Leaderboard

When the sun is below the horizon and 450 divided by 2 = 250 it is time to quit for the day. My assistant setting-out surveyor and I had a minor domestic incident in the gathering gloom at a foundation profile where our joint mathematical error became apparent. The gloom was both visible and mental. We had no choice but to soldier on marking out the foundations because although it was 9:30pm, tomorrow was dig-day and the JCB would be onsite at 7:30am. I had seriously underestimated the time needed to set out the foundation plan for a main house and garage comprised of 5 interlocking rectangles and 4 internal supporting walls. As the clock counted down to dig-day some fag packet maths revealed I needed 35 profiles, 70 stakes for the profiles, the rock hard ground required that all profile stakes needed a pointed entry = 140 cuts with a saw and oh don’t forget the 140 screws. The elastic sail measuring tape in my toolbox had thrown out my initial schedule and meant the first setting out attempt was scrubbed because I could not get stable diagonals. A new 30 meter long £35 steel tape from Screwfix was the answer when paired with my proper surveyors grp tape. Three days after that trip to screwfix and after 3 days of punishing heat, we drove home defeated with an incomplete set of walls marked out. At 1am my mind was churning, should I cancel the dig and be branded in the locality as the hapless self builder who messed around the pro’s. Could we live with a trapezoid kitchen 25mm out of true, yes, but what about the stairs condemned by my arithmetic error to run up the supporting wall 25mm out. The alarm woke me at 3:15am, I was back onsite for sun rise and even the vocal sheep in the adjoining field seemed to be mocking me. Before Swmbo turned up at 5:30am dressed for the office I banged in the remaining profiles and we then marked out the missing walls in a new colour (those line marking paint cans gunge up quickly). The JCB arrived 40 minutes late which allowed me to walk the foundation plan with a superficial air of confidence that masked my inner fatigue. Mr Digger was not phased by the erroneous foundation line, he just rubbed out the bad line with his foot and said he would align the bucket edge to the good one. The sun was up, the sheep had shut up and it was a relief to hand over to the pro’s. The day just go better. Building Control arrived at 11am and decreed 1m trenches would suffice because ground conditions we so good, the clay looking stuff was actually silt. We could have got away with 225mm of concrete but I had ordered enough for 600mm foundations. Mr BC was in such a good mood he gave the assembled crew a quick lesson on how to distinguish nice silt from evil clay. Many visitors passed by and declared I had the best looking trenches seen in Lincolnshire for years.

Another option, if it's a plasterboard wall is just move it to the hall then? This no electrics in bathrooms is just because we are wimps and not allowed to make our own safety decisions. In Australia it is normal to have a socket right next to the shower and that is usually where the washing machine stands, and a hairdryer plugs in. When I told my BIL we are not allowed to do that because someone would walk into the shower with the hairdryer plugged in and the water running. His reply in his Austrailian accent was "well if they are that bloody stupid they deserve to die"

Our guttering finished today. Really pleased with it. Now waiting for some rain to test it out & hopefully wash off the baked on pigeon poo on the roof.

I know some of you have taken a diy approach to creating diagrams for building control submission and others have splashed out many thousands for the same. I took a middling route which involved forwarding the outline architect's house design that had planning permission to an Architectural Technology (AT). The original architect was a quill & pen operator which meant my AT had to lift the design from paper into digital format. For £1200 I got 8 diagrams with impressive detail plus some lengthy building advice telephone calls thrown in. The AT also accommodated changes such as removing a supporting wall to create an open planing sitting room, reversing the stairs and incorporating a 90 degree twist. He gave me permission to post examples of his work, here are some snippets... Snip-2. Snip-3.

So the window reveal: 60mm cavity block wall that the wind howled up! 27mm insulated pb (Gyproc from Travis Perkins) cut to fit. Sides support the top: Foamed: Foam trimmed, mortar brought up level. Spray glue on the reveal and strips of DPM: DPM on all 4 faces: Go mad with Sikaflex EBT around the edges, low expansion foam in the middle: Bottom bit weighted down. Sikaflex bead against widow frame and pb pushes onto it: Top and sides wedged temporarily: Set: Small child bribed into marking the pb from the inside: Sorted: Edit: Note in some areas the centres are more than 400mm. Where the pir is a bit loose between studs I used expanding foam to fill any gaps.

Could there be a control system that attempts to anticipate when the windows are open (exceptionally low back pressure) and reduces fan speed? I have seen a heating systems that tries and identify when a window is open and reduces the heating load to save energy. Just a guess.

Just take the socket front off. Connect the wires in some heavy duty terminal blocks, and put a blank front plate on. No socket in bathroom, no problem. don't make life more complicated than it needs to be. I refused a request to put a socket in a bathroom once. I had to go back a while later for something else and found the washing machine sat next to the bath, a small hole drilled through the wall through which the flex was threaded so it could be plugged in in an adjacent room.

The battens are 33mm deep and the eggerboards going on top will be 22mm The screed is a lengthy job as it has to be transported upstairs in buckets by yours truly whilst the lad is mixing and the builder spreading ! Should be finished tomorrow though. These pictures might also assist.

Hi Just about to start looking at mvhr supplier, any recommendations and which system. House is 310sq m . Integral garage, two ensuites,one bathroom,one cloakroom. Thanks John

Fitting solar PV might be the easy fix for a landlord to boost an otherwise too low for rental EPC. And because the EPC is too poor for FIT's anyway, and they are so low now, might we see a lot of landlords fitting DIY solar PV just to bump up the EPC and not claiming any FIT?

That's because your building warrant would have been applied for before 9th January 2013. My house isn't on there either, but our warrant was applied for in 2012. However, the house across the road from me is on twice - with two different addresses. So, basically not reliable. No great loss. Colin

Be VERY careful with your plumbing if you put them back to back. Search the forum for "swap contents"

Kitchen finished today. It took me about a week to put the kitchen together and plumb in the sink and dishwasher. The worktop under the window is a cheap temporary laminate one to get the kitchen functioning quickly. Later on that will be replaced with a stone worktop and that one will be moved to the utility room, which is why it has been left over length for now as that's how long it will be in the utility. I then had to wait for Gus the joiner to machine the oak breakfast bar worktop. Sometimes even when self building, it is worth employing a good tradesman when you know they can do a better job of something than you can. It was then 2 days to varnish it, and finally today it was dry so I could fit it and plumb in the hob. Next to the fridge, where the clock is for now, will eventually be partitioned off to form a pantry. Sunday dinner will be cooked and eaten in the house tomorrow. A little more and a couple more pictures on the blog at http://www.willowburn.net/ look for the entry "Kitchen Finished"

Yeah, fun like watching paint dry!

Yes this is the only downstairs space that's finished. And yes the "small" 42" tv is in here. The slightly larger 50" one will go in the snug living room when that's finished, along with my floor standing hifi speakers. No prizes for guessing which will be my favourite room.

Just a pity they haven't got Wago terminals!

I was a planning engineer at VT shipbuilders 35 years ago. We used to load all the activity detail (task description, duration, trade, dependencies, etc) into a screen in Portsmouth which was linked by leased line to a mainframe in Tyne Regional Computer Centre. Once we were happy all the data had been entered, you pressed the go button and TRCC did all the calcs and then sent a file to Vickers at Barrrow-in-Furness where a huge plotter printed it out onto 4ft wide rolls. Three days later a big tube arrived by post with the printed PERT charts. We'd then paper these around the office walls, look for errors, correct these on screen and then wait several more days for updated printouts - and repeat ad infinitum!

Finally got around to pulling the old Byron/Homeeasy remote switches out and replacing them with the Quinetic remote switches. All I can say is that they do as they say on the box, and work perfectly. Before fixing one of the remote switches to the wall I wandered around the house with it, as a range check. It would work from anywhere inside the house, so in practical terms at least 10 times better than the Byron/Homeeasy stuff. The other big advantage is never having to replace the batteries in the switches. All around I'm pretty impressed, they look neat, are easy to wire up, have proper wire protection over the terminals (unlike the Byron/Homeeasy receivers) and have a good range. It's nice to have kitchen lights that actually switch on reliably, rather than being hit and miss.

No you will naturally pull the tile to one side - that will be the "clean" side as the back of the blade coming back up won't hit the edge of the glaze. you may also find you don't get chipping all the way down as the back edge never passes the end of the cut unless you pull all the way through.

Are there trees that far north in Scotland? Thought is was all tundra and roaming herds of reindeer.

What you should notice is the new blade will have a square edge to it, and the one youve got has gone rounded edge. The square edge cuts a heck of a lot better so you should see a big improvement. Cut the floor tiles first so you get the best part of the blade life spent on the most important cuts.

We had a lot of 'fun' configuring the kids back to back bathrooms (one with shower, one with bath) and our own ensuite - plans went slightly awry when soil pipes needed to be taken into consideration. Plumber was also adamant that we couldn't fit a bath, shower, wc, double sink and towel rad in our ensuite but we managed and it looks great, not at all cluttered. Plumber was also concerned about back to back wall hanging WCs with one causing a splash back in the other if they were too tightly coupled. We ended up off-setting them slightly and needed to build out the wall in one room by 100mm so ensure space for the fittings. TBH you seem to have plenty of space so should not be an issue. Pocket sliding doors are great for bathrooms and walk in wardrobes, just make sure you allow the necessary gap and height in the TF design as the runner eats some space. Obv you need to ensure that there are no services needing the space where the door will go when in the wall - this is easy done as until your joiner fits the sliding door system post 1st fix, its just and empty void.

I thought it was better to offset the toilets so that the wall doesn't need to be thicker for two concealed cisterns back to back. Soil pipes will be the next problem, I will need to speak to the plumber. there were two drops from the first floor to the ground floor.

http://www.homecreations.co.uk/franke-spare-sink-plug-new-style.html they also have plugs for older Franke models pre 2008

You are lucky ,Franke sinks are a good make and basket strainer sets are readily available . Have a look on EBay you can proberbly just replace the plug.

The basic hole in the sink is 3.5 inches (89mm) designed to take a waste disposal unit.The problem comes when you need to replace the existing assembly as you need to know the name of the sink manufacture as they are all different designs,some have overflow connections and are all different depths under the sink for the trap connection.There is not a universal plug either as these as these vary in shape also.

Rest easy In the knowledge you’re not on your own, I’m also half way through digging and laying our foundations and I’ve also made the odd mistake, ours took a day of extra work to sort out.

Ha, just had this problem this weekend, bought a fireclay 1 and 1/2 bowl sink and presumed both wastes were 90mm! , when it arrived one was 90mm (main) but 1/2 bowl was 60mm so had to find one of those on Ebay, anyone want a 90mm waste with basket drainer? The dimension is the whole in the sink.

The basic hole in the sink is 3.5 inches (89mm) designed to take a waste disposal unit.The problem comes when you need to replace the existing assembly as you need to know the name of the sink manufacture as they are all different designs,some have overflow connections and are all different depths under the sink for the trap connection.There is not a universal plug either as these as these vary in shape .All the basket strainer sets will fit the sink hole,it’s just finding the right one for your setup.

Returning after Apple ate my homework last night, I wonder if there is still room for improvement in the layout. The first thing to do is to split those en suites the other way ie horizontally on the plan, so they both get windows. As it is only one gets a window, and the other is a cubicle. The second is that I think they are far too large. IMO more space should be in the wardrobes. And less in the ensuites. I would split it so te ensuites get Perhaps 60% or perhaps even 50% of the area in your 3.7x3.4m block. 1.8x1.7 really is more than adequate for an ensuites with a large shower or a small bath, a loo and a whb. There might be an argument for a sliding or opening into the bedroom door. Split that way you can then give a very generous wardrobe with shelves behind hanging, or even walk in if you lose the landing / linen cupboard in the middle. I would also move those doors round the corner to give more space and airiness to the landing. Does not really cost the bedrooms anything since the only thing that you do with that space is walk through it on the way in. Very rough sketch below incorporating a linen press. I would probably have the linen press only 750 deep, and give the walk in wardrobes a deeper end for shelves for eg suitcases. . @Grosey did this with what would have been a Jack and Jill, but can’t find the floor plan. There are photos in this blog post if both ensuites, one with a bath and one with a shower They are 1.8mx1.5m. I think they are photos 8 and 11 from the top. Ferdinand

Was going to ask about the lack of spreader plates. Neat job

that is a really neat job - lot of attention to detail from what I can see; I wish our frame erector had done a job half that good. Upstairs - what depth were the battens you put down and what thickness of board did you put on top of it? (I'm assuming you screeded between the battens). Looks really good so far - you must spend some time on cleaning and tidying!

Here are some more links that provide some information on the current state of affairs. It seems that some mortgage companies are not accepting a CRL warranty so now is possibly the time to get a refund / compensation if you can and go with another provider it seems. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5827521 https://www.self-build.co.uk/alpha-insurance-liquidation-structural-warranty-advice/

Sunday dinner tasted very nice indeed. Things we like (compared to the caravan) in no particular order. Having a shower where you don't bang your elbows and it doesn't take an age to wash the soap off (decent flow rate) Sleeping in a bed where you can get out both sides with more than a 6" gap A kitchen with a decent amount of work surface, AND a bowl and a half sink. God I missed that extra half bowl. Part way through washing up and you realised you had not rinsed the coffee pot and the only place to do it was the bathroom basin. A dishwasher. Sitting on a proper sofa rather than the built in foam seats in the 'van Watching tv on a set with decent surround sound. God how I missed that and being forced to just use the crap built in speakers. Listening to music on a decent pair of speakers. God how I missed my hifi. A well detached house means I don't have to worry about troubling the neghbours. Going upstairs to bed. Don't get me wrong, the caravan did us well for the 15 months it was our residence, but we are glad that is now in the past tense (to all practical purposes) Later on it will get repurposed as a work space.

Well, the Energy Assessor came around this afternoon to do the RdSAP assessment. Frankly it was a complete joke. Knowing both RdSAP and the order in which data is supposed to be entered, I'd printed out a crib sheet, with all the info in order, so all the chap needed to do was verify the accuracy of each statement and then enter it into the app on his iPad. Did he check the validity of any data? Did he heck as like. I got pretty annoyed within the first minute and ended up telling him that I wanted him to record all the required evidence, as he was supposed to. I made him look at, and take verification photos of the TRVs, programmable thermostat, boiler type and installation date, cavity wall insulation type, glazing type, including the full frame and glazing unit specification and go up in the loft to verify that we really did have 250mm of fibreglass up there, and photograph it. If I hadn't been so insistent he would have just made up numbers and walked off. As it was he was in the house for at the most ten minutes, with most of that time filling in stuff on the app on his iPad. I've no doubt he'd have lodged the EPC by the time he got back in his car. Not a bad way to make £84 for at most 20 minutes work. I've always been a bit cynical about the way some energy assessors "work", and this incident has just made me even more convinced that EPCs are a load of meaningless crap whose only purpose is to keep people who can make easy money by doing next to sod all in employment. Be interesting to see what his assessment comes up with, as I've already done a full SAP assessment on the house, using accurate data, and got an EPC of Band C 71.

What he means it's you are using 450mm dpc to tank the brickwork. As your build is tf you don't have to worry about keeping wall ties in proper coursing so you can put extra in at the level your dpc folds back in. You build the dpc in at the bottom then fold it up making sure the back of the bricks is clean and then build it in again. The black line will be your patio. It will fall away from the house anyway so with the dpc, the fall and a French drain you will be well covered.

What did the architect have to say about the need for shading? My experience was that most of the architects I spoke to weren't that clued up about it - one even suggested that having a lot of South facing glazing would make for a wonderful sunny aspect. One thing that is relatively cheap and works well is solar sails, set up to provide shaded areas and an architectural feature. Not great if you're in a very windy area, but otherwise they seem to work well. I like the idea of using tensioned fabric structures like this, and you can get some extremely tough materials that mean you could have them as a permanent feature (subject to checking things like the snow loading). Edited to say that I cross posted with @RandAbuild, saying much the same!

I am a dreadful procrastinator in some areas of my project but I put this down mostly to my lack of knowledge in these areas. I have so much stuff to do in so many areas of my life that it’s impossible to spend the needed time on any one big project. For instance the cottage needs a heating and hot water plan, I need to re visit Jeremy’s spread sheet and get my shit together as it’s imperative that I have a solid plan in place SOON..... this is my biggest procrastinator.... I have always hated taking one step forwards and then one back because of rushing into the unknown, I just don’t have that sort of time to waste. Procrastination for me is ok as long as it’s done in my down time, during working hours I am always ruthlessly productive and results driven. Admittedly because of my huge work load I have to triage my daily, weekly and monthly “to do lists” and this has led to my cottage compleation date slipping further and further away.... this is somewhat depressing as I really really need to get this done as it’s now looking like this is a key point to my future financial security......

I got a projector, 8ft, as my 50 inch wasn't big enough!!!

I have a decoupling mat and ironically it’s the actual mat that has delaminated, the 2 layers having come apart. So the bottom is stuck fast to the screed and the top layer is stuck fast to the tiles. None of the tiles or grout have cracked but it makes an odd noise when walked on which isn’t great. Mine was Dural CI matting.