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2032 - don't be too tight on deadlines @Nickfromwales ?

A soil pipe up the outside wall would make it look 70 years old 200 years ago they just stuck their arse out the window didn't they ? "Bombs awayyyyy!"

The costs so far... Excavate the hole for the basement £14,872 Mot type1 and bedding sand. £1,109 Radon Barrier. £ 218 Insulation EPC300 and 100. £5,581 Reinforcing mesh and bar. £4,297 Labour to fix reinforcing and insulation. £6,548 Concrete for raft £2,763 Sundry items say. £. 500 Total spend on basement, excluding walls £35,888. I've worked along side everyone working on site, so I moved excavation material, fitted radon barrier, worked alongside steel fixers tying steel reinforcing, worked to place the concrete, tidied up etc etc. My time is free! Edit To put the above total length not context, I got three quotes for this work, the lowest was £50k and the heights the £150k. Having done my homework it was clear the lowest did not include everything and would have resulted in extras. The company who quoted the heights price, the M.D. drives a £100k Range Rover, I’m not inclined to support his lifestyle.

Yep, ran out last night so need to revisit to achieve the max 200mm ctrs Knauf recommend.

Eaves guard / eaves protector / felt support tray

And if your build is vat reclaimable the +vat bit isn’t saving you any money anyway!

To be honest, is it worth future proofing the soil pipe? I imagine your great grandchildren won't be that fussed, as I assume that's how long it will be before this project is done

Standard for plumbers, I am afraid. They like to run hot and cold services next to each other with no insulation because it is quicker and they don't give a **** about whether you have to run the tap for a minute to get water at the correct temperature. I am sure there are exceptions but none have worked on my sites.

A few days for the foundations to settle and then the deliveries arrive and the builders set to work again............ The images will show the footprint of the house and utility room together with the walling and dwarf wall on which will sit the oak framed car port.

I got all the insulation, EPS300 and 100, from Varley Insulation, they came in cheapest. Regarding the L shaped edge up stand, the design from Hilliard Tanner called for 200mm wide 200mm tall up stands on three sides and 100mm wide 200 tall up stand at the front. I cut these pieces, all 90 of them, using a table saw. I cut one side then turned the 100mm thick insulation slab over and did a second cut. The cuts were all ok, in a few cases a bit wavey, but remembe4 the cuts are facing the concrete and the outside, so are of little consequence in the grand scheme. I glued each peice using low expansion foam, staggering the joints of the second course. Once set they were solid.

It is actually a marine grade stainless steel garden tap and matches my other outside fittings. It is a special tap with two outlets and chosen for its design and finish. Stainless steel outdoor taps are not uncommon. Personally I hate the cheap brass screwfix look and do not want that bang outside my front door.

Sometimes you just have to suck it up. And now is as good a time as any to accept that we aren't going to get a roofer to come and help before Christmas. I have asked til I'm blue in the face: no dice. Debbie's being brave about it, conclusion: I'd better Just Bloody Do It. So, I'll be paying for my own mistakes rather than pay for those of others. Differently put: the Full-On-DIY -experience. I thought I'd teach myself how and in the process, document it. And then read your critiques. And wince I expect. This post builds on the earlier thread about the Piggery, and the roof beam saga : that proved remarkably painless, and quite safe, for two people because we'd thought it through. It only weighed 160 kg : just over 7 meters long. £500 crane fees saved. The very nice man from Haldane Fisher's HIAB played a key role: it's reach was about 2 meters short of what was needed. Some ya win. Where are we now? Here : a set of rafters which are currently subject to close inspection by our swallows, What's the roof build up? Rafters Counter battens Felt Battens Slate There's provision for a few kWh of PV, and a Velux in there somewhere too. I list the better resources I have found below. Most of them contain commercial material, none of which I or BH endorse(s). As usual when faced by this type of problem, I resort to YooChube, hence: How to slate a roof: layout ready for slating, Slating a roof, reference points The accompanying website There are many other sites: This one is Irish, very well edited, deals with the basics - some interesting comments too Setting out: perhaps a bit direct, but detailed images Setting out the lats: brief but to the point Wincing, I add this video because with the sound off and ignoring H+S its illustrates a 'normal' truss roof DIY Doctor often focuses on repair, but this is about tiling and battening as well as felting Construction Channel carries a series of time-lapse based videos about roofing at least four of them are here There's nowt like reading the comments under many of the videos: my God they can be bitchy: I thought it was only lecturers who were bitchy about colleagues' practice. I'll add to the list above time goes by. If you find a good support / teaching / learning resource about roofing and slating, please share it below. Ian

I had a quick look at the Scottish regs from your link and they look very similar to the regs in England. As I understand it the hearth issue becomes clear if you start by dividing solid fuel appliances into one of two categories: 1) Those that can raise the temperature of the hearth >100C If your WBS falls into this category then a constructional hearth is required. The Scottish regs describe various alternative constructional hearths but the key feature is a 125mm concrete slab ( see fig 3.43 and 3.48). 2) Those that are incapable of raising the hearth >100C. If your WBS falls into the second category then you can get away with a 12mm thick layer/sheet of something non-combustible like glass, slate stone etc). This must be the right size and shape and form a 12mm step up to discourage rugs being put too close. In the Scottish Regs this appears to be detailed in section 3.19.5b See also figure 3.41 and 3.42 which specify the size of the hearth in relation to the foot print of the stove. eg it must extend 300mm out the front in case embers fall out when the door is opened. Edit: My stove has legs so I assumed it was incapable of raising the hearth over 100C. I used a 20mm sheet of granite from a stone mason on top of wood flooring over PIR insulation between joists. I went for 20mm because my stove is heavy and I was worried about the weight cracking it.

I had a bit of an email exchange with Prof Alex Seifalian a while back when I had some ideas on using cell proteins as bio inks for 3D printing scaleable organ scaffolds etc rather than re-seeding cadaver parts. (The US researchers I contacted were a bit more aloof). https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2016/dec/12/leading-uk-university-launches-inquiry-into-links-with-work-of-controversial-surgeon-paolo-macchiarini More to the point I'm booking SWMBO in for some pointy ears!

Mine’s a Hotpoint AQM8D (not my choice). Never been serviced or loved in 9 years and the bloody thing still keeps going. Dishwasher and dryer have both gone to the kitchen in the sky in that time!

Just watching a thing on tissue engineering where they were 3D printing ears. So...if the kid was say a Star Trek fan...could they get pointy ones?

That's not quite correct. Nothing above ground must encroach or overhang the boundary but foundations can encroach on a neighbours land subject to you giving notice. Needless to say the neighbour may not like this but see... http://www.partywalladvice.com/2009/08/02/73/

Think we are just discovering where the budget-not-spent-on-handbags-and-shoes goes - fridge gimmicks. OK - 3.4% of the handbag budget. Excellent summary @AliG. Since we are doing fridge-pr0n, here is a LiebHerr full frontal: Incidentally if anyone is in need of one, I have a Bosch chest-freezer which is free to anyone who wants to collect. Will post details over at the Marketplace. I am currently trying to persuade all my friends with toddlers and educational fridge-magnets that their little darlings do not need to know about meat, vegetables, snacks, and so on so that I can have those words to be an index to the shelves in the other half. Not working so far. Ferdinand

In a nutshell yup. That way the junk that used to be in your trunk never stalls. I thought the Y would be better up on the top horizontal but whichever suits the location of bog #3 really.

Offered an additional 280 + vat off Not interested . I’ll give them the 48 hours and then start a CCJ

True, my pension prospects are such that we seriously won't be able to stay here / maintain it into our old age. :( Just have to hope something comes up. This time next year Rodders...

Swept bend if you've got the height. If not a regular 90. Get some joist top foam strip and make a suspension mount for the soil bend to stop noise transmitting through the ceiling joist.

It's one of those frustratingly simple solutions you wish you'd thought of! I see a few people have started doing their own DIY version by adding an LED light above the blade housing, simple enough to do I'd imagine and 100% accurate everytime.

Can you do a soil stack in cast iron? If so,that would surely tick the conservation officer’s box (no pun intended-leave it @Nickfromwales!)

I hope that is a soil pipe not soil. If not, what HAVE you been growing in soil in your loft? Could explain a lot, mind.

...i'm too puny to spend more than 5 minutes on a Kango and not be shaken to dust myself. Don't underestimate the task if they fail to spread it thin....breaking 6" is a bit different to breaking 2"...i watched a tough labourer sweat over 1/2 cube for several hours.

Total area is 130m2. Some parts are only 100mm thick. That works out at £276/m2 including the excavations. Or £162/m2 excluding the excavations.

Do it what ever way out suits you. If it's going around the house then just make sure they are all separated Covered and marked as service guides dictate and if they are going through the founds then they are in the correct ducting. Make sure you check and re check the position the ducts are in and then check again.

We’re the same, we pegged it out and it looked big, the dug the soil out and it stank, we cast the concrete and it looks bigger, We stood on the newly laid concrete and the wife said the lounge is too small. Let’s see that it feels like when we move in!

I went through all this two years ago. AO took my first budget american FF back after I became difficult about the unacceptable noise levels even though it lived in a utility room, now very happy with a whisper quiet classic width Samsung FF. Since moving into a rental house we acquired use of an extra ancient American FF. Points to consider are: Food wastage is directly proportional to total fridge shelf space as swmbo shops to the capacity of the fridge duo. LED lights can be a curse, the budget manufacturer aimed their burning high wattage LEDs directly at my eyeballs presumable to promote fridge related macular degeneration when I opened the door, Samsung in contrast angled much softer lights at the fridge contents. Drink dispensers deprive a fridge of a couple the most useful door shelves in a fridge. The deep cave freezer storage shelves of an American FF seem to encourage swmbo to adopt a LIFO food storage system (last in first out) thus causing more food wastage.

I asked a related question the other month about a foul drain from my main bathroom taking a short cut through the foundation plan of the house v. round the outside wall. This translated into one 9m drain through the foundations v. 10m + 45 degree turn + 5m + 90 degree turn + 9m around the house. At the time I received a clear vote in favour of straight through the house foundation plan.

No mention of the company / named individuals until the matter is 100% resolved.....not 99%, 100%

When looking at the spec of a fridge freezer the two things I normally check are the noise level and that the freezer is frost free. That one shows 43dB which is a bit noisy for my liking, I would look for 40dB or less. I think all American fridge freezers are frost free. I had a Siemens American fridge freezer in my last house which was replaced with a Samsung one when we redid the kitchen. That felt like a good saving moving from a product costing almost £2000(came with the house) to just over £1000. Prices seem to be falling again now. I preferred the Samsun to the Siemens, it had far better LED lighting and an indoor ice maker which took up less room. I couldn't figure out any reason at all for the high price of the Siemens replacement which if anything was an inferior machine. My parents have just replaced the Smeg that came with their house and was quite poor on reliability with a Haier narrow American style. After about 18 months they have had no issues. Fridges and freezers are pretty reliable relative to other appliances and so I would have less worry buying a cheap one than a cheap washing machine(ice dispensers are the reliability exception and this doesn't have one) Both our American fridge freezers had no issues with the ice/water. The Siemens freezer did become noisy after 7 or 8 years and found that it was getting iced up inside. I managed to take it apart iand fix this myself. The drain was blocked. Come our self build we originally planned another one, but I eventually changed to a built in 600mm wide tall fridge and tall freezer for a few reasons. 1. People were always mucking about with the ice dispenser. Everyone suddenly needed crushed ice in their drinks when they came to visit. I was worried this would eventually break it. 2. The narrow freezer in a 1/3 2/3 American F/F is annoying. I did consider a french door style one with the freezer at the bottom. 3. I felt going back to integrated appliances was neater, but more expensive as the appliances cost more (there is less competition in built in appliances) and then you have to buy extra cabinets. 4. As @ProDave mentioned the water dispenser was pointless. Water often is colder from the tap. I got a freezer with an ice dispenser inside so no one cold play with it and no water dispenser. We have noticed in the new place that you have to run the cold water for ages to get actually cold water as it sits in a loop inside the house around 80m long and the kitchen is at the opposite end of the house from where the water comes in, so that could be an issue for some people.

Not a crazy option though. I had 4 pumps and 4 dumps on my build, of which 3 dumped with little regard for instructions.....they’re just intent on getting cleaned and home at that stage in the day. If you can’t spread it around thinly you’ll easily spend £100/m3 hiring a man and kango to bust it up.

That's a monster size house Ramius!

The floor perimeter must also be measured on the inner face of the external walls (heat loss walls only).

Looking good, the weather has been great over the last few weeks. Hopefully our foundations will be completed by the middle of the month.

The correct area is 12m x 4m = 48m2.

first one bad second one good very happy to pay however they want when I am happy with the results.

Yes master adder , indeed I did . My plan was more cunning than a cunning thing caught in a cunning trap !

I think in theory if you pay any amount on a credit card (not via PayPal) you would be covered for the full amount but I would want to pay £100 or more to make absolutely sure personally. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases#deposit

there is a difference between cleaning the chute and emptying the rest of the load. Skip companies dont like you emptying the rest of the load into their skips, especially if its the best part of 2m3, AMHIK ?

Finally we have concrete! After cancelling Fridays pump job due to someone hitting a high voltage cable on a the Thursdays job he turned up at 7:30 this morning to set up, however he wasn’t a happy bunny as anothe4 of the pump guys had inspected the site access and had said it was fine! After a lot of struggling he managed to get into a position he could put the legs out to allow him to deploy the boom. Thee hours and 25.5m3 later and a lot of hard work for the two of us, we have an excellent insulated concrete foundation! The first load goes in. The finished job. Spot the concrete pump truck.

You are allowed up to 8 WC on an unventilated common branch discharge pipe over 100mm in diameter. See Table 2 at top of page 9.. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/442889/BR_PDF_AD_H_2015.pdf One option is to build the stub stacks and cap them off. Add AAV later if there is a problem. Insulate around the stub stack in the boxing. Stub stacks can also be useful for rodding if that ever becomes necessary.

This is superb . Tasteful and functional. You know what’s missing ? ; some glass in the floor for that novel experience....

Very stylish, where did you get it from?

When I installed a stove for a customer it was much cheaper to do it through building regs and frankly the inspector was not aware of the regs, asked me if I new the regs?, have I done one before? And could I send a copy of all the forms to him. ?.

Depends on what the van will be used for. Just stored on site - no PP required. Used as a site van (workers tea break, store H&S kit, WC etc) - no PP required Used for building site workers to live in - no PP required Used for other people (eg spouse and children of "builders") to live in - PP is required. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/596/pdfs/uksi_20150596_en.pdf