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It's another day at the asylum. "Carry on", we've come this far .......?

Very sorry Ed, but its BH policy that members who dont yet fully feel our pain are politely reminded not to encourage this madman. Were trying to get it tiled and grouted before xmas. Dont ask which xmas PLEASE !

That looks nice, like the jazzy pink lights. Does the next bit involve sticking the big flat things onto the blue bit?

I paid a lot of money to a professional project manager who at one stage (things were going horribly wrong) yelled at me he could manage my build from 800 miles away via his mobile phone (he told me that from his mobile phone)....I was so shocked I was speechless and that does not happen very often. I ended up having to go to site every day sometimes twice a day (was renting 5 miles away), it took over my life, I didn't know what I was doing, contractors took advantage of me, I had to put my business on hold to try and get the house finished....it was a complete nightmare and you would have though having a professional on board it would have been ok, how wrong can you be. I never set out to be a self builder I was led into it unwittingly and it was the worse 2 years of my life. The lovely people on this forum helped me so much and I am eternally grateful for their help and support. I truly don't see how you can do it remotely.

Avoid the B&Q stuff, it really is dog shit. Im fitting vanity sinks and WC's in my current job purchased from there and the quality and finish is just disgraceful. How they allow stuff through quality control is beyond me. Utter shite for what they're charging for it. Looks great in those pics, just wait until you see what actually turns up.

The single biggest cause of self-build problems that get expressed on this forum are due to lack of daily, competent, oversight. It's easy to assume that a builder, frame supplier, sub-contractor, even an employed project manager, or architect taking on a project management role, will have the total and absolute control that is essential if errors are to be caught early or even prevented altogether. The very first lesson I learned was that I needed to be on site very regularly, ideally daily, even if only for an hour or so, just to make sure things were on track and everyone clearly understood what was going where. Stay off site for a couple of days and you can be pretty damned sure that something will go awry.

Thanks all Going to try again tomorrow and furnish JSHarris report, thanks. It seems like trying to push a river upstream, everybody in the construction trades I have spoken with regarding the build shakes their heads when I mention insulation, airtightness or U values. Done it this way for 30yrs and it will be good enough for you! Except it isn't, and it will be me doing any extra detailing and labour, not them.

You won't get that cistern flush plate into the short panel of the vanity unit linked. TBH ive just done one identical to the first link and I just fitted the regular hide-away cistern and then simply bonded the sit-on sink top with 4 dots of white silicone, between the underside of the top and the top of the carcass. Then I applied a bead of white all round to prevent water ingress. If it ever needs an overhaul you simply peel off the silicone, run a long blade type craft knife through the 4 dots ( 4 five pence sized dots is ample to hold things in place ) and lift the whole thing off. Worth the effort as imo these really do look nice when fitted.

Keep the faith! Xmas is coming! ?

I am using Ian, he’s a good hard working guy. I have used ICF to construct the basement walls. Waterproofing is on the outside and is protected by a 100mm thick layer of polystyrene to stop the backfill damaging it. Again, come and have a look.

A few minutes tinkering tomorrow and she'll be right!

Stop it getting worse

Bite the bullet and live on site. The second something goes wrong you will live with the regret that you weren’t there to prevent it. Living on site won’t remove the risk completely but it’s a way of managing it better.

IMO if you decide to do it remotely the decision is taken to abandon the detailed management of the project ... unless you have an agent who is there daily. That can be done, but you own the consequences. F

Definitely on site! My hubby has just gone back to work this week after 4 months off and I am now in charge of the build, not new to me as we’ve done it twice before but although we have a main contractor there are still so many decisions to be made, they’ve been coming at me all week and trying to sort things out while juggling a part time job and babysitting two grandchildren from a caravan is no mean feat but I’d rather be here keeping my eye on the ball as things can so easily go tits up!

I’m sure most of us do in truth. Maybe you don’t approach things the right way ? ⛓⛓⛓

You are far from being alone! We encountered much the same, from architects to builders, and found it extremely frustrating. It seems that there is a general reluctance in the domestic sector of the building industry to change from doing things the way they've done them for decades, even if what they've been doing for decades is building crap!

If only all Kent girls thought like that...

That’s the baton you never really let go of in truth, you just shared it for a while ?

It's @zoothorn's day off so I figured someone had to pick up the baton!

Definitely has no understanding at all of how a raft on EPS foundation works. Might be an idea to let the SE have a copy of this Kore report: http://www.mayfly.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kore-Insulated-Foundations-Report.pdf

I’d suggest he doesn’t really understand how EPS raft foundations work. Ive just built a basement on limestone rock. The basement sits on 200mm of EPS. There is 26m3 of concrete in the raft and 26m3 of concrete in the retaining walls, there’s also about 4 tonnes of steel reinforcing in the whole lot. I have 170mm of insulation behind the retaining walls. The house sits on top of this lot!

Hello all. And hello again to the many names I recognise from other forums. I'm currently in the process of building a new timber-frame (post and beam, sort of Segal method) A-frame house on a rather exposed hill top in NE Scotland, overlooking the Moray Firth. I have a blog (https://edavies.me.uk/blog/) with entries specifically about the house tagged Perihelion (the house's name). Apart from an Internet connection the house will be completely off grid. The notion is that it's a “no-combustion” house - no energy comes from burning stuff like oil, gas, coal, peat, wood or whatever, just (through a couple of levels of indirection) from fusion roughly one astronomical unit away either via solar thermal (hot water evacuated tube panels) and PV on the roof and, perhaps, from a small wind turbine though that's something I'd rather avoid. We'll see. Part of the idea is a large thermal store - roughly 10 tonnes of water in tanks within the thermal envelope to allow energy collected during late summer and autumn to supplement the small amounts collected in the short days of the core part of the winter. The water supply will be rainwater harvested from the roof. Drought is rarely a problem here though the dry ground a few weeks ago did give cause for thought: in particular it occurred to me that using water from the thermal store for toilet flushing during summer might stretch the store significantly. There's more about the design in the planning application Design Statement: 3rd from bottom PDF here: https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=N09ALOIH7R000 The whole build has been frustratingly slow mainly because of the weather. Rain has given plenty of rest days, of course, but the main problem has been wind. E.g., today looks like the last calm day for a while to allow me to put the last of the membrane up on the west gable but it's looking like it'll be raining pretty steadily all day. And so it goes.

There is a previous discussion about this:

I plan to have a Bora abajo hob and extractor. I saw it in Holland whilst staying with a friend who was looking at kitchens at the time. I have found a local kitchen company that will do supply only, so that's my planned route at the moment.

Hmm. This may warrant a new thread. Can someone tell me the value of a mastic man and why I may want one for my build? It's not something I have vome across to date.

We've been looking at the bamboo shower mats. Not very expensive and have the advantage of raising your feet above the slight puddle in the tray. Our intention is to fit it at the "dry" end of the shower.

I have a Bora and am very happy with it. Bora specialise in these hobs Siemens Neff et all are jumping on a bandwagon. Not sure how their product compares with a specialist like Bora. Someone else will know for sure.

So right now this is the idea for the flat roof joists (joists 47mm x 220mm max span 4.91m) + steel/flitch beam, 400mm spacing, looks good?

Site-made tanks. Timber frame with EPDM liners. Quite commonly done by people in the US. Not very deep as the there's a reasonable length to play with (about 13 metres) so the weight will be pretty spread out. It was, of course, taken into account in the structural engineering.

You mean he’s been soggy and damp since then? Oh no, he uses a towel like everyone else. Still can’t see how it shoves hot air out the ceiling and dries your legs etc. Home video required please @Onoff ?

Forgot that @newhome only joined in Feb 2018 and this thread goes back to Ebuild days ..!!!

This. Can't wait to get it going. Basically SWMBO steps underneath and at the touch of the remote the bird in the video steps out!

Remember that mantra ...?? Thin Cheap Warm - pick two..?? That roof is heading the same way ..!! Sips are not cheap ...

Bluetooth speakers & a body dryer aren't?

This is my one The panel with the flush plate unclips to give access to the cistern than can be serviced through the blue panel on the cistern SWMBO chose it. It came from one of the sheds but I forget which one. It wasn't expensive. I had been pricing some units from Howdens but this came in a lot cheaper. It was just the cabinet, basin and taps from the shed. The Pan was bought on line for just over £50 and the cistern and flush plate Iirc came from BES

I was about to say the C&L ones are horrific - read the comments .... that was £280 in the sale and it’s still over priced at that..!! None of the whiteware is finished properly and on one I refitted for friends the WC outlet was oval..!

If you go for an ASHP, then I'd go for 3 runs of pipe to a void for the areas in spreader plates, that will give you more volume so less temp required to get the equivalent w/m2, and in the screed id go for 150mm centres. You want to get the volume of water & cross-sectional area up, and the flow temp down 3 pipe plate No reason why the LG and GF cant be on the same manifold as that'll be the highest point and will vent itself without issue. Manifolds are available as big as 12 ports so no bother from that PoV but will save you cost / complexity / extra 22mm primary HP pipe runs to the 3rd manifold / no 3rd wiring centre and less physical size / impact for the overall installation. I'd be very surprised if you cant do that off one manifold tbh, ( + the second manifold for FF of course ). Ask the question with your chosen supplier

@Wes, any of these your handiwork?

Another good reason to ditch it. With the thinner liquid screed I think you'll be over the safe threshold for the floor temps.

Looks to me like the wall is supporting joists from above, as the laths on the ceiling run parallel to the wall. so the wall is structural. If you can't afford a structural engineer and a bit of steel you will need to leave this as is.

And with the time saved I could spend quality time with SWMBO! You know talk about how she's feeling, is anything wrong, what she bought shopping, our collective elderly parents etc. Thanks for reminding me I need to get some M5 studding!

Hi and welcome to our new hideout . Im intrigued as to where this 10 tonnes of water will sit? Ill definitely be looking at the links later, some evening reading. Always pricks my ears up when I hear "off - grid".

Thanks everyone. Windows going in yesterday, today and tomorrow. Never thought we'd see the day. It's a year -roughly- after they should have been fitted. Debbie could only say 'Fantastic, Fantastic' , and me - all I can think about is - What's going to go wrong today, then? So far nowt. ?

Building Control have asked us to apply for a Demolition Notice before we demolish our bungalow. Apparently there is no charge involved. Maybe that is what they are going on about.

Next time!

That was accepted because your garage is permanent. I vented my stack at the end at the static caravan. My BCO argued the caravan was not permanent. I argued it had PP to remain as a work space. He argued some future owner might remove it. I argued if they do, then they should make provision to ventilate the drain then, he argued they would not. I lost the argument so have a stack pipe through my roof.