Leaderboard

Tripple socket means all 3 connections are female http://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-equal-junction-triple-87-5/12152 So the bottom will just plug onto the stub coming out of the ground. Your new branch to the wc will plug into the side, and a bit of pipe then the slip coupling out of the top. Yes that's an underground one, the first I found the the same applies to the above ground ones as well

Yes that's the best method _if_ the heights work out ok. Obviously the branch has to be lower than the outlet from the WC pan and this can be a problem. Note that you must not cut the stack down too low. You have to leave enough for the slip coupling to slide over as I think the bit of pipe on the branch coupling is too short to slide to coupling over that. If no other option there are these glue and strap bosses... http://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-sp319g-strap-boss-grey-110mm/93635 See what others suggest.

Thanks for the feedback a few more issues to comment on; On Site Audits & client/site visits - no problem with this but there will be additional costs. Back to where this thread started! 3rd party data. @JSHarris. Sorry Jeremy perhaps you misunderstood. You may have read and understood the SAP and supporting documents but I don't know that. In the abence of this understanding I don't know the accuracy & quality of any data supplied to me. To put this in context I remember a post on the previous incarnation of this site from a potential self builder and he didn't know how to calculate foor and wall areas for estimating purposes! OCDEAs. There will always be those who jump ship from one scheme to another - perhaps this should ring an alarm bell. The OCDEA scheme has thankfully not been a real target for this activity and I find many assessors (the good ones?) who have been around for many years. As mentioned before the big housing slump sorted the good from the bad. @Triassic Most of my self build clients only want Bldg Reg compliance and at the lowest cost. I work closely with them in this repect to come up with the most cost effective solution. I've added value but the client doesn't perhaps recognise the fact or put a value against it BR Compliance - the person responsibe for the building work is responsible for Bldg Reg compliance. This means that it is probably you, as the (self) builder, who is responsible for providing accurate information on the as-built house for the assessor. Ian

An update on our IKEA bathroom sink unit problem. Having been told that there was no way IKEA would send the new unit out without collecting the old unit at the same time. I had a call this morning to inform me that the customer service rep was wrong and that a new unit would be dispatched today and once the defective unit had been removed, could I call to arrange for its collection. Excellent news !

And that's the only story you have to tell about the experience? (<-- gimp mask)

All Just to clarify a few points following the above posts @JSHarris New build SAP and accreditaion was introduced in the Regs in the mid 1990s and thankfully has avoided any Govt boom or bust schemes. Similalry it has avoided the marketing/sales hype & get rich quick promises such as rdSAP assessments, cavity wall surveys, solar panels & MCS. The size of the new build housing market dictates the numbers of OCDEAs. 10 years ago we were building approx 250,000 house pa, this more than halved after the financial crisis and no doubt sorted the wheat from the chaff. My accreditation body rules warn against using data (either raw data or a suitabe file format) from a 3rd party - for all I know they may not be able to spell SAP never mind have read & understood the associated documents! Specifically when producing an EPC I must obtain all relevant data myself. I am sure other accrediation bodies will have similar rules @Onoff Please check the role of an OCDEA. If my client wants more input than this then no problem - but there will be additional costs. An OCDEA has no power of enforcement, we can only advise. Enforcement is down to the BCO (a well trodden path on this site and in the industry) more importantly compliance with the Regs is down to the person/people responsibe for the building work (or the building owner). As mentioned before most of my clients are self builders so should supply all of the correct information to produce the as-built assessment and EPC. As regards the volume house builders they are often self -policing which is wrong. Also because of their land banks many are still building to the 2010 Regs - I am currently working with one large housebuilder (not with their energy assessments) and was staggered to realise they are only now looking at how to comply with the 2013 Regs!. Ian

It's a way of keeping the budget under control, so all self-builders hate it .

I put a length of timber in the car, just fitted as long as I placed the front end on the dash. Shut the hatchback and it poked the timber though the front windscreen. A mate of mine, who was keen on DIY but not very good, was nailing down some floor boards. He hit a pipe and had to call a plumber. The plumber fixed it all up and left. My mate then nailled though the repair. What a twonk.

To date my build is at £108,000 and the only thing left to do is the drive. I have just got a lorry load of granite chippings spread over it for now. I haven't even priced it up yet but if I allow £7000 for tarmac just to keep the figures easy to work with my cost is £522 per sqm. Mine is a 220 sqm chalet bungalow in NI and as Jeremy said bar the electrics, plumbing and wet plastering and had a hand with the roof I done the rest. Took 2 long back breaking years and near killed me with exhaustion but I can enjoy it now. I got the site for free as i built in my parents front garden which helped a lot.

Have you any idea what sort of external insulation? One option is wood fibre board like I have used that you can buy from Ecomerchant (though in the end with a lot of grief I got it cheaper via a local builder) http://www.ecomerchant.co.uk/exterior/insulation/ecomerchant-protect-ewi/steico-protect.html Ignore what it says there, you can get it up to 160mm thick in one board, and other makes are available, e.g I used Pavatex.

There is a lot of conversation on the Green Building Forum about this - umpteen huge threads to read. Can be really excellent, but can be easy to get the detail wrong. There are products and kits around to do your own for say £30-50 per sq,, or services for £70-120 per sqm. It needs careful attention to all aspects - eg it locks in your double glazing so do that first - and you need to really sort your ventilation out. My local Council for example is now quite pernickety about EWI, because their own grant scheme has caused lots of condensation problems. Ferdinand

That quote has all the discounting hallmarks of the older double glazing companies. About 20 years ago we rang around for quotes for half a dozen new windows. I was stupid enough to include a well-known big name (beginning with "E" and ending in "t"). Their shiny-suit salesman turned up one evening and right at the start I said I didn't need a sales pitch, but could he just measure up and let us have a written quote. The bloke insisted he had to go through his pitch, as it was company policy. He duly wasted an hour trying to convince us of how wonderful his windows were, then measured up, produced a quote, saying that it was a "one time special offer, half the normal price" if we signed up right now. I said sorry, but I wanted to choose after having received other quotes. He then repeated that the "special offer price" only applied if we were to sign up right away. I refused again, and he asked if he could use our phone to call his manager (this was at around 8pm). He came off the phone saying that his manager had authorised him to reduce the price by another 20% if we signed up straight away. Again I told him that we wouldn't and he, very reluctantly, left. We had already decided that no matter what we weren't going to buy from that company, just because of their sales practices. A week later we got a phone call from him again, saying that they were running a "very special offer" and could knock another 50% off the price, as long as we agreed to our house being photographed (pointless, as the new windows would be all at the back). The next house where we wanted new windows I sent out written invitations to tender to half a dozen local companies, with the explicit instruction that any attempt at high-pressure sales would disqualify them. Worked a treat, as we got a small, local, company to do the job, at a good price and to a high standard.