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Yes, now that the first fix has been completed, the plaster boarding has started with the upstairs being done first. The builders will move downstairs an a weeks time or so. Whilst they have been boarding out, I have been installing the insulation for the partition walls, loft space and ceilings downstairs. The insulation being used in the loft space is 140mm - two layers laid at right angles to each other if that makes sense. The insulation used for the partitions is 100mm and the plasterboard for these walls has sound proofing properties, weighing in at 6 kilos more than the standard boards. You will see from some photos that we have also managed to install two full length oak beams. One for the sitting room and the other for the kitchen/family room. They look great even if I say so myself. They are not structural just aesthetic. Outside, the stone mason and labourer have been cracking on with the stone work. They intend to get the house done at head height before moving up as additional scaffolding will be required. They start the back of the house later this week. Enjoy the photos and I will be back in a couple of weeks, hopefully with a full boarded out house. Thanks for reading.

Mr Punter, it was said with a comedy satirical tone when I said "I love that your reply is only in response to the throwaway comment about stored hot water! Not the oodles of advice and answers to your question..." if we had been face to face it would have been of a friendly nature. Nickfromwales pointed out it sounded abrasive and I didn't mean it like this.

Not surprisingly, I've been pondering the dilemma of the overhead electricity lines near/over my proposed garage. I'm still waiting to hear back from MBC and I suspect my request for a call has got lost in the works somewhere, so I will chase it up. In the meantime, I've decided to take another course of action in parallel as, given the choice, I would very much prefer the overhead lines not to be there, or at least not so close. The immediate thought that comes to mind is £££££. As many of us know, anything to do with moving electricity supplies tends to be expensive. This is a slightly different case to the usual one, however, in that the overhead cables don't supply me or my property so I'm not over that particular barrel. On the deeds to my property is a copy of a fairly ancient wayleave agreement, made in 1958 between the then land owner and what was the Southern Electricity Board. The key term here is "wayleave". If it were an easement, I would really be in a spot of bother, as an easement is agreement made in perpetuity, as the legal bods like to call it. To us laypeople, that means forever. So, the fact that I have a wayleave is a good start. So what's so good about a wayleave, then? Well, I can serve notice to the electricity board that I am going to terminate it and they have 3 months to do something about it or respond in some way. That's not to say that the response will be the one I want, but it gets the ball rolling. It seems that this not an uncommon request from developers and farmers and there is a well laid out process for it so I shall get things started today - no time like the present and all that. I will update as and when, but my knowledge is sparse at the moment so I shan't go into too much detail that may be a load of rubbish. Once more unto the breech! Quick update: of course, everything has been done before on BH! Here's a link to a previous thread for Lucy Murray's build in Scotland but with English cases cited from Peter Stark. Just love this place! Burying electricity supply

Thanks, it looks so good, hadn’t even considered it until we saw your photos

LOVE the traditional twist design, the stonework just makes it!

Hi @newhome the budget........... so many variables can be included but if I just include everything that has got me to this position thus far, stripping out all the professional fees, services and the cost of the land, we are currently at £1220 p.s.m. It does include such things as skip hire, toilet hire and electric meter cupboard, amongst other stuff!!!

This does it for me tbh. Just love the solidity of the outer skin and traditional look but with the passive esque make up behind.

Wow that stonework looks amazing! In fact it all looks amazing. You must be delighted with how it’s going, and what a great year weather wise to be building! How’s the budget?

What a great project! Love the stone work - very jeaalous

Ours went the other way on the last house. We had the NHBC solo for self build. At completion, I got the NHBC inspector out for the completion inspection. He signed the completion stage in the log book. I asked what other paperwork we would get and he said that is it. 6 months later the 10 year warranty certificate arrived, dated for 10 years from that day. so we got an extra 6 months.

Just for completeness The Policy was issued on 26/06/2015, with the Applicable Endorsement stating "The insurance will commence on completion of the Residential Property, the issue of the Approval Certificate and the payment of the premium in full. The Certificate of Insurance will then be issued in confirmation. " The Building Completion Certificate (the Approval Certificate as defined in the Policy) was dated 25 February 2017 and sent to the Insurer ( via my Broker) in accordance with the Policy on 27 February 2017. I received the Insurance Certificate as part of an updated Policy Document on 8 March 2017. As noted above the Insurance cover was valid from 25 February 2017.

Now that's a happy response to a post!!! lol

On the first floor of my house I have a 110mm stack directly connected to two toilets and it is also connected to two 50mm wastes one from a shower and basin and the other from a bath and basin.There Is a Floplast AF110 on the main stack and an AV50 on the end of each of the 50mm pipes. I also have a downstairs toilet and basin on a separate 110mm waste with an AV50. All the the AAVs appear to work normally without any slowing running.

That would seem to be a mistake and it certainly needs clarification. I have just checked my Insurance Certificate issued for my Residential Latent Defects Insurance Policy and it commences on the date of the Building Completion Certificate, for 10 years.

You've got to try something for you to know whether it works or not and it seems to be the most straightforward idea we've all come up with. As Nick said - you need to let more air into the system. What's unusual to me to having the shower trap drop straight down - all of mine go horizontal (at a bit of a fall) to enter a 110mm soil - which itself is ventilated via an AAV Interesting point made by @PeterW @Nickfromwales will be along shortly I guess.... I would take whatever his advice is tbh

The problem with all of this is that these are complex systems. It may be that there's some sort of dynamic restriction somewhere further down the pipework that's actually getting the benefit of the air when it's allowed in. One problem is that any such restriction is far from where the air is being admitted, and there's a lot of air volume to reduce in pressure to get the durgo to open. You also have a relatively low water flow (compared to something like a draining sink or bath) relative to the size of the waste pipe, so it likely won't cause much pressure reduction due to air entrainment (moving water drags some air along with it = reduced pressure upstream due to removed air). I initially thought that putting a trap below the durgo would mean that the volume on the pipe side of the durgo is much reduced. That assists one side of the equation. The main impact would be to decouple the waste above from the part below the durgo, with a corresponding reduction in air volume, but as I think harder, I wonder whether the impact of slowing the water at this point due to the trap might make this somewhat self-defeating . As @CC45 mentioned, it might also be worth dropping vertically from below the durgo then back across to the existing waste lower down. That will give you more water velocity nearer the durgo, and hence greater pressure reduction to help the durgo open. As above though, these are complex systems. Given the fact that I'm just thinking out loud, it's probably best to ignore everything I'm saying and listen to those who have a better idea of these things in practice!

Not quite - I was suggesting putting another trap at that location and leaving the shower as it is. Picture's worth a thousand words and all that:

If you go for the jack it up option, I’d use GRP to cover the flat roof, you wouldn’t want to have to go to repair a leak in felt.

From memory, I actually spoke to them (or one of their members) at ecobuild after I joined, and got the distinct impression that they were only interested in commercial members and business to business discussions/transactions.

That is EXACTLY the same as my AECB experience, to a tee, even down to the timing, more or less (I think it was about 7 years ago that I first got involved with them). Such a pity, as there was a load of potential there to create an organisation that could really have made a difference.

Ah yes, now it's coming back to me. I joined the AECB and received the magazine that way. I naively thought that they'd be interested in having aboard people like me who were interested in passivhaus and low energy buildings, and who were about to build one. Bear in mind this was 5 years ago, when the profile of low energy buildings was much lower. It turned out they couldn't have been less interested. The forums were very quiet even then (I think I joined to access the members only parts of the forum, but they weren't much better than the public section). On the whole I found the whole thing cliquey and insular, so didn't bother renewing the next year.

@vivienz I made a late comment on your previous post but this is now more similar to my situation where I made them move their wires back in 2013. Can you PM me a pic of your Wayleave please and I can see if I can see anything helpful. I did this to move my lines. Ours was also a 1950s agreement. We probably saved 6 figures in our case ... as it as planning for an estate. Yours is hopefully less drastic. There is a detailed resource thread here copied from Buildhub, which I hope you found via the other. F

Hi @vivienz, it’s Scotland so may be different but I believe that @Christine Walker used a similar scenario to her advantage recently.

Ouch. My comments. I feel focused slightly on possible regulatory action. 1 - We had some of these moved, but may have been 33kV, when we did our big PP. We were faced with having a swathe through the middle which was pretty much house width. Fortunately we had a Wayleave with the right to make them move it all. There is a thread somewhere which explains the stuff, but this is oversailing so different. 2 - The process to switch it off is IMO a nonstarter. There may well be 500 or more people supplied by that, and to do such work *must* have a long process. Lots of notices, consultation, applications etc. Takes months to plan if not emergency. unless something is happening already. 3 - You have practical alternatives which is good, if you are allowed to use them. the jack up option is like putting your first floor on acroprops to repair the downstairs wall. Parents did that to a listed building and rebuilt a whole facade. Perfectly normal technique, but you may need a bit of redesign on the roof as it will need to be self-supporting. 4 - You need some more piccies showing where the thing is in reality, taken along the line of the wire to see the actual distance from the house. If you have a known dimension in the pics it would help so the distance can be estimated. Could be something very simple such as a known 2 or 4m piece of wood on trestles level with the closest point. it may be beneficial to put a time lapse camera on it along the line if you have them around, so you can see how far it moves in any wind that comes along. 5 - I think at some point you are going to need to talk to the LPA, and there is a risk that someone may just try and say no (though I think they will be sympathetic). It might be beneficial talking to your been-round-the-block wise owl just for their feel for the situation; it will have happened before though only occasionally. Since you have an architect it might be worth asking them if they have had one, or to call in a favour or ask their oldest local architect friend. An alternative might be a quiet chat with an old hand at building control, or even someone in the electricity company, but personally I would want an informal idea first from someone not links. 6 - I would perhaps avoid spending money on the garage bits for now until you have a better idea which direction this is going. Sure you have done that anyway. The rub is that some stuff is interdependent of course, and you cannot do eg the slab in 2 bites. 7 - If it is a comfort, I do not think that the LPA will stop you In your tracks as long as you are not doing something in specific violation of THEIR requirements. IMO the ones with the big spanner will be the utility, but they will want a workable solution too. As this must happen sometimes, I am sure there are ways .. just takes a bit of work to find them. Ferdinand

Another m2 'ish done as per the Welsh Wizard's expicit instruction! I actually got brave tonight and LIFTED 3 tiles I felt were low. More muck and re-levelled. It's not the best but it's the best bit yet! Had to trim 3 tiles that were tight when I dry fitted them tbh. Out the door tomorrow hopefully!

Unable to attend but I hope it goes well.

You can work out the sums very roughly. Take the area of the ground floor, multiply it by a given ground bearing load in kN/m2 and then divide the answer by 9.82 and that gives you the total weight of the house, but you have to factor in a reasonable margin for safety (typically a number between 2 and 3 I think - I don't have the relevant Eurocode to hand to say what the margin is for a load bearing slab foundation, but doubt it would be higher than 3). Say you had a ground floor load bearing slab area of 100m2 and you are working to a margin of 3 and your ground has been compacted and tested to a max allowable bearing load of 40kN/m2 . 100m2 x 40 kN/m2 = 4000 kN max allowable load, divide that by 3 (the margin) and you get a max allowable total ground bearing load of 1,333 kN. Divide this by 9.82 and that gives the max allowable weight of the house, including all dead and live loads, of 135 tonnes. Our 130m2 one and a half storey timber frame house, with pretty heavy cellulose insulation, weighs around 40 tonnes. If it was block and brick construction it might be something like 50% to 70% heavier. Hopefully you can do some rough sums and see what sort of load your house is likely to put on the ground. Remember to allow a reasonable margin, say 2 or 3, just for safety.

Looks like glacier white to me with added sparkle...

All cisterns come complete ..... Water valve was missing on the one @Onoff bought hence the link. The Duofix frames come with a mix of brackets depending on the part number. If it's a specific one you want, PM me the spec and I will get the correct part number for you

Some come without the adjustable back to wall frame fixings. Be double sure when buying as there will be a breakdown of what's included. If in doubt just post back here .

@ThePoplars, you might find this document useful should you go for the UP200 cistern. Page 8 for instance gives the Kappa flush plates available. Typically SWMBO liked the ones from the Sigma range. Seeing as I got two new cisterns and frames for £100 she was having Kappa flush plates and liking it! Picked the flush plates up I think for £25.00 a piece on eBay. "115.228.something" in chrome are the ones I have. Geberit_Flush_Brochure.pdf You might also find you need to buy the water connections with valve like this. About what I paid I think: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Geberit-water-connection-with-stop-valve-for-FM-cisterns-Art-240-269-00-1/173201397850?epid=2255554737&hash=item28539b985a:g:orkAAOSwJEdaoBUO

Resin all done in a morning 6 of them laid 160sqm by lunchtime. Its looks amazing, cant do a close inspection as cant walk on it just yet but from where I can see it looks the bees knees. Very pleased.

You can buy expensive hood covers that sit on top of the plasterboard. Or I used clay plant pots from b&q. They where under a £1 each when I bought them. Think mine are about 30cm tall so plenty of room so the light never overheats. Try to get the pots without the drainage holes but if they have none then a squirt of silicone and some of your tape covers the hole. You will need a grinder to cut a notch in the rim for any cables. A good bead of sealant will hold it in place and keep it sealed with extra around where the cables come out.

Let's start with the problem. I can't solve it today as today is a public holiday in RoI and the MBC guy I need to speak to isn't available, so there's nothing doing until tomorrow. I need to get the scaffolding sorted for when the timber frame team arrive on 27th August and thought I had this well in hand. I sort of still do, but there's a H&S problem with the scaffold erection and I've spent a little time this morning tracing back to the source of the error. I need a single lift of scaffolding for the construction of the attached single storey flat roof garage that is at the north east corner of the building. On the topographical survey that was done for the property by the vendor (for the planning permission that he sold it with), some overhead power cables are shown nearby and the building was designed so that the far corner of the garage cleared these. So far so good. All the setting out and construction has been done according to this. Now, lack of observation on my part, but it is now obvious that instead of clearing the north east corner of the garage by a couple of metres, the OH cables are, in fact, directly overhead of that corner and where the scaffolding would be. I had a look on the topo survey and the OH cables are incorrectly plotted - they are shown further out than they are in reality, so I'm not sure if this is collective responsibility, or who's it is. I'm not really interested in attributing blame to anyone at this stage, I'd rather just find a solution that gets the house and garage built within the current schedule. The issue is this - the cables are high tension and the scaffolder's original suggestion has proved to be a no-goer as the DNO has said that the cables are very high voltage and would just burn through any shrouding. Alternatively, they could switch off the supply running through these cables, but it would have to be for the entire time that the scaffolding is in place. I didn't even bother asking for a price on this as it's probably more than the build cost. Where do I go from here? Well, I need to speak with MBC tomorrow and find out if the garage can be built without scaffolding, or if there is some other way around this. Although all access and materials are coming in away from the OH cables, the concern for the scaffolders is if they make contact with a pole whilst putting the stuff up, or if the power arcs down to one being waved in the air. I have no idea of the likelihood of any of this, but I really wouldn't want to be responsible for an impromptu barbeque. Of a person. Update to follow. And so onto EPS and beams. I have to say that all that EPS on a sunny day is enough to burn your retinas out. It really is quite painful to look at, even when you're trying not to, and it doesn't do much for the already hot temperatures out there on site. You know it's serious when your construction workers are all wearing sunnies, as they're not a vain bunch. The trestles you can see are what they use to rest the rebar sections on before sliding on the steel rings then tying it together with wire before putting in situ and adding the rest of the rings. The blue polythene that you can see is the DPM/radon barrier sheet. This is the head of the pile that was previously cut to height. A hole is sawn through the EPS for the pile head to extend into, then the steels from the piles are bent over so that they can be lapped with the rebar forming the ring beam. Fruit pastilles are optional. The steel protrusions lapping over the EPS will get tied into steel mesh, and the two will overlap by at least 500mm. The channels in the EPS are where other beams will go. The EPS offcuts are just being used as spacers to keep the sheets that are down in the right place. Here, you can see where the steels from the pile are tied into the ring beam. Bear in mind that every single bit of wire that you can see is twisted on by hand. It makes my hands hurt just thinking about it. In the main open plan living room area, the west and north facing aspects both have lift and slide doors that need to be recessed into the floor so that the threshold is level. To allow for this, there are indents in the perimeter beams where the windows will go. This is the westward facing window; you can see that the building is oriented just over 10 degrees off the main compass points by the fall of my shadow - the photo was taken about 9.30 this morning. And one more photo of the pile steel lapped with the ring beam. The rest of the steels will take all of today and all of tomorrow, then there is the UFH pipe to be laid. Once all the steels are done, the building control bod needs to come and check that he's happy with all the tying in. Once that's okayed, then the concrete can be ordered and poured. I'm hoping it will be Thursday as we're due some rain at the weekend, by which time, I'll hopefully have some progress on my scaffolding problem.

Our Gaulhofer windows are being fitted a year almost to the day after they should have been fitted. Monday next week. I thought I'd check to see if all the bits and bobs - cill covers, compariband etc. were ready for the crew (6) who are coming to fit them. A good few window cill covers were missing : and for the life of me I couldn't work out why. Slowly, oh so slowly the truth dawned. The roofers had used some (not all) of the window cill covers as the flashing that surrounds the solar panels.

But it’s a new toy !!! Everyone likes new toys !! @Onoff buy it , buy it , buy it !