are specified on most SE drawings. They think they know best.. but they don't. Look, you ask your SE to do lean design.. then the builders comes along and says they are talking pish! At what point do you think.. hey this is more risk falling on me.. and I'm paying for all of this! So in the context of buying a nail gun. Buy one that fires the nails your SE is specifying and make sure you / your builder executes what the drawings say. I have this on my website but take a little time to read this by Ruskin. “There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

I have concrete stairs and a concrete first floor. The foundation design will need to accommodate a concrete stairs. My structural engineer needed to know the stairs design, before he finalised the foundation design. We needed an additional concrete pad under the insulated raft at the bottom of the stairs. I did investigate Millbank for pre-fabricated stairs, but the ICF guys built the form work for the stairs in-situ, and poured the concrete the same time as the first floor walls. https://www.milbank.co.uk/products/stairs/stairs-and-landings/ For me, concrete first floor and stairs were an integral part of my design requirements from the beginning, even before deciding to go with ICF, which actually made it much easier. The ICF guys did my stairs at no additional cost, which was very generous of them. Here are some other links I have from my early research. https://www.ejbformwork.co.uk/in-situ-concrete-stairs/ https://midwest-stairs.co.uk Picture of the form work for our stairs.

Buy a kiosk (would suggest a 3 phase kiosk even if single phase supply) and mount it on a concrete pad. Fit it with three ducts (supply in, cable to house, and a spare) For the ducts Have the meter installed in it, a small CU and some sockets. That’s your temp supply. When it comes time for your permanent supply you remove the small CU and sockets, fit an isolator and run your house supply from it. Or get a small brick kiosk built as you suggest. Make it quite big. I’ve ended up with two kiosks as the EV charger supply is installed directly into the meter cabinet but this needed a small CU and because of the large isolator there’s no space in the original kiosk so had to fit another smaller one. Just think carefully about the cable run from housing to the house. You want it to be as straight as possible and as close as possible to wherever the CU in the house is going to be. I got that massively wrong with ours and placed the kiosk too far up our boundary but this was a year before we’d even finalised exactly where the house was going. It caused me a bit of grief when we came to pull the cable up to the kiosk from the house. Took my wife and I a full day!

Update: Their grant submission has been accepted. Pretty quick and easy for them one they actually sent in the necessary documents. Funny old thing.

Complex though and uses a lot of space. Personally I'd just amend my routine to be more reasonable in my demands, but I know that's an unpopular view, even though it's the only one consistent with any faint degree of sustainability. Four showers in quick succession (often, perhaps not in this case, for a long time at 20l/min) is the archetypal first world problem!

Based on some of what you say above I do wonder if this is truly the case, or whether (perhaps subconsciously) you are really trying to find evidence to support the decision you have already made (again perhaps subconsciously). Are you truly undecided? If you want an ashp to work for you it will, if you don't want it to work for you it probably won't!

Absolutely plus 1 The ones we’ve used are online no photos are required

Generally a much less stressful week than last week with lots of great progress but all is not perfect - see below. Heating Last week's drama getting the UFH pipes laid just in time for the screed pour seems like a distant memory but as there had not been time for Ken to fit the manifold and pressure test, he came on site on Sunday evening (roping in his Dad as a helper) to get that done. Thanks Ken - and Ken's dad! A neat job completed... ... just in time for Paul and Shaun from Air2Heat who arrived on Monday to install and commission our Panasonic ASHP and cylinder - kit which also arrived on Monday. It's almost like it was planned! We have opted for a 7kW Panasonic Aquarea L-series Bi-Bloc with a 300 litre Panasonic cylinder and 50L buffer tank. We're really impressed by the speed and neatness of the install: it's almost a shame the pipework has to be hidden behind the insulation. The external unit looks great and seems incredibly quiet - even when heating up that 300L cylinder from scratch. Although the heat pump is working we can't use it in anger at the moment as we have to have a slow temperature ramp up to prevent the screed from drying too rapidly. The screed itself does seem to be drying out nicely with no issues. None of the zone stats are fitted yet so the UFH is operating in open loop mode but in reality there is no demand anyway. I would thoroughly recommend Paul Thorney at Air2Heat as an MCS ASHP supplier and installer. He has been super-helpful throughout our heating journey. Initially he was just going to provide an MCS commissioning umbrella service but his price for supply of the kit was good and in the end we asked him to do the install as well - and we're very happy with the result. Rendering Although the weather has been 'iffy' at best John Wheeler from Caesar Spray-Rend managed to find a window to prime our base coat and then spray the Ecorend Thin Coat topcoat in 'Scotch Stone'. Again, we're very pleased with the result. Once the timber cladding goes on the other sections (later, later!) we think the two finishes will work really well together. Before topcoat And after: John also put a sand and cement render round the block-work below DPC to tidy that up... Although Troy seems more interested in the stray soil-pipe bung than the render: Electric 1st fix ...has started! Unfortunately 1st fix electrics is not particularly photogenic but here are the sparkies Nick and Darren pretending to be hard at work to prove it's underway. More on electrics to follow in the weeks ahead, I am sure. Decision time So, good progress on a number of fronts but it's not all been plain-sailing. I have had to pull the plug on the team who were supposed to fit out additional wall and ceiling insulation. They were supposed to complete in two weeks back in early August but the work didn't progress as well as they'd hoped we agreed they'd need to come back for a week with a bigger crew to finish off. They were due back last week but had to postpone by a week. Then today, I find they can't make tomorrow and there's a lack of clarity about when and if they'd be in next week. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to be chasing a slipping milestone because the ceiling insulation has dependencies: 1st fix electrics and then the plastering, both of which are on the critical path. So I had to let them know that we weren't continuing with them. They took it quite well to be fair; I suspect it may have been a relief. We are now going to switch to Plan B... just as soon as I have worked out a Plan B. Seriously: always have a plan B. Actually we have a plan B and a plan C, either of which will protect our schedule - we just need to decide which is the more palatable because they both have some downsides: either through higher costs or by reducing our planned insulation levels (which may be a bit OTT anyway). In summary, Plan B - get the plasterers to fit insulated plasterboard; Plan C skip the additional roof insulation and let the u-value for that element increase from 0.09 to 0.152. The latter of course still satisfies building regs and has a surprisingly small impact on heating requirements according to the Build Hub heat loss spreadie. Conversations with our architect and SAP man next week to help decide. Watch this space for further updates. Overall though, we both feel the we have made the right decision, and usually in these situations the danger is 'going with the flow' when the flow is really drift. And finally For the eagle-eyed amongst you who spotted that some plasterboard has magically appeared in the plant room... Have the plasterers started already? No - they don't start until after 1st fix, of course, but the plant room presents a 1st fix v plasterboard conundrum - so who did we manage to rope in for some impromptu 'boarding out'? Why, none other than Mrs P! Seen here in action: Great job Mrs P. - good to see you wearing the Benpointer team hoodie! Dashboard: Contractor days on site this week: 15 (I'm not counting Mrs P!) Contractor days on site since build start: 264 Budget: No change. Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026. Issues and worries closed this week: Worries about the ceiling insulation crew's ability to keep to the schedule. Current top issues and worries: Replanning the approach to ceiling insulation. Plan B or plan C?

I've been a contractor for decades and seen hundreds of big slabs going in. I have seen enough to know that your plan worries me. I will step in to help or for interest in most processes but have always kept out of the way during this because it is skilled and brutal at the same time. Good points made above. eg the pipe is full of stone and is stupidly heavy as well as kicking around. The guy on it is usually a super-fit 30 year old. Consider buying 3 barrows and hiring 3 labourers instead of pumping.... you win control too and can compact and level as you go. You will need scaffold boards to move around on. Washdown at the end is a horrible, filthy job, especially the inside and outside of the pump pipe. I mentioned this post to my daughter (Contractor , Project Manager, Architect). Her jaw dropped and she immediately thought of the risks. One she added was how well your insulation layer is covered...… the membrane must be intact and completely sealed at all laps, otherwise the concrete forces through and the insulation floats to the top carrying your reinforcement with it. I have seen this happen. Check your laps and tape as necessary one more time. BUT seriously consider postponing this and getting a professional gang to do it.

You don't say how thick the concrete is going to be ? (We had our pipes tied to the mesh rather than the insulation and had a polythene vapour barrier) I'd have thought you need a detailed military plan for the day with some possible fall back options and everyone pre-briefed. Talk to the concrete company to try to understand exactly what to expect from them. We ended up with an old pump lorry because the newer one was in for servicing, no flow control at the outlet end of the pipe, people had to shout and wave hands across a 30-40m distance to get the pump turned on and off. A significant delay between off and the flow ebbing away. At the beginning you can get a very watery slurry coming out of the pipe at first, so might possibly want to consider dumping this somewhere (out of a doorway or window or into wheelbarrows or something ?). At the end the concrete remaining in the pipe has to come out, so you might want to have a plan for where this can be dumped - we ended up with a considerable concrete mass on our driveway until we eventually got the builder to remove it. Know where the mixer and pump lorry are going to park and ensure it is clear of vehicles. Have plastic sheeting and tarps available so you can protect the road/driveway as necessary from leaks that may occur under the lorries. Know what the options are with the concrete company if things were to go wrong - lorry arriving late or early - having to abort part way through (will they then empty onto your property regardless etc) - job taking longer than expected. Check those volume calculations and know what you are going to do in case of shortfall or surplus. Have boards avalable - we had a 6m board spanning our footings from one side to the other - not sure how that works for an existing building. Do you just work back from the far room, or is it feasible to do one corner room, then move to another corner room while someone is finishing/checking the first, then move back etc - I have no idea as I've never done it. Do you assign a person to each room ? Who does what exactly ? Will they be dressed appropriately - our builders young lad turned up in shorts and shoes and had to have concrete washed off his legs FAST to avoid concrete burns - brickie turned up in long protective trousers, gloves and wellington boots with shovels. Pipes full of concrete are heavy and they can jump about a bit when the pump is running so make sure the pipe itself doesn't damage anything. I had to put some bits of insulation around the corner of our house to protect it.) I am sure you must have any conduits, drains, manifolds, services in place - u/floor heating pipes pressurised - perhaps your cabling and plumbing pipes are going in the ceiling and walls ? Keep the egde insulation higher. Levels can be tricky - have you used a water level to double check them - maybe know what your tolerance might be at doorways. Splitting the pour may cost money - but how much money is it going to cost if things go wrong - likely an awful lot more.

Better to use bits of batten going floor to ceiling with white paint and a datum marked on it? Can use a full length attached to the ceiling timbers and then cut and wiggle free just as the concrete goes hard enough to take foot traffic over walking boards? EPS marker blocks will likely gets smashed / knocked off as the pour goes ahead, with zero time / opportunity then to reset them. Once a pour begins, you ain’t stopping it! Battens are then going nowhere, so with that and the perimeter insulation set up as datum’s the stress should be somewhat removed. Don’t do this, always have this higher than the pour, with a fat permanent marker line drawn on it from a laser line, and then cut off the excess later. If the pour happens to spill over the top (accidentally) then it’ll drop down and bridge your original DPC. Where your original DPC is, I’d black jack the area, 100mm below, and 100mm above as insurance, as once you’ve poured there’s no going back. Use a 75% water / 25% mix of liquid DPM product to prime the areas that you intend to then brush the liquid DPC on to, as brushing onto friable masonry that has not been ‘sized’ will be a pita and it’ll pull off very easily. Priming will allow the product to soak into the surface, providing an excellent key for the surface applied layer(s). A good few £££ to go on this, but I’d be doing this if it were my place. You might find that the dilute mix will go through a cheap electric HVLP gun, like one for spraying fence panels with preservative, which would make life a lot easier. If that works, just make a larger amount of the diluted mix so the gun is constantly ‘wet’ and you can refill without having to measure the solution each time; if the black jack begins to cure in the gun you’re fecked. If you set this job out, and prepare yourself, you can likely do this in one sitting, but if you’re 10% off in the prep and sequencing then it could very well go 2 pairs of tits up. No need for 100mm, just use 25/30mm PIR and then the expansion perimeter / edge insulation either side for your expansion relief. That edge insulation towns corners just fine, so aim to have the middle of the PIR directly where the door will reside. No need to install the conduits afaic, and I’ve been doing these jobs for decades. All you (actually) need is simple foam up-stands there, but they get battered during a pour. I’d say stick with the block of insulation there and use that to get the doorways poured cock-on, (as you’re DIY’ing).

Hi all, I'm a first time builder (of anything bigger than a shed or a bathroom renovation) and hoping I can pick your collective brains to reduce the number of catastrophes I encounter en-route! My new workshop will have to be big enough to park my motorhome in it, so I'm needing a door height clearance of 3.1M and it's just over 10M x 6M, so 63ish Square Metres footprint. Upstairs will be a bedroom with large en-suite at one end of a full length apex roof, bedroom accessed via a few stairs down into an existing room in the end of the extg. house, and a covered balcony at the other end, overlooking the Humber Bridge. Current state is that we've got walls up to joist height, concrete block and beams in last weekend under the balcony floor and the steelwork including a ridge beam was also lifted in last weekend. Scaffolder just finished the scaffolding for the next lift of blockwork and I'm about to order easijoists for the floor under the bedroom. I will no doubt have lots of questions...

Her weight in gold Hospital administration by day But true self builder at heart When I broke my hand She slated the entire workshop with me only fit to carry the slates and cut

We have an MBC slab topped by a ~65 mm polished concrete screed that was installed by a specialist polished concrete company. A few thoughts in no particular order: 1. You can't predict the outcome of a pour The quality of surface finish of a structural slab can't reliably be predicted in advance, and it isn't necessarily to do with the installer. In our case, the slab was poured in January. I believe (without any real evidence) that the concrete we were supplied with wasn't ideal in terms of slump. I think, in particular, that it had too much water in it. In any event, we started pouring first thing in the morning, but even by 11 o'clock that night it hadn't gone off enough to power float. It got very cold that night and we ended up with really bad spalling on large areas of the slab. To their credit, MBC offered to fix at their cost by raising the frame and covering the slab with a self-levelling screed. We went with polished concrete instead so that wasn't necessary. The main point I'm making here is that if something goes wrong with the pour or finishing and you haven't allowed for the additional buildup of a screed to fix, you'll need to think about microscreed or other thin finish to rectify. 2. Polished concrete is usually not just "concrete" As others have said, ideally you should add the right additives to the mix and use a surface hardener (I think our guys sprayed something on right before the power floated, or maybe before they started polishing). I don't know how this all works when you're talking about doing everything based on the structural slab, but if you're getting a specialist in to do the polishing, you should probably be getting their advice in advance, and possibly even onsite input during and immediately after the pour. 3. Polishing is best done before the frame goes up We made the mistake of leaving the decision on flooring until the frame was already up. Large polishing machines can't get right up to edges, and corners are a real challenge. These areas are polished with smaller hand machines which definitely don't do as good or consistent a job as the large machines. We have lots of waviness and visible artefacts along edges and in corners. We've convinced ourselves they add character. We also have a couple of large cracks. We did have crack-relief cuts made in the appropriate places, but because the frame was in the way, the cuts couldn't be made all the way to the edge. This wouldn't have happened if it had all be done before the frame went up. 4. Polishing isn't perfect Along with the edge and corner inconsistencies, we have several spots in our floor where you can see blade marks from power float being stopped. They look like big '+' signs. The underlying aggregate is inconsistently exposed. This is something you might be able to improve by being present during the polishing (and particularly the early part where the coarser grinding is done). Yes, and yes! Our floors are completely covered in fine surface microcracks. You can't see them in most places unless you look closely, but they're more obvious where there's wear or staining. 5. Concrete doesn't (in my personal experience) age well This is just my experience, but we've found the concrete to be an absolute bear to keep clean, especially in the kitchen. Every spill, particularly containing oil, risks a permanent stain on the surface unless it's wiped up immediately. Some months after moving in, my wife took the rubbish bag out of the bin in the kitchen and put it on the floor. She forgot to take it out and it leaked overnight. The resultant large and obvious stain is still there over 9 years later. There are smaller stains underneath the bin, in front of the fridge, along the bottom edge of the dishwasher, and at various random points throughout the kitchen/dining area. It's just my personal impression, but it also just feels like it's become a bit grubby over time. It's partly due to the stains mentioned above, but also the polished surface has dulled in areas of high traffic. To me, there's a difference between a rustic, "honest" finish that shows the construction method (e.g., edge/corner inconsistency and float marks) and the history of the house (general wear, such as more matte areas where the polished surface has worn down over time), and stains that just make the place look dirty. We're not super tidy people but we are quite clean, so the staining really annoys me. I don't personally see how you can avoid staining. Perhaps regularly applying a sealant would reduce the problem (we've only done that once or twice after the original sealant was applied), but the big stain mentioned above happened only a few months after the first industrial sealant was applied. 6. You might be stuck with it If you really hated a tiled or wooden floor after a while, it would be costly to replace, but it wouldn't necessarily be that difficult to break up a tiled floor or remove a wooden floor. It's potentially a real challenge to do the same with concrete. In my case, I don't know what the process for taking up the whole screed would be. I suppose we could cut down through it along walls and around kitchen units, then chop it into sections for removal. A breaker probably wouldn't be ideal, as there's anti-crack mesh, and I wouldn't want to damage the underlying structural slab and its UFH pipework. Where the structural slab is polished, it might be even worse. You're unlikely to have much space to add a different floor on top of the existing slab. In our case, there's only a few millimetres' clearance underneath a couple of the external doors, so even adding a topping layer such as a microcement screed would be challenging (quite aside from the fact we couldn't afford it anyway!). Probably the best option would be to apply some sort of industrial epoxy topper, but that really limits the end look. Other thoughts It's not all bad. In general, it looks pretty good other than in the kitchen where all the stains are. It's very easy to run a broom, vacuum cleaner, or mop over - far less resistance than even a wooden surface. This is great if (like us) you have a dog that sheds hair and drops dirt/dust around the place. It's brilliant for underfloor heating and cooling - it feels nice and cool in summer and warm in winter. Some people think the surface will feel unpleasantly hard, but I don't find that bothers me at all. We have rugs in some places to soften it out, but even without them I don't have any issues. On balance, my wife and I agree that we definitely wouldn't go for concrete again. She'd prefer wooden floors throughout. I'd prefer tiles (either large format, or possibly those wood-effect tiles you can get, although I'd want a closer look at them before committing).

Hi all, I got the light down. I used a zip tie to tie the springs back. I did one spring and tied it, and then the other and tied that. It took a little while and was fiddly. Thanks for all your suggestions and advice.

Back in 2006 I got utterly piddled off with std DIY shop rainwater diverters (we had a few water butts dotted round various gutter downpipes for general garden watering) Reasons why….. 1. they blocked up really fast with moss or leaf debris 2. any decent rainfall and they had limited capacity to harvest all the rainwater coming down the gutter 3. In decent rainfall they tended to soak the walls 4. Slugs loved them and made good homes in them 5. Had to remove them in winter and replace with straight pipe to stop the butts being filled and then the water freezing. I searched the internet and found what I thought would be better. UK made, switchable so a harvest position and a divert to drain position. Decent depth before the overflow was reached (maximising volume harvested in a good rain shower. below is what I found only I bought the version made in white 19 years of use and exposure to UV has meant they are past their best (Brttle and leaky) but worst news of all was the company that used to manufacture them had gone under and they were out of stock everywhere so the search was on for replacements who knew it could be so difficult…….. Seems all the usual places just stocked the std ones with all their issues Then Google took me to Australia and I found what I’m looking for I bought 3 and tonight I fitted the first one can be removed easily without stripping downpipe has recirc back to soakaway if butt is full has leaf/moss filter/ switchable for winter Claims 600 ltrs per hour with garden hose but 1200 litres per hour with 32mm pipe (so I’ve fitted 32 mm pipe version) being Oz spec 75mm diameter downpipe fittings i had to create so adsptors to suit the UK 68mm but not exactly tricky

Pre MCS we had our own in-roof system that allowed the panels to fit truly flush with the tiles and worked for both new build and retrofit. It was a bit more work than a tray system but the results looked much better than other in-roof systems at the time. For existing roofs, the tiles, battens and membrane were removed. 18mm ply was fitted between the rafters to achieve a flush surface. This was then covered with EPDM and then battened and tiled around the edges to the required dimensions. Tiles could either be mucked-in, or use industrial compriband expanding tape to maintain weatherproofing. A dedicated, weathertight cable entry point was included at the same time. We used double galvanised Unistrut rails fixed to the rafters - 21 or 41mm profile, depending on the tile profile depth - with spacers to allow unobstructed run off. With panels fitted over, the surface usually matched seamlessly with the rest of the roof; this looked particularly good with all-black panels against a slate roof. One of the benefits is that the gaps at the edges were 50mm all round without any flashing details except some leadwork at the bottom of the array to lap over the eaves tiles. And of course, the bloody pigeons couldn't get underneath, unlike some of the other early in-roof designs that were only slightly better than bolt-on in terms of profile and appearance. My own in-roof panels were constructed this way and are still looking good after 15 odd years. No reason that the EPDM couldn't be replaced with a fireproof metal roofing sheet and trapezoidal fixings for an updated version of the system. Sadly, you can no longer use Unistrut for an MCS-approved system, as they refused to pay the stupidly high MCS 'approval' fees. The market was too small for them to justify compared to all the other market opportunities. The same reason that our in-roof system and bespoke slate and plain-tile fixings using unsistrut were never commercialised. Too bloody expensive to get it through MCS approval.

BTW the little <> icon in the post form can be used to insert code, e.g. try: dt = parse_ts(s) assert dt.tzinfo is not None and dt.utcoffset().total_seconds() == 0 print("OK ", s, "→", dt.isoformat()) except Exception as e: print("FAIL", s, "→", repr(e)) It also does nice syntax highlighting. You can also use the TR ... icon to edit previous posts and add code formatting 🙂

Don't bank on any size staying around long. Just bought some 500W panels and they were actually smaller than the datasheet, things move pretty quickly. If you have space to store, buy some extra panels just in case?

Have you seen recent threads? Several failures, wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. Pretty rubbish for a heat pump as it requires heat pump running at high temperature for the whole heating cycle. Just get an unvented cylinder - tried, tested, cheap, installer friendly. Does the wheel need to be reinvented? No

I spent a long time doing the airtight membrane myself so it is quite annoying to have had this happen. As a first time builder I am shocked at how hard it is to find decent builders and contractors.

Hose pipe, couple of clear pipes on each end, coloured water and some small stands/clamps. When I did my surveyors course, the 'levellers' where flipped over 3 times, then the measurements were corrected. Do a search on Bowditch Correction. Explains it better than I can.

The way (for me) to size battery is ignore solar (for now) calculate the electricity demand on your coldest day or close to that. So now you need to get a battery that deliver that electric without have to use peak electricity. Octopus Cosy gives you three cheap periods, think the longest period between cheap periods is 7 hrs. And there are 8 hours of cheap electric, so you can just draw from grid in this periods and recharge battery. So battery only needs to be able to last 7 hrs at highest demand. So in simple terms xkWh, divide by 24, then multiply by 7. Example 40kWh/24, is 1.6kWh, them multiple by 7, so just under 12kWh. With conversion losses (DC to AC) you need to add another 10% so now you are at 13.2kWh. So really an actual capacity closer to 15kWh. Or a GivEnergy AIO, with an available capacity of 13.4kWh, which is what I chose.

I'd expect so. Same as the asylum housing costs- a lot of that is companies like Serco taking on tired old hotels and then charging out rooms to the government at ludicrous rates. We get angry about the wrong things in this country.

The oil companies strategy on climate change has been clear all along. First deny it, which they succeeded in doing for a long while (even though their own scientists told them about it), then argue for delaying action now it has become clear that their denials are simply lies. Eventually (if we allow them) they will shift to arguing that action is pointless and that instead we should buy even more of their products to 'protect ourselves', which of course we can never do because continuing to burn fossil fuels inevitably means that climate change gets ever more severe. However while we do so we will still be buying their products so they wont care. They pay vast amounts to consultants and others to represent their case, and fund election campaigns (in countries where this is legal) for people who would support them, They arrange things so that much of the media sing their tune. Unfortunately many people, including some here, appear completely to swallow this misinformation campaign and instead echo their most recent mantra, and blame politicians, who have limited power, need to win elections, and have a job that relatively few actually aspire to (unless they are totally power-crazed in Trumpian fashion which, frankly, relatively few of ours are so far as I can tell). Despite this they still haven't quite succeeded in 'controlling' governments, who thankfully, continue to do things that are contrary to their interests No politician is perfect of course, but neither can we expect them to be. They are only humans and have to operate in the real world and, faced with such a barrage of attack from those with vested interests, necessarily will moderate what they are doing (or how they represent what they are doing). The fact that the oil-sponsored media are constantly criticising the measures ours and other governments are taking to mitigate climate change is, in a way, good news, because it means that they are worried that it might actually have an effect on our consumption. It now appears more likely than not that China is on a mission to benefit bigtime from climate change, by making bold steps towards cheap energy and dominance of the markets. We can sit in the backwaters slowly watching what remains of the historical benefits of our imperial legacy vanish completely (both in terms of global influence and wealth inherited as a country from our not-particularly-nice forebears) , or we can remain on board. I say remain, because we are still one of the leaders, notwithstanding the previous government's attempts completely to destroy our credibility on the global stage. Neither is guaranteed to work, but the former is guaranteed to fail and is also completely devoid of morality. So for me the path is clear. Yes, we must do what we can to mitigate, to the extent we reasonably can, the 'baked in' effects of climate change, but we must also do what is necessary to stop them getting more severe than they need to. If that costs a lot of money, so be it, because the alternative costs even more. We remain a relatively rich nation (even though the wealth is unfairly distributed); we can afford it if we choose to. Currently we do choose to, not fast enough maybe, with some rough edges maybe, with a little hesitancy certainly, but nevertheless we are as a country pursuing a course which should result in a material reduction in our emissions and, so far as I am aware, not failing materially to invest in measures to combat the effects already baked in. By carping on about individual facets of the plan we risk throwing out the baby with the bathwater (as most now accept we did with Brexit) and surrendering control entirely to those who are truly self-centred, who seek power for the sake of power and who will do the bidding of big oil. Is that the route we want the country to take?

They're all lying, 2 faced, self-serving assholes though. Not just any one of them.

Stop giving money to fat people to sit at home all day. there money problem solved. the amount of fat lazy dole bludgers over in Tenerife a few months back was staggering. my place doubled in value as soon as we got planning in place, it has since doubled again with a house on it. at least by the time I come to sell labour will be a horrendous memory.

Also, the 110V secondary is usually centre tapped and the centre connected to earth. So if you did come into contact with a live wire the most it would be is 55V which is little more than a tingle. By the way who actually says they are going to use a 110V transformer or indeed any mains powered tools. I have worked on several new builds including 2 of my own, all timber frame and I don't recall much use of wired power tools. Plenty of wired chop saws etc but they are sited away from the actual build a little, and later in the build perhaps a large drill to drill a core through a wall. But most day to day stuff is all cordless tools now. So what I am trying to say, is mains power available next to the build is probably enough.

Well bar a little bit of trimming work it’s done Louvres shut Louvres open suns gone and it’s cloudy so light isn’t the best for photos need to re-instate gutters and fascia and sort out the drainage but quite happy how it turned out - It was never going to be a quick job and limboing round a post parked smack in the middle of the garage side door would have been awful

I just commented on your other post but as a bricklayer in a 3-1 we get some work down in a day and your quote is taking the piss. What’s the £500 for tools? £9600 foreman? All of the gang should be capable of reading drawings, organising etc.

First timers with a modest budget of £350k (e.g., plot £100k, build £250k). Doing lots of initial research to see if this is even possible. Looking to the Hub community for information and advice. Thanks.

Tipped off a few days ago by @Nick Laslett's mention of the free Opaque software package (decrement delay calculator etc.), I experimented with another free package from the same site: Climate Consultant. Climate Consultant indicates the potential effectiveness of different design strategies that could be adopted at a particular location, based on its typical local climate. Being based in France, I found it interesting to compare different geographic locations, but was thinking that it would be good if it were possible to use it to compare current and future climates in the same location. I spent a day or longer trying to pull together a similar comparison for a client some years ago Today, I came across a website from the University of Bath - COLBE (https://colbe.bath.ac.uk/) - that provides separate future climate files for every 5 km square in the UK (and every 25 km for India), based on current projections. They're provided free and are in the same .epw format that Climate Consultant uses, so it's now easy to use it to compare climate design suggestions for a regular year or a heatwave year during 1961-1990, 2010-2039, and 2070-2099. All suggestions are generic, not tailored to a particular building, but it's worth a look if you are into your building / climate science. The cut in the need for winter heating and the increased desirability of shading windows both stand out and, of course, the climate projections are scary.

Good grief I simply couldn’t cope with that. We are four months into the demo/founds/frame stage. I’ve been pretty much full time on site throughout so far. At some point I need to reduce my hours/intensity to make the project more reasonable for both of us. Working with a joiner now means keeping up with him, but once that’s over I can reduce my hours a bit to restore balance to the force - J will raise her eyes at that and shake her head almost imperceptibly, probably refusing to believe I can be less full on foc-used. She’s probably correct. But we’ll soon be getting more trades in: roofer; solar dudes; brickies; k-rend peeps; etc. In that way we will hopefully complete in less than the 15months site insurance we took out in March. If I took 3 years that would mean 2 more years out of the rest of our lives trashed. Ouch. That’s probably at least 10% of my remaining active years. I know we could do more than we are intending to, but at the core of it we designed our house. We made it happen. Regardless of how little I/we do I’m going to continue to think of us as self builders. Hopefully, eventually, happy (and quietly proud) ones.

Bit of a bump, I'm 2.5 years into a basement/lower ground conversion, garage conversion and total house refurb. Whilst living in it and working a full time job. So I'll call it self build. Last weekend we cut through the 1920's reinforced concrete ground floor slab to form the stair opening. I reckon I'll be finished the lower ground in a year or so.