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...for the MBC team, and not their fault, but I have a slab. This is only down to the tenacity and incredible hard work from the MBC team who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat today following horrible equipment failure on the part of the concrete company. So, let's start at the beginning. The slab team worked like frenzy yesterday morning to get all of the EPS down, followed by the mesh which then got tied into the ring beams. After that, they put all the underfloor heating pipes in (there are several zones and many, many pipes to come into the manifold). The building control officer turned up just before 6pm last night and gave everything the okay for the pour today. Here's the slab with everything on it first thing this morning, just waiting for the concrete, at shortly after 8 this morning. On site already is the pumping lorry and one mixer of cement. Very exciting, so far, so good. They started with the furthest part first, and the first lot of cement went onto the garage area, where the chaps are standing in the above photo. Here's the pump, concrete lorry and plenty of other equipment all good to go. Except, it wasn't good to go. Well, it was, because that's what it did in the end. Go, that is. The concrete pump packed up and after a good while of trying to fix it, nothing was happening so off it went. All wasn't lost, however, as one of the drivers was also a pump operator and offered to get a fairly old pump out of retirement and use that. Brilliant! This is the ageing pump putting the concrete over to the garage. Meanwhile, several hours have passed and after a bit of grumbling earlier in the morning about the concrete lorries not turning up on time, suddenly, they're coming thick and fast and are all parked up our narrow country lane. Then the second pump got blocked and couldn't be cleared. A very large man with a very large mallet did all he could to clear it, but it wasn't working. By now, it was nearly 2pm and the slab should have been poured a good few hours ago and power floating started. Left with no other choice, Harry, who was heading up the team, got the bucket onto the whopping great digger and ALL of the rest of the cement got dumped onto the slab by digger, and then the guys had to drag it over to wherever they needed it. This was for a floor area of about 180 sq metres. Fortunately, there were 5 on the team today as they had brought in an extra guy to cover for one who was late back from holiday, but turned up straight from the airport to the site so the numbers were beefed up, and boy, did they need all of them today. The garage slab was screeded (is that actually a verb? Dunno, it is now), and was looking fine. Eventually, the rest of the concrete got where it was supposed to be and the lane finally emptied of concrete lorries - there were 5 on or around the site at one point this afternoon. Now, the eagle-eyed amongst you will realise that there are no photos of the final, powerfloated slab. This is because I pushed off at 5.30 this evening and they were only just starting on the garage; they reckon that they would just about get it finished this evening by the time the light went, so I'm afraid, dear reader, that you really will have to wait for those photos. One final photo from earlier in the day has something of interest, as it shows the shuttering that was put in place on the threshold for the lift and slide doors that are going in the living room area. Tune in soon for the next thrilling update!

Name a man who doesn't want to hear those words...

You demanding divas! I'm knackered, but I have a slab. Just about. It was eventful. Now that I've whetted your appetite, I'm going to leave you hanging until tomorrow! ?

Stuck with the window and the soil pipe but it actually works really well. Loo roll stays dry lol

We need to put some insect mesh on our parapet roof edges. Got to allow ventilation into roof but stop the insects. Soon the parapet will be covered by a Sarnafil roof covering which will overhang, still letting ventilation come up but effectively weatherproofing the mesh. What sort of mesh would you use? Stainless steel (expensive but longer lasting) or plastic (cheaper but will it last?) or PVC coated woven fibreglass? Or something else? And will a staple gun do to fix it - if so, any clues on staple sizes? This is Saturday's job so going to need to order some stuff pronto. Sorry no photo - too dark to take one now.

Well the UFH is now upto 35c The boiler seems to be running ok Ive got a friend who is a heating engineer who will spend half a day and sign the boiler off Once the heating has been running for ten days I will switch it off and leave to cool for a couple of days Then I can get on with tiling the floorsh

Bet I'm not the only one that zoomed in on that valve looking for the reflection...

Sick to the t!ts of this. Looking at, working on it. Would quite happily take a sledge hammer to the lot of it. As you may have guessed I have the serious ar5e. Lots of little things tbh.

No they will not care. There will be X years remaining of a 10 year warranty. They will not be checking completion date, building regs final date etc, just that if it was built within the last 10 years it has a warranty.

On many of these policies you may be liable for the first 2 years, so it may not matter.

All of the mosaic'd area is the sloped former. WC is tight but retrofit so best of what we had room to do things with.

Another problem solved! On to the next one....

I used the one from Wickes and it didn't eat the eps: Two coats, goes on sort of brown and dries black. This pic's misleading as I've actually got dpm behind the battens up the wall by about a metre. That laps / joins with the dpm over the eps.

You can try. The risk lies with the Kitchen supplier, not you. Any supplier with sense would take a pragmatic view and offer you a deal. But ask yourself this question - if the supplier is winging their way by ducking and diving around the system would the HMRC one day catch up with them and would you supplier still be in business if you needed to go back to them in time? Amol

Totally understand. I was just curious....

Floor looks a bit dirty in the fourth photo, are standards dropping? Glad you making quick progress.

Ours runs from 1/1/14 to 31/12/23. It started from when they said they considered the build was weathertight because the build time was longer than average. It was actually weathertight at the end of 2010.

Another missed opportunity ... ?.

But given that there has never been a case of pneumonia in the UK that has been traced to a domestic hot water system, that contracting pneumonia from Legionella Pneumophila is extremely rare, that the vast majority of cases of pneumonia in the UK are caused by streptococcus pneumoniae, with the rest being caused by other bacteria, viral, or even fungal, infections, then my personal view is that the risk of legionella within a domestic hot water system is already very, very low. The risk from a sealed, anaerobic, hot water system, fed with treated water from an ultrafiltration plant, which in turn is fed by a source that is, cold, slightly acidic and has a low oxygen concentration is so close to zero as to not be worth worrying about. You are far more likely to catch pneumonia caused by Legionella Pneumophila from someone in your local supermarket checkout queue that's just come back from a holiday in Spain...

Room for the table and the other 3 chairs

Give them a chance lol, they've probably only just boiled the kettle !

I replaced all our plastic mesh with stainless steel but I was more concerned with keeping the mice out rather than insects. I managed to source cheap rolls of SS offcut from this company: https://www.themeshcompany.com/

St/st penny washers and st/st screws if you go the st/st mesh route imo.

looks fantastic so far. Its going to be a stunner when its done.

@ProDave I assume it's Assynt WTW (above Evanton) if you're on Loch Glass? In which case it has an ultrafiltration membrane for primary treatment. The incoming water is screened, pH adjusted before filtration and as far as I'm aware it's dosed with sodium hypochlorite. As it's a newer works the chemical dosing is a bit more refined, hence it doesn't taste as bad as some other places. Sorry it doesn't answer your question, but you might be interested all the same!

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!!!

Beware moving up to 1000mm wide trays. There are few manufacturers that make them (good ones) and they are an order more expensive than 900. Also, lots of shower panel systems only come in 600/900/1200 so you’re either cutting 200 off or joining small panels to get 1000mm. Less of an issue with a walk in that’s tiled but still a consideration.

In our ensuite, we currently have 1400 x 800. I prefer a 900 width and am currently planning a 1500 x 900 for our extension ensuite. Very nice hotel we stayed in recently had an 2000 x 900 for a double shower with walls coming out from the sides and an open 600mm entrance in the centre (I go nowhere without my tape measure). Very little splashing on the floor outside the area with that.

There was the guy selling the kettle, too.

@Ferdinand “Another way is a comfortable size for 2 people (or 3 students) to enjoy themselves, “ simultaneously??? ?