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Parts all ordered and on their way. Thanks again, all.

Good morning everyone We have just obtained planning on a disused, earth covered, water storage tank and are in the process of deciding on the details of construction. We are not sure how to insulate the structure which has thick (about 900mm - 600mm) concrete walls. Do you insulate the outside and include the walls in the building envelope or insulate the inside and treat the walls as just a structural part of the building? We are planning to retain the earth cover on the roof and two sides with an extension on the east and south facing sides, so over all the building will be an "earth sheltered dwelling". We would appreciate peoples opinion on the most appropriate option as I can see pros and cons in both approaches.

I'm sitting in the carvery...stuffed! Amstel was flat so Heineken instead. Maybe I'll kick start the morning with a sliced apple, some walnuts and hot water with lemon juice for breakfast! AND 25 years wedded bliss today!

Thanks for the advice so far - I've taken some pictures which may be of some help. (I'm not entirely sure this will work due to my technical incompetence!) Outside of the tank Inside of the tank Section of the wall

Nope. The tray goes down and stays down . The trap is called a 'self-cleaning' trap ( which means you can clean it yourself ). This is an Impey linear 2 for eg..... The last shot is the vertical outlet staring down into a 110mm soil bend ( as Impey provision for their trap bodies at 110mm, tres bien ? ). Bingo.

Haha, Scotland. You have a great taste in car and garage door tis all! Lol.

There are special purpose grommets made like http://www.ecomerchant.co.uk/walls/airtightness-products/service-grommets.html Any good?

Having built quite a few houses, I've by default ended up having to create several gardens. Not being a horticulturalist, all I've really been interested in is something that's easily maintained and having somewhere to sit out and enjoy the great outdoors. Apologies, can't recall, do you have young children? That often dictates what type of garden you need. If the answer is no, then increasing the amount of hard landscaping - slabs/gravel/cobbles etc may be a viable option. Small areas of grass really are nothing more than a pain / burden, and you can create a pretty nice looking garden without any grass at all: Getting some lads in to do the heavy lifting is a really good idea. You can also do a heck of a lot of work yourself with a minidigger.

Yep Jamie here is the tray recess and associated tile recess just after I skimmed it over to smooth out the lumps and bumps. It was made using a former, second picture. (The concrete was poured through the holes that were then capped. Many thanks all, think I will go with @Nickfromwales suggestion as the non adherence of sand & cement seems to make good sense.

Our connection was exactly as @ProDave describes, with the exception we had our MPAN allocated before the supply connection had even been put in. That probably has more to do with us living in a small community where everyone talks to each other and there is a lot of give and take. I was able to push back our supply connection date then bring it back forward without any problem. I had the joiners knock up a temporary weatherproof meter box that sat on our garage slab. The meter and a temporary CU / board was fitted inside. Once the garage was built, the box was disassembled and back of the box simply fixed to the internal studwork. We ran the house supply from the garage to the main CU in the house, to avoid paying for the supply to be moved.

Double, large door is surely much easier all round. If you are worried about parking cars side by side, then paint a couple of lines. Think supermarket car park. Single doors just restricts your options. What happens when you get a Rolls Royce? You'll never get it through a single door.

I sealed our ducts up this way: First poke a ball of expanded metal down as a rodent barrier. Next shove a plastic bag round the cables/pipes, deep into the duct, with the open end upwards. Finally, squirt expanding foam deep inside the plastic bag, trim the top flat and add a bit of airtightness tape for good measure. This sealed things up very well, and also had the advantage that it could be undone. I needed to pull the length of 25mm² SWA further into the building, when I decided to relocate the CU upstairs, and found that it was easy enough to pull the foam-filled plastic bag out of the duct, because the foam hadn't been able to adhere to the cable or duct.

The construction as I understand it was.. Inside - concrete - Celotex RS5000 - ventilated cavity - Reynobond (Aluminium/PE/Aluminium sandwich) - Outside I think the PE is essentially just a filling to help with the stiffness of the panels. I think another make uses an aluminium honeycomb. It's on the outside of the ventilated cavity so it wasn't being used as insulation. The RS5000 is similar to their FR5000 product. It's possible there were also unventilated cavities between the concrete and Celotex.

Hi everyone, Not so short introduction. Builder by trade, self-builder by family nature and Passive House and Off-grid maniac just because i hate paying bills. I was lucky enough to work and learn with some of the best and biggest names in german building technology, that kind of sorts out the design and build part. The problem is the land. For various reasons, I am limited to North London area. After one year i still was not able to find a decent piece of land that would not require me to rob a bank to pay for it So ... If anyone has any ideas about how and where to find a plot i would be grateful for the advice. In exchange I promise to answer any questions in regards to: design, build, passive house or off grid.

Welcome, As @Crofter, says, a few of us have opted to fit the meter cabinet in a wall or fence away from the house, so that we could avoid either paying for a temporary site supply on top of the permanent connection, and because in many ways it makes life a bit easier. We fitted a meter box in a thick timber fence that acts as the screen for our wheelie bins now, and fitted a caravan outdoor consumer unit, with a Commando socket on it, as a temporary site supply. Here in England this was a two stage process. I had to get the DNO (SSE in our case) to run a cable to the right place, then contracted with a supplier to install the meter and connect it. @ProDave did much the same, and he's in Scotland too, so may well be able to shed some light on how things work there.

It may be different in England, but for me Power Networks UK brought a public supply cable to within 30m of the property. This was also across a field and had to go min 1100mm deep due to a "ploughed field" requirement. I was responsible for trench and 125mm ducting, they then pulled the cable. This was left in an open trench, connected to the supply side but terminated with a giant cylindrical connector until I was ready to connect the domestic supply. For this they wanted a meter cabinet fixed ready to take the fuses (3 phase supply). When I was ready they came back and ran the last 30m of domestic supply cable to the meter cabinet and terminated at the fuses. No meter was installed until I contracted a utilities company for the supply, at which point they organised G4S to come in and attach the meter.

Hi, and welcome to the forum- whereabouts are you building? It's common practice to buy or build a small weathertight meter cabinet and attach it to a post. This becomes you temporary supply for the duration of the built, until the house is well enough on to be able to safely move the supply inside. See if you can get a suitable tariff with low or no daily standing charge, and that will stop the supply from racking up bills whilst you aren't using it.

Hi Jons, I am not familiar with how your tank was build, some pics would have helped. Normally i would treat the existing structure as a retention wall. Idealy looking to have watterproofing on the outside of the existing structure and an internal leaf with thermal insulation, secondary waterproof and drainage build on the inside. For the base, will probably be forced to add a watterproofing and drain system on top of the existing slab of the tank and get a new slab on top of it. If what i say makes no sense pm me and i will send you some detailed drawings and pics of some basements done inside retention walls.

One thing I'll say about @daiking is that he doesn't hang about.

Welcome to Buildhub. Can't help you with your question, but that sounds like an amazing project. Edited to add: here's @jamiehamy's blog: www.theoldwatertank.blogspot.com

Its been a while since the last blog and lots has happened. We'd been busy with other things and planned to crack on with the house but while on the way to our house a couple of weeks ago, the OH was hit by a car which failed to give way at a junction. He was riding his cycle, got thrown up and across the road, landing on his head. Luckily, nothing was coming the other way, and he was wearing a helmet which took a lot of the impact and somehow, apart from lots of scrapes, his main limbs were fine, it was just his head that was badly hurt. He suffered a fractured cheek and eye socket but luckily, his eye appears okay. There were no fractures of the head or neck so after a night at the hospital he was sent home. A week later he had an op to fix the cheek and is now recovering from that. His good looks have returned with only a small scar around the eye. Another week and I'll be sending him back to work - he can do the painting at least! And in case you are wondering; the car driver was reported for careless driving and has admitted liability. Back to the house and a few pictures of the plastered bedrooms. What a transformation from their origonal state. The old windows had plasterboard added right up to the glass so I did take it all off and redid the reveals. It looks so much better now. The new cupboard on the landing and door to the front bedroom. and the back bedroom; This is the wall in the last blog which was my first plasterboarding attempt - it looks much better now. We are looking to start on the bathroom downstairs next. I have been busy sourcing everything and once the OH is back to normal, it should leap forward. The stud wall is in place, the bath is sitting in the bedroom and I am waiting for Nicholls to give me a good price on the rest of the furniture. More to follow...............

I find losing weight, eating healthily and laying off the drink gives me more energy and impetus for "everything". Sleeping really badly at the mo and generally just can't be ar$ed. Fits and starts on multiple projects as some may be aware! It's like I need a regular, new fix. Trouble on the health thing is I'm always going to start "tomorrow". Some calamity happens and it's retox not detox! 16st 11lbs on Sunday. The quacks wanted me down to 15st when I had my blood pressure issues a while back but I was knocking on 20st at the time! (Weird reasons for that to do with my Mum's dementia). How about a Fat Fighters thread for the mutual support and general derision of the unhealthy here?

Thanks for all the best wishes and yes, he's recovering well - has a couple of scars which just add to his handsome good looks - he'd give Daniel Craig a run for his money now! Re the plastering - no - I did the prep and plasterboarded the rooms then we had a local firm in. I think they did a smashing job so will call them in for the next stage when we're ready. Its back to work tomorrow - painting the fence while I prep the bedrooms. He's working mornings only this week to ease him back slowly. Then its full on for next couple of months - we are over a year into this renovation and while initially we said ready to sell by spring17, we are now just hoping to get it sold before Christmas!

I would pay £200 for a rough and ready testing kit (i.e. a fan and mount), without manometer, if anyone fancies setting up a part time business and a kickstarter account...

There is probably a web site where you can rent out your home charging point.

And the rest....

Get me 200 Marlboro and I will be around in no time

Bloody cheek! Sorry, seemed (in?)appropriate. Did you plaster yourself? Looks good.