Leaderboard

I wonder if a Pv recharged version would boost your FIT payments? Seriously though, I wouldn't feel happy about owning a hose reel that's more intelligent than me

You forgot the WD40, in case the bit gets stuck?

Having fitted sarking boards and roofing membrane, the next task for the joiners was to batten out the roof ready for tiling, and forming timber 'skews'. 'Skews' are a verge treatment seen widely throughout Orkney, be they lead covered, stone or formed from concrete. Nothing especially complicated in their construction, as can be seen in the 'technical diagram' used by the joiners: With no external block leaf, our options were a bit limited in terms of construction, but the cantilever design is strongly anchored, bolted as it is to the concrete core of the ICF block, and to a timber (also bolted into the concrete core) that runs under the cantilever. The overhang will be significantly reduced as and when the additional EWI is fitted and cladding / render has been applied. Lead work next. A lot of lead required, 13 rolls of 390mm, 10 rolls of 600mm for the skews and valleys combined. Those of you who know the price of lead will appreciate the costs involved! The lead valleys were done first, 3 rolls of 390mm used: followed by a couple of days folding lead for the 'skews'. Two pieces were used to form the finish, the first being the 'soaker', which formers the gutter between the edge of the tiles and the 'skew' itself. The soaker profile, formed from 390mm lead (7 rolls used for the house, 3 left for the garage): The skew profile, formed from 600mm lead (7 rolls used for the house skews, 3 rolls left for the garage) : and how the two profiles fit together: And finally, how they look when complete: As you can see, to facilitate expansion, the skew is made up of overlapping pieces of lead rather than a single strip. Having completed the lead work, 5 days of it - 1 for the valleys, 1 day each per gable skew and soaker, the plumber handed over to the tiler. Working alone, he covered the roof with a flat profile concrete tile in 2 weeks. Because of the wind up here, every tile is double nailed and clipped. Black Soudal roofing sealant was used at valley / soaker junctions to secure any tiles that had been cut. Where tile meets lead, the folded edge of the soaker / valley lead was pulled up to the underside of the tile to prevent water (and bird) ingress. We now have a finished roof, which I have to say looks great. We are really pleased with the skews and the huge difference they make to the overall finished roof appearance. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for our windows, so will not be fully water tight for another 3 - 4 weeks. Work will however continue on site, with a reasonable list of jobs that can be progressed while we wait - building the garage, fitting EWI, fitting fascia and soffit boards, dwanging and battening inside etc.

Second fix plumbing has been such an eye opener for me - all looks great now but so many bullets to dodge! I think painting before tiling was the only one I missed

I have a friend who completed an extension about 12 months ago. They have about 3 feet of a horizontal soil pipe in their living room, connecting the existing upstairs loo to the new soil pipe. They keep meaning to box it in but don't notice it anymore - I've suggested that they replace it with a clear plastic section as a conversation piece...

It helps to be mad here, though.

If you paid by debit card rather than bank transfer, you may still be protected: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/visa-mastercard-chargeback They don't listen to self-builders, but they might listen to a bank.

I had a similar problem, with a vaulted ceiling. I bought a set of lightweight aluminium warehouse steps. These can be dismantled when not needed, but provide a stable platform to work from. Search ebay for likely candidates. Colin

We did a basement for just this reason. Architect was dead against it (due to ignorance) but we just went to a good structural engineer and stuck to a sensible shape (i.e. the footprint of the house above) so just under 100m2 internal floor area. Ground investigation was key to driving the structural design & waterproofing strategy. We went for an open box design to maximise flexibility and minimise costs so have a timber suspended ground floor instead of a solid slab. We built it to passive standards, adapting the design of the MBC passive slab (i.e. it sits on 300mm of EPS 200 and has 200mm EPS 70 wrapped around it) and it dovetails nicely with the MBC frame above. Used a local groundwork contractor who builds domestic and commercial sub ground structures and used warrantied SIKA waterproof concrete, perimeter land drain to soakaway and clean stone backfill - it went in about a year ago and has always been bone dry. We imported relatively inexpensive GRP lightwells from MEA in Germany and the basement is beautifully bright - just putting down the flooring now (Karndean) and have four large 20m2 rooms with 2.5m ceilings and a hallway - earmarked for home cinema, gym and general kids space. Plant room in there too for MVHR, boiler, UVC and other gubbins. It cost about £120k for all the groundworks and probably about £15k additional finishing costs, so about £1350 /m2. That's to increase the usable footprint of the house by about 50%. Best part was the planners did not bat an eyelid.

It is strange that we don't design in basements in the UK. You would think that with our unrealistically high land values that we would. I supposed that it comes down to the marginal price. Mind you, with our shoddy building practices we would all end up with either cheap underground swimming pools or very large rainwater harvesting tanks.

I just asked the designer at MBC how big the pipe was and whether there was space for both it and the sound insulation and that was the information he gave me. He could well be wrong and you be right! I think in terms of space, I need to make the wall thicker. Then it's a case of which method is most cost effective but I think the acoustic plaster board might as well be the first decision.

James, I don't believe you need to fill all that 150mm depth with perinsul. We have a similar arrangement but used a coursing brick over the Perinsul. You can see it here http://strawberrytreelodge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/stage-2-blockwork-drainage-perinsul-and.html?m=