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A block of ICF may be waterproof (ish) but it's the joins between blocks where you'd have issues. Waterproofing strategy really depends on your ground conditions. if you're well above the water table then waterproof concrete alone should be enough - this is what we used (warrantied by Sika). There is an admix in the concrete and waterbar at all the pour junctions. They come and inspect a few pours or ask for photos of the preparations pre-pour (depends how much they trust your crew). The admix forms a 'self healing' defence in the concrete itself and the bar prevents leakage at the horizontal and vertical joins (plus around any penetrations such as ducts etc. External membranes are only as good as the quality of the application, can be a useful belt and braces but would be wary of relying on it alone. External land drain (just below slab) is always best practice - back fill with 1m wide free draining clean stone also, not muck - this should prevent any water pooling against the walls. Only makes sense if you're above the water table though as it will need to drain to a soakaway above the water table. If you're 'under water' then a leaky basement (regular concrete) with internal membrane, sump and pump will keep you dry but care needs to be taken to avoid ever puncturing the membrane and maintaining the pump (power cuts etc..). We have local friends near the Thames who did the full Glatthar waterproof basement system - it uses precast insulated concrete walls with additional wp/ concrete inside and a super heavy duty membrane - fully guaranteed but quite expensive. Their basement was designed to stop it floating out of the ground (massive, toed slab) as the hydrostatic pressure was so high.

Didn't see venturi in my pipework today. A few drips in manifold but managed to screw it all up tight. Pressure seemed to hold too. So did my pressure, after doing an all nighter prepping everything. Half slab done, and hopefully get it all finished tomorrow if the bloody mixer turns up on time. After 3hours of sleep this weekend, i may actually go to bed now! I'll post some pics soon. Actually better seal the front door b4 bloody wabbit or cat make it in there...

I'm in the early stages of a project to demolish our family home and rebuild the house on the same plot. I've already got planning permission and am in the process of getting building regs through as well as party wall agreements with neighbours etc. I'm lucky enough to own the current property outright, but will need a mortgage for the build. One of the problems I hit when I looked into this is that I am a freelance contractor and finding a lender who will lend on both self-build and to a contractor is quite limiting. I started looking into this in May and found a specialist broker for contractors who would also deal with self build. However, he was only able to find one lender, Halifax, who would lend to contractors on a self-build. I was a bit concerned about this but went with it. Since then, he's done virtually nothing and I've had to push all the time. I've provided a full credit check and lots of other details, but I'm trying to push to get to a stage where they're got enough information to make a formal offer so I can move ahead with the project and plan accordingly. I have still not had anything written from the lender at all to confirm the terms, the amount they will lend or even whether they will lend at all. I've only got from him that they will only lend on 75% of each stage. Is this reasonable when I own the plot? I'm getting to the stage where I would like to bin this broker and go for something else, but I don't know of anything out there. I'm wondering if anyone else (a contractor) has had a similar experience, whether there are other lenders or sources of finance out there? Alternatively, is there anything I can do to speed things up and / or get some certainty? Thanks.

Phone him. Better to look a bit silly on the phone than him turn up and you will look a right plum.

I still have a standard meter. I marvel at the little silver wheel whizzing backwards like the clappers on sunny days when my PV is generating excess And yes all the relevant paperwork is in place with the DNO, I'm just basking in their incompetence

As someone with an insight here is the situation. Your contract will be with a UK retailer who source the kitchen thru Alno UK who in turn source it from Alno Germany. You are not a creditor to Alno Germany so as such you have no right to recourse with either Alno UK or Alno Germany. Alno Germany went into a Chapter 11 type of self administration to sort out the situation but that has sort of made matter worse as their regular supplier who are owed millions are refusing to supply goods. This means the whole supply chain has ground to a halt and no information coming out from Germany. I know some Intoto retailers personally and I feel sorry for them. Some have switched their kitchen orders with me. I heard today that Alno UK have allowed Intoto's to switch their orders to other manufacturers if required. It does not appear that Alno is likely to emerge out of this unscathed or at all. How many Intoto's will survive this is another question. What would happen to warranties or customer service issues? My advice would be to look at other kitchen retailers, not just manufacturers

Needles But get your rsj's between the acrows before you install them.

Freestanding but alongside pergola or walkway or even a carport?

The other difficulty with planting is that unless you choose an evergreen climber such as ivy, it would only be an effective cover from April - October. Lots of tall conifers can be grown successfully in large pots - perhaps some of these along the base of the wall would work? Albeit that the 'softening' look would be at the bottom rather than the top, but it would still break up the monolith look and not interfere with the fabric of the building in any way. Also a lot cheaper than cladding if you start with modest sized plants.

Thats the locate button too. Very handy in a large or 3 storey house. If the smoke alarms go off you press locate and it silences all the alarms except the one that's been triggered, so you can head there immediately to investigate.

@Silage It turned out amazingly! It's not absolutely perfect like you would get from a diamond polish, but we didn't like that super-shiny look anyway, as well as not being able to afford it! I'd say it looks like a warehouse floor (B&Q/IKEA-ish). It's smooth but not shiny. We have a very few small holes where we had a couple of air bubbles, but we're going to fill them with coloured resin and make a feature. Overall, we are absolutely delighted. We got incredibly lucky with the weather though - it pissed down the two days preceding the pour and the three days after. Proper, heavy rain. On the day itself, not a cloud in the sky! Amazing luck. If it had rained, it would have been a write-off, pretty much no matter what you do. They just kept power floating the surface for much longer than they normally would - no special concrete, or treatment. We are going to cover it with cheap hardboard during the rest of the build, but we're not being too precious about it - going for the lived in look is very much part of the reason we chose the surface. It's a huge relief though, as if we'd had to change the surface, all the door thresholds and kit measurements would have been wrong, and considering our kit is already made. that would have been a pretty big problem. I've an early start tomorrow, but will try to post some pics for you

Pic of rebar detail.

Optimum Underfloor Heating Ltd. Inverness got a price and it seemed quite good

I think I've said this before here, or maybe on this forums closed predecessor, Ebuild, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it. My view is that forums like this are communities of like minded people, and there are parallels with a group of regulars in a pub. Many here have known each other a long time, several years for some of us. I joined the old Ebuild forum in 2008, and there are a lot of members here who were members of Ebuild from back then, too. That means we all know each other pretty well. When a new member joins, we try to be welcoming, but it does pay for new members to have a think about how they may be perceived by a bunch of people that have known each other for a long time. For example, if someone entered a pub, and started giving the locals unsolicited advice, just because they felt it might be useful, and with no knowledge of the skills and experience of those locals, how do you think it would be received? The advice may well have been given with the very best intentions, but I'll lay money that many of those locals would get their backs up at someone they didn't know telling them stuff that some of them may already be very familiar with. The same applies here to a degree. We have a broad range of members, from university and college lecturers, academics, members of our emergency services, energy assessors, planning and tax experts, IT administrators and systems designers, tradespeople in every aspect of construction, engineers, technologists, serial self builders with a great deal of practical experience, and at least one oddball scientist. Taking the time to understand the nature of this forum, and the very broad range of skills and experience within its membership, before posting anything, is a wise move for any new member. The better we all get to know new members, the more inclined we will be to accept them with open arms into our online community.